Baby Jack's First Blog

Valentine's Day is coming

2015-02-11T19:00:00.001-05:00

Making Valentine's Day cards for my friends. Have a great one!

I like that X

2015-02-08T09:37:00.001-05:00

I've become quite a fan of Xavier basketball. I like to attend all the games I can, and I jump and yell and generally hang on every play. I really like student sections for their passion and silliness. I've told Mama and Daddy that I plan to go to Xavier.

Speaking of silly at the game:

Still crazy after all these years

2015-02-01T09:03:00.001-05:00

Hi, everyone. I know it has been a long time since I posted. Sorry, got really busy with little things like talking, swimming, running, being a big brother, doing great math and other fun stuff, and just generally being a great, busy kid.

I'm still not sure that I will be able to get back to my active blogging ways. But I am open minded to at least giving it a shot.

So this post is more like a test of new, modern technology. If it works like I hope it might, posting may get more frequent again.

Here I am at home.

Here's me, Luke, and mama.

Me and Luke are really into technology. Maybe even a little too much. I tell Mama and Daddy, "What do you expect from someone who was blogging in utero?"

Talk to everyone soon.

Love,

Jack

2012-05-12T14:34:00.002-04:00

It's Mother's Day (almost) and I wanted to tell everyone, in case they didn't know, how wonderful our Mama is and to wish her a Happy Mother's Day.

Mama likes to make sure Lukey and I are learning lots of things. So, she's taught us some Japanese, talks with me about what I've learned at school, and likes to read with me a lot.

She also likes to play with us and do lots of fun things. We play games, we are silly together around the house, and - like below - she helps us to play on the computer if that's what we want to do.

A lot of times our fun stretches to things that might even be her's, like here letting Luke play with her iPad. What's her's is mine, she tells me, and that's awfully nice of her.

She keeps us in good shape by letting us chase her around the house, being an excellent baseball pitcher and, like here, teaching us how to do yoga.

She also makes us super good food that I love to eat (in fact, I barely tolerate any cooking besides hers).

And she takes care of us if we're feeling scared or sad. She always gives us super-sweet hugs.

Really soft kisses too.

Yep, that's our Mama. She's the best there is and we love her so much. She's definitely the leader of our band. Happy Mother's Day, Mama!

Love,

Your Sweet Boys, Jack and Luke

Christmas Eve

2011-12-25T10:35:00.008-05:00

At long last Christmas is here. I thought before talking about Christmas I would tell you what I did yesterday.

We started out the day at Merrie, Gus, and Eddie's house. Jimmy and Owen were there too. I was there with them, not that you could tell from this picture.

OK, that's better.

It was a super fun party. Exhausting though. This was midday for Luke.

And me and Mommy*.

* Last Mommy/Jack nap -- 6/17/2008.

From there it was on to Grandma's house.

Yep, it's Christmas Eve, it says so right on the Christmas calendar at Grandma's.

There were some fun presents from our aunts.

Daddy and Luke were hanging out with Daddy's old bear.

Back home Mommy and Luke made cookies for Santa and we wrote him a nice note.

In the next post we'll see if he came or not (I'd put the news in this post, but I am looking for page counts so I will force you to click through again :)).

Love,

Jack

Halloween and other fall events

2011-11-02T21:32:00.005-04:00

Back to School - Year 2

2011-09-04T21:36:00.002-04:00

So I started another year of school. Pretty excited. Jodie and I are working well together already and it's great to see my friends.

Here I am on day 1.

They love each other...

2011-09-04T21:15:00.006-04:00

Lord you can see that it's true...

They have fun even waiting out time out together.

Last day of school

2011-06-22T23:11:00.002-04:00

I finished up my first year of school earlier this month. Wow. What a year. I made tons of progress, made lots of new friends, and generally had a great time.

Here's Luke pushing the elevator button to send me on my way.

Proud parents. Disinterested student.

Luke and Amy observe the proceedings from the window.

And a perfect finish: Patty got me out of the car!

I'm having fun this summer, but I won't be sad when it's time to go back.

A Few Things We've Been Doing

2011-06-22T22:52:00.003-04:00

We've gone to the park:

And we've been playing at home. "Hey, kid, get out of there!" (A line from Charlie Brown Valentine that Luke loves that inspired his climbing in the toy box so people would tell him to get out.)

Aunt Julie has been coming over on Thursdays to help us take a bath.

Some typing - by Jack

2011-05-14T12:34:00.002-04:00

The other night I learned how to press buttons on the computer and make them show up on the screen (I know, I've been typing on my blog for a while -- just play along.)

I typed the following into a Word document and now, with some help, copy and paste it onto my blog. The two digits numbers are, of course, Reds numbers.

JACK12345661234551233456789000000000000000000

30

43

34

3

27

OTYNMBYG

CO

15

16

MOBEAAAAAAAAAZc jajack1234567890nnnnnnnnn

Hhhhhhhhhhh

Reds

Jackss……21

12345678901…19.23..323

292

28

4

6

7

43

34

48

151

16

LUKE

19

32

29

28

48

16

26

Mommy took us to the lake!

2011-05-08T11:01:00.002-04:00

Mommy took us to the lake to hang out for the weekend. It was really nice of her and we had a lot of fun!

So happy together...

2011-04-24T22:19:00.002-04:00

Lukey turns 2

2011-04-24T21:30:00.003-04:00

Luke had his 2YO birthday party last month (where I had my third party). Great times were had.

The playground at school

2011-04-24T21:15:00.002-04:00

One of my favorite places is the playground at school. I like best the mornings when it is nice and not raining - there haven't been as many recently as I would prefer - because I get to the playground before school. These pictures were actually taken at night, after the concert last month, but it gives you the idea.

Concert

2011-03-17T22:59:00.005-04:00

On Wednesday I had a concert at school with my friends. Here are the highlights.

Jay Bruce

2010-12-19T11:27:00.001-05:00

I like Jay Bruce. As you may know, he hit a certain home run back in September. I think the replay of it is pretty great. I mean, you get to see a home run followed by all of my favorite players jumping up and down. I continue to watch Jay Bruce each night. Sometimes I act out the play and then run around the "bases" at home, and then make Mommy, Daddy, and Luke meet me at the "plate" for celebration. Other times - like that in this video - it's slightly (slightly) more subdued. Enjoy.

Good luck had just stung me, to the racetrack we did go...

2010-10-19T21:07:00.004-04:00

...I bet on one horse to win, Luke bet on another to show.

Ha. Enough with singing lyrics from The Band (Pupu would like it though).

I wanted to tell a story about going to Keeneland on Sunday with Mommy, Daddy, and Luke.

We got there just in time to see a race being run.

Here we see the horses coming around the turn.

Right in front of us.

And off they go...

Luke and I loved it. We were a couple little railbirds.

Here Daddy keeps an eye on Luke from a distance.

And, accompanied by a cup of juice, I keep an eye on them.

Unfortunately no pictures of Mommy (she looked very pretty); she was operating the camera for the day. The best I can do is this picture, where Luke and I were roughhousing. Mommy cast a long shadow over us...:)

After about 4 races we got tired. After all, it was naptime when we got there. So, you can imagine how we felt by the time we played hard in the sun for a few hours. (Daddy note: be sure to click on the picture to really appreciate Luke's surly face.)

We both wanted Daddy to carry us out. As a result, he was the big winner for the day.

Life is more fun when shared

2010-10-14T20:02:00.006-04:00

Sure I have a good time by myself. But we've found that life is more fun when shared with a brother...or a Mommy, or a Daddy.

Love,

Jack

Giving Daddy a Haircut

2010-09-17T21:52:00.004-04:00

Yesterday I got a haircut. I've gone from dreading the experience to really enjoying it, and I was a very good boy during the process.

After we got home, I decided Daddy was looking a little shaggy. So, I made Daddy sit down and I gave him a haircut too.

**Daddy Notes:
What's pretty darn hilarious about this is that Jack mirrored his haircut experience exactly. He put the couch cushion as if it was the booster seat that was placed on the chair. He put a barber's cape on me (in the form of a blanket). He used his toys to cut my hair, then used a "hose" that got the hair off me, and then an electric razor that trimmed up his back. He made me look in the mirror (his glasses) to see if I approved of the haircut. He helped me down off the chair and then got the napkin-ish collar off my neck that he had "forgotten" to "remove." If you had seen the actual haircut, and then saw how he imitated it, it's even funner than it is already.

Luke showing his talking skills

2010-09-17T21:45:00.002-04:00

Those close to my youth will recall that I held off on expressing my thoughts verbally. In fact, Mommy and Daddy got worried just a little bit (now they suggest that it might be wise for me to make sure I get some breaths in between all the talking).

No such worries for Luke. He's talking all the time, even at this relatively young age.

He also knows his animal sounds pretty well. The video proves it. How about his kitty-cat?

First Day of School

2010-08-24T23:00:00.004-04:00

Today was my first day of school at Mercy Montessori. Mommy and Daddy have been telling me about it, and when I went to check the place out it seemed fine. But I was pretty...indifferent about it all. Here I am, before we leave, being indifferent.

I was in better spirits outside.

Here I am with one of the teachers getting me out of the car.

So, I don't have a lot of details to convey, but I had fun at school.

Here I am getting picked up. I'm cute.

Getting out of the car.

Back outside the house...

Anyway, I just wanted to tell you all about it. But I've got to get to bed, it's a school night!

Luke walking

2010-06-22T22:30:00.001-04:00

Luke is really figuring out the walking game.

The rest of vacation

2010-06-06T08:11:00.009-04:00

After we spent the first day or so just the four of us, we went to a house to meet up with Kyoko Obachan, Ed Ojichan, and lots of other fun people.

Yeah, this house will work.

Doing some initial exploring.

Cousin Callie arrived and I gave her a big hug.

Here we are sharing a snack with Kyoko Obachan.

Heading down to watch the sun go night-night in the water.

Not a bad place for cookies and milk.

The next day - and pretty much the rest of the trip - I wanted to spend my waking hours on the beach.

Whose beach is this?

Mommy with Cousin Callie...

...and Luke.

The next day Luke made a relatively lengthy appearance on the beach; he didn't like it as much as I did.

Just how big is he?

The whole gang.

A couple days into the trip my friend Anthony arrived and, boy, did we have fun together.

Probably my favorite thing to do was to run through this shallow creek that fed into the lake. It was much warmer than the lake, and because there were only 6-18 inches of water, just my style.

Luke was getting tired.

That night it was down to the deck again to watch the sunset.

The next day still more playing around.

Anthony blew bubbles for Callie and me to catch.

Luke, doing his thing.

Good times.

Ever since I've gotten home, I have talked about going back to the "new fun house" ("new" because the house from last Labor Day weekend was the original "fun house"). Hopefully soon.

Love,
Jack

The swings in Saugatuck

2010-06-06T07:52:00.004-04:00

While we were at the park (see post below), Luke hopped in the swing; I was too busy running.

My, what a difference a winter makes (the below picture was from this past Labor Day weekend, about 9 months ago); a lot more hair, to say nothing of pounds. And look how much longer his legs dangle now.

And, just so we're keeping score, here I am on the same swings around 8 months (so, 6 months younger than Luke is now, and 2 months older than he was in the above picture)...

...and a few months shy of my third birthday.