Easter Eggs

My mom & her friend found this cool egg painting set that ended up being perfect for Jack to use. Here's his first egg dying experience & some of the ones Mommy, Nana, & Myra did too. He did launch one egg across the kitchen, so we peeled it & let him eat it. He liked the center, but fed the white part to the dogs. I'm pretty sure he enjoyed the whole experience!

I think he likes it.

Noodles

9 months old!

On Monday Jack was officially 9 months old! So... that means bullet points!

• weight: 19 pounds
• length/height: 29 inches
• Jack is working on perfecting different words. It's cool to see him watch your mouth as you say words & try to imitate the movement/sound. Mama & Dada are still his favorites. He has also started saying 'hi' & we're trying to figure out if he means 'hi' when he says it because we recently taught him 'high five', which has confused the waving thing. So, for the past couple days he has been saying hi & raising his hand up like a wave - or high five. Who knows? He also repeated "Nana" today when I told him we were calling Nana on the phone. It was pretty cute. :)
• Jack is quite the mover. However, he does so by rolling, turning, and scooting - no crawling yet! I was cleaning his room the other day & he made his way all around the floor chasing different toys around. I was impressed (& reminded to vacuum). Today he made it across the middle of the living room until he was under the coffee table.
• We took Jack for his first swim! He loved it & enjoyed kicking & splashing the whole time.
• We are starting to add "real" food to his diet & he's not sure what to do with it. He likes playing with puffs until he loses them (usually they are stuck to one of his hands somewhere). We tried some tiny pieces of squash last night & after he rejected that, I decided to just give him a big piece of broccoli to play with. He immediately tried to feed it to Lucy. After that, anything we handed him, he would just hold out to Lucy. She was really good & didn't take any food out of his hand. Once it hit the floor, however...oh well, baby steps, right?
• We're having so much fun this summer!!! I love our little family!

7 months

This time of year is always so busy! I'm spending every free moment with John & our little guy. Jack. Is. Awesome. He is such a happy boy - always smiling & laughing. He totally melts my heart. I've tried to post videos periodically here. Once again, I'm going to have to go with the bulleted list of Jack news...

• Like I said, he is SUCH a happy baby! He loves to laugh and smile & coo.
• He still enjoys his 'screeching' sounds & spends a lot of time seeing how high his voice can go. He also likes playing with volume - from whispering, to yelling. I like seeing how pleased he is with himself whenever he discovers yet another new sound.
• We've been introducing solid food & Jack seems to have no problem when it comes to eating! Jack eats rice cereal, apples, peaches, pears, sweet potatoes, carrots, & squash. Next will come the green veggies...that should be fun.
• He makes a 'mmmmm' sound when he's hungry or wants more.
• He definitely knows his own name & will turn & look at you when he hears it.
• He loves saying 'mama', 'ba', 'di', and lots of other sounds and combos
• Seems to enjoy creating spit bubbles
• He has very good control of his hands & will grab anything within his reach. He can also pass things back & forth between his hands, turn things over, drop things, swing things around, turn pages, push buttons on his toys, etc.
• He's also used that new found control to grab Lucy a couple of times. She's been awesome with him. There's only been once where he got ahold of her fur pretty well before I intervened. She just licked his hand until he let go enough for her to escape - yay Lucy! Since then she has been staying out of arm's reach!
• He loves any toys that make noise. He also likes seeing videos & pictures of himself. It's hilarious to watch him watch himself. He will look at the video and smile, then look at me with this completely delighted expression on his face.
• Lastly, he has a new best friend: his stuffed penguin - he LOVES that toy more than any other & cuddles with it at night too. Thanks again for the sweet gift, Monti!

I don't get it.

I've been meaning to address this for a while, but I keep forgetting. However, this past weekend we were at Chili's & I remembered to take a picture, so now's the time! When we go to Chili's I always order broccoli as my side item. I love it & I figure I can eat whatever else greasy mess I want to & the meal still counts as healthy (right???) Anyway, a while back I put in the order for the side of broccoli & the waiter said, "I'm sorry we no longer have broccoli as a side." After overcoming my shock, I asked what they had instead. The response: mixed veggies. I decided to go with it & see what mixed veggies entailed. So in case you are wondering, here is the NEW menu item called 'Mixed Veggies', NOT broccoli, mind you: