10 months

Wow, I simply cannot believe how fast time flies! Jack is constantly babbling now, he can say, mama, dada, cat, dog and most recently Jack. He tries to repeat everything we say, although he knows he has limits as to what he can do, he watches our mouths with great interest. As we expose him to more and more food, we find he favors, peas, carrots, hot dogs, bananas and graham crackers. He is great with his sippy cup of juice. The only crawling he does, is "army crawl," but boy can he get anywhere!! He stands up and holds on to things all by himself and even surprises us after naps by standing in his crib!! He enjoys tickling of his belly, especially with Mike's head (see pic) and loves to scream at the top of his lungs!

Halloween Part 2

Notice the cute caterpillar? That's his cousin Lilly. We never could get them both to look at the camera at the same time....

Jack's First Halloween

Due to Jack's perfectly round head, we dressed him up as Charlie Brown for Halloween. We got a huge pumpkin, carved it Peanuts style and snapped away.
We also took him to his Uncle Tony's for trick-or-treating and then over to his Grandparents in costume.

Family Wedding

On October 24th, Mike's cousin Becky got married and we took Jack along. There were lots of babies there (including his cousin) and Jack was a trooper. He sat great in church (eating some puffs to pass time), ate his dinner well, went by anyone who wanted to hold him and made it till 9:30, by which point he was asleep in Mike's arms. We were quite happy with how well the day went. Here is a picture of the happy, dressed up family.

A few more...

... from the apple farm.

Apple Farm

In October, we went apple picking and to the pumpkin patch. Excellent Fall things to do, and while we've had a mild fall so far, it was chilly this day, in the low 40's. Jack was a happy camper riding on his daddy's back and hanging out in trees, but after a while he was ready for a nap. Not even a hug from his good friend Lucy could cheer him up! Later, Jack got to try caramel apple for the first time (yum!) and that cheered him up again. Enough for us to take a few pictures of him with all the pumpkins.

Vacation

Over Labor Day we took a vacation to Wisconsin Dells. We stayed in a condo with another couple and their daughter. Overall the trip went fine, although with two babies, one of them is inevitably crying at any given time!! We went on the Ducks, went for a swim in the pool, did some outlet shopping, ate at some cool restaurants, and really enjoyed ourselves. We hope to do it again next year.

We've been away for a while!

As I was reading one of my friends blog today, I realized I've been ignoring my own for awhile and felt I should make a few posts to catch y'all up, in case you've been missing us! Here are a couple of pics from August. Jack loves swings and swimming pools! He wasn't sure what to make of either at first, then became extremely excited with both!

Bike Rides

We've been taking Jack on bicycle rides this summer too. Gives us some exercise and family time all in one! Here are a couple of pictures of Jack in his bike trailer. In August we took him on the Roun'da Manure Bicycle Tour in Sharon, WI. We rode 21 miles! Jack did pretty good, he took a nap during the first half and ate some bananas the second half. Overall the ride was good, although a good stretch was into the wind and we had to pedal down hill (ugh). Next up is the Zoo Ride and then Mike and Rebecca are going to do the Tyranena Brewery Ride in October (Jack will be spending some time with his Grandma).

More funny faces!

Jack has been making some really funny faces these days! Some of them I'm sure, are due to the fact that he's getting more teeth (top teeth now). He chews on everything, not to mention the drool! In addition to two meals a day we have started "snacks." Sometimes we give him whole fruit in a mesh feeder (he looooooves bananas) or puffs which are those baby cheerios that melt in their mouths. Although a little ahead of schedule with the puffs, he is learning to use his fingers (advanced motor skills) to get them into his mouth. A lot of times the puffs get stuck to his hands and don't really make it into his mouth, other times he just holds his mouth open and whines till we put one in for him. It's pretty cute. He is sooooo close to crawling too, he just needs to coordinate front and back limbs, but boy can he get himself up high! If there's something to kick off of he can scoot around pretty well. Nothing like some frustrating tummy time for the little guy! Videos coming soon!!

Fests 2009

We've been having a great summer taking Jack to MANY fests. In reverse order: Zoo a la Cart, Irish Fest, German Fest (not pictured), Jazz in the Park (with his friend Lucy), Italian Fest, and Polish Fest. Jack loves being outside and smiling at other people. So much to see, so much to do!

The Wisconsin State Fair

We took Jack to the State Fair three times and he absolutely loved it! So much to look at! He had so much fun. See Jack as a potato, a sheep and a keg killer (in the microbrew tent). As you can tell he has become quite a ham! Mike and Jack are also posed in front of a shiny new Case tractor. Jack's Grandpa worked for Case for many years.

My First Brewery Tour

We took Jack on his first Brewery tour to Lakefront Brewery. It's really on the Milwaukee River though, not on the lakefront, but anyway, it's great beer. Jack enjoyed touching my sweating beer cup and attempted to try some beer! Not yet little boy, but someday! You can see him staring down my beer in the picture. The Lakefront Brewery acquired Bernie Brewer's chalet and beer mug. We might have to use this as our Christmas card!

My future's so bright...

...gotta love the monkey shades. Not to mention he seems to be hailing a cab! I couldn't resist posting this pic.

Jack's First Cousin

On April 4th, 2009 we became an Aunt and Uncle and Jack became a cousin to Lillian Claire Bark. Here are a few pics of LJ with his cousin.

And now Jack has teeth

Look closely and you can see his first two teeth on the bottom!

LJ likes food now

At 6 months Jack loves oat cereal, peas, bananas and carrots!

Cool Biker Baby

Jack wants to grow up to be a bicyclist just like his dad (and mom)!

5 months old

At 5 months old LJ loves being upside-down and throws himself around a LOT. LJ enjoys putting everything into his mouth and chewing on it. He likes to say "oh" and pet the cats. He is soooo much fun for us!

Father's Day

We visited Jack's Great Papa on Father's Day. Here is a pic of him with his cousin Lilly.

Tried and Failed

We tried giving LJ some rice cereal since he seemed ready to eat (following food, sitting up pretty well, etc.) at five months. Well after 3 days he simply refused to open his mouth. So we gave up! As you can see in this picture there is a lot of cereal on his face and he doesn't look interested.

Our First Road Trip June 5-7th.

We headed down to Quincy, IL for Bissellpalooza, aka Great Aunt Mary's 80th birthday party. LJ was a champ and only added one hour on the way down and a half hour on the way back to our trip time! He slept great in the pack-n-play and only had a couple of meltdowns during the trip. We were so pleased! (Video tour of Aunt Mary's house coming soon)

4 months old

At four months old, LJ can roll over. In addition he drools up a storm! Honestly, I don't know how he stays hydrated!