Life is Sweet

This morning, as I dropped Jack off at school and drove into work, I kept thinking about how lucky we are and how much life has given us.  I can't believe all the blessings we've been given.  It really makes me humble to think about it all. 

 

I think that most of all, more than anything in the world, I am so thankful for what a beautiful child we have.  He is perfect.  Truly.  I wouldn't change a thing about Jack.  Maybe all parents say this about their children, but I can't believe that we have this incredible, amazing, sweet, loving, happy little boy.  He is growing up and changing so quickly that if you blink, you'll miss something.  I hope one day he'll say that he is lucky to have Jeff and me as his parents. 

 

So, let's see...on Friday night, Jeff and I had a date!  We also had our first non-family member come to babysit for Jack.  I use the term "non-family member" loosely though because I've known the babysitter since she was born.  We called upon an old family friend - she graduated from college with a degree in early childhood education, works as a nanny, and just re-certified her CPR.  So, I don't know if you get much better than that for a sitter.  So, Jeff and I went out to dinner and then finally got to see the new Batman movie.  It was awesome. 

 

On Saturday, Jack and I ran our usual errands.  After he woke up from his afternoon nap though, I decided it was time to go to the toy store to find some more "age appropriate" toys.  He can only jump around for so long and does eventually get bored with all the toys in his toy box...and his mommy can only take so much hair-pulling, so I ended up getting him a walker, an activity table and some kind of snail he can crawl after.  But, the highlight of the shopping trip was a singing and talking Elmo doll.  Jack loves Elmo.  If Sesame Street is on, he is transfixed every time Elmo is on the television.  We came home and put the toys together and Jack played for a solid two hours with all his new stuff.  I should also probably take the time to point out that everything in our house now poses endless wonders for Jack.  Everything is something to be scaled and explored.  From the couch to the cable boxes, if he can get to it, he's into it.  He's learned how to pull himself up on everything and can now shuffle along the furniture and, for a few brief seconds, can stand unassisted. 

 

I was mentioning this to Jeff on Saturday night and we concluded that Jack was never going to move past the "army crawl" and would probably just go straight to walking.  But, when I got him up on Sunday morning, I put him down on the floor of his room and it was though he'd decided to prove us wrong and started crawling on all fours, exploring everything he could get to before I had to pin him down to get him dressed. 

 

I also happen to think that Jack will start walking well before his first birthday.  Seriously, the kid cannot sit still and is moving all over the place.  He works hard to pull himself up to explore and his favorite thing is "scaling Mt. Mommy" as he tried to crawl up and all over me. 

 

So, we went to the Minnesota State Fair on Sunday.  Jack and I went with Uncle Brendan and Auntie Lindsey.  Jeff doesn't really like the Fair all that much and besides, he had to work, so off we went!  I was really impressed with Jack.  He was pretty content to look at everything, and he even tried a few fair foods - mostly turkey from a sandwich I had, although he did have a bite of Auntie Lindsey's ice cream treat.  He really seemed unaffected.  I should note that Elmo also made the trip with us to the fair.   

 

So, after we got home, I was pooped!  Jack was, of course, not tired since he got to ride around in the stroller all day.  So, we had some more playtime outside.  The walker I bought Jack is a little out of his physical abilities currently, so I brought it on the grass, hoping he'd learn to use it.  He did not.  But, as a plus, I did manage to get his antics on video...

And that's all folks!  Jeff is out of town for the week, so it's just me and the little man hanging out.  We've got his follow-up appointment with the ENT on Friday, so I'm hoping to "hear" good things...