Trick or Treat

We considered dressing Jack up as Elvis (he's got the hair for it), but we decided to stick with something he could relate to. The boy has an abiding love for choochoos. In a rare show of artistic and engineering fervor, Daddy constructed Thomas the Tank Engine by mounting one of our old moving boxes onto the very same Radio Flyer wagon he had when he was a little guy 30 years ago. Daddy was just as surprised as Mama that it came out so well. After Mama acquired a conductor outfit, Jack was pretty much a happy boy. We suspect that this is one costume that will outlast Halloween by quite a bit.

Jack trick-or-treated at a grand total of 4 houses and had a fine time. He even said "thank you" -- which is something we've been working on recently with less than complete success. Once we got back home, he had great fun moving our give-away candy back and forth from vessel to vessel. (There were over 300 pieces of candy to move, so this game kept him busy a good long time.) Occasionally he would stop to say, "Happy Halloween!" or "Bye Bye Superman!"

Kudos to Mom for the well-rendered Thomas face!
Jack loves his train/wagon........

....but does he love it more than Daddy?

thanks to our neighbor for giving Jack his very first Halloween candy.

At the going rate of 40 cents a pound...

...Jack is about a ten dollar pumpkin.

Last weekend we took him to the pumpkin patch in the costume he wore for his first Halloween. Surprisingly, we were the only ones that day who dressed our kid up like a pumpkin. Many times we heard "Aaaaww! I'll take that one!" or "What a cuuuuute little pumpkin girl!" (We don't take offense to the little girl comments; he is pretty cute after all.)

Jack really enjoyed himself (as did Mama, Daddy, Papaw, and Mae Mae). He doesn't 'get' Halloween, but he has noticed that pumpkins seem to be everywhere lately. He also recently starting getting his colors straight, so every chance to point out 'orange pumpkin' is pretty cool in his book. Jack got to ride a cow train, follow a tractor on a hay ride, and sit on many different pumpkins.

The fun of the last might merit a little explanation: Jack does two maybe-more-weird-than-average things: 1) recently he has been experimenting with carrying various things with his neck, and 2) for a long time now he has enjoyed experimenting with whether or not something can be sat upon. The pumpkin patch was evidently a place where Number 2 was a fine, fine game.

Here are several pics...our faves from both last year (pre-blog and MONTHS pre-first-haircut) and this year so you can see how much he's changed. It's strange to look at the older pictures...in my mind's eye he never had that chubby a baby face. He's certainly a skinny kid now. He's got the baby belly, but his waist keeps him in 9-12 month pants. As a matter of fact, he still wears the pants he wore in last year's pumpkin patch pictures. They're like baby capris now, but we just can't keep much bigger pants on him!

Florida in his blood?

We just got back from a week's vacation in Cape Coral where we celebrated Papaw's 70th birthday. Most of that time was spent in the pool at Mae Mae and Papaw's rental or in the pool at Aunt Mimi's. Aunt Mimi's pool is his favorite. It has a good sized plateau of sorts where the water is about 10 inches deep. This part of the pool is known as "Jack's Beach". He spent so much time on Jack's beach that he actually only got one tub bath the entire week we were gone!

Mae Mae put some water wings on the boy to see what would happen and lo and behold, the kid swims like a fish. Sort of. It takes about a hundred kicks for him to get one inch of forward momentum. Not bad for a 20-month-old, though! When he has his wings on, he loves to stand on the edge of Jack's beach and fall forward into the deep part.

Mama and Daddy also took Jack to the real beach at Sanibel. It's a beautiful spot...there aren't a lot of people and you can walk 30 yards out before the water gets above your knees. Jack seemed a little perplexed by the saltiness of the water, but he loved the freedom of getting in and out at his leisure. (This is in contrast to the tight leash we keep on him at swimming pools as he attempts to run around the edges and scale their concrete steps and hop in at random depths.)

This was one of the best vacations we've had, but such fine times do have their drawbacks. We came back on Saturday, and our little Florida boy has made it clear that we are boring because we can't hop into pool or watch boats on a daily basis. Aaah the fickle nature of toddlers...sometimes a house full of toys and books and outings to the park and undivided parental attention just aren't enough. This was just the vacation we all needed, but Mama and Daddy caught themselves praying for Monday so that Jack could enjoy the much loved distractions provided by his daycare teachers and playmates!

Loving on the Grandmothers

Our cuddle bug has returned! Jack hasn't been willing to be still long enough for displays of affection since he was a few months old. Now you can cuddle him for a few minutes at a time, and if he's in the mood, the kisses just keep on coming. Here he is sharing some special moments with Maemae and Lola.

Kiddo has a lot to say. He's making sentences now. An example of his most complex construction is probably 'I see a big truck!' The night-night ritual has become pretty cute, too. Instead of nursing, we say 'Night Night' to practically his entire lexicon and every person he knows. It's pretty endearing to see him bid all his stuffed animals good night and then give them kisses. Later, he drops off while whispering such things as 'Night Night Mo-Ka-Koo (motorcycle)'.

Amen!

Jack's baptism was last Sunday, and we were fortunate to have a lot of family to share the moment. For those who are curious, there was no dunkin' of the punkin'. Water was dribbled upon his forehead.

The day before, Jack had learned the phrase 'Oh yeah, baby!' from Aunt Ann and Uncle Mike. He says this quite often now (most notably just before latching on to nurse), so we thought he might say this during the sacrament. Instead, he picked up on 'Amen' and said this about a dozen times throughout. This elicited quite a few giggles from us and the congregation. The Basham Chamblee cup of cuteness overfloweth, indeed.

On your mark...

I just couldn't decide which of the videos that Kristian took was cuter so they are both going up, as well as one of the pics he took. These movies aren't compressed, so don't try them if you don't have a high speed connection.

Mamas and Babies

We all missed our recent ten year college reunion, but I think we got something much better. I just can't believe these are our lives now.

Ten years ago we lived in a small dorm. It was half the price of the other dorms on campus because it was the only one on the academic side of Broadway, and it should probably have been condemned. But it was a home where we each had our own rooms as well as all the intellectual and emotional space we needed to be ourselves. And everything was in front us and exciting.

Now we are moms and professionals. You should see all of us yawning by the early afternoon everyday. And we could talk for hours about breast pumps.

Despite the darkening circles under my eyes, somehow I am even more of a wide-eyed optimist than I was back then. I don't know exactly what else I will have been in my life before the song ends, but I feel safe knowing that I've got great friends and family with whom to share what's to come.

Having picked up a few more PRACTICAL SKILLS doesn't hurt either...