First taste of Red's

We have this amazing pizza place called Red's Pizzeria and Tavern. We've turned a lot of our family onto Red's as well because it's so good. They make the best cheese, garlic and bacon pizza in the entire world. Well today was Jack's first taste of it and my oh my he chowed down. He absolutely loved it and whined for more when his tray was empty. So we have another Red's Pizza fan in the house.

13 months

Dear Jack,

You are just the best little boy ever. You are so happy and smiley. You seldom do the Jack shuffle anymore - we think it's because you're too good for the shuffle..well that and you figured out that walking gets you to where you want to go faster. You're still a good eater - you now have buttered toast, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Cheez-it's - oh my how you love the cheez-it's!! I wish you'd slow down sometimes when you eat because you pick up pieces with both hands and stuff them in your mouth, but you're fine with it. We have finally moved to the sippy cup!! YAY, no more bottles! You were a stinker about it at first, but then became a pro at it. You now have 8 teeth and whenever we pull out the camera, you give us a big cheesy smile - it's adorable! You know what the camera is and what it does so you love showing off for it. Your hair is still blonde blonde blonde and you still have your amazing blue eyes. Your new thing lately is to walk around the house in a circle and giggle - then you clap your hands - and giggle some more. We then laugh at you, then you laugh back and it's just constant laughter in our house. You crack up when the dogs run around and play. We play peek a boo and you give us those fantastic belly laughs of yours. We talk to you all the time and you talk back - in your own language of course, but your voice is adorable. When you wake up in the morning or from your naps you now stand up in your crib and grab onto it and jump jump jump. You constantly say da da, ba ba and you hiss like a snake and laugh. You are still wearing 12-18 month clothes but all your jammies are 18 months and they fit you so nice. You're in size 4 diapers as well. You found the animal's drinking water fountain the other day and now love to splash in it and make a mess - we definitely have to watch you like a hawk now - no more leaving the room you're in because we'll come back to laundry taken out of the basket, or dog dishes thrown about, or water all over the floor. Everyday is such fun with you and we can't remember what our lives were like without you monkey.

I love you!

Mama

Happy 4th of July!!

Here's our little firecracker..
He giggles when he drops food to the dogs from his highchair..
See...
Look at his top teeth!!
Woah - wild hair..this was before the skeeters attacked us and we had to go inside and put out the pitfire..stupid bugs.

The Taste of Chicago

It's our family tradition to go to The Taste every year. They shut down all of Grant Park and have tons of restaurant stalls up and down the street, varying from Thai food a.ka. Goat on a stick, to Cheeborger cheeborger at Billy Goat Tavern. We have such fun when we go as well. We went last year when Jack was just an itty bitty and hindsight we really shouldn't have gone as I had had my C-section 3 weeks prior, so walking from the train station all the way to Grant Park was pretty stupid - and I didn't even get to stick my feet in the pool at Millenium Park..grr! Anyway - this year we took Jack and went with our friends Francine and Caoimhe and we all had a blast. The weather was perfect, not too hot, not too cold, it wasn't too packed and we got to go to the stalls we wanted. Jack was able to look around at everything and he even napped in his stroller!

We found a nice shady spot to rest and relax while Francine and Caoimhe went on the Ferris Wheel..Jack got hungry..shocker!Then Daddy threw him in the air and he loved it

Daddy and Jack at the Millenium Pool Splashy splashy
Jack had so much fun
They have another wall like this behind me and the kids love it when the "spit" comes out..
Finally took the top off..he cried 2 seconds after this was taken because the waterfall was hitting him pretty hard
He's thinking this is different..
We had so much fun - look at how tired he is!!
We took the train in and Jack crashed not too long after we left Ogilvie station to Harvard...so did Caoimhe..hee hee..

Oh and Mr. Jack is back to taking 2 naps, no more teething problems and no more crankiness so everything is back to normal...for now..

Oh boy - he's on the move!

Well Jack is walking everywhere. He still sticks his arm up for balance, which is adorable. He figured out how to climb up the stairs - so up go the baby gates. He loves to open cupboards and drawers, so up go the safety latches. He also has more teeth coming in. He won't take a sippy cup with milk, he wants the bottle, but he'll take a sippy with water and juice. Huh? He's also been having a hard time going to sleep at night -I had to let him cry himself to sleep last night because after 1 hr and 20 minutes I couldn't keep going into his room. He's got a terrible diaper rash from all of his teething issues. He also is transitioning from 2 naps a day to 1. I still think he needs 2, but he apparently doesn't. All of these things came to fruition when he turned 1, what's up with that? Yesterday was a bad day, but thankfully today is much much better. He didn't even cry when I put him down for a nap..YAY!! Progress!