Happy Halloween!

We took our sweet, little puppy dog to our church's trunk or treat on Sunday night. He had the best time!

We tried to get a couple of pictures of him before we left the house.

Luckily, we got a couple of better ones at the church.

Taking a break

I can't resist posting these pictures of Jack last year at 3 months old!

Doctor by day and puppy by night.

His puppy costume still fit this year, so I figured why not wear it again!

Pumpkin Patch

One thing I was really looking forward to when I was pregnant was taking my kids to the pumpkin patch. Last year, Jack was just a few months old, but this year he was ready! I found out that a photographer was offering mini sessions at the pumpkin patch and I jumped at the chance to get some decent pictures of my little man with pumpkins. I knew I would never be able to capture the perfect picture, and decided to avoid the drama that would follow if I tried. Haha.

Although, these pictures of my sweet boy enjoying his afternoon snack are pretty cute!

 

Unfortunately, the pictures happen to fall on a day when the temperature was 91 degrees! Poor Jack developed a heat rash and he was only in his picture outfit for about 15 minutes.

Little poser! Seriously, couldn't have posed him better if we had tried!

I did mention the temperature, right?! Jack was dressed in a lined shirt and lined pants and I was in shorts!

Jack had so much fun at the pumpkin patch. He was excited about all the pumpkins and went around patting them all. He loved moving the little pumpkins around on the displays and tried eating the corn. I think he was the most excited about the bounce houses. The kid loves to jump. I can't wait to take him back next year!

State Fair

We took Jack to the state fair last week. (We really packed in some events over the course of 10 days: a visit to the pumpkin patch (post coming), the fair, a work trip, and a football game!)

Yeehaw!

We tried some new food (fried bacon and roasted corn) and an old favorite (corn dog). The thing I was the most excited about trying was pineapple whip. It was delicious and Jack loved it!

 

Even before the fair I had pinned a couple of pineapple whip recipes. I just knew I was going to love it. After reading through several I decided to combine a few. This is definitely a much healthier version than some of the recipes I came across. The pineapple whip at the fair was too sweet. Coming from someone with a sweet tooth that says a lot. I wanted something a little lighter.

Pineapple Whip

ingredients:
3 cups frozen pineapple
(1) 5.3 ounce package vanilla greek yogurt*
Vanilla soy milk as needed for consistency 
2 generous teaspoons of honey

(The recipes I found called for almond milk. Jack is drinking soy milk, and I decided it would work just fine. I have no idea what almond milk tastes like. I would think regular milk would taste just fine. You just need some liquid to balance out the other two ingredients being so thick.)

directions:
Combine all ingredients in a blender and pulse. It took some stopping and stirring to help the blender move along, but it got the job done. 

This made two pretty big (in my opinion) servings for Ty and I. 
I had planned to share with Jack, but the whole honey thing stopped me. Why are there so many food rules for babies??? He got a mini popsicle instead. Then, threw the biggest tantrum to date because we wouldn't give him another. He is so mistreated. :)


*I was not a fan of greek yogurt until I tried this one. It is not as tart as other brands. If you think you don't like greek yogurt, try this one!

Game Day!

We took Jack to his first OSU game on Saturday. It was so much fun to see his reaction to everything. I was a little worried about the weather, but it turned out to be perfect. Ty's parents have season tickets, so we were able to pass Jack back and forth between us. This allowed us to stay almost to the end of the game. Jack started to get pretty restless and we decided to leave a few minutes early to avoid the crowds and traffic.

Jack took about a 30 minute nap during the game.

Vegas

I avoided traveling overnight for work for a year. I have a work meeting that occurs twice a year and after missing both meetings last year it was necessary to go this fall. Ty decided to join me and it was so nice to spend time together! We traveled to our hometown to leave Jack with our parents. He stayed one night with Ty's parents and one night with mine. He had a great time!

We attended a medical school alumni event hosted at the House of Blues.

It was a little dark in there, so we had to use the flash and it made us squint.

I spent the next day at a meeting. Ty hit up the slots and attended a couple of lectures. We had the evening to explore the strip.

I ended up having some sort of allergic reaction and my eye swelled up!

By the time we landed in Oklahoma the next afternoon it had finally completely vanished. 

The swollen eye didn't stop me from enjoying dinner and a frozen hot chocolate at Serendipty.

We flew home the next day and my mom met us in the city with Jack. 

He was so happy to see his daddy!

I was not looking forward to leaving Jack, but I think I had such horrible ideas of it that it turned out not to be as bad as I was expecting. That being said we aren't ready to leave him again anytime soon! 

Jack, 12-15 Months

We have been having so much fun the past few months with Jack! He is becoming such a little boy and I want to get down a few things before I forget them or my "notes" get deleted from my phone. Happy 15 months, Jack!

Jack,
You love to sing and your favorite song is Pat-a-cake. It is so cute to see you "roll em up, roll em up". You also like to dance and your signature move is to turn in circles. You love to watch Bubble Guppies and dance to their music.

You are fearless and love to climb. You have a slide in the living room that keeps you pretty occupied, but unfortunately I think it has given you the confidence to try to climb other things. We have a built in rod, that I guess is for wash cloths, in your bath tub with a ledge underneath it . You keep trying to climb it. Good thing I'm always right there to discourage it. Little monkey. Speaking of baths, you love bath time. Your latest thing is to lay on your stomach and play with the toys and sometimes dip your face in the water.

Playing has become a lot more interactive lately and I love to watch you sit down and entertain yourself. You like to read books to yourself and climb in and out of baskets or boxes. You love to take clothes out of your laundry basket (or the pile of clothes in your closet that don't fit and I still haven't bought a bin for) and walk around with them trying to put them on. You love hats! You will walk around taking it on and off your head and love to put it on my head or daddy's head and take it on and off. You could do that for hours. It's not limited to hats, you'll put anything on your head that will fit--bowls, buckets, etc. You also love shoes and are always bringing me your shoes to put on. You've also started trying to put on our shoes. You have started giving high fives. It is adorable.

You also love to open and close doors. You have almost figured out how to get doors open yourself. We'll be in trouble when you do! When we walk through the neighborhood, we have to stop at the pedestrian gates to let you play with them. You walk around and raise up your shirt to show off your belly. It's so funny! You love to be outside and frequently walk to the back door and demand to go out. You LOVE Nuts! He makes you laugh and laugh. He has started warming up to you, but mostly wants to be left alone.

There a few words that you can say. Your first official word was hot. You say it when you step onto hot cement and when I put food on your high chair tray. You can say momma and dada, but rarely say them. You also say uh oh and ouch. We are working on animal sounds and you are getting better and will sometimes do moo, ruff ruff, and whoo whoo and even say owl every once in a while. I don't think you really know what you are saying when you say it, but I'm counting it. :)

You have started taking our hands and pulling us toward whatever it is that you want. Usually food! You love to eat! I'm not sure where it all goes, because you are definitely small. Fruit is probably your favorite thing, along with cheese and turkey (deli meat). You have started going to the freezer door and begging for popsicles. You have 8 teeth and the last couple have really been hard on you. 

Jack, your daddy and I love you to pieces. You bring us so much joy! We both ran out of space on our phones, because we had too many pictures and videos of you. I backed them all up to my computer and we spent time looking back over them. We can't believe how quickly time is going! I can't wait to see what you learn in the next few months!

Love, 
Mommy

Stats: will update after 15 month appt.
Height:
Weight:
Clothes: mostly 6-12 months

Get ready for a picture overload!

Baby Yoga!