Boardwalk

There is a wonderful boardwalk at the end of our street. It turns into a trail through the woods and links to the neighboring village. We visited it with Patrick, Finbar and Alfie on Friday and that is when I discovered Finbar can fly and Jack loves being spun by Alfie.

Alastair's visit

Uncle Alastair (lives in Australia) put together an impressive itinerary for his USA, Ireland, Yorkshire and London trip. Alastair was in New York State this week. Tomorrow he is off to Washington DC for a train tour and he returns to London and then back to Australia.

I particularly like the 2nd photo of Alastair because I caught the pure blueness of his eyes.

Award Trailer finds a new home

On March 27th Mum and John's 27 foot Award caravan found a new home. It was the end of an era and an emotional one.

The caravan was my home for the summer of 1998 when Mum's friend Maureen and her daughter Jennifer needed a place to stay during track season when their apartment was rented out for track. I gave up my apartment and moved into the caravan for 8 weeks. The caravan was fantastic.

Russ and Arlene are the new owners.

On March 31st

This day last week, after Jack's 5pm dinner (and totally unprovoked by us) Jack picked up a black strapped padded lunch box, pretended to put it over his shoulder as he walked to the front door, waving goodbye to us. So we said "Bye...where are you off to.... school?"

(I was able to take a photo of him playing with the lunch box this morning)

Esther's bowls

This time of year makes me recall writing letters as a youngster. In particular, to my maternal grandparents in England.

Grandpa and Grandma lived in Biggin Hill, Kent. My spelling was not so good. They loved "Esther" and wondered who this special lady was in my life (Easter) and in a separate letter "my sluggish bowls" (bowels) made them laugh.

They especially loved to tease me about the latter.

At this time of year I still think about Esther.

Corned Beef & Cabbage @ Mum & John's

It was delicious! Mum's hiding her face because she "didn't have her face on".

Is that a halo on John's head?

Happy St Patrick's Day!

It is a much bigger celebration over here. However the only form of celebrating for us is dressing up Jack and we may have corned beef (not the canned stuff we know in Ireland - but a fatty brined beef which is boiled (it is quite delicious)) and cabbage tonight.

Aunt Mollie sent Jack this t-shirt. Thank you Mollie!

I thought I might not get photographs of Jack this morning. He is teething again and we think his molars are giving him rosey cheeks and a lot of pain. But after some pain medication he was singing again.

Mr Kissylips

Our friend Raechel affectionately calls Jack "Mr Kissylips".

Your Lines Are...

I took a quick video of Jack today and he was a little vocal. It almost sounded like something coherent (he is not there yet). Every day Jack's babbles are different because he is growing and learning.:

I can almost imagine he has been directed to say:

"Ah"

"Where's Dick?"

before saying "bye" as he exits right

That's My Hair....that's my eye

Seven Teeth

Yes, four on top and three below. Jack became quite animated when he realized he was being filmed (takes after his uncle Patrick)!

Cheeky Squirrel

This squirrel is trying to get to our window mounted bird feeder and it is great entertainment for us, especially Jack.

It is not only the images but the sounds

... of your little one that you want to remember too ...

Snow on December 5th

Jack's first experience with snow was a good one.

Although he was wondering why Mum put odd blue things on his hands.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

We Elfed ourselves for Christmas. Yes, even Jack is a dancer!

So....lamb chops with Thanksgiving squash?

We returned from Brockport, NY at 11:30 pm on Saturday night and I took this video around 3:30 pm Sunday. You can see the daylight is starting to dwindle. Dick (and Jack) were watching a football match on TV with the sound in mute (because I cannot stand the sound of football matches). We were all tired. Jack is still getting over his recent cold and chest congestion.

Drum tester

Jack's 1st Thanksgiving

Mum's Art Opening

Mum has two pieces of her wonder artwork in Riverfront Studios and the art opening was tonight. We were able to make a fleeting visit to support her. It was so well attended we were only able to get a few photos.

Mum's artwork was so well placed too - you go Mum!

It was fantastic but you cannot tell from our photographs because Jack attended for 30 minutes and was home, bathed and asleep for the night within the next 30 minutes.

Halloween 2009

I have to share this but sometimes posting photographs one by one to the blog is too slow so here is Jack's Halloween with his friend Tazio.

Aunt Marg & Uncle George

Aunt Marg and Uncle George paid us an impromptu visit yesterday so we called "Susu" Jack's day care provider and we were able to take them to visit with Jack at Susu's. It was a special day!

9 Months!

Jack is 9 months old tomorrow!

He had his first hair trim last week (photo taken before the trim) and his upper front two teeth have partially broken through. His two bottom teeth came in about 2 months ago.

This morning I witnessed him getting into a crawl position ... it will not be long now.

Shame it will not fit

Shame it will not fit ... by Halloween.

Can you guess what Jack was going to be?

Video of Jack # 1

Homemade Teething Biscuit # 1

The recipe called for banana flavored rice cereal which I didn't have so I used half a banana which changed the consistency entirely. It was a good starting point and I was very happy with the flavor - as was Jack.