recent (and some not so recent) jack pics.

Playing with one of his favorite toys -- the OU Pop Goes the Football Player

A boy and his dad (love!)

he fell asleep like this a few weeks ago (I moved his legs after taking a pic)

He loves getting in the chair with a book

puzzles, his new favorite toys

koozies, a close second

So, these next four are from the other evening. I had gotten the camera out to take pics of Jack while he was playing and he saw it ... and wanted it. When I wouldn't give it to him this is what I got:

Tennesse road trip (part 1).

Several months ago I came up with an idea to do a 30th birthday road for my main man.

We've both been wanting to go to Memphis and thought that would make a great getaway. It's only 8 hours away, therefore, totally doable as a road trip.

So, my first thought was to book the whole trip and surprise John with it. But, as I was thinking about it, I couldn't really keep it in. So, when I mentioned it to him, of course he was excited. Then after some discussion, it evolved into a night or two in Memphis and then venturing further east to Lynchburg, home of the Jack Daniel's distillery. Then, after more talking, we added another stop -- his families old farm/homestead/cemetery Palmetto Farm near Shelbyville, TN.

Here's a blow by blow ...

We hit the road on a Wednesday and drove to Little Rock. It's a pretty easy drive, minus the huge number of semis that are all over eastbound I-40 (Mom, you don't know "lots of trucks" until you've driven between OKC and Memphis).We stayed the night in LR and then bright and early Thursday morning we drove into Memphis.

Memphis is super cool, I just wish we had had a couple days to really see more of what the city has to offer. We stayed at the Peabody Hotel and let me tell ya ... that place is amazing! We got there around 11 Thursday morning and just missed the ducks making their way into the lobby fountain. The lobby was packed! People everywhere taking pictures, having a snack or a drink. It was so fun!

the famous Peabody ducks!

The Peabody is super fancy ... people at your beck and call no matter what you may need. They offered free shoe shines, so John took advantage. We put his shoes in the designated sack and put them on our door handle, and off they went to be shined. We called down to the concierge the next morning to request them back -- we got a phone call saying they were on the way and we got a phone call making sure the shine job was to our liking. Talk about service!

The Peabody from the alley across the street (where Rendezvous is located)

Luckily our room was ready when we got there, so we stowed our stuff and headed out to find some lunch. We'd heard Rendezvous had great BBQ and it happend to be basically across the street from the Peabody, so it was perfect. We walked in and they said they didn't open until 4:30, but we could have ribs, cole slaw and beans if we wanted ... and we did. It was so good! I'm not really a rib person, but I couldn't get enough. We got 8 or 9 ribs between the two of us and I ate 4! Mmmm...so good.

After lunch, we had planned a trip out to Chi Omega headquarters, which are in Germantown. As a faithful Chi Omega alum, I couldn't pass up an opportunity to really greek out. And, I had to drag John to Chi O Headquarters (Not really drag, he was kind of excited to go. Now we have to make a trip to Chicago and visit Sigma Chi headquarters in Evanston.) A fellow Epsilon Alpha works there and kindly gave us a tour. We had a great time! We found my aunt and John's mom's bid cards. What's kind of crazy about the HQ is that it really is part office and part sorority house. 

searching for bid cards

my aunt's bid card!

Chi O HQ -- Kind of looks like 820 Chautauqua

After that we headed back downtown to walk around on Beale Street (p.s. it's not nearly as fun during the day as it would be at night) and watch the ducks make their grand exit.

The lobby was packed for the second march of the ducks

The Duckmaster -- only the 4th one ever. The first Duckmaster held that title for more than 40 years.

Jack: 15 months

At 15 months Jack:

• is mimicking what we say and do. There are many times when I'll say something and he'll "repeat" it. This just means that we really have to watch what we do and say from now on.
• has 12 teeth. We've never had a huge issue with teething, but that last molar (that was coincidentally the first one to pop through) was rough.
• graduated swim lessons.
• is on soy milk for the foreseeable future. We tried going back to whole milk, and though we didn't have the issues we had around his first birthday, I could tell that if we stayed on it, we would. So ... soy milk it is!
• loves to throw away trash, wipe things up, dance and fake sneeze.
• has several words in his repertoire -- dog ( "DA!" pretty much every animal and some inanimate objects), Gus, Jack, dada, mama, uh oh (uhhh ooooooo), eye, banana (bayaya), wooo (in answer to "what does a cow say?")
• sticks his fingers in his ears. A lot of times it's when I'm reading his books before bed.
• loves to watch himself in the mirror. He'll do something and then crack up at himself. What a ham!
• knows what he wants and if he doesn't get it, he is super frustrated. And, when he's frustrated, we get some tantrums. He'll usually try to hit someone/something and then bend down and try to "bite" the ground, or bite the nearest object (not us though, thank goodness we don't have a real biter!)
• loves playing with balls. He'll throw them, chase them, roll them ... and he wants to take them with him wherever we go.
• is able to answer some questions by shaking his head no: "Are you ready to get out (of the bath)?" "Are you finished?"
• is able to follow simple commands: follow me, come here, throw this away, sit down
• still taking 2 naps (on the weekends). Last weekend was really the first sign that maybe we're moving toward one nap at home.
• wearing mostly 12-18 mo clothes, but we've had to break out some 18 mo stuff recently thanks to a serious growth spurt. Literally, he was wearing 12 mo jammies just fine and this week all of a sudden they are wayyyy too tight.

All in all, our little 15 month bundle of energy is keeping us busy! I'm loving his little personality that continually shines through, even though occasionally the frustration boils over into a tantrum. There's no doubt that Jack is no longer a baby (tear) but is now an on-the-go toddler.

15 month stats:

•24.4 lbs. (70is%), 32 in. (80ish%)

•LOVES: bananas, throwing/"catching"/chasing balls, blowing bubbles in the water, "Goodnight Moon", running everywhere, all phones and all things that he can use like a phone

•DISLIKES: having his nose wiped, not getting what he wants (usually a phone)

•mostly 12-18 month clothes, size 4 shoe (but not for much longer)

•size 4 diaper, size 5 at night

swim lessons.

Around the 4th of July we signed Jack up for swim lessons -- 4 days a week for 2 weeks. Until around 3 years old, these are parent/tot lessons, which means I'm rockin' my suit and getting in the pool with our little guy.

Our first two days were not good. Jack was excited and has generally loves the water, but when he got in the big pool all he did was scream, cry and try his hardest to climb up me and GET OUT OF THE POOL! On day 3 we moved to the kiddie pool where Jack could pretty much walk around no problem and we turned a corner. It was about 2 feet deep, so in some places it was a little too deep for him, but he LOVED it. And, from that day on, he did so great.

We learned how to kick, use our "scoopers" (paddle), blow bubbles, float on our back and go under the water. If Jack was kind of upset, he'd kick and paddle really well, and on the last two days, he finally blew bubbles. Floating on the back, however, was never his favorite.

Our teachers were really great! Even though Jack was unsure the first few lessons, he really took to them in the end and finally was handing out high fives to both of our teachers by the end of swim lessons!

And, after 8 30 minute lessons, Jack "graduated" swim lessons and we can get in free to some pools around here -- what a perk! Ha!

A little pre-swim lesson watermelon ... he thought it was ok

Waving to our audience (daddy, Uncle Matt, Grams and Gramps)

attempting to float on our back

Kick! Kick! Kick! Scoopers! Scoopers! Scoopers!

Having the time of his life!

Our class: Chelle with Jacey, Ashley with Haze (just a few weeks younger than Jack), Me & Jack, Ezra and his mom and Carly with another little girl who was apparently in our class but never participated. Frank and his mom were unfortunately a little late for the group pic.

We'll for sure sign Jack up for swim lessons next summer and hopefully he'll remember some of his skills! 

teaching 'em young.

I took this video last week after a particularly messy pb&j dinner.

Just over 3 weeks until football ... Boomer!

the usual: bullet points

It's brain dump time!! Who's excited??

• It's hot. Like surface of the sun hot. Like, the high yesterday was 114 degrees.

I realize that most people are feelin' the heat, but geez. Just looking outside gets me all hot and sweaty. There's word of a cold front is supposed to come through sometime next week which means we'll be back in the 90s. Ugh! Is it inappropriate to wear a bathing suit to work?

• I LOVE the Olympics. Always have! What sucks now is that I have too much regular tv that I watch and that's now taking a backseat to nightly coverage of the Olympics. This means that I'm about 4 episodes behind on Big Brother and at least 2 on most of my other shows! #firstworldpains

• Speaking of the Olympics, I realize there's a time difference between here and London [5 hours to be exact], but seriously, who thinks it's a good idea to post results on facebook? I've had a few big results ruined for me because of Instagram, but that's my own fault. However, when people post winners/losers on FB that's not cool.

• I did a little handlettering and came up with a new logo of sorts for my designs. An etsy site is in the works, but I have something that's on the front burner for work and until that's finished, I'll have to put personal design work on hold a bit. But, be thinking of what you need because I'd love to help you out!!

• The last 10 days or so have been rough on our Monster Man. Sunday the 22nd [well, technically it was Monday] at 1 a.m., he woke up crying. I tried to stay strong and have him cry it out. After about 10 or 15 minutes of continued crying, I went to his room and he'd thrown up. The throwing up continued the next two nights, then died off for a few nights and he was at it again for two more nights this past Saturday and Sunday. After a trip to the doctor to find out it was most likely a virus, he hasn't thrown up again at night. But, now he's doing this morning wake up around 5 a.m., which is, ya know ... fun! Anyway, I think we're on the mend [fingers crossed].

• J and I just got back from a 5 day trip through Tennessee. We drove to Memphis [stayed at the Peabody and checked out Chi Omega HQ], ventured further east to the old homestead of J's ancestors and finally, took a tour of the Jack Daniel's distillery. It was a lot of windshield time [and i didn't drive even an inch], but it was lots of fun adult time. Adult time we needed. A post and pictures to come!