Mama's Little Man

In the last installment of Jack pictures, I promised pictures of him when he was actually awake. Tonight I promise to deliver! Here are some more "vintage Jack" pictures...



From very early on Claire has definitely had a lot of love to give Jack...sometimes it gets a little rough, but she really does love her brother very much!



Tummy time! Jack slept so much that this didn't happen very often. As a result he has a flat head...sorry, Jack!



My bright-eyed boy, hanging out in his bouncy seat. Can I just say again how "chill" this kid is? He has been so easy going from the start, just sitting in the boucy seat or the swing, or whatever, and taking it all in.



Jack loved to be held, something that is tricky when there is a 2 year old running around. Best thing I ever could have bought--The Sleepy Wrap! No buckles on it to rub on his face, just stretchy material that held him close to mama. He spent a lot of time in there and always fell asleep (hello, the name definitely fits it!). Um, and now I sound like a magazine ad. But seriously. This thing was a lifesaver when Jack wasn't so content to just "hang out"!!



First smile caught on camera, June 2009.



Can we just discuss for a moment how tricky it is to take pictures of both kids at the same time and have said pictures come out in focus? Not an easy task...as demonstrated by Claire's slightly out of focus face.




What a serious little boy! Jack has spent the last 14 months of life just studying things. He's a quiet observer, watching, learning, and listening. I can only imagine what is going on in his head and I know that he is going to surprise us big time, when we least expect it. This picture also reminds me of the first time Jeff and I realized that we could eat dinner as a family even though there was a baby in the house. When Claire was a baby she needed to be held pretty much all of the time. At dinner time, we ate in front of the tv and just took turns eating and holding her. Jack was just a couple of days old when I set him in the bouncy seat so that we could have dinner. He sat for the whole time...and I got to eat. I didn't even know what to think! It was nice to realize that having a newborn in the house did not have to entail listening to screaming and crying for hours on end. Life with Jack was calm and fun...for the most part!

The Next Mia Hamm?

Every year, Claire's daycare has Hobart soccer coach Shawn Griffin run a soccer camp for kids ages 3-5. This year, Claire got to be a "Little Kicker" and had a lot of fun learning about soccer. Some days she was nervous about playing and would tell me in the morning, "No, Mommy, I'm not playing soccer today. I don't wanna go to daycare!" Once she got out there, though, she had fun and even came close to scoring a few goals. I think her apprehension for playing came from the fact that she was playing with kids who are older and bigger than she is. Camp ran for five weeks and we got to go to a special family clinic the last night. It was at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, on the soccer practice fields, and all of the Little Kickers showed us what they learned this year.



Listening to Coach Griffin's pre-game speech



Warming up and practicing dribbling the ball



When Coach Griffin said, "Freeze!" the kids had to stop the ball with a certain body part.



Freeze!!



One last time!



Claire got picked to be on the "Shirts". How cute is she in her pinny??



At first, she did not want to go out on the field. Daddy got her going, though!


Out on the field and ready to run!



Go, Claire! She came so close to scoring!!



Helping a friend who was also nervous about going out on the field.



Yay! Everyone is ready to go out and play now!



On second thought..... I think they were just ready to play, not necessarily ready to play soccer!



Each kid got to bring home a soccer ball!



My favorite Little Kicker


We took Claire out for ice cream after the game and walked down the long pier at Seneca Lake. She seemed to have fun that night, and she really loved the special attention she got from Mommy and Daddy, since we left Jack home with JoJo (for his own special attention!!). When I was putting Claire to bed I asked her a question, one that we ask her at the end of every day, "What was your favorite part of today?" I expected her to say, "getting ice cream" or "playing soccer" but my sweet little girl really surprised me and said, "Helping my friend Emily when she was sad at soccer." Claire D., you are the sweetest litle girl I know!

It's not summer 'til you've had your first Ball Park

Saturday night we had Matthew, Alexe, and Avery over for a cookout to celebrate their move back to Geneva (and to give them a break from the chaos of unpacking) and there were Ballparks on the grill, so I guess it's official! Summer is so close I can feel it. Today marks the true countdown until the last day of school, June 24. This month promises to be a great one: Father's Day, Jeff's birthday, my solo trip for Kara's wedding in Hilton Head, SC, and our family trip to see Sarah, Ron, Allison and Emily in Florida with a two-day side trip to Disney! How can I not be excited on this June 1?? The heat came early this year, so we've been pretending it is already summer for a couple of weeks now.




I treated Claire to a little mani/pedi. Clearly, she didn't like it at all...


It has been hot, hot, HOT, so we got the sprinkler and water table out. We've learned to embrace our tiny backyard (can I even call it that?) and cram as many toys as possible out there, much to the dismay of the neighbors, I'm sure. Now that Jack is older, bigger, and more resilient, I know we will be outside a lot this summer. Our kids certainly don't appear to mind that we don't have much of a yard!























It's a rule that every child has to learn how to turn a blade of grass into a whistle, right?


Let the countdown to June 24th begin!!