Wednesday, April 20, 2011

The Tramp

One of my all-time favorite movies is "Lady and the Tramp." And here's Jack, doing his interpretation of the movie's iconic scene.

On Saturday, Grandma Ruth, Grandpa Ray and the three of us went out to Sorriso, where the wonderful Pietro and his beautiful daughter Isabella served us their characteristically delicious fare. You can see that someone's a big fan of the spaghetti carbonara.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Just Because





No explanation here. Just because the pictures are so darned cute.

Toddler Acrobatics

Toward the end of our time at the White House, Jack started getting a little antsy. This was made worse by his knowledge that two tractors were just "over dayre." So Mark did his best to keep the little guy distracted. I thought the result looked a little bit like the star lift that Gordeeva and Grinkov perfected.




Sunday, April 10, 2011

White House Garden Tour

This morning, Mark got an e-mail from a former work colleague, who now works in the White House. He said he had some extra tickets to the annual White House garden tour. Well! We may have a kid and all, but hello! Garden tour! What self-respecting gays can say no to something like that?

So we beat a path down to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and Jack got his first taste of life inside the White House perimeter. Pretty cool. There were a few too many pictures of members of a certain presidential dynasty for my taste (and I don't mean the Adamses). But other than that, it was a lovely way to spend an hour or so on a cool Sunday morning. And there was something for everyone. For Jack, the highlight was the two little John Deere tractors parked near the exit. We almost didn't make it out because of them. Luckily, there was the promise of lots of buses and trucks back on 17th Street.





More Jack Close-Ups

I guess it's a lack of perspective that comes with parenting, but I just can't get enough of pictures of Jack's cute little mug. I hope some of you enjoy these as much as we do.

I'm considering papering a bathroom in pictures like this. What do folks think? Too much?




The Soccer Field





Margarita has clearly been working with Jack on his soccer skills. And isn't this a sweet park?

Great New Park!

Not too long ago, the city redid the park at our neighborhood elementary school. And it's GREAT! There's a little artificial turf soccer field. There are three different jungle gyms for different ages of kids. And it's crawling with children and parents on a Saturday afternoon. Jack is a huge fan.

Oh, and we have Margarita to thank for the stylin' new hat. She and Jack picked that out on Friday this past week. Does he look like a big boy, or what?













Who Loves Margarita?


Margarita truly is the super nanny. Jack clearly loves her. And she helps Jack's dads work through some of the complications that come with having a two-year-old in the house. None of us knows what we'd do without her in our lives.



Friday, April 8, 2011

Morning Cheesecake

This morning, Mark had to leave the house early, so Jack and I were getting ready on our own. He was SUPER sweet and gentle this morning. Probably something to do with the extra hour of sleep that he got because he slept until . . . wait for it . . . 6:45!!!!! Great joy in the house.

The new favorite game before Jack gets into the tub is to lie down on the bathroom rug and talk about how he's sleeping there. (This seems particularly cruel when he has woken at 5:30, but I'm not bitter.) So, he was doing that, and, the next thing I knew, Tucker was there curled up beside him. As further evidence of Jack's kind state of mind today, he was nicely petting the dog, instead of whacking him like happens sometimes.

All in all, a banner day. Plus, who wouldn't be cheered by that cute little butt?




Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Linguistic Ticks

Jack's talking up a storm these days. He's getting to the point that even people who don't spend much time with him can usually decipher a fair amount of what he's saying. Sometimes, things come out as clear as a bell. Perfect diction and the intonation that you'd expect from an adult. Other times, it requires a good deal of interpretation, but he's pretty good at making his thoughts known.

And then there a couple of funny little ticks that he's held onto for quite a while. Things that clearly aren't right, but they're so cute that we can't bear to correct them. Like the large, pink barnyard animals that say "oink." They're pligs. Every time. He says it with this sweet, lilting tone in his voice that makes them sound like the most magical, friendly animals on the face of the earth. Pligs . . . .

Or the color yellow. It was the first color Jack learned, and for a long time it was the answer to the question, "what color is that?" -- whether the object was red, green, blue or yellow. And all along it's been "lellow." It still is.

A few weeks ago, when we went to Florida, we spent a lot of time talking about how the pilot drove the plane. In that funny way that toddlers have, he took in the information and didn't say anything about it for a couple of days. Then, we were watching planes up in the sky one day, and he proclaimed that they were driven by the "toilet." This stuck with him on the return trip from Florida, when he was quite vocal about the toilet driving the plane. Since then, it's morphed into a pirate who flies the plane.

I feel like we're closing in on pilot pretty quickly. That's good, I suppose. But I'll be a little nostalgic when the sweet pligs and the color lellow vanish from our conversations.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Jack and Cousin Mark having a raucous rumpus










Daddy, I think this guy could use a shave...



David and Michael are two of our best friends in the world and have been such a wonderful support thoughout. They were here the day we found out Jack was being born and been with us the whole way. It is important to note that Jack is not always so skeptical of Dave either! Can't wait to see you this summer and swim in your pool!

Uncle Mice is in the House!



Uncle Michael and Uncle David came to visit. Jack had a lot of fun with both of them. When I saw these pics it looked like they swapped facial expressions!
What do they know that we don't?

Nature or nurture?



Can you teach Good Ole' Boy or do you have to be born with it? Jury's out but I know what I am betting -- Mr. Jack is gonna like himself some grits, some lazy fishin' on a Sunday and the occasional watermelon spittin' contest!

Early one morning...




We are well into Jack's second year figuratively. He has found his voice and it is LOUD! One of our strategies is to conserve resources. When Jack gets up really early, we decided to let one of us sleep in and let the other take him three floors down. These are pics from early one Saturday morning.




Isn't Papa good looking that early in the morning?