Category: Jack

Posted on by John

This past weekend can be summed up in one moment. On Sunday afternoon, Christine and I drove into our driveway after a great night out and saw Aunt Peggy and Jack sitting in the front yard on a blanket playing.

That moment made this weekend perfect.

Jack looked so happy sitting there with a few toys and a smile on his face, in Aunt Peggy’s lap. As soon as we stepped out of the car he waved at us and then acted shy and leaned into Peggy’s chest… then he realized who we were and acted excited to see us…

Jack had a good weekend.

Backtracking to Friday: Christine and Jack pulled into the driveway, after their treck to Bellville this past weekend, with Aunt Peggy in tow (she pulled up right behind them) around 6:00. I was in the middle of cooking dinner for them. As soon as they got settled in the house, we all sat down and ate. Then I bathed Jack and we all put him to bed. Peggy, Christine and I stayed up watching Ghost Whisperer and looking at photos from the Fair.

On Saturday morning, Christine woke me up at 6:00 a.m. to get up with Jack, so I got up, made myself some coffee and a bottle of for Jack, and played with Jack. I tried to feed him breakfast around 7:15, because I thought he was getting sleepy… he wasn’t hungry… and then I tried to put him down… he wasn’t sleepy either. His protestrations woke Christine up, so she joined us, and we three played in his room until Peggy got up. Then we all ate breakfast together before Jack took a nap.

I then did some yardwork in the backyard (we have a bunch of limbs that needed collecting and chopping up) and mowed the front yard (didn’t have the time or energy to mow the backyard) while Peggy took care of Jack and Christine went grocery shopping.

Christine and I were invited to Brian DeRosa and Erin Bayer’s wedding, which was a 2:00 p.m. in downtown Austin. We got ready, and headed downtown while Peggy watched Jack for us. We walked into the church with seconds to spare… the entire church saw us arrive, just before the bride’s maids entered the chapel.

The ceremony was gorgeous, as were the people in it, and Christine and I feel really special for being invited to share in their special day. Erin and Brian are those kinds of friends that we wish we hung out with more often, just because they’re so much fun to be around, and because they always make you feel like you’re special to them.

After the ceremony, we chatted with a few friends before heading home for a break. The reception was at the Austin Club downtown, but didn’t start until 5:00. So while I took a nap, Christine and Peggy chatted, and we packed a bag for the night, in case we felt like heading out to Debbie and Raymond’s lakehouse for the evening after the reception.

The reception was amazing. There was a seating chart, and Christine and I were amazed to find that we’d been set next to the bride and groom at one of the front tables. We enjoyed sitting with Adam and Erin Taylor, Erin’s mom, Phillip, Tracy Wood, Troop, Asi and Phillip. Erin, Erin, Tracy, Troop, Asi, and Phillip all used to work together at the Iron Cactus back in the day, and they’re quite the clique (not in a bad way, by any means), and we felt like they were including us in the group… that was fun.

We partied all evening… it was a lot of fun, and the food… Oh my gosh, the food was amazing. We ate filet mignon and halibut. And it was amazing. If you ever have the opportunity to plan a wedding in Austin, use the Austin Club, if you can… they did an amazing job.

Brian and Erin rode off in horse-drawn buggy, and really looked like they’d had a good time.

[More photos from the wedding here]

Also, the wedding was just perfect from a “feeling” perspective. Honestly, it’s the first wedding we’ve been to in a long time where there wasn’t any tension at all between any of the groups represented. I think that says a lot about Erin and Brian. I think the last wedding we went to that was like that was Josh and Elise’s (though I may be over looking a few… it’s been a long time since Josh and Elise got married).

At the end of the reception, Christine and I decided to call it a night (the rest of the group was heading to the Omni hotel to party it up some more). We did that two weekends ago after Brad and Kim’s wedding, and we decided we just weren’t up for it this time … nothing like having a killer hang-over and trying to take care of a 10 month old to cure you of your drinking problem! (not that either of us has a drinking problem, but if we did, we’d be cured).

So we headed out to the lakehouse, got there around 11:30 p.m. and got into bed to watch a movie (Debbie and Raymond happen to also run the Lakeway Blockbuster movie rental place out of their bedroom). We started a movie on the big screen, and turned it off 10 minutes later. We were both exhausted.

We slept in until noon, got up, showered, bathed, brushed our teeth and headed for Austin.

Which brings us back to driving into our driveway to see Peggy and Jack playing in the yard, and eating really big acorns.

[More photos from the front yard]

What a great weekend… Thank you Aunt Peggy for joining us, and for taking care of Jack all weekend!

Average Rating: 4.5 out of 5 based on 224 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

On Wednesday night of this past week, Christine and Jack drove to Bellville for the Austin County Fair.

Oh my gosh, did they have fun.

They stayed with Grandma, and got to spend a lot of time playing with Ella and Aunt Shadel.

On Thursday morning, they all got up, and headed to down the road to the Austin County Fair Parade. They found their spot on the side of Highway 159 near Mrs. Payton, Jennifer, and their bunch of kids, and settled in to watch the parade. They were also sitting next to Mrs. Hueni and Brian was there (Haven’t seen them in forever and I’m sorry I missed them).

The parade started, and soon, there were firetrucks and ambulances from all of the towns in the county driving through town, making all sorts of racket. There were a few bands, and the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts paraded through town. The fair queen candidates rode in on a trailer, as did all mannner of cheerleaders and mascots.

The kiddos were getting tired towards the end of the parade and ended up falling asleep in their strollers.

On Thursday evening, the family got dressed up and headed to the fairgrounds. The saw the opening of the rodeo, and met some goats, and pigs, and cows, and other animals, before heading over to the carousel for some fun. (The animals scared Ella just a little).

Christine finally got to meet Dixie Haverlah, who babysits Ella for Aunt Shadel and Uncle Evan. They all had lots of fun on the carousel.

Jack got to taste ice-cream at the fair for the first time ever… bad mommy… she gave in to temptation…

Ella and Jack got some whirly light toys and had lots of fun playing with them, before eventually heading home. On the way out of the fair, Christine plopped Jack on a tractor. Jack was totally in command of his element.

Now that you’ve looked at all of those photos, here’s a quick video from the Fair photos and videos that Christine shot:

See all of the photos from the Fair in this gallery.

On Friday, they all headed towards the pumpkin patch in Sealy to take photos with all of the pumpkins. Evan told them that there were plenty of pumpkins out, but the Great Pumpkin must have liberated them all, because when Peggy met the girls and kids there, there weren’t but two pumpkins left…

So they took lots of photos with the two pumpkins that were there, and then Aunt Peggy and Christine drove back to Austin.

Sounds like they all had lots of fun at the Fair this year… I’m gonna have to make sure I go next year.

Average Rating: 5 out of 5 based on 200 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

Christine, Jack and I flew to Dallas this past weekend to visit with the grandparents and see Jack’s Uncle Steve on his 27th birthday.

We flew up Saturday morning. Jack and Christine got to fly first class to Dallas for their first time ever… fun! Jack fell asleep while the plane was coming down to land and stayed asleep in my arms all the way out of the gate, into the terminal. He woke up as we walked into the baggage claim area.

Mary picked us up, and we headed to their house.

On Saturday evening, Christine and I let Mary take care of Jack for the night, and we headed to a movie. We ended up seeing “In Her Shoes” with Cameron Diaz. It’s a sappy girly movie about two sisters growing up without a mother (dear old mom killed herself when they were 6 and 8) and finally rediscovering their grandmother after they got into a fight. Sappy movie, but Cameron Diaz appears quite a bit wearing little more than her underwear and a pair of high heels, so it’s not a bad movie for the fellas to go see. In fact, we both enjoyed it a lot.

Baa BaaOn Sunday, we slept in (Mary got up early with Jack) and then hung out with the family. Christine made a trip to an Oshkosh retail store that was going out of business. She spent about $100 on clothes for Jack, but came home with probably 20 items, which ain’t bad for Oshkosh clothes… gotta love that thrifty streak in that wife of mine ;). She also picked up a second Baa Baa (by Boyds, order online here, pictured on the right) for Jack – so that we have a second one, just in case we lose the one Kim gave us.

Steven and Michael came over for dinner, and we all enjoyed a good meal, and then home made cheesecake before Steven opened his presents. Mmmmm that cheesecake was good!

This morning, we got up, said our goodbyes and Michael picked us up for the return trip to the airport. We boarded as soon as we got there, and we were sitting in row 3, seats E&F, which happens to be the first row on the airplane, with easy access to the first class lavatory…

Jack drank a bottle during take-off, and proceeded to giggle and play all the way to Austin. About 2/3 of the way to Austin, Christine decided she needed to pee. So, she got up, and went into the lavatory.

As soon as she closed the door, and latched it, we hit a little turbulence. I laughed a little to myself, as I knew Christine wasn’t enjoying that. She’s usually pretty clausterphobic and hates flying, especially take-off, landing and turbulence. Think of the last time you used the toilet in an airplane… small space, doesn’t smell great, and combine that with a fear of flying and a hatred for turbulence.

Anyways, as soon as we hit the turbulence, I started giggling. Then the stewardesses came running back up the aisle with the drink cart. The were storing it, when I noticed the “occupied” sign on the lavatory door changing to “vacant” which meant Christine was coming right back out. But there was a stewardess standing in the way (remember Christine hates flying and turbulence).

Then we hit a little more turbulence. At this point, I was trying not to roll into the aisle laughing, and Jack was just having a good old time bouncing in my lap.

The stewardess moved out of the way, right as Christine opened the door to the lav, she looked out at me… saw me laughing and starting laughing at herself too. As she tried to cross the aisle, I told her to close the bathroom door. She pushed it and tried to sit down again.

I had to point out that the door wasn’t closed. She pushed it again, and tried to sit down.

I cracked at that point, and pointed to the door. She lost it too and was laughing hysterically as she shoved the lav door shut and finally plopped into her seat.

We both laughed so hard at that point that I thought I was going to need to pee too.

Then, after we calmed down a bit, Christine laid back in her seat and started zipping her pants up. Turns out, she was so freaked out by the turbulence that started right after she unzipped her pants that she decided to hold it, and then tried to get back to her seat with her pants still unzipped, and then the damned bathroom door wouldn’t close.

We proceeded to laugh until we had tears streaming down our cheeks.

We landed uneventfully about 10 minutes later, taxied to the terminal and got off the plane. What fun!

We went to baggage claim to get our suitcase and Jack’s carseat, and American had lost Jack’s carseat. Great.

They let us borrow one of theirs, and we drove home, stopping at Sonic for a super heathy lunch before getting home.

Jack took a nap from 3:30 – 6:00, and a guy from American showed up with Jack’s carseat around 4:30.

All in all, a great trip! It’s always fun to see the Grandparents.

Next big trip up — the Austin County Fair this weekend!

Average Rating: 4.8 out of 5 based on 169 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

Jack turned ten months old on Friday, this past week. Christine and I figured we should write up a little note about all of the things he’s learned how to do recently, so here’s a list for you:

  1. Jack knows the difference between “Ma-ma” and “Da-da” now. He calls us by our names most of the time now… he’s getting so smart.
  2. Jack can now wave and say bye-bye when waving. In fact, on Friday, when I walked out to the office at lunch time, Jack said “Bye-bye, Da” while waving at me through the window in the dining room.
  3. We have a couple of little cow toys for Jack, and when he sees his cow toys, and wants them, he’ll crawl over to them and say “Boooooo” which we think means “Mooooo”.
  4. When we say quack “quack”, he quickly crawls over to his basket full of animals and pulls all of the stuffed ducks out.
  5. When we’re playing with him, and Christine acts like a doggy (which is funny in its own right), and gets down on ‘all fours’ says “ruff-ruff” he crawls over to his big stuffed dog toy and pulls on it. So we know he knows what a dog is, and what dog sounds like.
  6. Jack is getting closer and closer to walking on his own. He can now walk around with our help, but he can also do it when he’s only holding onto one hand. He’s still a little unstable with only one hand holding him, but he can do it, and it’s fun for him, as long as he’s not tired.
  7. Jack is pretty much eating solid food as much as he can. We’ve been experimenting with different things, and he loves steak, pepperoni, salami, watermelon (he really loves watermelon), corn, peas. He doesn’t like chicken all that much (well, at least not 4 nights in a row)…
  8. He also empties his little bucket full of plastic shapes, and then tries to put his toys back in it (versus just emptying it last week).
  9. He figured out how to open the cabinets in the kitchen, and can now climb up into the dishwasher while we’re filling it… time to get those little kitchen cabinet safety lock things (I thought we wouldn’t get those, but it’s a lot of work to keep any eye on him all the time).
  10. He now throws his little lamb (that he sleeps with) out of his crib when he wakes up from his naps and in the morning. That’s how we know when he’s really awake… if the lamb is on the floor when we peek in on him, he’s awake.

Getting bigger all the time, and so smart…

added later:

  1. Jack totally enjoys watching college and NFL football games with his Dad on the couch, as long as we flip over to his baby Einstein DVDs during the halftime breaks.

Average Rating: 4.5 out of 5 based on 163 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

Here’s a few video clips we shot of Jack’s first tour around the front yard in his little red wagon (we’re going to get a lot of fun outta’ that there wagon!)

You need to download Quicktime 7 to watch this movie folks. I’ve changed the encoding settings on how I encode movies, because the new codecs from Apple really make a movie look sooo much better… sorry, you’re gonna have to upgrade folks. Macintosh users click here, and Windows users click here. Download Quicktime 7, install it, and come back here to watch the movie:

Rolling in the Wagon

Bonus points for anyone that leaves a comment with the name of the singer of the song the movie is set to.

Average Rating: 4.7 out of 5 based on 284 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

Grandma Engler gave Jack a little red wagon earlier this summer.

I finally got around to putting it together last weekend… and oh, my, gosh… Jack loves riding around in it:

The Little Red Wagon
Click the image for more…

Up the street, down the street, over the hill and around the corner… it doesn’t matter where we go, as long as we go in his little red wagon…

Average Rating: 4.9 out of 5 based on 176 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

A week ago, I was in charge of putting Jack to bed, and in the process, I got too much moisturizer on my hands… I didn’t have anywhere to wipe it off, so I decided to give Jack a hairdo.

And, oh my… was it funny:

Greasy Hairdo

Click the photo to see more…

Average Rating: 4.8 out of 5 based on 259 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

On September 9th, Christine, Jack and I boarded a plane headed for Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Christine’s Father’s mother, and Jack’s great-grandmother, Oma, was turning 90 years old this year on September 10th, so her family planned a surprise 90th birthday party with all of the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren in attendance.

We arrived in Tulsa on Friday morning, around 10:30 in the morning… got our rental car, and headed out for our hotel. We were staying at the Doubletree that happens to be about 5 blocks from Ben and Gale Overton’s (Gale is Frank’s sister) house, where most of the festivities for the weekend were taking place.

After checking in, we ate lunch, and I worked a few hours, while Christine and Jack headed to a park to play. Jack took a nap, and then we all headed over to Ben and Gale’s house and just hung out for a few hours.

On Saturday morning, we got up early, and Mary went to breakfast with us (Jack loved eating breakfast with his Grandmother) at the hotel breakfast buffet. Then after a nap, we all headed over to the Overton’s again, where the rest of the family was gathered to wish Oma a happy birthday. Jack had lots of fun playing with his Uncle Mike and Steven and letting his cousin Elizabeth walk him around the house.

While the family was singing Oma happy birthday, Jack was playing with the balloons in the room, while sitting on my shoulders. He was having a blast.

Jack got to meet more of his extended family, and even got to meet his long distance cousin, Benjamin. Benjamin is Angela’s (Ben and Gale’s youngest daughter) son. He’s such a good little boy… he was so quick to share his toys with Jack and enjoyed playing with him in the living room on the floor… Too bad Benjamin and his family live on Long Island, because I know those two would love to see each other as often as they could.

After the birthday party, we headed back to the hotel with Mary, and she put Jack to sleep while the kids headed to a sushi restaurant for dinner, and then to the bar to enjoy ourselves with a few of Christopher’s (Elizabeth’s brother) friends.

Mary and Frank ended up sleeping in our hotel room for the night, thankfully giving Christine and I a night, and a morning, off from taking care of Jack… so, we maybe partied a little too hard with our cousins, but it was fun… lots of fun.

On Sunday morning, we all headed back over to the Overton’s house to play a little more before we said our goodbyes. We got one more photo of Jack and Benjamin, and then headed to the airport.

We almost missed our flight, but Southwest was great, and made sure we got to it in time (we weren’t late or anything, but getting gas, turning in the car, finding the ticket counter, changing a diaper, and the like… all take time).

Jack enjoyed playing with the napkins, plastic cups and tray tables on the flights home.

All in all, this was one of the best trips I’ve ever had to Tulsa (thank God we didn’t have to drive… Spencer (Lisa’s husband – Lisa is Ben and Gale’s oldest daughter) had to drive from Austin because he did miss his flight).

Click here to go through all of the photos from Tulsa

Average Rating: 4.5 out of 5 based on 241 user reviews.

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Posted on by Christine

Last night, for dessert, we fed Jack some watermelon (he had Pesto Chicken and brocolli for dinner).

Instead of cutting up his watermelon like we usually do, we handed him a big ol’ piece of it, rind and all… and he did great eating it…

Too cute:

Average Rating: 4.5 out of 5 based on 166 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

Here’s a few links to some of the more recent photo galleries I haven’t linked to yet:

Average Rating: 4.6 out of 5 based on 299 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

Jack is too cute, and I just have to share this story, and capture it for future recollection.

This morning, right before I sat down with Jack to feed him some peaches, I made a pot of coffee. While I was making the coffee, I gave Jack a few Gerber puffs.

Prior to Jack having a tooth, he would gum the puffs in the back of his mouth, moving them from side to side with his tounge, before they finally dissolved in his mouth to be replaced deftly by his hands with another puff.

This morning, with the addition of a tooth in his mouth, Jack is now experimenting with new ways to eat.

On his third or fourth puff, I noticed Jack was putting the puff in his mouth, about half-way, holding it there with his hand, and sucking and blowing on the puff. As I got closer, I realized that he was actually trying to chew the puff with his one tooth.

It’s almost as if he was trying to figure out what the new sharp object jutting out of his lower jaw was for. As if he’s thinking:

I’ve got this tooth in my mouth, now what can I use it for?

There’s got to be a rhyme and reason for this tooth…

Let’s try chewing…

It was pretty cute, and as he finished his jar of peaches, I gave him a few more puffs. At this point he was kind of tired, so he wasn’t actually eating the puffs, rather, he’d place one half-in/half-out of his mouth, munch on it a bit, and it would inevitably fall out of his mouth, before getting stuck on his chin, only to be replaced with another doomed puff.

At the end of his meal, he had two puffs sticking to his chin, four on his lap, and three on his legs. Wesley made short order of the seven that weren’t on his chin. Those two are a great team when it comes to cleaning up after a meal.

Average Rating: 4.9 out of 5 based on 163 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

On Saturday, Christine, Jack and I headed out to the lakehouse to visit with Debbie, Raymond and Miss Shirley.

We got there around 11:00 am, at lunch, and then headed for the pool. Jack got out around 1:00 or 1:30 and took a nap. When he woke up, we headed home. Jack had gotten his good tanning session in for the day, and Christine needed to pack for her camping trip this weekend.

I grilled T-bones without any marinade, just some seasoning salt (need to use the marinage next time) and we had peas on the side around 8:00 p.m.

Christine stayed up late packing. I tried to go to bed early, but we didn’t end up turning out the lights until midnight or so.

On Sunday morning, I got up with Jack around 6:30 a.m. We played, and ate breakfast, and then walked around the block. I woke Christine up when I was leaving the house for our morning walk (about 7:45 a.m.) so she got up and finished packing and getting ready.

Christine was heading out to an all girls weekend camping trip/bachelorette party for Kim (of Kim and Brad fame). Elise and Michelle were supposed to pick her up at 9:30 a.m., and she still needed to wrap presents for Kim.

When Jack and I got back from our walk around the block, Christine put Jack down for his morning nap.

Elise and Michelle showed up around 9:45 a.m. and the girls headed out. Jack woke up around 10:15 or so. I loaded him up in the car after a quick bottle and dirty diaper change, and we headed back out to the lakehouse!

Jack had pretty bad diaper rash again, so I had to be pretty careful about changing him often and making sure he was doing okay.

Jack took a nap around 1:00 again, and then we all went swimming when he woke up. We ate dinner (hamburgers and bratwurst – man Jack loves bratwurst) and said our goodbyes and drove home. Jack fell asleep in the car.

When we got home, I woke Jack up getting him out of the car, so we changed his diaper, fed hima bottle, and then rocked to his music. He was out within 30 seconds of me putting him in bed.

Jack slept until 7:15 this morning (alright!) so we got up and drank a bottle, then walked around the block before eating a whole jar of peaches.

I just put him down (9:00 a.m. or so) and he’s finally asleep after about 20 minutes of playing in his crib and talking to his toys… too cute to hear that through the door.

Needless to say, we’re both pretty tired little boogers right now, and can’t wait for mommy to get home!

update: Jack never did really go to sleep, so around 9:45 I went in, got him out of his crib, changed his diaper, and gave him a bottle. He was asleep before he finished the bottle ;).

Average Rating: 4.9 out of 5 based on 181 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

After work today (we got off a little early thanks to Labor Day) Christine, Jack and I headed up to Patterson Park.

It looks like it might rain, but we figured if it did, we’d hide in one of the public buildings up there…

When we got there, we put Jack in a swing. Oh boy, did he have fun!

It was pretty windy, as you can tell from some of the photos and that just made it all that much more fun for Jack.

He loved swinging, and he really thought it was fun to watch the leaves get blown across the park… watch the video of him swinging:

Just a Swingin' Movie
Click Here to Watch the Movie

There are more photos from the trip to the park here.

Average Rating: 4.7 out of 5 based on 218 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

When Christine isn’t around, I make Jack do all sorts of fun things. One of those fun things is learning to stand up on his own.

Now that he’s getting better at it, and he doesn’t fall everytime I let go of him, I figured that Jack and I’d show off for Christine. So, we asked her to get the camera, to take a little video of Jack trying to stand up:

Almost Standing
Click to watch the movie.

You know how they say:

Mom’s play with thier babies.
Dad’s play with their kids.

It’s like that.

Average Rating: 4.4 out of 5 based on 261 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

Jack has been pretty grumpy the past two weeks or so during the day… Christine told me that he was teething. His bottom gums have been swollen, and he just seemed to get fussy a lot easier than he used to.

Tonight before bed, Christine put her finger in his mouth to check his gums, and she exclaimed “He’s got a tooth!” with a wild-eyed look on her face of sheer excitement.

She turned to me and said “A tooth! I wondered why he hadn’t been that fussy all day.”

So, we were both excited. We patted little Jack on the back, and told him congratulations. I started to get him a cigar to help celebrate the moment, but thought better of it.

Teething… at 9 months. 89 more years buddy, and you’ll lose them all again…

We tried to take a photo of the new tooth, and this is about as good as we could get:

Yeah, it’s not a good photo, but we tried. Next time you see Jack, ask him to show you his tooth.

p.s. there’s a really cute photo of Jack wearing his new Chicago Cubs hat here (I bought him that hat last week when I was at a Cubs vs. Atlanta game at Wrigley Field) as well as some others of him and I playing “Jump on the bed” and having a good ol’ time.

Average Rating: 4.5 out of 5 based on 175 user reviews.

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