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:
Click the photo to see more…
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
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:
Here’s a few links to some of the more recent photo galleries I haven’t linked to yet:
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.
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 ;).
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:
There are more photos from the trip to the park here.
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:
You know how they say:
Mom’s play with thier babies.
Dad’s play with their kids.
It’s like that.
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.
On Sunday Night, we let Jack run around his room naked… primarly because he’s just getting over the worst diaper rash he’s ever had, and it felt like a good night to let him “air dry” if you know what I mean.
Josh and Elise gave Jack and little rocking chair when he was born, so, he climbed up on it, and we put together this quick movie:
On Friday night, Christine, Jack and I headed to happy hour with the old Freese & Nichols crew. It was good to see everyone again. We learned that Tejashri is leaving FN to go work for Allen Plumber, a competing engineering firm. Good for her! We’re wishing her the best of luck.
Jack had a good time hanging out with all of our friends. He didn’t fuss a bit, and the place we went (the Brentwood Tavern) had a nice sand pit outside, right in front of the live (and loud) music for the evening. Very family friendly.
Christine and Cyndi decided they wanted to help celebrate Erin’s birthday at the happy hour too, so Christine and I stoped by Cold Stone Creamery and picked up a delicious chocolate ice-cream cake on the way there. Mmmmmm… it was good! [photos here]
After the happy hour, we drove home, and got to bed quickly.
On Saturday, we went to Baby’s R Us (BRU) and bought Jack a new car-seat. He’d grown out of his little one, so we got him an Even-flo Deluxe thingamabobber type new one. Man, is that one cool car-seat. Heck, I’d like to have one just like it. Jack digs it too.
After BRU, we went to the mall so I could get my new contacts fitted. It took entirely too long for me to sit through multiple contact fitting sessions, and to leave with a headache and contacts that aren’t right. I’m heading back up there on Monday. Moral of the story: don’t go to a mall based eye doctor … especially not on a Saturday when the mall is pumping with people. Oh, but the Orange Julius’s we got were scrumpious (actually the place isn’t called Orange Julius, but that’s what I know those slushy stores at the mall as).
Then on Saturday night, Jack and I took some goofy pictures on the couch, before Jack too a bath. We then shot some fun photos of Jack in the tub, taking a bubble bath, and splashing in the water:
On Sunday morning, Jack and I got up at 6:00 in the morning. We played until about 7:30, and then we went for a walk around the block. After trying to eat breakfast, Jack went down for a nap around 8:50 (he’s usually only up for two hours in the morning, never three, so this morning was a long morning for a tired and weary dad!)
Christine got up around 10:00 and told me that we were going to church. So we raced around the house, showered and got dressed, then got Jack dressed before dashing to church. We left the house at 10:55 and got to church at 11:03 (or so). We sat in the main chapel until Rev. John started his sermon, then we went up into the cry room (Jack was starting to talk and hit the woman in front of us on the back during the beginning of the sermon – gotta teach that boy some manners someday). We ran into Murphy, Benjamin and Amanda in the cry room. Ben and Jack played together during the sermon and the closing hymns, and couldn’t have cared less… they were having lots of fun. We decided to head to Serrano’s for lunch together.
We saw Erin’s sister Kaulin and her husband and Dad on the way to Serrano’s… we don’t see them often enough.
I mowed the front yard in the evening, and tried to throw down some fertilizer, but the fertilizer I bought was a little too wet, so I set it in the garage and I’ll spread it out later this week after it drys a bit.
All in all, a nice relaxing weekend.
Last weekend, Aunt Murrell, Jon and Hanna Weakley (my family – from North Carolina) all visited Austin. It was part of Jon and Hanna’s first visit to Texas.
They got to Texas sometime the week before, and had been touring all over south and east Texas. I know they spent some time in Kima, Beaumont, Houston, and parts in between there and Austin. They got to Austin on August 11th, and Christine and Jack drove out to Debbie and Raymond’s lakehouse to meet them and welcome them to our hometown.
I was still in Detroit, so when I got home (at 1:30 in the morning on Friday 8/12) I went to bed, and planned on meeting them on the 12th.
Around noon or 1:00pm on 8/12, they all came to our house in central Austin, before we headed to lunch at Jason’s Deli. Jon and Hanna were really hungry (actually, they’d been eating lots of food all week, so that’s sort of an inside joke). Christine and Jack stayed at the house to take a nap.
After lunch, we headed over to the LBJ Library, and tootled around the exhibits. They’ve got a really nice view of downtown out the 10th floor windows there. And the Presidential Limo that’s on display there is pretty cool. I also didn’t make the connection that LBJ presided through a lot of crap this country had to go through: War, Civil Rights, a depression of sorts, and other stuff… I should learn more about our history sometime.
After the LBJ Library, we went to the Bob Bullock State History Museum. We walked the first floor of exhibits before heading up to watch the “Story of Texas” mini-movie. That was lots of fun. They all enjoyed it. If you haven’t seen it, I’d highly recommend it. We then walked a little of the second floor exhibits, trying to figure out what happened at Goliad. It was a massacre.
After we were “Bullock’d out” we walked down to the Capitol Building. I showed Jon how you can stand in the very middle of the bottom floor, right under the rotunda, and if you talk, you’ll hear your voice echoing, but no one else will hear the echo. Pretty neat stuff… especially since I remember that from my first visit (my Mom took Allen Hillboldt, Bradley Froebel and I there when we were like 10 or 11 – almost 20 years ago, ugh). We also walked into the House and Senate chambers… it’s neat to be so close to one of the great statehouses in the country. It’s too damned bad our legislature can’t actually get much done (like school finance reform).
Then we met up with Christine on “the drag” just to the west of the UT campus. We went into the Student Union building and got our tickets for our tour of the UT Clocktower. The Clocktower is fairly well known as the place where, “On Aug. 1, 1966, Charles Whitman, a student at the university, barricaded himself on the observation deck and began shooting passers-by with a rifle. At the time, the shooting was the nation’s worst mass killing. It lasted 93 minutes, ending with Mr. Whitman’s being killed by the police, but its after effects have spanned two generations.”
The tower was closed to the public in 1975, due to a rash of suicides, and was reopened in 1999, to guided tours. The tours are led by student workers, and they’re lots of fun to listen to.
The view from the top of the Tower is pretty cool. I’d recommend the sunset tour, if you ever plan on taking the tour. I’ve heard it’s pretty cool.
We also found Aunt Murrell’s dormitory from when she attended UT back in the 1930s. I think Austin’s grown a bit since then…
Afterwards, we headed to Trudy’s for dinner, but they were packed, so we drove over to Serrano’s on Red River. Great food, but we were all exhausted.
Evan, Shadel and Ella got to Austin while we were eating dinner, so Christine, Jack and I headed home to visit with them, while the rest of the gang (Murrell, Debbie, Jon and Hanna) headed to the lake.
On Saturday, the 13th, the girls (Shadel, Ella and Christine) went to the Mall around 10:00 a.m. The boys (Evan, Jack and I) stayed home and played, then watched a little TV. When Jack woke up from his morning nap, Evan and I took him out to the lakhouse (we got there around 12:30).
We all took a dip in the pool, and then ate lunch. Christine, Shadel and Ella showed up around 2:00 or so, and around 3:00, we all headed to the lake. We’d rented a jet-ski and a pontoon boat from Hurst Harbor Marina. I piloted the pontoon boat, while Evan and Shadel drove the jet ski out. We headed out of Marina Point to the west, and parked in a little bay cove just around Lakeway. It took us around 25 minutes to get to where we were going, so we really only had an hour on the lake.
Jack slept in Aunt Murrell’s arms, all the way there. Ella napped on her Grandma’s lap too.
After parking the boat, we all went swimming in the lake, while we took turns driving the jet-ski. First out was Evan and Shadel, then Evan and Hanna (Evan drove). Debbie went out with Evan next. Then Jon and I went out (we let Jon drive). It was Jon’s first time driving a jet-ski, and he did pretty good. Then he let me take over for a little bit. I was a bit rusty, and ended up throwing us both off the jet-ski in a high-speed (attempted) turn.
Then we let Hanna drive, with me on the back. Ha! That was sooo much fun. Hanna was pretty content with testing out the jet-ski first, and seeing what it could do, then she slowly started pushing it pretty hard after we did a few donuts and figure eights while waiting on the pontoon boat to catch up with us. That was the most fun I’ve had on a jet-ski in a while.
At the Lakeway Marina, I traded in Hanna for Christine, and I rode ont he back with Christine all the way back to Hurst Harbor. It was Christine’s second time to drive a jet-ski, and that was just as fun for me as riding with Hanna had been… Christine was pretty funny… she scared herself good a few times, and forgot to let off the gas because she was gripping the handles so tight.
Then, right before we got to the marina, she threw me off the jet-ski by goosing it good while I was showing off by not holding on to anything.
After we put up the boats, we all piled back into our cars and headed to the lake house. Aunt Murrel cooked a really good shrimp-boil and veggies for dinner. I told Jon that I’d bought him his very own domain: jonagon.com (Jon’s had a business since he was 4 or 5, if I remember correctly, called Jonagon. I thought he should own the domain); so look for more from Jon on his new website.
We celebrated my Mom’s 55th birthday after dinner. She got lots of fun cards, and some great gifts.
When it was good and late, we all said our good-byes and called it a weekend.
Christine got up on Sunday morning and drove Jon and Hanna to the airport. Jack and I stayed home and played… it’s so much fun having him all to myself every now and then ;).
Sadly, we forgot our camera at home during this weekend, so I don’t have any fun pictures to show you, but we all had a great time.
Today, Jack, Mommy and I had some fun after dinner but before Jack took his bath. We decided to see if Jack would push around his new walking mailbox toy (Christine bought the toy this past weekend, and so far, Jack was content playing with the mailbox part of it).
So, I propped him up behind it, and gave him a little push… and he started walking behind it… and liked it.
So Christine ran and grabbed the camera, and the result is this movie:
Cute huh?
Last week, Christine and I stopped in Bellville on Tuesday for dinner, after I drove to Houston to make a sales call. We at dinner at Galileo’s, which is a nice little Mexican place in town. We saw Mama Payton there and a few of her friends… and Cap and Maxine joined us for dinner with my mom, Evan and Shadel.
After dinner we went to Grandma’s house, and saw all of the improvements she’s made on the house… Looks great mom.
And then, my mom gave Christine and I a few photos of me when I was a kid. We also got a copy of a great photo of Evan and I as kids (don’t Evan’s eyes just look like the bluest eyes you’ve ever seen?)
So, we got some super fun photos of me as a kid and, then this week, Christine picked up photos of Jack at 7 months. Jack is growing so much… just this week he has been pulling up from a sitting position, starting to skirt around standing up while holding on to furniture, and saying “eeeee” when he sees the kitty cat (think “hi kitty” … that’s the “eeee” sound he makes).
Isn’t he just adorable?
So,
Do you think Jack looks like me, or Christine:
And, for bonus points… can anyone guess which Aunt of mine this is holding me as a baby:
Jack and I have had a great summer together. We’ve spent time in Lakeway with Debbie and Raymond and the rest of the family, we’ve taken swimming lessons and learned how to kick and splash in the water, we gone to many many weddings, we went to North Carolina to see Aunt Murrell, Grandma came to visit and helped us with inside stuff, and then Granddad came and helped us with outside stuff (the office). It has been super busy and super fun.
Then last week (July 12th thru 14th) we got to go to Bellville for a few days to visit Aunt Shadel, Uncle Evan, Cousin Ella and Grandma! We had a blast!!! Jack loves to play with Ella, and Ella loves to give Jack hugs and kisses. The two kids were so much fun to watch together!
While we were there we went out to Cap and Maxine Hillbolt’s ranch to go swimming in their pool. Jack and Ella had so much fun playing with Grandma in the water. We took some really great pictures of the two kids on the ranch. They even got to say hello to a group of cows that had come up close to the house for a snack. We “mooed” at them and they “mooed” back. On the drive out of the ranch I had to dodge a few cows in the road… honestly, I think that’s the closest I’ve ever been to cows! What a city girl I am! After Max and Cap’s we had Golden Pagoda for lunch… YUMMM!
That night Grandma came over and Shadel and I headed out for a night on the town. Bellville has a new restaurant on the square that looks like it is transplanted from the warehouse district in Austin. It is called The Fainting Goat. It is a great little place. They specialize in wine and mediterranean style food. We weren’t that hungry so we ordered a fruit and cheese plate, a hummus plate, and a bottle of wine. The food was very good, the wine was delicious, and the atmosphere was awesome. The couple that owns it transplanted to Bellville from Manhattan. That’s got to be culture shock! On Friday and Saturday nights they have live music and bring in bands from Austin, Houston, and even New York! Out waitress actually commutes to work there from Austin! Its really a cool place. If you’re ever in Bellville you should try it.
After The Fainting Goat, we went to another small bar that’s new to town, but it was so empty that they closed it early. Then we headed to the other side of town and visited the Blue Moon Saloon. That’s where we found the party. There were a few of Shadel’s friends there with a group of guys and gals. We hung out for a little while and then headed home around 11:30. It was great to get out… Thanks Grandma!
The next day Grandma took us out for breakfast at Newman’s Bakery which was yummy. Jack got to eat grits for the first time which he loved. After breakfast we played at Grandma’s house for a little while (and took pictures of course) until the kids were ready for naps. Grandma has spent the last year fixing up her house and it looks amazing folks! You can tell by the pictures we took of the kids playing in the “TV Room”. We’re looking forward to more play dates at Grandma’s house.
After naps, I packed up all our stuff, we had lunch, and then Shadel and I took the kids to Walmart in Brenham to get some of the pictures of our visit printed. Jack and I left from Brenham and drove home. About 40 miles from Austin we ran into a horrible thunderstorm, but I took it slow and Jack slept through the whole thing so we made it home just fine.
We had a great time in Bellville. Thank you Shadel, Evan and Grandma!
See the rest of the photos from our trip to Bellville here.
