I told Jack to smile, and this is what I got. Charming.
Jack still finds bubbles rather scary. He broke down in tears last night when we put him in the bath after his spaghetti dinner. Not taking a bath was not an option. So we laughed at him as he stood there freaking out at the bubbles. After a few minutes he suddenly changed his mind and had a blast playing with the "bubbas".
It's been an absolutely beautiful fall here in the Northwest. I should have taken pictures the other week when colors were more brilliant and the sky wasn't overcast and threatening to rain. It looks as though all the leaves will be on the ground and our trees will be barren in just a few more days. I collected a bunch of leaves and made a wreath for our front door. That should last until we get to put up a Christmas wreath!
View from our driveway
I have more pictures, but I hear Jack waking up from his nap.... so, until next naptime... :-)
I gave Jack a sip of my kefir (yogurt-like milk) the other day. He didn't want to give it back.
Just yesterday Uncle Tracy, Aunt Deann and Carter came down to visit for the day. We had a great time with them at the farmers market, apple picking and going out for Thai food. Thanks Aunt Deann for taking these pictures :-)
Jack had a great time munching on apples. They're especially tasty after they've been dipped in the dirt. It's fun to see how much Jack has changed since the last time he went apple picking -http://johnbakken.blogspot.com/2007/10/lots-and-lots-of-apples.html .
Just relaxing...
Jack LOVES to look at books. I think it's so adorable when I find him on his tummy flipping through pages. He's not very interested in us reading out loud to him, but he spends a good portion of his awake time every day looking at his books by himself.
Jack spent several hours playing in his carseat in the living room today. It's so much more fun when you're not buckled into it.
I've been giving Jack a couple quiet times throughout the day the past couple of days. He loves them, and so do I. He just sits on the couch or his "Big Boy Bed" with a stack of books and happily looks through them. I get a few minutes without him under my feet and he is happy to be like Mommy and Daddy. So far the only way he's figured out to get off the couch is by falling, so he tends to stay put. 
This afternoon I was wiped out on the couch (trying to recover from bronchitis is difficult to do with a 1 yr old.) I heard giggling and squeeling coming from Jack's room so I went back to make sure he wasn't playing with the dirty diaper bin. He had pulled a clothes basket off of the changing table and was sitting in it, laughing and having a grand ol' time. I said "Hey Jack!" when I walked in and startled him and he fell over in the basket (the first picture.) But he was all too happy to get in and pose for the second picture.
As you can see - Jack finally has teeth. He worked on his first 4 teeth while we were in Chicago. They are all definately through and Jack's smiles are cuter than ever. I apologize for not posting pictures for a while. Jack is such a busy and fast little guy that it's very hard to get good pictures of him. He's just a blur in most of them. As you can see in the first two he's tied down to a highchair and in the third picture I'm pinning him to the ground so I can get a picture of his teeth.
This spider here has set up home right next to our front door. It's huge - it's body is close to an inch in diameter. I did not like the though of hundreds of little baby spiders coming into our home when theirs eventually gets chilly (and then turning into hundreds of not so little spiders,) so I destroyed the web. Unfortunately, Mama spider got away and the next morning there was another web in the exact same spot.