BUSY BUSY BUSY Part II

To continue....On Tuesday Jack and I returned to CT after a loooong week away, unpacked and got settled back into our apartment. Boy was Daddy happy to see us!! I went back to work Wednesday. Wednesday night my dad arrived from FL to meet Jack and play for a few days. He and Jack hit it off from the start!! Jack showed off his never ending smiles and wide eyes and my dad showed him how to do "so big" with his arms and played the "trot trot to Boston" game on his knees (having Jack pretend he was riding a horse that ends up going crazy :) ). We even took a trip to Toys r us for some spoiling. Jack left with a very cute and cuddly stuffed dog that makes him break into giggles when you bring it up to his face!! We were all hoping that Grandpa brought some of that Florida sunshine with him....but New England prevailed and we were stuck inside for two days because of the rain! :( Our time together went by WAY TOO QUICKLY and I headed back to work on Saturday while Daddy brought Jack RI for the weekend and my dad headed up to Marblehead to visit with some friends and family. Daddy was busy at the condo all weekend with Uncle Dan pulling up the kitchen floor and replacing it to get it ready to rent. Gramma Mary and Auntie Cait got to hang out with Jack!!

On Sunday- Father's Day- Jack gave Daddy a special treat and slept in until 8am!! HAPPY FIRST FATHER'S DAY!! We ended up celebrating more on Monday when we were all back together in CT. It has just been SOOO CRAZY AROUND HERE!! As a treat we all packed up in the car after dinner and headed out to find Shady Glen...a restaurant people at work had been talking about with a signature cheeseburger and homemade ice cream! Just a quick trip into Manchester and we found it. It reminded Tom and I of the Newport Creamery we would both go to in Barrington as children (funny we could have been sitting at booths next to one another the whole time! ). All the waitstaff are on the inside with booths and counter top seating surrounding them. The menu is on the wall and the ice cream sundaes were amazing!! Jack even had a few little tastes....all of which brought a big smile to his face!! A great end to our day...if only it would STOP RAINING!!! On TV they reported that it has rained the last 21 of 22 days in June! INSANE!! We are anxiously waiting for summer to arrive. We can't wait to get Jack in the pool.

Anyway....more craziness to come!! Keep reading, I will try and post more often. I am going to try and add some pictures in the next few days....but my memory card is misbehaving :).

Have a good week!!

BUSY BUSY BUSY!! PART I

We have been VERY busy since our last post! During the past few weeks we all travelled back to RI for a bunch of big happenings! First, we are in the process of getting our condo ready to be rented again. Our tenants have moved out and we have some work to do before it is ready to be occupied again. We have hooked back up with Melanie (a high school friend and our realtor) to help us to get some new tenants, Uncle Dan and Big Papi have been helping us with some work around the condo, including installing a new kitchen floor and we have already had one family look at it! We are hoping to get all the work done this month and have it ready to be occupied in July or August!

Second, we attended the graduation of Uncle Mike and Auntie Caity from high school. Jack's first high school graduation to attend and the first graduation that Caite and Mike were not watching from the sidelines. They have sat through MANY graduations! :) Jack and I arrived in RI on Thursday morning to attend a graduation brunch that Grammy put together for Caite, Mike and all their friends before the graduation in the afternoon. Jack got passed around to a lot of open arms and charmed everyone! :) Uncle Chris arrived Wednesday night and he was excited to see how big Jack had gotten and how active! He described him as going from a "potato with legs" to a more solid little guy! :)

On Friday morning MY Grammy and Grampy came for a visit with Jack. He showed them all of his tricks, from rolling over to eating his lunch like he had never been fed before! :) Jack has also started "crawling"! He squirms around on his forearms and knees, with his belly on the floor. He has started to pick up a lot of momentum, but hasn't figured out how to lift the belly up yet. BOY are we in trouble! He is a moving MACHINE!! On Friday night Daddy came into town after a long work week and we went to Gramma and Big Papi's to see all the family including Tom's Uncle Fred (in from Arizona!). It was a great time!!

On Saturday, DADDY TURNED 30!!! and Uncle Dan turned 28! I had put together a golf outing and BBQ to celebrate. 14 guys golfed during the day and then came to my parents' for a BBQ. I think we had about 30 family and friends attend. It was a lot of fun and the only day that the sun has come out in like 2 weeks! We did get a few raindrops in the evening, but the weather held for the golf.

Daddy went back to CT on Sunday and Jack and I continued our stay in RI. On Monday morning Grammy and I packed up the car and drove up to Marblehead to visit with some long time friends-Lyn Freeman and Ginny Von Rueden. They were so excited to finally meet Jack and get some cuddle time! We had a great lunch, a nice walk around Marblehead when the sun peeked out, and a lot of great conversations and catching up! Grammy and I feel so lucky to have kept up our friendships with them for so long and really have enjoyed getting to have our girls (+jack) lunches! :)

MORE TO COME....

6 Month Stats

Yesterday we had Jack's 6 month check up. He was a shining star (as we knew he would be) showing off all his "tricks" to the doctor! He sat up, stood up (with some help :) ), rolled over and was grabbing at everything that came near his little hands...including the stethoscope and tongue depressor. Jack weighed in at 16 lbs, 6oz(25th %)!! He is 26 1/2inches long (50th%)! He really is growing so fast!! He had to get 3 shots :(, which he handled well and even had a smile for the doctor after it was all over. He was a little bit cranky during the day, especially if you touched his legs, but that was definitely to be expected! The doctor said that we could expect some little teeth to be coming in in the next month or so! :) Jack has been waking up some nights screaming...he seems to be easily calmed with a cold toy from the fridge and a little Tylenol. I think the teeth are working their way to the top! We also were given the go ahead to start using the stage II foods (bigger containers and lots of variety!) and even some cheerios and other table foods (in very small pieces). He has been gobbling up everything that we have given him in the past, so I am hopeful that the stage II will fill his little belly more :).

We started today with one of the stage II fruits for breakfast, a combo of bananas, grapes and plums. HE LOVED IT!! The new combinations come in more of a variety of colors too. Jack definitely prefers the orange vegetables so far (sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, peaches) and they make his nose turn orange. Hopefully with the new foods he won't "glow" so much :). I also tried giving him some cheerios on the tray of his high chair. He loved trying to pick them up, but was not crazy about the texture or taste! :) We will try them again later. I know soon they will be everywhere in my apartment and car!

That's all for now! Have a good weekend!