Summer comes to an end :(

What a crazy summer it has been! Jack is becoming more and more mobile everyday. We can not take our eyes off him for a second!! He has definitely mastered crawling and is scooting (crawling on his belly) and on all fours everywhere. He pulls himself up to standing on anything he can touch and will walk holding on to furniture or with a little push toy. We are just waiting patiently for him to take those first steps. When he stands on his own his little feet grip the floor so hard he can't lift them up :). He has figured out (with a little help from Daddy) how to climb stairs. When we are at our apartment we keep him in a large corral to keep him safe and away from all the wires and electronics for the TV. This also keeps him contained from the stairs. He has recently figured out how to pull the side away and "escape." He finds this hysterical and will get out, close the corral back on you and laugh from the "outside". He then crawls to either the kitchen or to the stairs. Definitely a little monkey. We have been working with him to wave hi. We swear he said "hi" as he was waving one day, over and over. Of course, when we tried to replicate it later in the day he wouldn't cooperate. If you see him from across the room and start to wave your hand, he will do the same. It is just too cute! "Dada", "DaDee" , "MaMa" and sometimes "EH (for Annie, my parents dog)" are staples to his vocabulary. He had his 9 month check up last week and weighed in at 20lbs, 11oz and 28 1/4 inches tall. He is growing like a weed!! We give him 3 meals of baby food a day with table food too. He loves bananas, mandarin oranges, crackers, bagels (frozen), yogurt, sweet potatoes, peaches, rice cakes and puffs. It is so amazing to see him working at picking up the food with his fingers and getting it in his mouth. I still can't believe this is the same little baby we brought home from the hospital. The time has gone by so fast! We are still waiting for some teeth to pop through. They are nowhere to be found!! He chomps and chomps on everything in his site, but it is all gums! I am told to enjoy the toothless grin, because soon i will miss that gummy smile!

We spent the summer getting our condo ready to rent and desperately trying to find some new tenants. Just when we were about to throw in the towel and move in ourselves (something we both were getting kind of excited about....MORE SPACE). We had a bite and have since rented it out again. I have been applying for nursing jobs in RI, but haven't had much luck, so it is better to have the place rented until I can find something. I know that we will end up back there sooner or later and until then we will make the best of where we are. The hardest part has been watching our apartment be consumed by baby stuff. We both feel bad that Jack has to be contained in such a small area and can't wait to give him more room to roam!

Even though the weather was not the greatest this summer, we made the best of it! We took many trips back and forth to RI to see our families, we introduced Jack to swimming in the pool (both at my parents and here in CT)-something he LOVED!, played in the grass, went to the Zoo and the Aquarium and just spent some quality time together as a family.

We are looking forward to some more adventures this fall including a trip to VA and of course Jack's FIRST BIRTHDAY on Thanksgiving!