Up North

My apologies to everyone who is checking in for new updates! We are up north at The Queen and the Prime Minister's (my mom and dad) house. This is the largest space that John has been in ever and let me tell you, he is exploring everything! His crawling has improved by leaps and bounds and he is climbing the stairs (all wood) like a champ. He is overwhelmed with toys, including some that make noise- but he is still more interested in the things that he 'shouldn't' have. The dogs are also a new plaything, although he is not very gentile with them so they have learned to avoid him (except Quincy- Jed and Mandy's dog who is used to a baby around, he sits at the base of the highchair and waits for food and then licks off John's face when he's done eating!)

I promise I will post pictures soon- nobody has a camera here!!! Jeff and PM are driving back to Detroit today and Jeff flies to Connecticut tomorrow for a regatta. Mom and John and I are staying until Tuesday and then we'll go back as well. When we get back I'm sure there will be tons of photos taken when John gets to see his cousins for the first time in months!

MILK

Today John tried real milk for the first time!!! It is such a milestone- our little boy is growing up. I wanted to introduce it slowly over the next few weeks so he gets used to the taste so at lunchtime I put 2oz into his cup just to try it. Apparently we are not going to have much of a problem- he loved it! His nose is really stuffy still so a lot ran down his chin, also this is the first time he has had anything but water in his cup- surprise!







I think by the end he was in a total milk coma.

Holland

We are now in Holland, Michigan at Jeff's parents house. We were originally going to stay in Chicago for Sarah's birthday party on Monday, but John got a bad cold (he is barking and has a really runny nose) and Jeff's allergies are so bad at Dan's that we had to leave. I was (am) pretty sad because I so wanted to be at Sarah's party and help Melissa with RibFest things! SORRY!!!!
BUT, we are here... Jeff has been able to do some work here so it has worked out well, although both of the boys are sick still. On our drive here the other day we stopped at the first rest area in Michigan at the Welcome Center and there is a wonderful children's play area! The ground is covered with the rubber stuff so its bouncy (and softer for wobbly little people!) John went on the swings and loved it and then climbed the stairs up to the slide like a champ, he was following a really cute 2 1/2 year old girl! We took him down the regular slide and he laughed, and then we noticed the tube slide which wasn't quite as steep as the open one. Jeff help him at the top while I went to the end. John looked down and grinned at me, then Jeff laid him back and WEEEEEE!!!! John went down the tube slide 4 times and LOVED it!!! It was hard to tear him away he was having so much fun, but we packed him back into the little Jetta and off we went. I have a few pictures on my phone of the slide, I'll work on getting them off soon...
Holland is nice, although the house is not baby-proofed at all which is a challenge with an increasingly mobile little man. He is crawling really fast now and loves to open any and all doors, drawers, toilet seats etc... basically anything he can get his hands on. Its also been pretty cool (cold) here so we've stayed in mostly, otherwise I would have taken him to the park that is near the house to play- tomorrow is another day!

Sesame Street

John has NO IDEA what TV is... which I guess is not a bad thing! Here at Uncle D's house we've shown him a few cartoons, he was a little bit interested in Blue's Clues for about 5 minutes and then yesterday morning he and Danny watched some Sesame Street together, aw.

Photos

Blake

John and Landin

Landin

Blake, Jenn & Landin

Jenn and Landin

Friends....

John and I went out to the suburbs yesterday to meet my old friend Jennifer (Fitch) Barnickel, and her 2 boys, at the outlet mall. It was so fun to see 3 very active boys interact with each other! John and Landin are about 6 months apart in age and Blake is 4. Lanin kept offering John his binky and then stealing it back, it was so funny!

Grandma Goff

Grandma Goff came into the city to visit this evening. She was amazed at how big and independent John has gotten in the 3 months since she's seen him! He was just about ready for bed and she read him some of his favorite books.

Mommy and Me

Fun Pictures

A montage of fun pictures with Uncle Danny!

Little Beast

A video of why I might have to shave my head!

Beautiful Boy

Danny took this photo and it amazes me how beautiful John is.... wow.

Bath Time

John LOVES bath time, especially with the bee that Erin gave him!

Teeth!!!

I just checked John's mouth and the top 2 molars have finally broken through the gum!!! Hopefully this will make his life a little bit easier for him- he has been so drooly and a bit cranky for the past month. Poor guy!

Turner Twins

On our way north we stopped for a very short (too short!!) visit with Joelle, David, Lyla and Pressley Turner. The girls were born on February 29 (leap babies!) and Joelle and I have been talking a TON lately sharing stories and helping each other through many of the trials of parenthood. John liked meeting his second cousins for the first time, even if they are girls! At one point on the way to the mall he looked at me while pulling on his own hair as if to say "mommy, why am I suddenly surrounded by girls?!?!" Joelle put him in the crib with the girls while Jeff and I were out changing his car seat around, and he leaned over Lyla, supported himself between the girls, and stole Pressy's Pacifier right out of her mouth! Joelle is such a laid back and amazing Mom that she simply gave Pressy a new one and ran for the camera! He is such a silly boy, and not shy in the least about getting what he wants!!!





As much fun as John had with the girls and Auntie Joey and Uncie Dave, I think the highpoint of the visit for him was Tucker, and Tuckers toys! Tucker is the Turner Dog, a young Westie- I will try to get some pictures of him. John and Tucker are both pretty high energy, like two peas in a pod- instant buddies! It is so much fun to see how John reacts to animals, so far he loves every one he meets!

Notice that John is standing and NOT holding on to anything! My big boy!!!

Date

John has a girlfriend!! Sarah is Melissa and Craig's daughter (Dan does a lot of functions with them- ribfest and winefest in Chicago). We met them last fall when we were in town for Winefest and the two babies got along immediately (or at least in our parent fantasy they did!). Melissa and I and the kids had brunch this morning and managed to get a few cute shots. We've managed to see them every time we come to Chicago- its great for me to have another mom to compare notes with and to have a playmate for John. Stay tuned for pictures of Sarah's 1st birthday party next weekend!

their eyes lock....

"OH MY GOSH MOM!!!! She is so pretty, and smart too!!"

"and she's got good genes, look at her mom!"

Erin

John and I had the pleasure of meeting Danny's girlfriend Erin last night. John especially took a liking to her- you better watch out Uncle Danny!!!
She gave John the bee swim tube too, he loves playing with it :)

Fun with Bananas!

John is an amazing eater- he has almost no foods that he dislikes, and up until now bananas were the one thing that I couldn't get him to eat without being mashed and mixed with other foods. Yesterday I gave him a chunk to try, and he had so much fun! He ate a good amount and then decided to play- I learned that he should be naked for bananas!

ROADTRIP (part 1)

Jed, this one is for you! I don't have any photos to add, so you'll all just have to read.

Monday morning we were in Venice, FL for John's doctor appointment. Jeff was at the boatyard getting the boat packed away while John and I finished packing at the house (Jeff's parents house). Jeff got back around 1:30 and while he showered I packed the car- its a good thing that I had all that packing practice growing up because Jeff said we would never fit everything into the Jetta! (one of the biggest things in the car was an outboard motor, ahem, Jeff...)So we were on the road by 2ish and headed for Atlanta to see Joelle, David and the twins. We stopped for some food because I realized that I had not eaten anything all day- I was so busy packing up and cleaning the house! John (thankfully) loves his big carseat, it looks like a lazy boy- I wish I had one! He is also in a 'book' stage where he is happiest reading his books by himself, usually talking and singing as well.
We stopped for dinner at a Mexican restaurant just into Georgia, sitting at a table for a little while so John could have a break from the car. He really loves restaurants- sitting in the high chair backwards so he can talk to everyone there!
We knew that we still had a few hours to Atlanta at this point, ETA there was 11ish so we changes John into his jammies at the restaurant so there would be less of a stir up when we arrived at the Turner house. I tried my best to do the usual bedtime routine in the car, with me leaning over the front seat with the book, it was a tight squeeze but we managed! John had his bedtime bottle (he holds it himself 90% of the time now, thank goodness!!) and I sang some songs (again, leaning over the front seat) and he was out before 9pm. We arrived at Joey and David's around 11:30 and tried to get John quickly from his seat into the house, but he woke up and was very confused. I cuddled him in bed with us for a little while but he was really squirmy, he sat up and let out a small toot- followed by the longest toot that I have ever heard out of him! No wonder he couldn't sleep, he had bubbles in his tummy!!! After that he calmed right down and slept the rest of the night, we all even slept through the twins crying! I am so proud and amazed at how well John did on the first leg of a long roadtrip..... More to come, I have an 11 month old to attend to at the moment!

Stories

Uncle Danny got hime from work just in time to read books with John. It is so special and amazing to watch how great Danny is with all 4 of his nephews and niece!

Uncle D!

We got to Danny's house yesterday and boy did John have fun exploring Danny's space!! Since we arrived John has kept us laughing, totally tearing it up at the coffee shop this morning and chasing Maya around the apartment- he is not shy in the least!!!

John's Stats

John went to the doctor this morning for a checkup, and he is a strong healthy boy!

Weight: 21lbs 10oz. just under 50%
Length: 29.5" 60%
Head Circumference: 49.6cm OFF THE CHARTS!!!!!!!

SO- everyone that tells me how big he is really is just looking at his giant head, its an illusion :)

Summer Reading

This one is especially for PopPop.... John has been working on his summer reading list from the anti-library :)




But you can't study all the time!

Under the Bridge....

Okay, so we are working on packing Last Paradise up for summer so we can head up to Michigan and John can see so many people who love him so much :) Well, to get to the boatyard we had to pass under a bridge that is lower than the chart says it is. It wasn't going to be a big deal because we had gone under before, we just had to have new moon- low tide, which is the lowest of the month. This happened to fall at around 12:30 AM. SO, we went to bed and set the alarm to wake us up, no big deal. Well, we should have known that luck was not on our side when the alarm failed to go off- I woke up at 1:00 with a start and we flew out of bed and got the anchor up. The tide looked like it was still moving out a little bit, so we had some time yet (whew!) We started toward the bridge (actually, there are 2 spans here so I should say 'bridges') Jeff slowed down to just barely moving forward and (holding my breath) we cleared the first span! This had been the problematic part in the past, so we thought we were home free.... Back to that LUCK thing.... BANG. We hit the second span. It seems that after the tragedy last year in MN. there has been some maintenance on bridges... they replaced the concrete reinforcements with steel I-Beams, painted a nice shiny blue- no matter that they are now a few inches lower! After working for over an hour, trying to heel the boat enough to creep under- and failing, we retreated with our heads hung low back to the anchorage.
The next morning Jeff did some fiddling, some advanced mathematics, and some calling around to other boatyards. That night we enjoyed some quality family time- John took his first steps alone!! We all went to bed early and this time set 2 alarms, time to try again. At 12:00 we got up and Jeff worked his magic letting the main mast forward a few feet (it is deck stepped, not keel stepped for all you boaters reading this) We slowly creeped back to the dreaded bridge- I had the flashlight on the mast and was holding my breath the whole time. Again, we cleared the first span with no problem, and this time we cleared the second one too!!! HOORAY! We breathed a huge sigh of relief. Sometimes the strength of Jeff's mind and his ingenuity amazes me! We motored a few more hours while the tide was still out to get under some other low-ish bridges and finally anchored again for the night at around 3:30AM. By the way... John slept through all of the excitement both nights, what a champ!
We are now in Venice enjoying the air conditioning in Grandma & Grandpa Goff's house, but we will begin our journey North on Monday- stopping first in Atlanta to see those TurnerTwins!
Here is a photo of how our mast looked going under the bridge- yikes!