Thanksgiving Day

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day celebration with friends and family.  We gathered at Jack's Tio Victor and Aunt Chloe's house along with his Tio Angel and his two cousins, Andre and Lindsey; his grandmother, Mama Hilda, and her husband, Julio; and some wonderful friends, Phillip, Wendy, and Kelly. 

We had a beautiful day and evening and were able to spend  a good bit of time outside.  Jack had a great time . . . flirting with the ladies, playing with his cousins and the dogs, eating at the big table with everyone.

These pictures are a little bit limited but hopefully, as promised, some of the other folks present will send me some of theirs.

Jack and his cousin, Andre, . . . who believe it or not is only 2 1/2 years old . . .

Cousin Andre, Papa & Jack . . .

Mama Hilda, Cousin Andre & Jack . . .

Playing with bubbles & Tio Angel . . .

Playing ball with Tio Victor . . . 

Getting a camera tutorial from Kelly . . .

new glasses

Jack got his new glasses yesterday.  His second pair so far.  They are a two-size increase from his original pair that he has been wearing since he was about four months old.  I am not sure why, but the glasses read in pictures as being much larger in proportion to his face than they look in person.  

our sleepy, sick little man

Jack had his first real fight with a nasty bug this last Sunday.  He was either throwing up or sleeping the entire day.  Here he had just woken up and was cuddling up beside me on the couch and fell right back off to sleep.  He was so wonderfully cuddly that day but for such a horrible reason.  It took him several days to recover from this one and to get his appetite back . . . but he was back to himself for Thanksgiving Day -- which is something we are very thankful for indeed.

girls

"uh, papa, could you please get me out of here before she . . ."

"seriously, papa, get me out of here"

"oh, great . . . there she goes.  thanks a lot, papa"

Now, usually Jack loves the ladies.  But this past Sunday when he went to the Long Beach Aquarium with his papa, uncle Carlos (that's him in the pictures) and cousin Ali; he was having a sort of rough day.  I love these shots, as his face is so expressive. 

grapes and fried plantains . . .

 . . . are two of Jack's favorite foods.  He loves to pluck the grapes right off himself and if you're not careful he will cram about twenty grapes into his mouth at once.

Now, I am with him on the fried plantain favorite . . . I ingested as many fried plantains as possible wherever I travelled that they were common . . Honduras . . . West Africa . . . and now -- lucky me -- I have a man who cooks them up for us on Sunday mornings . . . 

jack sleeps . . .

 . . . in the strangest positions.  

And in case you are wondering what is sticking out of his mouth . . . well, that is his monkey lovey that he sucks on as he is falling asleep.  He calls it "uh-KEE" and you mostly just hear the "kee".  One of these days I am going to record all of these adorable sounds and words before they disappear.  He gets excited to get in the crib and hang out with his monkey and in the morning when his papa gets him out of his crib, Jack drops the monkey into the crib then waves and says, "buhbuh uh-KEE . . .  buhbuh . . . . . " and then continues to say "bye bye" to the monkey until he finds something else to say "bye bye" to.  

He is pretty obsessed with "bye bye" -- which has proven useful in helping him through little moments of transition during the day. . .  he doesn't want to stop reading and go to bed? -- then we say "bye bye" to the books and he is so excited to say "bye bye" to them that he forgets that he ever had a problem with it.  I use it a lot right now with just about everything.  And having written this tonight, I am sure I will wake up tomorrow to find that this little trick no longer works.

I remember when Jack first started turning over throughout the night in his sleep.  I guess it has been quite a while since then but seeing him lying on his back all strewn out like this always makes him seem like such a big guy.  He sleeps just like his papa . . . eternally restless and with his arms and legs thrown all over the place.  One night when we were still all sharing a room, I walked in to find them lying in the exact same position -- arms thrown overhead and legs crossed at the ankles.

We find Jack in seemingly precarious positions just about every night, with this or that limb hanging out of the crib.  But he seems to like it that way and miraculously does not wake himself up when he adjusts to a totally different position on the other end of the crib during the night.

I ask you . . .

 . . . is there anything cuter than a little one fresh out of the bath and in his pajamas?  

the couch

Jack's new favorite place is the couch.  He still needs help getting up onto it but is pretty good at getting off . . . and only goes head first every few days now.  He likes to throw himself around on the couch, cover himself in pillows on the couch, sit perfectly still on the couch (for a few seconds, to plot his next move), try to squeeze his way into the cracks of the couch . . . and his new mimicking skills mean he also likes to lay back and pull a blanket up over him (although he does not lie as still as his papa does under that blanket), put a pillow halfway over his head (which his papa does when he falls asleep on the couch watching football), and sit on the couch with remote in hand, pointing the remote at the tv and pushing buttons.

He has two videos that we let him watch -- a sign language video and a petting farm video.  He watches the "animals" video -- as we and, now he, calls it -- every morning while I am preparing his breakfast.  He loves those animals and now can either say the name of or make a sound for most of the animals on it.  I will also turn on Sesame Street maybe once a week.  He likes the music mostly.  In fact he loves music.  He asks me to sing to him by humming a little tune of his own that he has been humming for about two months now at least.  I keep meaning to get that little hum on video or tape, but whenever I am ready for it, it does not come.  It is a specific series of sounds that is always the same and it is as if it is his "word" for music or sing.  He also will make that series of sounds--his own little personal song-- if you simply say the word music.  It is amazing what he understands now.

trick or treating with Aunt Sam & the big kids

Jack thinks he is one of the big kids these days.  Apparently while with his Aunt Sam and her friends for Halloween dinner, he walked around gnawing on a big piece of pizza crust and plopping himself down right in the middle of the big kids wherever they were playing.  When Rigo and I arrived for the trick or treating, we were told, "boy, he warms up quickly doesn't he?"

Aunt Sam would walk with Jack up to the door with the other kids every few houses.  As you can imagine, they got stuck at quite a few houses with people calling for other folks to come see the cute little guy at the door.  The first house where she let him walk up to the door himself, he stood there in front of the bigger kids and when the people opened the door, he looked up, smiled and proceeded to walk into their open door.  What can I say . . . he is a social little man.

He had a blast.  He even got some candy -- although he has no idea what to do with it . . . and I hope to keep it that way for a little bit longer.

halloween afternoon . . . party with our mommy & me friends

So this motley crew of jungle animals with a pilot, chicken, two SuperGirls and a garden gnome thrown in make up our "yoga mommies" group.  The majority of us met in a prenatal class and had very similar due dates -- although we have picked up some others along the way.  In fact, there are at least two or three other mommy and child duos that could not attend the party.  

We began, almost a year ago, getting together every Friday in the park with our little ones.  We also get together without the little ones for dinner, wine and lots of talking and laughing once a month.  This December we are also having High Tea together at the Scarlet Room to celebrate the holidays (my first High Tea).  And, we have started to swap children when one of has something come up, share time with a nanny once a week, etc.  I cannot tell you how many times now one of these lovely women has saved me when I had a last minute audition and nothing to do with Jack.

I feel so blessed to have this group.  In case you are reading from somewhere else in the country --maybe this happens in other places . . . maybe it doesn't -- but it definitely does not happen easily here in Los Angeles.  I love that Jack has a community of his peers and their mothers/families that really know each other at this point and support one another.  Community is something one must actively create in this city and even with effort, it can still prove elusive.   

I also love that we are quite different from one another.  We have a range of career women and full-time moms . . . people from all over the country and world . . . a range of ages and wisdom . . . and religious backgrounds.

We are indeed quite a motley crew . . .   

this is one of Jack's girlfriends, Audrey.  They spend Friday mornings together at her house and they are in kindermusik class together.  She is dressed up as SuperGirl . . . .

This is Jack's other girlfriend, Adriana.  They spend some time together on Wednesdays.  They kiss a lot.  She is also dressed up as SuperGirl.  Coincidence?  I don't think so . . .

Notice in the center background of this next shot of the lion and SuperGirl that there is a little monkey waving a British flag.  Yep, your eyes are not deceiving you . . . that is our resident little British monkey . . .