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?