Jack's first haircut

**There are 3 new posts so scroll down**

Jack got his first hair cut yesterday and since we were there I decided to get Isabella's cut too. She has never had her hair cut by a professional. I trimmed it once a couple of months ago, but it was good to get a good professional trim. It looks really cute.

Jack did great! He just sat there without squirming, crying, or fussing. He just looked like a little man getting his hair cut. We went to Cartoon Cuts in the Dulles Town Center Mall. It was good for a first cut because they had TVs at the hair cutting stations and were playing an Elmo video, which I think was more helpful for Isabella than Jack.

Here is a "before" picture for Jack:



Then it was Isabella's turn.
Afterwards we went and got ice cream, as promised.

Summer fun!

We have been home (back at Nonna and Pop-pop's) for a week and a half. We were able to see Katie and the kids again this week. These pictures are from another visit I think but they are cute. Jack with Mark and his "face". He is hilarious and makes this face a lot!

The girls playing in the sprinkler outside.
My sister Kate moved back to VA from CA so we got to drive down and see her early last week. They are only about an hour and 15 minutes from where we are in VA. Isabella had a great time playing with her cousins Noah (10), Grace (7) and Maddie (5).

They had a water fight with these water squirters we brought down with us.


Playing on the slip and slide...

Jack liked playing with this shopping cart Kate had. It was perfect for walking behind.


We have been playing in the baby pool here at home and playing in the fun water table that Nonna got for the kids. Jack loves it! He doesn't however love the pool. So I have to hold him on my lap.


Here is Jack playing in the water table while Isabella napped. I think he liked having it all to himself.


Isabella going down the slide backwards. She got bored with going down the normal way after about 3 times and then she had to find some way to make it more exciting so she started going down backwards.

Catch up for May and part of June

Well May ended up being quite the month. I sprained my back very badly on my trip to visit my friend Francene and her kids and I spent 5 weeks unable to really do my job of taking care of these kiddos. As a result, Nick worked from home a bit and my mom drove up and stayed at my in laws house to help me for a week and then we all went down to my parent's house in NC for another week so I could have help. The doctor told me I should not hold the children for 3 to 4 weeks to allow the back to heal completely. Everything is a lot better now. I am able to pick up the kids with just a little soreness so that is good considering I am alone again and have to do it all myself. Here is the photo documentary of the month of May.

Right before we went to my friends house I met my friend Sarah (a friend from GA who has now moved up to Northern VA). Isabella and Jackson enjoyed seeing each other. We met at Chick-fil-A and they played on the playground together.

Here at Francene and Brett Tucker's house in Apollo, PA (where the back pain began) on May 19th. Jack (9 months) played with his friend Jacob (11 months here). Jack wasn't able to get to sitting yet from his belly so he spent all his time army crawling around the place.


Here the next week I started feeling a little better so I started holding the kids again and doing too much, then after this I really really hurt my back I was really not able to do anything. Jack got better at walking around on his own. Here we went to the park with Katie and Gianna.

Isabella makes Jack laugh like crazy. Here is one example:

This is May 26th. We set up the ottomans in the living room so Jack could walk all around the room. He loved cruising the furniture.

On May 29th he started saying Bella. He has been saying Mama and Dada but we weren't sure if he knew what he was saying or if they were just sounds. When he started saying Bella we realized he did get it. Now he says Nonna, Bye Bye and Night Night too.

Then came June...after my back got better it got worse. My mom came up to VA for a week to help me out and then we went down to NC the next week so I would have full time help with the kids.

My dad took Isabella to a friend's pool with a couple of dogs, one is his and the other is my sister Kate's. Her son Noah was down visiting with my parents so Isabella spent the week playing with her 10 year old cousin. She loved it! It is also really exhausted her!
Jack enjoyed spending time with Grandma and Grandpa. He really started getting around. He started figuring out how to pull himself up to standing and started crawling on hands and knees. He also took his first couple steps on Monday June 7th. I think it kind of scared him. He did it twice and then he hasn't done it since.

He loved playing ball with my parent's dog Jazzy. She is crazy and will play ball with anyone who is willing.



Laying on Sully
We spent a lot of time in the back yard playing in the water and doing wood working with my dad.
Since my mom and dad were the primary caregivers since I couldn't hold them they also got the joy of being spit up on. My dad said it had been a long time since this happened. He walked in the house and he hadn't even noticed it had happened. My mom had to tell him. Pretty funny!
Jack's new Huggies jean diapers.
I think that is a long enough post, but I want to make sure to document everything. I am going to do another post to bring us up to date.

Jack signs "milk" and starts to crawl or "inch"

Yesterday Jack signed milk for the first time at lunch. I managed to get him to do it again for the video. I was super excited!!



Jack has become an inchworm. He inches his way along the floor. It is adorable!

Catoctin Zoo and random stuff

I have been meaning to post about our trip last week to the Catoctin Zoo in Maryland and I totally forgot to go back to my post and edit it until just now. So here it is because these pictures are too cute to pass up. We met my parents and my nephew David at the Catoctin Zoo for the afternoon one day last week as everyone was waiting for Cristina to have baby Henry. (He is here by the way, and I am going up to meet and visit with them today, so pictures to follow) We had a great time. David is super easy going in his stroller so he just enjoyed strolling around outside and taking in the sights. He did get out feed some animals but then he was ready to get back in his stroller and move. Here is David with my dad and his grandpa David feeding a llama....so David and David!

Isabella feeding a llama
That was one big llama
They had little apes and a couple of them had babies. Here is a mother and her baby.
Isabella and the apes.

Grandma and my nephew David

We saw a little goose family...so cute!

A priceless face from David

Jack has been really busy lately getting in to everything. When he is in the walker he is a real menace. I walked around the kitchen island and saw this. Jack with the plastic wrap.

The I walked around the other way and saw this. He was so proud of himself.

First tooth for one and Bunkin free for the other!!

This is something I want to document for our files.

Isabella is bunkin (aka pacifier) free! We took them away at night 2 nights ago and it really hasn't been too bad. She didn't love the fact that she didn't have the bunkins on Saturday night but she cried and yelled for a little while and then eventually fell asleep. The following morning she told us all about how she was not very nice when she went to bed the night before. We told her the Bunkinman came and took her bunkins because he knew she was a big girl and didn't need them anymore and that have gave them to the babies that need them. She didn't like that story. She wanted him to be a mean Bunkinman who stole them from her. So I complied last night and told her the story of the mean Bunkinman who stole her bunkins and then of the nice bunkin fairy who took the bunkins from the mean Bunkinman and gave them to the babies. She liked that one better. A little drama last night but not as bad as the night before. I threw them in the trash yesterday morning, so no going back. :)

Also, Jack got his first tooth on Friday morning. It finally broke through. I am sure the other bottom one will follow soon. Jack is also standing with no help for 2-3 seconds at a time. He walks around his pack n play now, if we get him to standing. He is starting to do forward motion if on his belly, but I wouldn't call it crawling, more like pulling or scooting his body. Video to follow! :)

Some cute pictures of Isabella

Here are some cute pictures I took of Isabella the other day. She is really growing up so fast.