Jack goes to the zoo- one of my longest postings yet!

Last week we wanted to try the Knoxville Zoo, but weather did not permit. Now you may ask, "why did you, Melanie, want to try a whole new zoo when you, the Nashville Native, have a perfectly good zoo in your home town? Why did you want to take your boys to the land of the orange and white?" The answer to that is 1)we wanted to see a new place and have an "adventure" and 2)Several of Josh's co workers suggested the Knoxville Zoo over the Nashville Zoo, and since we had been to the Nashville Zoo before, why not try it out?
Boy were they right....as hard as it is to admit, since Grassmere is such a beloved part of my childhood, the Knoxville Zoo was AWESOME! Jack had so much fun! I won't post every single picture we took, since there are SOOO many, and a lot of them are of the animals, and I assume most of you have seen a picture of a giraffe before, so I'll spare you....
The parking lot was packed, so we had to park in the overflow parking on the other side of the world. Since Jack had been cooped up in his carseat for 2 hours, he didnt mind the walk...he even helped push the stroller up the pretty steep hill. We had several people pass us while we were meandering up the hill, and even a few parents of toddlers give us knowing glances. I thought it was hilarious though, that once we got to the top of the hill, before we could ask him if he was tired and wanted in his stroller, he stopped, looked up at Josh and said "UP!" as in "I've done enough, let me REST already!"

They had a neat exhibit called "Wee Zoo" for little ones, and Jack really enjoyed getting to see all these animals on his level...we practically had to stand on our heads to see the critters. Here is he looking at the "Naked Mole Rats" eeew!

Here is a semi decent picture of Jack and Mommie looking at the very loud Macaws.Daddy said we had to post a picture of a butterfly since it is Bertie's favorite, even though I promised no animal pictures....I think he just wants to show off his amazing photography skills. He took almost all of the animal shots!Here is Jack getting pretty up close and personal with a little camel. We didn't pay the $10 for the camel ride, since we didnt want to waste the $$ in case he freaked out...there is always next time!

I insisted on posting a picture of the elephants for Papa John, since they are his favorite, and I took the cool picture. Jack thought they were cool too!

Just a cute picture of Jack and Daddy, there will be several, fair warning....

We ate lunch at the Safari Grill, I wont tell you how much we spent....eesh! Next time we will know to pack a picnic lunch like a lot of the other people! Afterwards we took a picture with the bronze lion. Can't you just hear him saying ROAR! He was roaring about the lion before we even knew it was there. He's very observant. The other day at Lowes he started saying BAAABAABAA and it took me a while to identify the yard ornament of a sheep that he was referring to...anyway, I digress, back to the zoo...

Another cute picture of Jr and Sr....they are my favorite subjects to photo!

Just a cute pic of Jack, trying to figure out why Daddy was pushing the buttons and why weird animal noises were coming out...

and Jack pushing the buttons to make weird animal noises come out...like father like son!

And another father son moment....making silly faces at each other!
Look, here, Jack is blowing me a kiss!

We asked a passer-by to take a picture of the 3 of us, and it turns out he is a professional photographer! I guess learning to use our sony cybershot was no big deal for him. Here is the cutest one, where Jack was being shy with his audience.

We had fun in their "KidZone" area. Instead of a petting zoo, they had a "handling yard" which I thought was a funny turn of phrase. Jack got to brush the "baabaas" which he recognized immediately because of our trip to the goat farm a few weeks ago. Here they want you to brush the goats. We obliged.

Jack also got to see a "moomoo" and a pig, but the pig was not very photogenic, so we got a picture with the pseudo milking cow instead. (and don't worry, even though he refers to the animals by their sounds, we try very hard to refer to them correctly. I figure the sounds are just easier for him to say right now, and we can get to the correct terminology later as his verbal skills develop more. He knows what they are called!)

Here is a pic of a rhino for pops...I wanted so bad to get Pops a bag of "rhino poo" from the gift shop (dont worry, it's chocolate truffles...) but since chocolate is a nono with his diet, we had to pass it by....

Here is a pic from the trip home. Daddy found Jack a small stuffed otter in the gift shop (I know, we are such suckers, but it was only $3! I thought overall the prices at this zoo were pretty reasonable for a touristy place...) Jack is giving "Harry Otter" a kiss. We had fun with him on the way home. At one point Harry Otter was playing peek a boo with Jack and Jack was getting so excited, he snorted! heehee!

I thought for sure he would conk out in the car on the way home, but he stayed awake and in a fairly good mood all the way home, and immediately went to bed. What a trooper!

yes...no....up...down....off...on...uh oh.....

Jack is making us laugh a lot lately (well, thats nothing new, really) and kinda confusing us a little bit too....
We can get him to pretty consistently say "yesh" to "Do you love Mommie...Daddy....Maggie".... sometimes even yes to brussell sprouts....he's just been trained to say yes to that kind of question....but just about any other question we ask him is answered with a "no" and a shake of the head. He shakes his head so much with his "nos" that I'm afraid he'll make himself dizzy! :) I'm sure that some of these "nos" really mean yes, but I hvent figured out the difference.
He has also learned very well to say "up...up"He will be up in Daddy's arms...the most "up" he can be....and he will still say "UP"...it's taken us a little while to realize he really means "DOWN!" We are also working on putting "please" with these demands...I mean requests. :)
We are having similar results from off and on. He knows off pretty well since he enjoys turning his bedroom light off and on during diaper changes (I know that may not be a great idea, but it keeps him still for a few minutes) and because he and Daddy have fun with pulling the chain on the ceiling fan/light in the kitchen....so he knows "off" pretty well....on...not so much.
He's also gotten the accidental sound "uh oh!" Which I think is just adorable...but I think we need to teach him that "uh oh" is only for accidents, not when you throw something down on purpose, just to say "uh oh"
oh, and another big development, for the past few weeks he has been feeding himself part of his breakfast with a spoon...and yesterday he ate part of his dinner with a spoon too. Those baby spoons, suction cup bowls and thick yogurt or applesauce make a great combination. YAY!

Please pray for Ian

Ian's parents, Jason and Anna are friends of ours from our Sunday School Class in Nashville. They found out today through a CAT scan that he has fluid on the brain and some sort of a brain tumor. They are waiting on an MRI for more info and will likely have surgery in the next few days. Ian about a month younger than Jack, and Anna and I were pregnant at the same time. Our Sunday School class threw us a joint baby shower!
This is so scary to me, but I am trying to hard to channel any worries or fear into prayers for this sweet little boy. This is so surreal...I've been keeping up lately about several sick babies, including little Jacob who I asked you to pray for, and several others...but I've never actually KNOWN any of these babies or their families.
Please pray for Ian and his parents...I cannot even imagine what they are going through right now. Pray also for the health care personnel who will be treating them and that all will seek HIS wisdom and willm. Thanks!

Seeing the Grandparents...or at least 2/3 of them!

What a whirlwind of out of town guests this weekend!
On Saturday Papa John and Mimi came in to see us in our new home. It was a fun, relaxing day. Jack was a gentleman and slept through out lunch, so we could eat with adult conversation. Daddy grilled yummy chipolte chicken kabobs! Then we ate Papa John's favorite dessert: Pineapple Upside Down Cake! After we ate, Jack got up from his nap and had a great time playing with his Fisher grandparents!
On Sunday Pops and Bertie drove up to see us! this was very exciting since this is their longest trip away from home in a VERY long time...aside from all that time in MD....We were so pleased that Pops had the strength and endurance for the drive and for the visiting! Josh realized that this was the first chance they had to see Jack in his own home since he was less than a month old! Wow! What a momentous occasion! It was very fun, and sadly, I didnt get any good pictures from wither visit, I was too busy having fun and visiting! With Pops and Bertie we made Greek Turkey Pitas and Tabbouleh and for dessert we ate Strawberry Pretzel Salad made with strawberries Jack and I picked last week! Yum! We sure are enjoying all the leftovers from these fun visits!
Probably the only reason we didnt have Mzee and Granny Ruthie up here this weekend too was that they were up in ND visiting the Fargo Fishers and new Baby Julia! Hope you guys had a fun time and have a safe trip back!

POOL TIME!

A Friend invited us to take swim lessons with her and her son next week, so I thought it might be a good idea to get Jack accustomed to the water...as best I can. What do you think, did he like it?

I'm really not sure why his mouth had to be wide open while he was splish splashing, other than out of pure excitement. The only reason we came in was because it started sprinkling, then POURING. Not that I could have gotten much wetter!

And yes, just in case you're wondering, I got soaked! (Daddy also had fun using the water squirters on me too...and threatened to use to hose! Thankfully he didn't!)

Go POPS!!

Praise God, Pops is walking again! Keep praying, it's working!!! :)

such cuteness-with new pictures

(daddy got our computer working again, so here are some more pictures of the little people in the jungle)

While playing outside Sunday in the chilly weather, Jack made me laugh with his little people...they are in the jungles of my potted basil, cilantro and parsley, and spider plants. This was totally his idea, to move them from the ark to the plants. At first it was just Noah and the farmer figures that were going over the "smell" the plants, then the animals had to follow. These were taken with my camera phone and while I got some cuter pictures with our camera, we are having issues with our desktop computer (again) and I cant post pics from our camera onto the internet yet...stay tuned for those as well....

and on another note, do you see the future tomatoes growing on one of my tomato plants...I'm so excited maybe a few of my veggies will survive the torrents of rain we've had here the last few weeks.

Hurricane Jack

I'm really excited that lately he's playing more independently, even in his room while I'm working elsewhere in the house, the only problem seems to be that when he's alone in a room, even more messes seems to emerge...here he is enjoying his puzzles and blocks and stuffed animals. He has also started enjoying taking EVERY SINGLE BOOK off the bookshelves. What do you think, at a year and a half old, if he's big enough to make the mess, isnt he big enough to "help" clean it up? We're working on that....honestly though, I've gotten to where I only clean up his messy areas once a day, usually while he's sleeping so that it isn't wrecked IMMEDIATELY after I finish....

yes, I know the room is incredibly messy, but here is Jack giving Maggie a hug. So cute. They really do love each other. Before Jack was born, whenever we would be out on a walk or she would come across another dog, she was very friendly, and always wanted to make friends. Lately, since there are several wandering dogs in our neighborhood, she has reacted very differently. Instead of being so friendly towards them, she gets very defensive and lets them know in no uncertain terms that they are not welcome in her yard around her family...all we can figure is that she is protecting her "baby". Thankfully all the dogs so far have been understanding and stay away, but let's just say, I'm eager to get a fence put up before she encounters a dog who gets upset about her attitude.

(I also love how he now knows to "pose" for a picture, even with the camera phone...he'll pause and smile, and often come over and want to see the picture on the screen...the other day he even got excited when he saw himself in the picture and pointed to himself as if to say "hey, that's ME!"

Jack at 17 months, part II

One of the many thing I marvel about my son is that he loves to be tickled. He must not be related to me, other than he has many of my same tickle spots..but I HATE to be tickled. I cannot be held accountable for my actions when I am trying to get away from being tickled, but he loves it! Boy does Josh enjoy obliging as well, and I love to watch them interact and hear those awesome belly-laughs coming from the room during their tickle fests!

Often when we are reading a book or out and about and Jack sees a baby he will so his sign for "baby", but it absolutely cracked me up the other day when we were out at 2 different places and Jack saw a little kid (albeit still older and bigger than him) and referred to them as "babies"....hope he doesn't get beat up for that later on in life....

Lately he has gotten a bit harder to take to the grocery store, especially Kroger, because he LOVES those mylar helium balloons. He calls them "balls" and Kroger has them EVERYWHERE throughout the store, as soon as I get him one to wag around the store, he will see a cooler/bigger/shinier one and want that one even more...ARGH! I'm sure they are ready to run us out of Kroger when they see us walk in the door...but one thing that IS fun about shopping with him, is at the checkout line, he loves to help unload the groceries from the cart onto the conveyor belt...sometimes he even gets carried away and tried to put his toys/snack/cup on the belt as well and I have to rescue them before I have to pay for them again...

We are entering new territory and Jack has begun eating with a bowl and spoon. I've tried utensils off and on for several months, and he does great getting the food from the tray to his mouth with a fork or spoon, his aim really is pretty good, but it's getting the food onto the utensil that we are working harder on. I got those suction bowls and some extra thick yogurt and he's doing...ok....he still tries to cheat and use his fingers, but we're taking it slow, staying patient and Maggie is enjoying cleaning up his messes. I'm so thankful for our living vacuum cleaner, uh, I mean dog....We are also on the quest for some better sippy cups. Just as soon as I find a style that I think will work, it will start leaking, or he will chew a hole in the spout with his sharp strong teeth...I'm trying to get him to use a straw, but it's taking some getting used to...he doesnt like working that hard for his juice! :)

One last little cute tidbit...Jack loves dancing and music-as you could see from a previous posting...in the car when we are listening to our baby praise music when a song ends, he claps to say "more" until a new song comes on....and I think I've even heard him trying to sing along with some of the songs...

Jack's words at 17 months

well, a while back I posted all about Jack's vast sign language vocabulary....since then we have added several signs: cracker, banana, hi, blow kisses, bird, milk, tickle, swing/baby, bear, sleep, thank you, cheese, apple/fruit...so all told, I've added up he's got about 40 signs now. What has been interesting to me is to see a few signs start to lessen, especially "daddy" and "dog." Now that he's learned how to verbalize those words, he almost never does the sign for them now.
I'm so excited to share about his blossoming verbal language...as far as words he actually verbalizes...mama, dada, yes, no, up, banana, bye, hi, eyes, eggs, eat, nose, cracker, go, Jericho, yogurt, heart, shoes, amen, Jesus, more, hot, and HIYAH (like the karate sound)... no I'll admit, not everyone can understand these words, besides mommie and daddy, but there are several that are clear...you'll just have to trust us on the rest....
and here are animal sounds that he verbalizes (which I am counting as words): dog, elephant, cow, horse, sheep/goat, giraffe, car/boat/plane, rabbit, and fish. So I've added up that he verbalizes almost 40 words.
As far as words that he understands, well that would just be too much to tell, he understands almost everything....it's really quite amazing...the other day we were getting ready to "go" (one of his favorite words...he heads straight for the door when I say it) and I said "where are my shoes, have you seen my shoes?" I kept looking around for them, and he goes into the other room, grabs my sneakers and brings them in to me. I was SHOCKED! Today he found a pair of Daddy's scrub pants, and tried to put them on, which was cute enough...but then once he got frustrated, he looked at me and said "dada" which I took to mean, "This is Daddy's" so I said "Let's just give them to Daddy when he gets home". When Josh got home, Jack went and got the pants and brought them to us in the other room. Pretty COOL! Also, as far as understanding, he's learned quite a few body parts: head, hair, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, tummy, belly button, arm, hand, fingers, leg, knee, foot, toe. (he doesn't SAY these words, just understands them and can point to them) My very favorite thing is that I ask him "Do you love _____ (mommie, daddy, maggie etc) and he'll reply "yes" (sometimes followed by no, since he thinks those 2 words go together...I think...)
Can anyone guess which words I hear the most ALL day long... mama...up...go...and...cracker all...day....long.....and I love it!

Jack at 17 months!

Just look at those baby blues...anyway...
I can't believe my baby is almost a year-and-a-half old! I definitely believe you now, moms...time does FLY! Here is an update about what Jack is up to these days...other than his talking (that is another entry).
His walking is very steady now, and maybe it's just me, but it seems like he has grown a foot since we moved here. He's started grabbing things off the counter...when did he get tall enough for that? Yesterday Josh called and Jack walked over to the counter and grabbed the phone off the counter before I could get to it. I'm pretty sure he would have answered it too if I hadn't rescued it!
Since we have finally gotten our decorations unpacked, he's had more of a chance to see pictures of Mommie and Daddy. Lately he's been able to ID who is Mommie and who is Daddy in the pictures. We've wondered if he could pick Daddy out of a picture of a crowd of men...have to try that soon.
I love getting kisses from him....for a while they have been the slobbery open baby kisses, but lately he's been making the smoochy noise and giving slightly less slobbery kisses. I've also enjoyed having him blow kisses to people...except that now he blows them to EVERYONE, and EVERYTHING...including strangers, bunnies, loved ones, chipmunks, and anything else he wants to say HI or BYE to them. He now blows kisses instead of hi and bye...not sure why...most people think it's cute....some aren't sure what do think.
We aren't too worried about his eyesight...because he can spot the teeny-tiniest bug crawling on the ground (granted he is closer to the ground than we are). I felt sorry for the poor ladybug this afternoon who was picked up, put down, picked up, put down, over and over and over. Such a boy, he loves bugs, dirt and rocks and pebbles....and we have lots of them in our new yard. I'm pretty sure he would play with all the earthworms in our garden too if I didn't stop him. Gotta draw the line somewhere....
This entry is getting a little long, I'll write more later.

This picture is begging for a caption...

This is another pic from our trip to the goat farm...and it needs a funny title or something...any ideas. I also posted this on my facebook account, but I'm sure several of you aren't on facebook, and I thought you could use a laugh too...apparently this picture happened just before one in the previous post...the one with the goat head and Jack looking at his finger (I guess just after he pulled it from the goats nose...eeew!) Thanks to my friend Nissa who took this picture and several other cute ones...she has promised to get me a cd of them, so I'll post more soon....

"Goaties"

I have a friend from MOPS who lives in a neighboring county and is raising goats, so she invited me and another friend up for some fun! I was nervous since Jack can sometimes get a little skittish around small hyper animals, but he was so excited. He kept exclaiming "baa, Baa, BAAA!" I guess he's thinking they're sheep...but he had so much fun! He also enjoyed the baby kittens, which I think may have been the first cats he's ever seen in real life, since mommie and daddy are both allergic. This was such a fun morning! I forgot to bring my camera with me, so these are all from my phone, but if my friend is able to send me some of her pics, I'll post those too.

some advice requested...

we were talking tonight about an issue we can see creeping into our family with this rambunctious 110% boy....hitting...we are a little unsure how to teach him NOT to hit others....but still preserve the fun roughousing father/son time that he and Daddy enjoy. This isn't a major problem yet, but we want to take care of it before it becomes a big deal...we don't want to get a report from childcare at the church nursery or cbs that he's been too rough with the other children...and thankfully, we haven't had any problem with angry hitting, just playful/mischevious swats so far. So we are wondering...what are some things that our family and friends have tried to keep hitting out of the home as much as possible. Feel free to leave a comment or send an email, we value your advice. Thanks!

A Boy and his accessories...and dance moves

For much of the weekend and so far this week, Jack has walked around with this hat on his head and the sword in one hand and the mini baseball bat (we call it a turkey leg) in the other hand. I'm not sure why he feels the need to carry all this around, but it's really cute. At one point the items even got separated and Jack got the sword out of his room, and the bat out of the dining room, and came into the kitchen to find me. I said "Jack, where's the hat, do you have your hat?" to which he looked at me, shook his head, and then went off in search of the hat. A moment later he emerged from the bonus room, hat on his head and swigning implements in hand. Ad you can see from the video, he can be quite enthusiastic with his sword. So far it's been fun for him and Josh to roughhouse and swat at each other, but I'm trying to not let him do it to me (not that I don't think it's cute, but I want him to know the difference between rough playing and normal playing and that you can't play like that with everyone, besides, I've heard too many stories about kids who think its fun to hit their parents....don't wanna go there...but if it's ok with Daddy to play rough, it's ok with me!)

He and Daddy also had fun "dancing" this weekend. Jack still wanted to hold on to his toys, but we could get him to do a little jive with his feet....it may be a little hard to see in the video, but he's "dancing" when it looks like he's walking really fast....that's his dance move. Unfortunately with my shaky camera work it seems like the camera is doing more dancing than he is...but trust me, he can bust a move! :)

new furniture....

Jack got his very own easy chair this weekend. We were at Hibbett Sports getting shoes for Daddy, when I saw these football helmet chairs. I plopped Jack in one to entertain him while Daddy was picking out his new shoes, and the guy at the store said "you know those are marked down from $40 to $9 right?" I got really excited, because I've been looking for something like this for Jack so he doesn;t sit hunched over when he watches his (limited) tv shows. So with a few laughs and smiles, and mommie batting her eyes at daddy, we talked him into it (even though it was actually $9.97...but hey, I'm a sucker for anything under $10!) This morning Josh got up with Jack and when I emerged into the bonus room Jack was sprawled out in the chair just like a little man. It was so cute, I wish I had gotten a picture of that too! Isn't this just the perfect little boy chair? Josh said "At least it has Titans colors in it..."

We had a picnic

Except for Friday, the weather this week was AMAZING! I was a bit confused that almost every day they called for rain, and it may have sprinkled at night, but the days were so beautiful. I guess I put too much trust in weather.com...most of the time I only trust them for today and maybe tomorrow...but lately they have been WAAY off! I hate to say that too, since one of my friends from High School is MARRIED to a weather man...but he does the weather in Arkansas....which doesn't help me much out here!

Jack and I went for a 2 mile walk/stroll 3 days this past week. We were outside as much as possible (on our beautiful, child safe deck!) I had been wanting for him to eat outside on his new little picnic table, so Thursday I got up the courage to try it. The actual table has a lot of gaps in it, so I found the top to a plastic bin to put over the table and he sat out there and ate as big as day! I was so proud of him!

a whole buncha pictures...

I know it's been a little while since I posted pictures...one reason is because..well...I'm spoiled. When we moved we signed up for new internet/satellite/phone service and got suckered into the deal to get a "free" mini laptop. I actually LOVE the thing, since I can check my email anywhere in the house now...even though they weren't kidding when they said "mini"....the keyboard is a little hard to get used too....so I've been using the itty bitty computer most days, which isn't hooked up with our camera. Normally it wouldn't be a big deal to go into the room with the big computer and camera set up...but it's a DISASTER AREA! It's where all the "stuff" got shoved...stuff we're not sure about, that needs to be gone through and sorted, that needed to be outta sight for the gathering earlier in the week...coming into this room means taking your life into your own hands...but since I love all my loyal readers...I took the risk. So here are a whole lotta pictures.

Here is our formal living room now that it is all done up...it turned out so much nicer than I imagined...thanks to a lot of help! I LOVE this room...it's so peaceful and orderly...it's where I go to do my Bible Study, or write in my journal or write notes to people...and as I discovered yesterday, it's a GREAT place to take a nap on a rainy day while the little guy is sleeping.

Below is the wall opposite the fireplace in the living room. As I was going through boxes of photos, I noticed how many I have in black and white, so I thought a grouping might be fun. I've seen them in magazines, but always felt REALLY intimidated by them...I just felt like I was way to symmetrically minded to make a nice grouping...but with my fellow symmetrically minded buddy Bethany, I can see that it is possible. Some are random candid photos, some are formal family photos and some are pieces of art from the artists in our family...Hannah and Rachel. Hopefully Bethany will have something to add up there soon too. I love this grouping!

Here is our dining room. I'm really not wild about the wallpaper, but it's not TERRIBLY bad..as Sharon said, "it's 'Old Lady' but totally livable"..figuring out how to get all this wallpaper down and some nice neutral paint up will be a future project. With some encouragement I was even able to get most of my maroon dining room decor out for the party the other night...still not sure that it goes perfectly, but I wasn't going to go out and buy more to match the ill-fated wallpaper.

Here is another favorite room in the house, the BONUS room. We think it was a garage at some point, but for us it is where Jack can make as much a mess as he wants, and I don't have to totally STRESS about cleaning it up all the time. This room is such a blessing to us!

AND, "badum-bump-ching" I started a garden! I still haven't told Josh how much I spent at Lowes the other day, and thankfully he hasn't asked...(it was more than I planned on spending...but I'm growing FOOD, so it was an investment...right?) This really is a scary endeavor for me...I know I'm being silly, but I'm trying to take a deep breath and get over it. My mom laughed when I called her for a pep talk from Lowes and told her I was picking out which plants to kill....maybe all this rain we've had the past few days will help alleviate my fears.

I've planted 4 different kinds of tomatoes. (I LOVE LOVE LOVE FRESH TOMATOES!)

3 different kinds of peppers-red bell, green bell and jalapeno
3 different kinds of herbs-cilantro, parsley and lots of basil
and 2 different melons-watermelon and canteloupe.
Josh laughed at me because these things are scattered around our yard...some in the ground on one end of the house, some in pots on the deck and some in the ground near our deck. What he doesn't know is that I have my eye on one more spot closer to the front of the house to maybe plant some squash and zucchini....

It was amazingly satisfying to be outside in the fresh air and sun getting filthy. I think part of it was that I was out there because I WANTED to be out there...not because my parent's told me too...like when I had to weed the garden as a teenager and complained the whole time!

I had so much fun being outside digging in the dirt that I even did some excavating. While I was softening up the soil for the melons I discovered that we have a brick border around our landscaping, so when I was done planting, I scraped the soil off the bricks. Still needs to be tidied up, and then on to the front for some brick excavating.

This is probably my favorite part of our backyard. I don't think I've posted a picture of this yet...we have a nice sized cherry tree in the back, and underneath is a nice strong limb for Jack's swing. There is just enough rooms for me to stand under there and just enough room to push him in his swing. I feel like it's our secret hiding place.

Thanks for going on a tour of our (almost) finished home! Sorry this post is so long...oh, I guess I didn't post any pictures of the one you REALLY came to see....here he is snuggling with his favorite doggie...and he surprised me yesterday by climbing into that chair all by himself! One minute he was standing in the kitchen...I turn to look outside at the rain, I turn around and he's up in the chair!: (he's really not as annoyed as he looks in the picture, it's just the face the camera caught)