Three Vignettes

vin-ˈyet (n): a brief incident or scene

Jack is preparing for Halloween already. Last year, he was a pumpkin, which was adorable. It seems this year, he wants to pick his own costume (see third video), in spite of the fact that his Nana and I have already chosen THE cutest costume we could find. First, a clip of his scary smartness. Second, a gory episode. Third, his remake of a holiday classic: "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!"

1.
How many other 14-month-olds can do THIS?! LOL Take that, "Your Baby Can Read!" Unfortunately, we missed the best part of it. This is near the end of the treatment, when he was getting tired of holding the mask on his face. Bear in mind that these things take upwards of 5 minutes, which is a long time when you have a play date with Dora.



2.
Now, on to the early Halloween stuff.
Here we see a scene where Jack has evidently decided to get an head start on the dissection portion of his biology classes.



3.
And lastly, we see the reason that we've all been so sick over the past year. Obviously, this house is haunted.



It seems the only solution is to call others of his kind who might persuade him to hang out in the pumpkin patch instead of our house...

Career Day

Jack has recently been considering several future careers. Here are a few of the possibilities so far:

Policeman
He and "The Boys" (a.k.a. Bailey and Bryson, his cousins) had this notorious criminal (also known as my dad or "Doodah") surrounded in no time. Please note that at 14 months Jack is trying to ride the scooter. More on this later in the post


Scout
Fearless in high places, he thinks he might have a future in scouting out safe areas to hold barbecues and pitch tents.


Off-Road Racer
Shortly after this was taken, he followed Jeff back out into the garage and climbed up on the 4-wheeler (his cousin's) all by himself. The boy is mesmerized by ANYTHING motorized. Motorcycles. Scooters. Four-wheelers. Lawn mowers. We are in so much trouble...


Doctor
Every time he goes to the doctor (which is, unfortunately, pretty often), he wants to play with the instruments, stethoscopes, etc. FINALLY, his lung specialist's P.A. gave him her stethoscope and then let him play with this nose-looker-inner-thingy (yes, that's the technical name). Oh joy! She also helped us set up an action plan for handling his asthma, and gave us a prescription for an inhaler that will make treatment time a little easier. Yippee!


Archaeologist
I don't think I really need to say anything about this one...

Gall's Well That Ends Well

Just posting the promised before and after pics from my surgery. Amazing what minor procedures can do these days...

Before:



After:

Of All the Gall...

So over the last couple of weeks, while we've been waiting for my gallbladder surgery, loads of people have helped us with Jack. One of our good friends sent him home with this "electric" guitar, which is now a permanent part of his body. Look out U2!

Check out our boy:

The other thing that's been great about gallstones is that people have been feeding our family. Yes, folks, home cooking! We have been overwhelmed with deliciousness! (Homemade bread, anyone?) By the second or third meal of this amazing food, Jack got so excited that we just put him on the counter so we could eliminate the whole high chair step. (Ha!)



To celebrate my surgery, we were finally able to move back into our house today, after three months of "suffering" living in the country. Jeff's parents' house was like a gorgeous vacation home for us, but we're happy to be back in our own territory (where Jeff can walk to work instead of driving 30 minutes). Jackson was very helpful with the boxes and clothes.



He was also very helpful in the "Generally Amazingly Cute" Category.



And finally, as much as I hate to do it, I'm posting a picture of myself with the boy, because I want you all to remember what I looked like when I still had my gallbladder. I'm sure after tomorrow I'll look completely different. (At least maybe I'll have a happier expression on my face!)