Thirsty

All's well in the Fleming household this month. I've been at my new job for two weeks, and it's great so far! It's going to be such a good fit, with new and interesting work every day. We had a little hiccup last week when, on my first day at the new job, Jack's day care called and asked us to come get him because he had pink eye! After staying home on Tuesday, Jack went back to day care on Wednesday. By Thursday night, he had a fever, so we went back to the doctor on Friday. Diagnosis: double ear infection! Poor guy. He was kind of a mess on Friday and Saturday, but by Sunday he was back to his happy self.

This weekend my dad is visiting, which is apparently just in time to see Jack's latest trick:

I swear we didn't teach him this! He saw me get a beer for Dad and apparently wanted to do the same. I'm thinking we'll need to put this skill to use.

Hiking

This weekend we took our first Jack with hike this summer. We had a hand-me-down hiking backpack that we've been anxious to try. Once Jeff got the straps adjusted so they were comfortable, it was a great hike. We only went about 2 miles to make sure that Jack did okay, and he did great! He almost fell asleep, and this weekend we're hoping to go on a bit longer journey.

Summer Vacation

Happy summer! We had a wonderful vacation to Iowa a couple of weeks ago filled with lots of family, friends, good food, drinking, and lots of hot weather. We started the first weekend with a haircut for Jack. He had the cutest curls in the back, but they were looking pretty mullet-y.

The finished product looked much, much better, and with the humid weather in Iowa we could see that he's still going to have some curl. He also looks much more grown-up. We definitely have a toddler on our hands now.

We helped celebrate Dave and Bev's new marriage and Dave's retirement with the whole Lenoch clan. Our attempts to get a great-grandchild picture were pretty funny, but this one turned out well.

Jack got to take his first boat ride and dip in the Res with our friends Jason and Tina. He wasn't so sure about the water, but loved standing up on the floor of the boat when it was going fast! Perhaps we should be worried about him liking the feel of the wind through his hair!

We also got to spend a day in Burlington with the Colgan family. Jack wasn't sure about what to think about Uncle Jim's puppies and had more fun playing with the puppies' toys than playing with the puppies themselves.

After our day in Burlington, we got to spend the rest of the week relaxing and doing not much of anything. We ended the week with a visit from Scott, AnnMarie, and Connor. Connor was definitely more interested in playing with Jack than the other way around, but in another year, they'll have a great time playing together!

Thank you to everyone that made our vacation so relaxing and fun. After the crazy June we had, it was the perfect way to celebrate Nike's trial victory and new job. As most of you know, Nike finished her job at Kennedy Childs & Fogg last week and starts at University of Colorado next week! She's very excited about the opportunity to be at a university and we are all excited about what should be more "life" in her work-life balance.

Smooches

Lots of things going on around here, but not enough time to write about them! Now that Nike is a little less busy at work, we'll have more time to add more pictures. Until then, here's a video we took a week or so ago.

Pool season!

We bought a blow-up pool for Jack this weekend. He was kind of skeptical at first, but warmed up pretty quick. I didn't get any pictures of him in it all the way, but this morning he played on the edge for a while. He likes to try to grab the water with his thumb and first finger and pinch it and then carry it somewhere. I see lots of sunny days on the patio in our future this summer!

Dizzy dizzy

Not much happening here this past month. The weather is finally starting to clear up and let us get outside. While I've been busy with work, Jeff and Jack have taken great trips to the zoo and children's museum. Two weekends ago we got a great visit from Grandma Jane and Grandpa Randy. Jeff and I had tickets to the U2 concert, which was incredible! Grandma Janet comes this weekend to help out and see Jack's latest tricks. Jack is as happy as ever. He is so much fun! He's not saying many words, but is starting to get better at repeating sounds back to you. He can also point to his belly and his toes. His favorite thing to do is dance and listen to music. He knows what the ipod and tv do, and if neither is on, says "ma, ma" for "more" until we turn some music on. The video below is from last weekend. I can't remember if there was music on in the other room or not, but all of a sudden Jeff and I were talking about something, and we look down, and Jack is turning in circles, making himself dizzy. It was pretty hilarious.

Happy Spring!

As I took these most recent pictures and videos off our camera, I realized we hardly took any pictures this month. Probably because we spent a good part of the month sick again! Jack got the flu in mid-April, and Grandma Jane came to the rescue to help us out. Luckily Jeff and I stayed well, and Jack recovered pretty quickly. Grandma Jane got to see plenty of happy and healthy Jack before she went home. (Of course I didn't get any good pictures, so the pictures below are just pictures of us hanging out.)

For Easter, Grandma Janet, Grandpa Steve, and Uncle James came to visit. We didn't let Jack have any of our candy for Easter, but as you'll see in the video below, he loved the plastic eggs he could use as rattles.

Jack is signing "all done," and now he can say it too. He uses sign language for "more," and not only uses it when he wants more food, but also for other things that he wants. Today he wanted to be picked up, and he used "more." It's so much fun to watch him try to find ways to communicate what he wants.

This other video is Jack with a sippy cup. Day care wants us to transition him away from the bottle, so all of last weekend, we kept putting it in front of him, and he wanted nothing to do with it. Then when Jeff and I were in the other room later at night, Jack got in the drawer with all of his dishes and pulled a sippy cup out. We looked over and he was putting it up to his mouth. We quickly put some juice in one cup and some water in another, and he spent the rest of the night carrying around his two sippy cups! It was a good reminder to Jeff and I that sometimes we need to let him do things at his own pace.