Vacuum

Jack is always willing to help me vacuum.  He loves the attachments and will wander around the house,sucking up Cheerios, dust bunnies, and anything he can find.

I found him doing this last time he was helping.  Is winter almost over? I think he's going stir-crazy.

Put him to work

For awhile I wasn't able to keep Jack away from the toilet.  Every time I turned my back he was in the bathroom splashing in the toilet, or filling it up with whatever he could get his hands on.  So I decided to put his fascination to good use.  

After looking through my pictures, I realized that Jack actually has a lot of jobs around the house.  Here are a few pictures of him hard at work.  

He's still a great coffee maker

Buttering the bundt pan - and yes, he's tasting the butter

He begged to hold the shovel and then cried when it got too cold

Making his own pizzas

Cleaning the fridge

First crop of the season

Today we picked strawberries for the first time this season.  We had about 10 ripe berries and Jack ate quite a few of those before we could get them inside to wash them off.  I really didn't mind that he was eating the dirty fruit, but I didn't enjoy that he popped most of them in his mouth without allowing us to take off the stems first.  Yup, he ate the whole strawberry:  dirt, berry, stem, and all.

The spice cabinet

I can't tell you exactly why, but Jack's favorite place to play in our kitchen is the spice cabinet.  You can frequently find him pulling out the spice jars, giving them a shake, a little sniff, and sometimes a lick.  I've learned to keep the cayenne up high!

While I was taking a work-related phone call recently, Jack wandered off into the kitchen.  I assumed he was searching through the containers of cinnamon and nutmeg, and that he was happily entertaining himself.  I had no idea that he had found the one jar with a semi-broken lid and had managed to open, pour, and play.  He was happily entertaining himself -- just in a different way than I had originally imagined.

Here are a few shots of his encounter with the espresso powder.  Luckily he slept just fine after this dose of caffeine, and the mess wasn't anything that the vacuum couldn't pickup in a few seconds.  I am so thankful that at that moment I was in the right mood to laugh, grab the camera, and make a bit of a mess with him!

We're alive and well...

I'm sorry to be so behind on my blogging.  We've been busy around here:  Jacob's finishing the basement, Jack is on the move, and I am growing a baby.  Whew!

I'll do my best to fill you in on what we've been up to:

The weather has been hit or miss lately and we've tried to get outside as often as possible.  Jack loves getting out his sidewalk chalk, but I'm not sure that he understands exactly what it's for.  Occasionally he'll scribble on the ground, but he typically prefers to taste the chalk, inspect the chalk, and put the chalk back into the box.  Oh well, at least we're outside!

On the days that we're stuck inside, we've tried to be crafty.  After we colored the pasta last month we strung a necklace.  I tied the string to the end of a crayon and Jack was able to get the noodles onto the necklace by himself.  (Well, he got the noodles onto the crayon and I helped him to finish it up.)

And then there are the days when we need to just kick back and relax.  Jack is pretty good at that:

I've got a ton of fun pictures and videos on my phone that I'm having trouble uploading.  I hope to get them up soon and I'll share Jack's newest milestones!  

Cleaning and Hiding

Jack helped me clean out the lazy susan yesterday.  He was very helpful:  he organized the tea box, put the sweet n' lows in the towel drawer, dumped and ate cheerios and oatmeal, and helped me dust by using his pjs as a dust rag.

Jack isn't showing any interest in learning to stand with our help... but he obviously can give it a try when he's in the mood!

We've noticed that Jack has an interest in 'putting things places".  I don't have a better term for it, but basically he likes to put toys and other objects in his favorite hiding spots.  This is a great skill when it's time to clean up toys, and he's been a big help when doing laundry!  Often, if he's missing a block or a Little People animal, I'll find it behind the DVR.  He also likes to scoot over to the landing and put his cars on the first step.  Yesterday I caught him hiding his train blocks under the chair in the living room.  I'm not sure why he likes to do this, and we've found toys hidden in random places throughout the house.  He even managed to toss a bottle of conditioner down a vent last month.  (Luckily Jacob was able to follow the vent and find it in the basement.)

Here's a quick peak at one of his favorite hiding places: