Jack's One Year Portraits

Just thought I'd share...

Photos by Megan Bradley http://clandestineimages.com

Swimming Lessons

When I was a kid, I took swimming lessons every summer. At the end of the course all of my friends would get certificates with gold stars indicating that they passed that particular level and had could move on to the next. My certificate never had the gold star, but to spare my feelings, my mom would always put me in the next level so I could be with my friends. Needless to say, I've never been terribly good at swimming.

Michael, on the other hand, is a pretty good swimmer. He was even on the swim team in Jr. High :). A couple of years ago he tried unsuccessfully to teach me how to swim. It's not like I'm going to drown... I just really struggle with my technique.

All that changed this week. On Monday, I took my first swimming lesson as an adult. I've had 4 lessons so far and I feel like I'm improving. My breast and back strokes are alright, but I've been struggling with the free style. Well, last night, it just clicked...it's like everything just came together all of the sudden. I am now looking forward to swimming as a means of cross training. Maybe someday, I'll do a triathalon.

Happy Birthday to Jack

This post is long overdue... Jack turned 1 year old on January 22nd. Here are a few pics of his birthday party.



He is such a good little boy. He recently started using walking as his primary source of getting around. He can follow me so fast now. He is a happy and healthy little guy. His favorite things to do are play with anything round "ba" (ball), play with his light-up, noise making basketball hoop, play with cars "oommmmm" (vroom), read books with mom and dad, and hug and pat his stuffed animals.

I also recently discovered that he is quite a fan of chocolate milk... We were at Costco and he was enjoying himself with the smorgasbord of samples. One of them was a little paper cup of chocolate milk. I gave him a sip. He tasted chocolate milk for the first time and you would have thought he had died and gone to heaven. He grabbed the cup away from me, drank the whole thing, smashed the cup into his face and started licking what remained while saying "mmm...mmm...mmm."


It sure has been a fun year getting to know our sweet little boy. We love him so much and enjoy having him in our family.

A Feeling

Do you ever get the feeling... that craving for change? Over the last few days, I have this anxious, nagging feeling in the bottom of my stomach. I can't tell if it's the "something is coming" feeling, or the "I wish something would come" feeling.
A lot of people are scared of change. I'm not normally one of those people. I kind of like big changes like moving or getting a new job. I view them as a chance to start over. I don't know if any big changes are coming any time soon, but I've got a few little things brewing in my pot of change...
-I'm trying to improve my body (who's not?). I've learned some new things to do with weights and the ball and figured out a way to do a lot of it at home.
-I am trying to improve my overall health through healthy eating. For Christmas I received a subscription to the Cooking Light magazine, a knife block, and an apron with chickens on it. I have vowed to try one new healthy recipe each week.
-I am trying NAET www.naet.com to get rid of my restless leg syndrome. This is an eastern therapy that is supposed to reduce your sensitivity to chemicals, foods, hormones, etc. I am also being treated for a variety of emotions and my voo-doo witch doctor claims that it can help with morning sickness. I'll do a more in depth post about this at a later time.
-I'm starting a collection of essential oils. My friend Maria sent me some samples a couple of months ago. I've been studying the properties of many of the essential oils and am intrigued enough to try them out. I'll keep you posted on this as well.
Perhaps these are my little new year resolutions. Whatever they are, I hope these little changes help me to improve myself and my life.

First Haircut

Before...


After...

The Holidays

December was a busy month for us. We had a great time with our families and we really enjoyed our holiday season. Here are the highlights:

-Santa Jack...I'm pretty sure this hat was made for a dog, but I made Jack wear it to every Christmas Party we attended.



- We participated in a Sub-for-Santa with the Bird siblings. It was a lot of fun picking out toys for kids who might not get much for Christmas.

-Temple Square Lights and Secret Dinner... It is a Bird Family tradition to go to dinner and see the lights at Temple Square once a year. This year, the eating establishment of choice for this excursion was Cafe Rio. I enjoy a good pork salad just as much as the next person, but come on... there is a Cafe Rio on every street corner in our own neck of the woods. Nobody in the family really cares what Michael and I think, so we didn't even try to object. Instead, we politely called and told them we wouldn't be able to make it to dinner, but that we would meet them afterwards for the lights. We then promptly headed to Z Tejas, where we enjoyed delicious food that we can't have just any old time.



-Spent time with the Cornell cousins. My sister, Tara and her family came out to visit from Colorado. Jack had a great time playing with his cousins. He especially liked taking toys away from Baby Blake.

-Opened presents on Christmas morning... Jack like the wrapping paper, but lost interest after 1 present. He got lots of fun toys from his parents, grandparents, and aunts and uncles.

10 Months Old

Jack has been crawling for a little over 2 months now. He is very good at it. He follows me around the house as I get my work done. He likes to open cupboards, drawers, and doors. He likes to explore new parts of the house. He likes to climb up the staris, but has not yet mastered coming down.
Jack loves to eat. If he sees me put something into my mouth without offering him a bite he becomes very upset. His favorites are graham crackers, gold fish, and fruit puffs.
He learned how to play patty-cake and wave bye-bye. He says "ma-ma" and "ba-ba" and makes an assortment of other random noises. He likes to be with his mommy and daddy. They make him laugh pretty hard.
He is such a good boy and we love him so much. It has been a wonderful 10 months with him in our family.
Here are some pics of what he's been up to.

Drinking juice with his feet up...


Unrolling all the toilet paper...


Getting into the cupboards...


Sleeping...


Looking adorable in his new winter hat...