Fun After One...

We've been having a lot of fun with Jackson, and he's developing quite the little personality. Here are some shots from the past month, along with 2 videos that simply crack us up! We caught Jackson in a moment of sweet adoration of his Opa, and peaceful playtime with bodhi. This is followed by a video of him extremely proud of himself that he can manipulate his music table to play his favorite song (must watch with the sound to see his expression when Kevin calls him out), and finally - a video that we're sure to pull out at his rehearsal dinner or when he becomes a rock star: Jackson headbanging at 1 year. We think he's tossing his hair back and forth, and he and Kevin get into a McDreamy and Baby McDreamy toss-off!

Jackson is crawling!

As you surely have surmised from earlier posts, Jackson is a big boy. So he has not done too much in the crawling department, and we suspect he might also have low muscle tone, which means he just wasn't strong enough to haul around those tree trunk thighs. He was doing commando crawling over the past few weeks, but not able to get that tummy off the floor. All of that changed the afternoon of September 2nd. Here's the the play-by-play, inspired by Kevin as he completes his fantasy football draft next to me while I type:

2 pm - Jennie gets call from nanny that Jackson just crawled 4 steps
2:15 pm - Jennie arrives home to see for herself, doubtful
2:17 pm - Jennie and Gigi are cheering a bewildered Jackson for crawling about 10 feet, who doesn't get what all the fuss is about. Gigi is praising God. Jennie is doing her own endzone dance, which involves a lot of kissing Jackson, who is performing a combination of hugging and squirming to get away and crawl some more.
5:30 pm - Kevin arrives home and witnesses the kid crawl all the way across the room - touchdown!

By popular demand, here's the instant replay. You can see the interference from Bodhi in the beginning, who clearly wanted a piece of the action and some credit for being a good cheerleader, or at least for helping inspire our little MVP.

Score: Jackson: 1, Parents' free time hereafter: 0. But we'll take it!

The Big One!

Jackson got to celebrate his big 1st birthday not once, not twice, but 3 times to satisfy fans on the south, west, and right in our own backyard. We started the birthday festivities in Virginia Beach with Kevin's mom's annual beach house trip to Sandbridge, where Jackson quickly won over the crowd of ladies with (as Cousin Johnny is quick to point out) a nice blend of Irish and Jewish charm. He loved hanging with RoRo and Gigi and all the girls!

Next, we were off to LA to celebrate with Zeidi and Nana in Santa Monica, and watch Uncle Mark get married. It was great to spend some time at the beach, walking the boardwalk, and then getting to see all of Kevin's old med school roomies and friends, who are now official doctors out in the world. A scary thought based on some of the weekend's activities:) But we had a great time and Mark and Lauren looked so happy - congrats guys!




And last but not least, the DC celebration - for what's a baby celebrity without 3 separate festivities, complete with wardrobe changes. For this version, we had Mozzie, Opa, Uncle Eric, Aunt Eve, Dylan, Daisy, and DC friends and neighbors. At the bottom is a shot of Jackson's friends from Stroller Strides, whom he's known from the very beginning - Connor (with Graeme) and Kinsley (with Jenny). Thanks to everyone for making his bday so special!

Boys Will Be Boys

I find it very funny that Jackson is LOVING trucks right now. Ever since he saw his cousin Carson drive a truck across the carpet while visiting Aunt Sarah, he cannot get enough of driving his toy car. And fish. And toy box top. And yesterday? Ah yes, it was a piece of cheese that he drove across his highchair. Guess it really is in the DNA! And no, he didn't stop to ask for directions.

And on the topic of boys, congrats to Aunt Sarah for having little Vance! We have been waiting for him for so long and are just thrilled that he's here safe and sound - not to mention healthy and huge and adorable:)

Summer Fun!

Our summer has been off to a great start; particularly since Kevin graduated and is home most of the time when he's not busy studying for boards (which fall on my birthday at the end of July).

In May, our interfaith gathering had a welcoming ceremony for babies, where they blessed Jackson and the other kids with holy water and a prayer shawl and said both Jewish and Christian blessings for his well-being.



We had Kevin's whole family in town for graduation; here's a shot of Jax with Nana and Zeidi (and Snuggles), and getting in some storytime!

And so far, we have a little fish who loves the water - he dunked his face in twice last weekend without prompting!

And we celebrated the 4th of July by taking our little firecracker to Cville for a stay at the Boar's Head, to celebrate being able to just get away as a family at the drop of a hat - finally! We went to the pool, ate outside on the downtown mall and listened to street performers at Fridays after Five, went to the spa, and just celebrated our independence from daddy's pager. Here's our little wahoo checking out his future residence on the Lawn from the Rotunda, a shot of he and daddy eating chips in bed together, and some Fourth of July fun!

Daddy's Done!!!

After 4 years of undergrad, 4 years of med school, and 6 long years of residency...Kevin graduated! We are so proud of his achievement and took in plenty of events to commemorate the occasion. First, I snuck Jackson to the portrait studio for some Father's Day/Graduation pictures in his full scrubs - he was quite the ham and definitely the hit of the session! Kevin's department threw a black tie roast at the Four Seasons, where both of our families enjoyed numerous compliments on Kevin's abilities, a really heartfelt thank you speech, and plenty of teasing. Finally, we celebrated the last day of residency with a bbq-blow out including a bluegrass band, face painters, balloon animals, and cake with our friends Fred and Jesse (who was also graduating from residency) complete with a 'gravy train' cake and matching train whistles. The long ride has ended! And we are so proud of you babe - you deserve a lot of credit for some tough work and a job well done:)

Jackson Takes Cville

So I do, in theory, understand the concept of a blog. That you are supposed to post things all the time, as a web log of your life. Seeing as though we've had quite a lot going on, I think the best I can hope for is an update every few months - way to set the bar high. We recently went back to Cville for my 10 year reunion at UVa and Jackson had a great time (as did we!). He got to visit the lawn, see mom's sorority house, have lunch at Take It Away, hang out with Aunt Kelly, visit with his pal Jack Weber (and Steph and Ken) and...here's the kicker...stay up until 10:30 and still slept through the night and in late the next morning. Apparently he wanted to keep it real and be true to mom and dad's old college ways - and we were extremely thankful (as was the rest of the hotel). Here are some shots from the trip - Jackson on the lawn, and back to the garden of Pavilion 6, where his parents got engaged:)