Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite

Another week with a doctor's appointment but this time it was just Jack's 15 month appointment. Despite his bout with meningitis, he was absolutely healthy and his stats were 22 lbs 12 oz (30th percentile) and 30-3/4 inches long (40th percentile) - his weight was a little off but only because he lost a few pounds when he was sick, no concerns though. (His head is huge and he is in the 70th percentile for head size!) On the development front, Jack is now feeding himself with a fork when he feels like it, he had pasta tonight. He makes a zoom noise when he plays with cars and makes growling noises when playing with dinasours and other animal figurines. Whenever we saw a dog yesterday on the path, he made barking noises, he loves dogs and think they all sound like Ivan. He is a dancing machine and any time there is even a hint of music on the television or heard in a store, he shakes his bum or bops his head. Lily has a microphone attached to a tape recorder that he loves to talk into. He seems to be trying to say some words like ball and dog but nothing we can really make out at this point. He can go up stairs no problem but has problems going down, he seems to think someone will always be there to catch him. He definitely is not a very good eater, he likes lots of meats and carbs but not a lot of veggies and fruits, we are working on it though. He essentially refuses to eat anything that we feed him from a spoon and still refuses a banana in the morning. He drinks lots of milk though, and loves to walk around with his sippy cup.

Lily continues to say and do hilarious things on a regular basis, lots of eye rolling and sighs these days towards her parents. She has made some fabulous art in the past few weeks, we will try to get some pics on the blog soon, so much more detail it seems every week. She likes to make up songs, and sing into her microphone. Today, she picked berries, leaves, and grass and put them in a bag for her teacher Ms. Linda - she seemed to think her teacher would know what to do with her concoction.

On Friday, Lily, Mom and Jack hit the zoo with Grandma Gail - we saw lions, gorillas including a 3 month old baby gorilla, elephants, etc. Lily and Jack especially had fun playing in the prairie dog playground tunnels, they could have stayed there all day. Friday afternoon, the kids played in the backyard with neighbors Madeleine and Claire. Madeleine and Lily had a picnic in the second floor of the playhouse, this is really the first time that Lily has really ventured up there and we anticipate that she may become a permanent fixture now that there are pillows, blankets, and her mother to serve her treats!

On Saturday morning, Lily had swim lessons and then went downtown with Dad to the 43rd Annual Smithsonian Kite Festival where she flew her Nemo kite. Many people wanted to know where they got the Nemo kite and when Stuart tried to tell the first person Amazon.com, Lily corrected him and told them it was from Santa, so that was the answer he stuck with the rest of the day. If you recall from our December post, she had specifically asked Santa for and received a kite for Christmas! Anyways, despite the rainy/cloudy weather she had a blast flying her kite as you can see from the pics, and we swear that the speck of Nemo made the front page of the Sunday Washington Post. (BTW, Mom and Jack stayed home in the warmth and one took quite a long nap while the other one cleaned house.) Saturday evening, Dad's friend Nick from work came over with his wife Jackie and son Cannon, who is 10 months old - Lily and Jack had fun showing off all of their toys.

On Sunday brought some much nicer weather, and Mom, Lily and Jack went on a bike/stroller ride. Lily played a bit in the creek and Jack has to be watched very carefully around the creek as he would just jump right in - he is going to be a nightmare at the lake this year! Sunday night we had a visit by Grandpa Maurice and Grandma Phyllis, had some Italian food, and Lily and Grandma Phyl spent a lot of time playing games in the basement.

Pics of Jack are pretty limited this week. He would not stay still for any zoo pics, and then Mom's camera died the rest of the trip.


Checking out the lions.


Eating lunch at the Washington Monument.


With Dad.


Getting Nemo ready to fly.


Flying Nemo.


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Close to the monument.