DeCair Family Update.

Hi Everyone!
It has been awhile since have updated our family blog.  Jack is almost 21 months old now. Crazy how quickly time goes by.  Both Colin and I had a very busy spring/summer at work.  Some updates from the summer:

• Colin was involved in the Champaign Freedom Festival (4th of July).
• For Father's Day we went to the Zoo and had a picnic.
• I hosted a conference on the ILLINOIS campus of 1800 people from around the country and world.  Our biggest in the past few years was 600 people.
• We took Jack swimming for the first time - he LOVED it! He loves splashing in the water. 
• For my birthday we took a trip to St. Louis to go to the zoo.  Jack got to spend his first night in a hotel and had a blast!
• We planted a garden and got lots of tomatoes and cucumbers from it.  Sadly the broccoli and peas did not work out. When we go outside, Jack always runs to the garden, it is really cute.  He enjoys holding the watering can and picking unripened cherry tomatoes. 
• In August, we adopted a 3 month old kitten.  Her name is Bailey and she has tiger markings. She is a bit wild, but likes to cuddle... and randomly bite. We are working with her.  She might end up an outdoor kitty. 

Jack is doing awesome.  He is talking up a storm and can repeat most words.  He can repeat the alphabet letters after we say them and he is understanding patterns to counting. He knows to say "1,2,3, ,6,7,8,9,10"  (we are working on 4 and 5).  He finally started getting more teeth. Woot!  His favorite foods are fruits and vegetables (green beans and broccoli).  Meat can be a challenge depending on how it is prepared.  Colin and I are sticking to giving him all different types of foods to continue making him open to more natural and healthy foods (that helps Mom and Dad too!).  He follows instructions so he helps with the clean up of his toys.  He has starting pushing boundaries, so he now knows what time out is. He loves to go outside.  As soon as we get home, he goes right to the back door and grabs on the door knob and says 'outside?' We recently got him an orange trick or treat bucket for Halloween and we are teaching him to say "trick or treat!" Jack loves music and dancing.  We try to sing and dance with him a lot - that's pretty easy for us as we both love music too!

Dancing 

Jack loves to call both Colin and I, Mommy.  He says Daddy too.

Feeding the goats at Curtis Orchard.

Repeating the alphabet.

Jack Videos Part II

More videos off of my phone:

A snapshot of Jack's silliness 

Jack loves cards from family! 

Jack 'dances' by wiggling.

Order is important to Jack.  Organizing his poofs.

Jack Videos

Here are some videos of my silly boy:

He put the cup up to his mouth and was intrigued by the different sound his voice made in the cup. 

In February, we had a warmer day and took Jack to the park.  He loves the swings. 

Jack making a mess... a clean mess, but nonetheless a mess. Funny boy.  

Jack playing on his music/activity table.  He loves this toy. 

Jack's 1 Year Photos

Little Jack is getting so big!  He is learning so much. Lately he's tottling and walking (with assistance) all around our house. He is very talkative and loves to reply to us with toddler yeah's and no's when we ask him questions. When I do colors with him (I pick out a color and point out everything in the room that is that color), I love how he listens so intently and sucks it all in.  He plays very well on his own and loves to pull out books and quietly look at all the pages.  He's starting to take direction well also.  I'll ask him to stack two wooden blocks or put a ball down a slide and he does it! It all amazes me, he was a tiny baby a year ago. When music is on, he claps and dances.  He is such a good baby, when we go out in public he smiles and waves at people who pass by.  He is my little blessing.
Here are his 1 year photos.

Sweet smile.

So serious...

He looks so grown up here

Happy Valentine's Day!

A couple weeks ago we did some fun Valentine's Day pictures with Jack.  I wanted to get them done early so that I could capitalize on a Shutterfly promotion (of course, like always!).  We had a blast taking pictures of my little dude. Happy early Valentine's Day from Jack!

Updated Pics of Jack

Jack's 1st Birthday

Pictures from Jack's 1st birthday party.  There are many - 

mostly because Jack is learning new expressions and I think they are adorable.  

They really show his personality, which is awesome. 

So this post is very picture heavy...I'll walk you through. 

Mommy and Jack photo before daycare - looks cute right?

Well this is what he was doing right before the pic. He has re-discovered hair pulling.
Colin caught this gem, while trying to get a smiling picture of Jack. 

I made a banner out of cardstock and (of course) glitter paper. 

The eats. Yummy thin crust pizza.

But... Jack had veggies. The crust was too hard for his 2 teeth.
"What Mom, you're eating pizza and all I get is veggies?"

Nom nom nom...
"I'm 1 and don't know what I'm missing out on."

Excited for cake and presents!

Daddy was a big help with opening presents. 

Look at his expressions in the next few photos.  So stinkin' cute!

Cheeeese!

I love this one it looks like he is giving a thumbs up. 

After presents, it was time for his own cupcake.
We sang Happy Birthday and Colin and I made a wish for Jack and blew out the candle. 

He was excited but really didn't know what to do. 

Jack played with the cupcake. 

And smooshed it everywhere...

And then he figured it out - you put it in your mouth.
Even after he tried it, he still had more fun playing with it than eating it. I think more ended up on the floor than in his mouth, as we expected.   

The 'other' cake for our guests.
Vanilla with a strawberry creme layer inside.
We had it made at the same place as our wedding cake -
The Cake Artist's Studio.  They are great to work with!  

Cute cake...that went into our tummies. 

After the party was over I could tell Jack was eyeing the balloons. 
So we let him play with them and have some fun! So cute!

After the balloons, Jack got a bath, bottle and birthday (every night) snuggles and I passed out too.
Colin got this cute picture of us that I love. 
* also sorry about my talking in the videos - I always talk through them and I don't even notice I do it until I play them back.