Visit from Grandma and Grandpa!

It's been a solid month since my parents came to Austin to visit, and I'm finally getting around to doing a post.  We have several great photographers in the family and ended up with a nice pool of photos.  I've selected a crop of my favorites.  I think this post will be heavy on pictures, light on commentary.  We had a lot of fun over the long weekend and JJ loved the attention of his doting grandparents :)

Shopping at the Hill Country Galleria on Friday:

Hanging around the house on Friday:

Lazy Saturday morning:

Lunch at Hula Hut on Saturday:

Pecan Street Festival on Saturday:

Brunch at Chez Zee on Sunday:

Strolling through Zilker Botanical Gardens on Sunday:

Hanging out at Jess & Eric's on Sunday:

Plus a video of JJ and Casey interacting.  Thanks Jess!



Bye Grandma & Grandpa! Thanks for visiting!!

Happy 2/3rd's Birthday!

JJ hit a big milestone today, making it 2/3 of the way through his first year. In his 8th month, he learned to crawl and saw the Pacific Ocean. We have the footage to prove it!

Let's start with a good laugh from a couple weeks ago. Throwing a ball at the wall is hysterical!

For my 30th birthday, Stephanie took us to San Diego. You may have already seen the pictures, but here is the video of JJ hitting the beach for the very first time.

After we got home, Grandma and Grandpa Moore came out to visit. As soon as they left, JJ decided he was ready to crawl. I posted one video already, but his skills are slowly improving. Here he is playing fetch with the remote.

And this past Sunday, he perfected the long-distance army crawl.

His skills have continued to develop. He is working on improving his speed, getting his belly off the ground, and adding hurdles.

JJ is crawling ...sort of

JJ finally decided to do a little crawling. His technique is all his own. And he needs to be coerced by his favorite toy: the remote control.

Weekend in San Diego!

We just got home from a fun weekend getaway.  We were in San Diego less than 48 hours but we think we hit the high points, and we had a great time.  The weather was fabulous, with low 70s during the day and 60s at night.  JJ got to wear some cool-weather clothes that have been hanging in his closet at the ready.

Other than being on a sleep strike the first day, JJ was a very good boy.  He didn't cry on the plane rides and received many compliments from fellow passengers (both on his behavior and his cuteness!). 

This little monkey is ready to board the flight to San Diego!

Strolling through the Gaslamp Quarter on Friday night.

Here are a series of pictures of JJ & Mommy at the San Diego Zoo.

(This might look like a goat statue, but it's a real goat!!)

And now JJ & Daddy at the zoo:

Zebra!

Koala!

Panda!

We did A LOT of walking during our 5 hours at the zoo and really worked up an appetite for delicious IN 'N' OUT BURGERS!

Next up was a trip to Mission Beach.  This was JJ's first time feeling sand in his toes.  He seemed to like how it felt, and we succeeded in preventing him from eating any sand.

Next JJ sticks his feet into the Pacific Ocean.  It was cold!  He was a little shocked by the temperature but was a good sport.

 

After breakfast on Sunday, we walked through a Farmer's Market and were given free pluots (plum/apricot hybrids).  I let JJ taste mine and he LOVED it!  He slurped on it aggressively until I made him stop.

We enjoyed walking aroud Old Town on Sunday, seeing the historic buildings and hitting the shops.  We got JJ a really cool frog puppet.  Here are JJ and Dad with the artillery in Old Town Park:

Good times.  Now back to the grind for a few days, and then a visit from Grandma and

Grandpa!

Happy 7-month birthday, JJ!

Wow, it's already been seven months! JJ continues to experience a lot of new 'firsts', many of which involve foods. Our first video today lets us peek in on one such event with a magnum opus we like to call "JJ Eats Yogurt for the First Time". Spoiler alert: The food he tries is yogurt!

Next up, we have a short clip of JJ beat-boxing. (A little warning on the YouTube videos: You may wish to click on the video itself to get redirected to YouTube.com and then hit the maximize button.)

In his free-time, JJ has been mastering the Jumperoo. Is it a musical instrument? You be the judge.

Finally, JJ loses his marbles. If you had heard the goofy voices Steph was making, you would have been laughing, too!

Baby's first Labor Day weekend

First, here are a couple photos from last weekend's visit to the Austin Children's Museum. Our assessment of the excursion was that JJ is too young for most of the "exhibits," but he did find a few things that captured his interest in the baby & toddler room.

Here's JJ last week modeling his blue & gold ensemble, pictured with Ana's daughter Cady.

Our big activity this Saturday was hosting a playgroup for my online mommies & babies group. Seven moms and their babies (all between 3-8 months old) gathered in JJ's play area. It was fun for the moms to compare notes on all things baby, and the little ones did great playing on the floor together. They're all too young to fight over toys yet! Of the 8 babies, just 2 were girls; here's JJ with the little ladies:

All summer JJ has been sleeping in a onesie or his Spiderman t-shirt and shorts, all wrapped up in a swaddle. Recently he has been rolling over onto his belly during the night and trying to sleep face down, so we decided to do away with the swaddle. That means he needs some warmer pj's and we're glad we can finally get some use out of all his cute footie jammies!