How much wood would a woodchuck chuck?

Sometimes Callie prefers to play in her bed, rather than sleep in it. It's not really a big deal. Unless, of course, she decides to eat her crib...

The baby stores actually do sell crib rail covers to protect cribs from little teeth, but it seems like by the time you realize you need one, the crib has already been chewed. Maybe all parents should just automatically put the covers on before the kid gets teeth? 

More evidence of Callie's mischief. 

This crib was passed down from Jack to Callie. It was in perfect condition after Jack got done using it. He was never one to bite things, though. Callie loves to eat pretty much anything she can get her hands on.

Caught in the act!

Speaking of sleeping habits (kind of), Jack has started sleeping with his blanket wrapped around his face. Sometimes it is very similar to a turban, but over his face and head. He wakes up from his naps covered in sweat. 

These pictures were taken at night while he was actually sleeping. He really does sleep this way! He says he is "hiding from monsters," or sometimes he'll say he is "pretending to be a ghost." I guess we shouldn't have let him watch Monsters, Inc!

The Big Boy Bed

Our little Jack has graduated to a new "big boy" bed. He was pretty excited before he even knew what it was. He was running around the living room saying, "New bed! New bed!" We actually went ahead and got bunk beds, since they were a good deal and now we have two twin beds ready for when Callie needs a new bed. We were going to just use the rails from the top bunk to help Jack get used to staying in the bed, but there just isn't much room on the side where the ladder would be to climb in and out. Hopefully he just won't fall out of bed and it won't be an issue!

Jack was told to "pretend to be sleeping" in the pictures, so he got nice and relaxed and closed his eyes. He did very well sleeping in the bed the first night, and he is now attempting his first day time sleep.

Ummm, as I'm writing this post, I just heard him come out of his room and walk down the hall. We'll try that again...

Excuse the bed head. He must have had a good night's sleep!

Just Playin'

We've been sick in the Marshall household this past week. Someone brought a cold into our house and I'd like to know who! But anyway, we're all getting better and hopefully we'll all be recharged soon.

Lately, Jack has been counting everything he sees (and sometimes things in his head) and can count to ten. He just discovered, though, that there are numbers past ten. So if we ever start counting to ten, he wants us to keep going until we get to twenty. His world for eleven is "mee-ya-mee," which just sounds funny, so we laugh every time he counts now. Sometimes he'll skip numbers just to say it. He'll say, "One, two, three, four, mee-ya-mee, fourteen, yay!" Silly boy.

We were recently given a wonderful gift from a co-worker of Sander's- a lawn mower! Our lawn was looking quite "white trash" as far as the neighborhood goes. Our neighbors were probably hoping this was not going to be our typical yard-care behavior.

Dad took Jack for a ride down the street. Jack thinks the "tractor" is loud, but he did just fine riding it. He's still not a big fan of loud noises, which does include Callie's crying!

Today we played downstairs, as we do most days, since it keeps Jack occupied better than upstairs. We're trying to set up a little play area for Jack and Callie so they can have all their toys in one place and they won't be all over the house!

Of course, Jack often finds his way over to the "entertainment" area of the basement. Our local PBS station helps keep Jack occupied when his toys won't and Mom needs to feed Callie! He's developed a love for a show on PBS called "Super Why," which is about 4 storybook characters who learn about letters and spelling. It may not be the most qualified babysitter, but at least it's educational!

And here is Jack's new magnetic whiteboard we have yet to hang in the play area. This is to further his knowledge of spelling that he'll learn from watching Super Why... Or we could just help him learn without the TV!

Jack discovered his old infant play mat that he used to love. He helped Callie learn the ropes.

This is about as much playing as she can do at this point. She's also a little bit sick this week, so that doesn't help her desire to explore the toy. She did enjoy the bright colors and liked to watch Jack run around her.

She decided to take a little rest from playing and chew on her hand for a little while. Speaking of resting- Callie is great at it! She has been sleeping all night for 2 weeks! Her first month, we were worried she was going to be just like Jack, who didn't sleep through the night until he was 11 months old! But Callie got to 4 hours at night, then 5, then 7, and now she's consistently sleeping between 7 and 9 hours every night. In fact, last night she slept for 10 1/2 hours! Hopefully that is okay for her to do at such a young age!

She's trying to lift her head, but it's just so hard! She needs to do at least 20 reps a day to get those neck muscles nice and strong!

Jack said, "This isn't as much fun as I remember. I don't know what I ever saw in it..."

We are here

Well folks, we made it to New York, at long last. We've been here for about a week, but we haven't had the internet hooked up until today. Yes, a whole week without the internet. Crazy. We bought a small laptop (a netbook) for me to use as a home computer since ours is still dead, so at least I will be able to blog once in a while. The internet seems a little slower out here, so hopefully I will still post pictures often. I have several I need to post of our adventures coming out here, but I will get to that after I'm done unpacking!

Here is a picture of Jack's first train ride taken by Sander's phone. Our first little adventure (after the packing and loading of our stuff and sleeping in an empty apartment) was taking the train up to Washington from Oregon. We stayed with Grandpa and Grandma Culwell for a few days before flying to New York. Jack did very well on the train. As you can see, he liked to use the travel pillow. He actually did manage to take a very short nap on the way up (not on the pillow, though. That would have been super adorable).

We're starting our house-hunting tomorrow with our realtor and hopefully we will find something that we love that also fits in our budget! If not, we will rent a house for a little while and try again later! Wish us luck!

To Washington for a reception!

I haven't had time to post these pictures, so they're from the first week of May, but here ya go! We headed up to Washington for Uncle Thomas' wedding reception on May 8th and spent a few days there. Here is Jack attempting to take a nap on the way. He looks comfortable enough.

And here we stopped at a rest stop about halfway there to stretch our legs. Jack's legs are rather short, so they didn't take long to stretch.

We arrived to see the big tree in Grandpa and Grandma Culwell's yard in full bloom. There were pink petals everywhere. Jack was a little confused, I think.

And here we are playing on of the Culwell family's favorite past-times: Bolf. This is a game involving baseball bats and golf balls played in giant field outside Grandpa Culwell's workplace. It was a nice day and Jack actually got a little sunburned on the top of his head. I guess he needs to wear a hat!



Here is Jack completely engrossed in playing with the grass. We tried to call to him to get him to follow the group, but he stayed behind. Come on, Jack! (We have no idea who the "winner" of the game is, by the way. I don't think anyone was keeping score...)



We all worked up hearty appetites, so we went to a Mexican restaurant, Azteca, after the Bolf game.



Here are Mommy and Jack at the restaurant. Jack ate some refried beans and chomped on some ice. For some reason, that boy just loves ice.

Here are the bride- and groom-to-be. A very handsome couple, I must say.

Uncle Thomas and Aunt Ana with their nephew, Jack. (Jack is chewing on chapstick, by the way. I don't know why...)

This is Jack standing on his great-grandfather's trunk. He has learned to climb on things quite well now, but can't always get down. He took a few tumbles from this trunk while we were there.

Jack and Daddy wrestling on the floor.

Jack wrestling with a giant stuffed bear named Michael.

And that's the end of that trip!

The reception was beautiful, with wonderful food and lots of fun people. Congratulations to Thomas and Ana!

Coloring

Jack wanted to try a new skill today, so we got out some crayons and paper and tried to make some art. For some reason, he kept making funny faces at me while I took his picture. It could be because he somehow got crayon on his teeth...

And another silly face. This isn't really typical for him, so I'm not sure what the deal was. He's such a silly boy sometimes.

Here is his finished art work. It's true, he didn't really color much of it by himself, but he had the image he wanted to create in his head, and I just helped him express it onto paper. He was very proud of himself when he actually made marks on the paper with the crayon, though. It was cute.

Maybe he felt that his work was not going to be appreciated in its time. Or maybe he wanted to make a collage with the colored paper...


Yay for Jack and his first time coloring! Hopefully he will make many more beautiful pictures.


In other news, we wanted to get some pictures or video of Jack taking more steps, but he hasn't wanted to try! After those initial first days of walking, he has since decided not to walk anymore. So we'll just wait for him to be ready. I'm sure he'll let us know.


We also tried cow's milk for the first time, but Jack threw up on the floor of Fred Meyer after drinking only a few sips, so... maybe he wasn't quite ready.


He has been ready, however, for more sleep. After what has seemed like a long and hard battle, Jack has started sleeping all night long, and has even started taking longer naps more often. Sometimes he will sleep for one hour or one and a half hours during the day. It has been great. Let's hope it keeps up. He has had us fooled a few times with thinking he was going to sleep through the night, only to find after a few days that it was just a fluke. We shall see...

Thumb Sucking

Yes, our little guy is a thumb-sucker. What are ya gonna do? It's cute.

Sunday Best

Here are just a few fun pictures with Jack and Dad. Some of these were taken with Dad's computer camera, so they're not the best quality. They still show two handsome guys, though! Jack's Sunday outfit is a little big, but still cute!

From Cousin Saela

We got a package in the mail yesterday from Jack's cousin, Saela (and Aunt Amy, Uncle Brett, and Lucy). It took a while to get here for various reasons, but Jack has a new outfit now! He wasn't in the best mood last night, but I could tell he really liked his new clothes. He just had a certain look in his eyes.

Here is Jack playing superman with his dad. I guess the picture should actually be sideways, but oh well. It seems like no matter what is upsetting Jack, he'll always start to smile when his dad lifts him up like that.

We tried to get Jack to smile for the camera, but he said he was not in the mood. We've been trying to get him on a routine the past few days and it's hard for him. Instead of sleeping 30 minutes, then awake for 45, then sleeping for 30 minutes over and over, we're trying to keep him awake for an hour and a half, then get him to sleep for an hour and a half. So far we just have one drowsy baby, and still very short naps. He'll get the hang of it eventually, we hope!