Picking out a Christmas tree

The cold weather has arrived in Chicago, which made it extra exciting to pick out a Christmas tree. At the Christmas tree lot, there were reindeer made out of tree trimmings that were bigger than Jack and Chyann!

"A little ditty, 'bout Jack and Chyann"

Jack's Uncle Dwayne, Aunt Tricia, and cousin Chyann came to visit this past weekend and Jack absolutely loved having Chyann to play with. Even though she is almost 4 years old, the two of them got along like 2 peas in a pod. They shared Jack's leather chair while watching "Emmett Otter's Jugband Christmas" and Chyann made sure not to let Jack fall off.

They also had a great time playing peek a boo behind the table.

And their favorite hiding/playing place was under the table in the kitchen.

We Moved!!!

We know! We know! We've been bad bloggers! But, we have a good excuse. We moved!!! The past few weeks have been super crazy but we are finally in our new house, and we even hosted Thanksgiving! Jack thought moving was by far the coolest thing Mommy and Daddy have ever done. Anytime we tried to pack a box, Jack would take everything out and climb inside!

Jack has also discovered a love for climbing (and jumping) so the boxes provided the perfect places to climb.
Also, as the furniture was emptied out, Jack crawled inside.

Very Sad News

I know that Jack's blog is usually a place of happiness and fun, but today I am asking all of you to say a prayer for a friend of mine. Jayne, a very good friend and sorority sister of mine, was murdered on Friday in her home in Charlottesville. It is such a tragic and sad loss and we are all completely devastated. Please, please say a prayer for Jayne and her family during this extremely difficult time.

A Trip to the Field Museum

The Field Museum has this great new kids exhibit called the Crown Family Play Lab. This place is really amazing! It has a forest to discover creatures and dress up as animals. Jack really liked the turtle costume. Jack and his friend Ben thought this place was so cool!

The exhibit also has a corn field where the little ones can pick corn right off the stalk and put it in their baskets!

After picking his corn, Jack took it into the pueblo and had so much fun putting in and taking it out of the baskets and pottery.

Although we didn't get pictures of it, Jack, Maggie and Ben also played instruments like African drums in the sound proof music room and created beautiful pieces of art in the art lab. We are definitely going back to the play lab this winter!!!

Dog Park

Jack's love of dogs has grown immensely. He can spot a dog a mile away and immediately starts saying "doggy, doggy, hi". He has also started to bark but it comes out more like "ugh ugh". Because Jack is so obsessed with dogs, we walk him to the dog park by our house. Its called "Wiggley Field" (get it? Wiggley...Wrigley!) and he just watches so intently. In fact, sometimes he cries when we leave. The other day Mommy had to get Jack out of the house because the cleaning guy was cleaning the apartment and Jack wanted to play with his brooms and mops, thus making the cleaning process VERY slow! Jack watched the big dogs run all over the park chasing balls and playing with each other. A few of them even came over to say hi!
The trip to the dog park proved to be exhausting because Jack fell asleep on the way home. Notice his hand still stuck in his snack trap!!!

Hey, Look What I Can Do!!!

This morning Jack discovered something else he didn't know he could do before. While Mommy and Daddy were making breakfast, Jack was playing with his toys. All of sudden we heard him say "Hi" and we turned around to find him inside his fire engine! Jack's fire engine is NOT very big. It is meant to hold his blocks but he somehow maneuvered himself inside of it and his little legs just barely fit. He was so proud of himself that he tried to jump up and down while inside the fire engine but it was such a snug fit that he just sat down!