Funny Monkey. Today turned out to be quite nice, so Mommy and Jack played outside for a bit after taking a long walk.
"Thumbs up for playing with Mommy's water bottle!"
Earlier in the day, we visited Jack's friend Hunter. His mom, Becky, owns the Madre Bella boutique where Kira's paintings are sold.
Jack likes to pull on Hunter's curly hair.
Jack also really likes Becky. He gives her nice smiles.
This weekend we took a trip to Scituate. Jack and Grampy get silly!
Auntie Joey shows Jack all of Grampy's Jell-O
Such a cute outfit for visiting family!

This weekend Grandma and Pop came to visit. Jack loves spending time on Grandma's lap. And doesn't he look cute in his new red hat from the dollar store? He refuses to wear his sunglasses now, so we have plenty of hats instead.
Whenever Grandma's around, there's always a straw to chew on. Don't even think about trying to take it away from him!

You can kind of see his bottom teeth in the photo above. His top two are also on their way!
We love these warm days. On Monday Mommy and Jack went to the beach. It was a bit windier than we expected, so we didn't stay too long. Once Jack got past staring at those loud waves, he focused on Mommy's car keys. Yum!

At least he wasn't eating sand!
We're very lucky the Barrington town beach is just a short drive away! We'll go there a lot this summer.
Later that day we played on the floor. Despite being surrounded by his many, many toys, he mostly just wanted Mommy's camera.
People often ask if we've cut Jack's hair. No, it just grows like that naturally.
Yesterday it was almost 80 degrees here, so we broke out the summer clothes. Love that surfer onesie and camo shorts!
Jack and Osiris check each other out. If nothing else makes Jack crawl, trying to get that cat will do it for sure.
Hooray for Jackson!

A Solution. Jack has come to a final decision on eating from a spoon: "No way, no how." So, we have moved to finger foods exclusively. This weekend he tried shredded cheese, pasta, tiny pieces of turkey & ham, and soon will experience Spaghettios. So far, so good. As long as he is in control of picking up the food, he'll accept it being in his mouth.
"This cheese ain't half bad, Mom!"
It must be genetic - Jackson loves his books! He'll turn and stare at his shelves of books from across the room and begin to pull and tug to be brought over there. Then he sits and pulls them all off the shelves one by one, examining the covers and occasionally opening them up. His two favorites are still Millie Moo and Ten Little Ladybugs because they have things on each page you can touch and they're very colorful.
This Saturday we visited with Grammie, Grandpa Cortese & Carol in Haverhill, MA. Jack reached out to be held by his grandfather, which was very nice!
So tired! And there's no better place to rest than in Daddy's arms.

9 Months Old! Look at this monkey! He loves this red radio. Anytime we come into the room he leans down to touch it and likes it best when he can sit on the floor and press all the buttons. His favorite thing right now is to press the button that makes the song start over again and again and again and again...
His other favorite thing is our stupid cat. Thankfully, due to Chris's endless "abuse" of the animal, he willingly takes whatever Jack dishes out, whether it's fur pulling, tummy whacking, ear grabbing or tail tugging.
Mommy and Jack went to MD with Grandma to visit Uncle Luke, Aunt Jane and their kids, Aliza, Kaleb & Izaak. Jack was in heaven with his three cousins, who entertained him to no end. Kaleb was especially interesting, as he would run from room to room making "voom voom" noises. Fascinating!
Aliza is going to be a wonderful mother someday. She even likes to change diapers!
Izaak is also very good with babies. Jack liked him very much and gave him many smiles.
As you can see, Jackson is branching out with the solid foods. For some reason, he has a hankering for pickles everytime he sees one.
Sleeping with Grandma at the end of a busy and exciting day.
In the carseat on the way to the airport Monday morning - so sad to be leaving his cousins! Hopefully we can visit with them again soon!