As a last minute treat, my office closed between Christmas and New Year's.  This gave Mary, Jack T and I a chance to spend some awesome time together both having fun going out and just hanging around the house.  We also (finally) got to use three of the Groupons we'd purchased over the last few months!

Our first event was a trip to the Museum of Science & Industry.  There are sooo many exhibits there we'd like to see, especially me since I haven't been there since the good ole' days of Highland School.  This Christmas we found out that Jack T LOVES Christmas trees.  Every time we turned on the tree lights at home, his face lit up as he pointed to the tree with jaw dropped.  So our first stop was to see the Christmas trees from around the world.  We walked through the entire exhibit, and stopped to look at the trees that we liked the most.  Jack T really loved it, almost as much as Mary!  After the Christmas trees, we spent a little time looking at the model trains in The Great Train Story exhibit.

A few days later, we decided to stick with the museum theme and we went to the Chicago History Museum.  This is something Mary and I have wanted to check out for a while, so we were excited to finally get to it.  Although it's not big, it was really pretty cool.  There really wasn't that much for Jack T to look at, aside from the old trolley car, but there was a lot of great Chicago history to soak up.

We also finally got to take Jack T to his first Gymboree class.  The first session was all about tunnels.  Big tunnels, little tunnels, long tunnels, short tunnels, I think you get the idea.  The class was about tunnels.  Jack T was a little skeptical at first, but with a little coaxing and patience, he finally decided to crawl through most of them.  He also loved the parachute at the end of class, but I think could have gone without getting bubbles blown in his face!

That same night, Steve and I had a man-date to go see Tron: Legacy at the Navy Pier IMAX Theater.  It was my first 3D experience, and while it took a little getting used to, I'd have to say it's the only way to see that movie.  Awesome.

Finally, we spent New Year's Eve with some close friends.  We enjoyed dinner, some baby play time, some adult Wii time, and comparing New York city's countdown events to Chicago's countdown events.  I have to say, as much as I love Chicago, it has nothing on NYC's New Year's events, despite Ryan Seacrest.  Although I wasn't looking forward to going back to work after the time off, I truly felt mentally refreshed after having so much fun with Mary and Jack T!

As previous months, Jack T had a lot of firsts in his 11th month! Mommy noticed Jack T staring at her while drinking water from a cup, and so upon offering him water, he drank several sips of water directly from the same cup. He got a big toy bus to push around the condo and chase Bentley. After playing with it he went from taking a couple tentative steps on his own to full-fledged walking in about two weeks. He tried all kinds of new foods including cantaloupe, pineapple, blueberries, cheese, turkey, sweet potatoes, and stuffing (yummy Thanksgiving food)! He had his first really bad cold, however, despite being stuffy and tired, he was still a very agreeable baby. His 7th and 8th teeth came in on the bottom and, after several months of showing him the baby sign, he started making the baby sign for “milk.” Jack got to enjoy lots of time with family and friends for Thanksgiving; seeing both sides of his extended family, “playing” with all his cousins, and spending time with Mommy and Daddy's friends when they hosted Friendsgiving.  After Thanksgiving, Jack also started to enjoy his first Christmas season by going to see Santa Claus (of course he had been a good boy all year 'round) and gazing in awe at Mommy's beautifully decorated Christmas Tree!  Every time we turned on the tree lights he was simply delighted!

(If you're viewing this on Facebook, be sure to click the "View Original Post" link to see the pictures)

This month was packed with exciting new things for Jack T. Just after his 9-month doctor appointment, he started some finger foods. The first item on the menu were puffs. After about three days of trying he was eating them with no hesitation. After a couple weeks of puffs, he started (slowly) eating some other finger foods like banana, cheese and bread. We also took Jack for several mini-adventures like a 5K walk to support the fight against breast cancer, a trip to the pumpkin farm, and trick-or-treating for Halloween! Of course, he also got to spend some quality time with his best buddy, Ben C. Jack excited us this month with a lot more interactivity. He started responding when prompted with “so big!” by raising his hands straight up in the air over his head. He also started waving when someone says “hi” or “bye” and clapping both on his own and when prompted. At the end of the month, he started pushing things around while standing up. It won't be long before he starts walking!

Wow, August was a pretty busy month.  Especially the second half, and into the beginning of September.  First off, our friends Megan and Bob had their baby boy, Maxwell Robert!  We're so excited that there is another little one in our group of friends from the DG!  We finally got to meet him last night.  Jack T looks so big after seeing a newborn, it's hard to believe he was ever that small.

Speaking of Jack T - he took another plane trip (now his second) to Buffalo, New York.  We went out for the wedding of some friends (Congrats, Heather & Tony!) that used to live in Chicago.  Mary's parents so generously offered to go with and watch Jack while we went to the ceremony and reception.  The next day, we all went to see Niagara Falls.  While we didn't go on a boat ride, Mary and I did climb up to the Crow's Next, right next to the falls, without ponchos.  We were so wet afterwards, we might as well have jumped in the water, but it was a blast!

Last Saturday, we got to visit with some of my cousins that were in visiting from Indiana.  We haven't seen them in so long, it was great to get to catch up with them and a good excuse to grill out on a nice Saturday afternoon.

Sunday we met my sister, Liz and her girls at Wicker Park to check out the Farmers Market, get some lunch, and play a little bit on the playground.  Jack T had his first ride on a swing and went down a slide for the first time!  We also came home with some market treats (cinnamon apple cider, apple cinnamon bread, and a couple other goodies).

After the park, we went out to DG for Ken's birthday.  Nothing fancy, just some food, drinks and babies.  It was really exciting to see Jack T, Ben and Max all in the same room!  Before long, they'll be running around getting into trouble, especially with no little girls to keep them in check :)

Today, we went up to the Renaissance Faire in Wisconsin.  My family used to go a lot when we were kids, and it was just as fun going as an adult (although for very different reasons).  There's nothing like eating a whole turkey leg for lunch!  It was great seeing Annalee shoot arrows, jump on a trampoline (I didn't know they had those in the 1500s), and attempt the kiddie joust.  We also got to see part of a skill joust and Barely Balanced: Acrobatic Daredevils.  Ev and Jack T are still a little small, but maybe in a couple years they'll be running around with wooden swords!

Wow, it's been a long time since we've had an update.  There's no way to cover everything that's happened since the last post, so allow me to summarize...

Jack T is now almost 5 months old!  FIVE MONTHS!  Time is just flying by.  He has continued to amaze us every day with his discoveries and adventures.  He has rolled over from tummy to back many times, he just started eating rice cereal, he took his first airplane ride, he is sleeping 10-11 hours a night, and today Mary saw the first signs of a tooth coming in!  Of course, there is quite a bit more, but that is the summary.

Mary and I also had a little "vacation" to Washington DC with her parents.  Although we didn't have a lot of time to look around at the sites, we did get to see the World War II Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, and we drove by a few other sites.  I'd love to go back again to spend more time soaking up the history.  Apparently, there is a lot more to our nation's capitol than I saw on my 8th grade field trip.  Oh, we also ate one night at The Burger Joint...awesome burgers!

Another big event was the birth of Jack's new best friend, Benjamin Patrick on March 26! We are so happy that Jack not only has lots of cousins close in age, but also that he'll be friends with some of our best friends' kids. The boys have been in the same place at the same time, but obviously they aren't really aware of each other yet.

Admist all the goings on, we decided to try and sell our condo and look for a home in the burbs. We love our condo and living in the city, but after Jack T was born we came to a realization: babies need a lot of stuff!

Look for videos and pictures to follow!