Happy First Birthday, Happy First Steps!

I'm a bit late in posting Jack's first birthday pictures, but that's because I ended up with the cold that landed Jack in the Petoskey Urgent Care center on his birthday.

Sadly, Jack came down with a cold the day before his birthday, while we were on vacation at Torch Lake (thanks for the cottage, Uncle Bob & Aunt Janie!). I had a feeling he had a sore throat and, after 24 hours of not being able to bring his low-grade fever down, I decided to get him in to see a doctor. What would have been a beautiful drive along Lake Michigan to Petoskey was instead a bit somber as I felt so awful to see my little guy in pain. He had a strep test done (negative) and his ears looked as if they were on their way to infection. So, we started him on some antibiotics and 24 hours later (the day after his bday) he started showing major signs of improvement.

We made some adjustments to our schedule (gifts the day after his birthday, cake two days after his birthday... on cousin Deagan's first!) and ended up having a really lovely time on vacation. Jack was able to spend the week with my entire family, including his two cousins, Marcus and Deagan, and his Grannie from England!

Jack took his first two steps four days before he turned one and, though he's capable of four steps or so without falling down, he seems to have decided crawling is the way to go for now (despite some horrid looking bruises all over his legs).

I have a bunch of fantastic photos of our vacation and will work to upload those this week. For now, Jack's birthday as a pictorial story.

In lieu of birthday cake, Jack received a popsicle to ease his sore throat on his birthday...

Which created brain freeze:

One day post birthday, we opened presents & Jack received the boy baby doll I had made it my mission to find:

He also received Elmo Live! which he thinks is a hoot.

Two days post birthday, Jack was well enough for his cake:

Deagan had cake too as it was his first birthday!

Jack started slowly at first...

And then he really dug in!

Until he was about to blow.

All Around the World

It's been a couple of fun weeks....Kelly, Jack, Shergar, and I drove to Michigan in early August for a week's vacation at Torch Lake. We were joined by the Klimek family, their entourage, and my mother, for a few days of sun, sand, swimming....and sickness. Poor Jack caught a cold, got a sore throat, and generally spent most nights coughing and crying. Not the best way to celebrate his 1st birthday, although he attacked his fantastic birthday cake with aplomb. Since then, Kelly, Mary, and I have all had colds, without the benefit of birthday cake.

Otherwise, the highlight of the week was watching Jack take his formative steps. He frequently stood up from a seated position and, on just a couple of occasions, took a step forward before tumbling over. It's amazing to see him grow up like this; next thing we know, he'll be kicking a soccer ball and cheering for Oldham.

On the following Sunday, I flew to Australia to join my colleagues at our annual conference. Sadly, my suitcase decided to spend an extra 2 nights in San Francisco, finally joining me 48 hours after I arrived. You forget how important clothes are until you dont have any.

The conference went well and I'll shortly be flying back to Michigan to meet up with the family. Attached is a photo of the beach and Pacific Ocean at 5:45am one morning (the jet-lag throws off your sleep like nobody's business).

Gag Me

Advice needed from seasoned parents!

In the last two weeks, Jack has started gagging himself, purposefully. He sticks three or four fingers into the back of his throat (generally after he's eaten, though it could be any time) and keeps them there until he gags and his eyes water. So far, he's not thrown up, but it's been close.

I have researched this online and found a few posts from other moms who said their kid(s) started this around 13 months of age. The best advice I've read thus far is to ignore the behavior. Apparently, when Jack sees me freak out and rush over to remove his hand from his mouth, it reinforces the behavior: he gets a crazy reaction from me. I've read that if you ignore this, the kid will stop doing it.

If your child has done this and you had success in stopping it, can you let me know what you did? It's just such a strange behavior. I keep saying he's acting bulimic (which I know isn't really funny, but I don't know how else to describe it). Thank you!

(Hopefully during nap time today or after bed time I will put up some great pictures and/or video taken during the last week, so stay tuned!)