Moving plans and a barrage of photos

Things for the move are starting to fall into place.  Ben's last day is next Tuesday, April 1, the movers are coming April 7 and 8, and we're leaving April 9.  We'll spend a few days in Houston with Ben's parents, then head to Kansas City to spend a day or two with my parents.

And then we'll move into our new home!  We've bought a brand new place (still a week or so from being finished!) in Brentwood, which is one of the really close in suburbs, one that doesn't feel like a suburb at all.  There's a public elementary school 3 blocks away, a Catholic elementary school 3 blocks the other direction, a park 4 blocks away, and it's within a mile of two Paneras, a Whole Foods, a Target Greatland, a highly rated Cajun takeout place, and a Sonic.  I will be in midwestern middle-class American consumerist heaven without having to be in midwestern middle-class American suburban hell.  So perfect.  Strangely enough, one of my mommy friends in London used to live on the street where we'll be living, so I'll also have someone to give me tips on the area.

Jack has been completely over chicken pox for about two weeks now, and it looks like the only scar he may carry is just above his right eyebrow--the only spot you can see on my previously

 posted picture.  But here's a picture of him at the height of his spottiness.  Also as you can see, his umbilical hernia is still bulging, especially with all the stress walking and wiggling puts on it.  Dr. Hay has continued to assure us that it's nothing dangerous or painful and that it should heal without surgery within the next year or two.

Speaking of Dr. Hay, Jack has his last visit with him last week.  Although it was a little early, Jack got the two 1-year immunizations and amazingly didn't make a single cry--not a peep!  I really hope that we can find another good pediatrician in St. Louis, because I'm going to miss Dr. Hay a lot. 

Our Easter was very nice and was punctuated by a weeklong visit from Jack's Grammy and Granddad.  Easter was also especially good because Ben had a 4-day weekend (Good Friday and Easter Monday are national holidays here) during which he only went into the office for a total of an hour and a half!  We seized the opportunity to take a daytrip to Cambridge and an adventure to the London Aquarium.  During the past week Jack's intermittent attempts to walk

 without his walker started coming more frequently and became more prolonged, and he is now

regularly taking 4 or 5 steps on his own!  While I still can't catch him in the middle of the floor, he walks the triangle between our two loveseats and our coffee table so frequently that I have

caught some video of that.  Being Jack, he's not doing this movement thing halfway, so instead of walking staggeringly like most babies, Jack seems to have mostly skipped standing and walking all together and has moved straight into running.

A few other random pictures:

During his chicken pox confinement, Jack developed a very strong attachment to the vacuum as his new favorite toy.  It's a Dyson, so I have to admit I like it a lot myself, but Jack's attachment transcends mine by far.  He not only runs to it screaming with excitement any time I open the hall closet, but he also pushes it along the floor as if it was his walker.  A difficult feat, but he does it well.  I'll post video of it some other time.

This is a picture of Jack's zebra after snack time today.  

One of Jack's favorite snacks are fake Cheetos--organic puffed baby food corn sticks covered in carrot powder that taste reasonably good but like their unhealthy counterparts tend to make a pretty big mess.  Today Jack decided that he wanted to share his snack with his zebra, leaving it with a nice orange smudge near its mouth.  So sweetly generous that I think I'll leave it there.