You'll never go in the water again ....

Dunnnnnnn Duhn ...

Dunnnnnnn DUNH


Ticka Ticka Ticka deeee tweeeeeee (Translation: Trick or Treat!) says Jack!


What's scarier then a shark with a pacifier??

A shark reading a Blues Clues book!!!!




Mwah ha ha ha ha ha ha! I bet you will all be sleeping with the lights on tonight!!!


HAPPY HALLOWEEN! (Please send candy. We had SO many kids come by that we have no leftovers! Now THAT is scary.)

Tricks!

So I read in "What to Expect the First Year" or some such book on raising a baby that you "should not make your child perform tricks as tho they are your own personal circus monkey" or something to that effect.

Obviously they've never seen how cute Jack Gifford is whilst doing tricks.

Touchdown!



Jack will actually make monkey noises on command too. Does that make me a bad mom? Possibly. Does the extreme cuteness outweigh my badness? Definitely.

Unprecedented and Ground-breaking!

So what is so unprecedented and ground-breaking about his post you ask???

It's the first post in Jack's Place that is NOT about Jack.

(pause for collective audible gasp)

It's all about me baby! The way I see it, to really know a person you need to know as much as possible about where they come from. Therefore to really know Jack you need to know as much as possible about his crazy mama.

Okay so I'm sure you remember the picture of me in the car that I shared in the "Back to the Beach" post asking you to "remember this picture of me", yes? For those who can't follow instructions here it is:

After our trip I was uploading and perusing these pictures at work. I see this one and think "MAN I have a big forehead!". No really, look at it. It's huge. I could sell advertising space on that thing to make extra money. I can totally see myself standing on the side of I-95 South on weekends with my head brightly painted "Pedro Sez: only 350 more miles 'til South of the Border!".

So I was just about to go for a haircut and highlight and thought to myself "Hmmmmm I wonder what I would look like with bangs?" I upload this picture of myself to my "paint" program and go to work. I'm sitting there adding bangs to myself attempting in vain to make it look as realistic as possible when I hear somebody walking up behind me. I of course hear it a little too late ...

Co-worker: Hey, Kelly dooo...yoooo..uhhhh....

Stops midsentence, eyes locked on my computer screen. Here is what he sees:

Me: Oh hi! Ummm. I was just trying to see what I'd look like with bangs.

Coworker: (Speechless.)

Me: you know because my forehead is kind of big. I'm going for a haircut tomorrow so .. uh ...

Coworker: (still nothing)

Me: (As if it wasnt' bad enough) See - I even used contrasting shades of brown to match my highlights!

Coworker: (nada)

Me: So was there something you wanted to ask me???

Coworker: I honestly don't remember.

Thank God I didn't go into my whole "South of the Border" schpiel with him. Aye yae yae! Why do these whacky things always happen to me? Because I keep doing whacky things, you say? Pedro sez: good answer.

Drive by ...

Quick drive by post to drop off a picture I took a few weeks ago and completley forgot about.

I call this one "Please Send Toys":

I should contact the United Way to see if they'd like to use Jack as their poster boy. I mean if this picture doesn't pull at your heartstrings then you are most likely dead inside. Give 'til it hurts people.

**No, this is NOT the "totally unprecedented and ground-breaking" post that I alluded to earlier. Consider this an intermezzo of sorts.

Back to the beach

So apparently when I said "more to come ..." at the end of the beach teaser post I should have clarified "more to come in one month and 6 days". I really need to quit my job and devote all of my time to documenting Jack Gifford's life. I mean, before we know it he'll be potty training! Who wants to miss pictures of that?

Just to recap, we spent about a week in September in Wildwood, NJ. As THE Mister Bobby Rydell sings, we love "Those Wildwood Days". Wild wild wild wood days." Yes I'm actually singing right now. Be happy that you, unlike my neighbor in the cubicle next to me, cannot hear me.

Here are some "on the road" pictures. I packed SO much stuff that we almost had to leave Jack behind. Mike just stood there starting in amazement as I kept bringing more and more stuff down.

He: (looking over the little to no space that we had left in the car) I don't know where the rest of this stuff is going to fit. Do you really NEED everything in there?

Me: Hmmm. Maybe not. What about the kid? Can we lose the kid?

One breakfast at IHOP and a quick Starbucks run later, we were on the way. One Grande Skim Mocha makes one grande happy mama!

(Remember this picture of me. It will become relevant in my next post, which incidentally will be totally unprecedented and ground-breaking. And I promise (kind of) that you won't have to wait a month for it.)

This is quite possibly my favorite picture of all time:

Seriously doesn't it look like the sample picture sold in a picture frame? Doesn't it? Even better you say? Why, thanks!

Another one of my favs. Jack and his Dada down by the water. Notice how I ever-so-artistically tip the camera? Yeah, that is my new thing. I'm artsy like that.

Chasing seagulls is FUN!

Running in the water. How Baywatch!:

"Bring it on waves!" says Jack

Jack, Uncle Boneman, Aunt Steph and cousin-to-be Ziggy (As we refer to him in-utero. Welcome to the blog developing fetus!) on the famous 2 mile long Wildwood Boardwalk. Often referred to as "Two miles of smiles", the boardwalk boasts more rides then Disneyland as well as infinate pizza, ice cream, cotton candy and funnel cake stands.

In addition to all the above the Wildwood boardwalk boasts some of the best people watching on the East Coast. Exhibit A - I snapped this picture of the person walking in front of us right after I took that last picture:

Two miles of smiles indeed!

Jack and his Mama (or as he now affectionately calls me, "Kelly". Not even kidding) on the dock of a really nice restaurant we went to called "Two Mile Landing". The dining room was ha-UGE. Very big and open with tall ceilings resulting in a constant dull roar of conversation from all the surrounding tables. Jack could scream as loud as he pleased and the table right next to us honestly couldn't hear him at all. I think I want to move in there.

After viewing all our pictures from the trip when we got home we realized that young Jack was in SERIOUS need of a haircut. We were fortunately able to book him an appoitment at the highly acclaimed Salon Gifford:

Our boy is SO well behaved (even if it did take a pacifier and a remote control in hand to achieve that behavior):

And the after:

And we thought he couldn't possibly get ANY cuter. Obviously we thought wrong.