John's 1st Birthday!

John celebrated his first birthday on October 25th. We were lucky to have just the right amount of company help celebrate: his grandparents, aunt Megan and uncle Matt, his great-great uncle Gene and Gene's friend Willene, his great-aunt Karen and his second cousin Kelly. The only no-shows were aunt Allie and uncle Josh, who were stuck in Chicago and unable to witness the cake massacre.


John got this stacking toy from his grandma and grandpa Kennedy-- it became an instant favorite.
Miranda baked a beautiful pumpkin-shaped cake (made of two mini-bundt cakes atop one another) that she frosted with cream cheese icing. John thought it was too pretty to eat... at first.

John learned to share at an early age.

After cake, we hosed John off and got him dressed again to hang out with the family. He enjoyed getting to know Karen and Kelly...

...and Gene and Willene

The next morning, he borrowed cousin Creag's sunglasses for a quick swing in what remained of the beautiful fall weather.

10/14: Newer New Pics (They're Pumpkininny!)

We met grandma and grandpa Kennedy, aunt Megan and uncle Matt and cousin Creag near Burns, Kan., last weekend to visit Walters' Pumpkin Patch. It is a great family-owned farm with lots of distractions for the kids, fields full of pumpkins, a compressed air powered pumpkin cannon that can launch a pumpkin a quarter-mile, and the best popcorn balls we've ever had.

10/14: New Pics

The first weekend in October brought beautiful fall weather to Kansas. It was the perfect opportunity to take John out to the Deanna Rose Farmstead, a great park not too far from the house.

9/16 Part 2: More Pics

John is enjoying books more and more. Here he checks out "I Am a Baby," given to him by his Grandma Kennedy.

John at play...
...and more play.
John already prefers Han to Luke. Good boy, John.
John enjoying a walk at his Grandma Baze's.

9/16 Part 1: Introducing Senor Ocho

We are encouraging John as he masters the dangerous art of octopus wrangling. Here, in a sequence of graphic photos (not for the squeamish), you can see John conquer his nemesis-- the five-legged Senor Ocho...

Thanks to uncle Josh and aunt Allie for cephalopodic sparring partner.

August and September

September is here, which means John is about a month and half from his first birthday. The five teeth above prove it...

John was all smiles when his Aunt Allie and Uncle Josh came for the long weekend...

...both John and Josh were on their best behavior at Sunday brunch at Lydia's.

Josh and Allie were back for Grandpa Baze's birthday. John had plenty of birthday smiles for Grandpa. He's looking more like a little boy every day (see below).

John had a great time catching up with his aunt and uncle. They showed him lots of pictures from the honeymoon in Paris and Rome...

...and Aunt Allie taught John some important international communication techniques.

The long weekend brought a visit from Aunt Allie and Uncle Josh. John had a lot of fun catching up with his family and seeing pictures from the honeymoon in Paris and Rome...

Finally...

a new pic... this might be my favorite ever pic of john...