There won't be any Jack updates for a few days...

... because Daddy is in New Orleans for most of this week. Details and updates at his blog.

Greetings Tenzin, family and friends

Just this moment noticed a posting from Tenzin Tsering's family. Tenzin is a young fellow at the Tibetan Chidren's Village whom we have sponsored for several years now. The TCV supports children and families who are refugees from Tibet, and provides a fine education (as well as teaching traditional Tibetan culture) to youngsters who probably couldn't get that education even if they were in Tibet; the Chinese have done all they can to erase indigenous Tibetan culture.

Anyway, if you are looking for a worthy cause and want to help some kids with a small monthly donation, we can vouch for the TCV. We have always been in touch with Tenzin and receive letters and pictures from him as well as detailed reports on the many successes of the program. If you want to visit TCV click this link:

Tibetan Children's Villages
Direct link to How to support TCV

Getting in the swing of things.

I won't waste a lot of time on apologies for the absence of new Jack stuff on these pages . . . there has been plenty of news to report but your humble blog editor is also a film editor in real life and his thesis films at AFI have begun. What this means in English is that 6 days a week Daddy (the aforementioned blog editor) leaves the house around 7:30 with Jack, drops him at his daycare, and does not return home until around midnight. Whereupon he has some cookies and milk, checks his email and collapses. Meanwhile Mommy is living the life of an almost-single parent every night, at least. This will go on until mid-June so bear with us if you do not hear from either of us or see a lot of updates. There are however many things to inform you of and many photos to get to -- so here it goes. Note, After the update I will just post the pics without a lot of notes or the usual narrative -- there are so many of them and they kind of speak for themselves. Also, email subscribers please note, the email will only post my initial posting of these reports -- and not the repostings I do after that initial posting when I notice all my ghastly typos and correct them all, so please don't take me for an idiot!

Also, do leave a message if you are checking in by clicking the comments link after the posts. Love to get them especially from strangers (Namgyal, how did you find this page? And are you Tibetan?) but naturally from all our regular friends and family as well.

And now to the updates!

The picture above, and the swing pictures below were taken this afternoon on Jack's first-ever trip to a playground. Sliding down a slide left him nonplussed but he really got into the swing after a while, and even more so into the attractive Asian lady at the next swing. He couldn't take his eyes off her for a while! Hilarious.

Amazing that in the space of less than a month, the following things have happened.

ITEM: Jack has sprouted not one but four teeth. Two are plainly visible on the bottom and the others are just making their debut. There is no way to describe how cute he is with that lospided smile and a little tooth sticking up out of there. I swear, he is like a cartoon baby or Cupie doll. However, to date he has resisted our efforts to document this dental breakthrough. Updates to follow.

ITEM: Jack can now actually crawl! For the last couple of months we've watched him do this sort of thing where he could get up on his hands and feet, stretch his body out, propel himself forward with his legs and face-plant a good few inches from where he started. Not the most graceful movement -- rather what the first life forms might have looked like as they flopped and slogged their way out of the primordial soup and onto dry land, one imagines -- but efficaicous; he could get from point A to point B with alarming speed. Now, though, Jack has mastered four-wheel drive and is all arms and legs in a flurry of action which makes him very hard to contain, which is why we have, courtesy of Nanny and Pop, a fenced-off play area for him in the living room. We used to be able to deposit him on the bed surrounded by a miniature mountain range of pillows and brush our teeth or get dressed, but now he climbs over them like a monster truck rumbling over a stack of Toyotas. Really quite something, and has upped the exhaustion ante around the house quite a bit for Mom and Dad!

ITEM: Jack is now mostly feeding himself solid foods, with bottles in between. I get the biggest kick out of watching him eat. He has these little cereal puffs that he will just shovel away. It is so fun to watch him learning to use his fingers and concentrate soooo hard on grabbing that one particular pea or what have you. So far, cereal puffs, eggs and cheese are big hits. Some fruits, like mango (see below) he makes a hilarious face at but keeps plowing away at them. I think that when something is tart and sweet he likes the sweetness but doesn't know what to do about the tartness. The result is a confused and somewhat pained expression!

ITEM: Jack can now stand up in his crib. I found this out the first time when I woke up as usual to the sound of him crabbing in his crib. I walked in to find him standing upright in the crib absolutely petrified because he couldn't get down. "Dude! What the hell!" I exclaimed. Now, he still can't get down some weeks later but is taking steps holding the crib rail/playpen/table edge or what have you. I saw him today take a cautious move toward sitting down, with one hand on the rail of his playpen (he couldn't see me watching) but then he chickened out and stood back up. Anyway he now can reach his mobile and many other things and suddenly seems a lot more grown up than he did just a few weeks ago!

So I think that covers it for now. Like I say, a lot of sudden development in the last four weeks! I am teaching Jack's Mommy how to update the blog sometime soon. So this should mean more frequent updates in the near future. In the meantime, take care and stay in touch!











Now before you start screaming about babies and plastic bags, know that seconds before this picture Genevieve turned and saw Jack making a beeline for this bag of stuff she had just moments ago cleaned off her desk. Shades, I fear, of things to come as Jack's mobility increases!!!



For those wondering what a baby's first experience of yogurt is:

Mango blues:
Jack "helping" with the laundry:

Class clown

This morning as soon as Jack arrived at school his teacher Sheryl adorned him with this cap, which, she observed correctly, suits his personality very well!

Dinner out

The other night G and I had a mdoest dinner out at a little Italian place. Jack sat at the table with us for the first time and held forth on various subjects in a boisterous voice, very jolly about it all.

New sensations

Jack was less than enthused at his first few bites of mixed veggies and potatoes:

Apologies. . .

. . . for the dearth of holiday posts. The old' festive holiday stomach flu has been rampaging around the house and had your noble editor under the weather and playing catch-up big time. Still a little under the weather, but getting there. Enjoy the updates below. All Disney-free, for you grumps who complain.

Baby New Year

Well it has been a great year, if more exhausting on so many levels than any other year I can remember. Not only have G and I been working harder than we ever have before in our lives by a long shot, but little Jack, well, as I was saying to Teige and Becca the other day, people can tell you all about it until you want to punch them, but there is nothing better to convince you that you don't have a shred of energy or sanity left in your body than your third or fourth night at home with a newborn. After a couple of weeks you start to get a grip, but it is so unbelievable, an utter sea change in every single way you have ever measured your existence. And though you do stabilize, it's still plenty exhuasting. I mean, there is no doubt who's the boss of the house.

And you know what the amazing thing is? As a reward, you get to look into that smiling little face that lights up like a million-watt lamp when you come in the door. Who's never been as excited or happy as when he sees you. Who delights you every day with something new, some amusing antic, some silly sound, some funny face. And no matter how tired you are, you go all to pieces. I mean, you would have to be a real hard case to look at that smiling face and feel even a little but bad about most anything, now, wouldn't you?
Welcome to 2006, little buddy. Hopefully Mommy and Daddy can make their little piece of the world a little safer, a little more fun, a little more comfortable, a little better for you in the next year. And hopefully, for you and all your little pals, the rest of the grownups in the world can get their act together, at least here in this country, which frankly I would rather see you and your daycare class governing than the chimp we have in there now.
As usual, I can't decide which of these cute photos of Jack in the outfit his Grampy bought for Christmas is the one to go with. I adore them all. And Jack, too, and Genevieve. This is going to be a very big year for all of us. 2005 will be hard to top. I mean, how do you improve on this little guy?

Jack's First Christmas

Christmas dawned bright and early at the Sheehan facility in 2005. Daddy was up and at 'em with the camera to get a pic of Jack's grand entrance. But first let's fire up some lights and see what Santa dropped off . . .

Why, that right jolly old elf has taken leave of his senses! What a glorious array of items, sure to bring a sparkle of avarice to any young lad's eye.

And that ain't hay, bub.

Jack's first big score was this swell "exersaucer," courtesy of Mr. Claus. It is a big hit with Jack and also serves the noble purpose of keeping His Increasingly Mobile Highness in one place while Mommy and Daddy cook or clean or just exhale.

Jack loved it and took some time to figure out all the high-tech gizmos.

Speaking of high tech -- did Santa bring you a large, vibrating pig? I didn't think so.


Hands down my favorite gift from Santa is this battery-operated monkey. When Jack hits it it exclaims "oo-oo-ee-ee-ahh-ahh!" and waggles its arms and runs away playing wacky music. I think actually I like playing with this toy more than Jack does.
Jack models a lovely outfit courtesy of Aunt Skooze. (If you don't see your present here, please don't take it the wrong way. I didn't get shots of everything, sorry!)


Not only is this outfit in good taste, it tastes good!
Jack with some incredible presents from Aunt Maura!

This is one kid who knows how to talk to a sock puppet.

I love the tongue sticking out in this one, a regular occurrence, together with frequent "raspberry" sounds." Jack was really getting into the present-opening!

Get a load of this psyched expression for his little football from cousin Devon! Jack LOVES football. It is the only thing on TV he will watch with full attention for a long span of time.

Jack eyes a new kiddie tool set from his cousins with great interest. Mommy too seems interested in the possibilities of this fine set.


Hmmm, what have we here?
Is it tissue paper? Well that's a good appetizer but . . .Why it's a large plush bear from Aunt Megan!
It's DELICIOUS!!Nanny and Pop sent a nice outfit and a playpen of sorts...
Boris dropped in for a quick holiday smooch.
Jack looks kinda like the Dalai Lama in this fine towel/robe from Grammy and Grampy (I think.)
I love, love, love, the "caught in the act" guilty look on Jack's face in this one. We get this a lot. And then when we say "No, Jack," in our sternest voices with our sternest looks he laughs in our face. Literally, he finds our attempts at discipline laughable. Lord help us.
Grampy scored Jack some quality duds.

Baby Tad is a chatty little chap courtesy of Aunt Beth. Like the Gund bear he proved delicious!

And so little Jack enjoyed the spoils of his first Christmas Day with these presents and many more from all you lovely people. Hope your day was at least as happy as Jack's!
Later Mommy and Daddy dialed it down a peg and had a nice mellow Christmas night.

And after all that fun, Jack-Jack settled down for a long winter's nap.