Meet the Fullers

Back in the winter of our discontent, somewhere around, oh, say, February, just when things were really horrible in Chicago, John's hair stylist (or barber, whichever you prefer) asked John to put together a website for him for his home in Naples, Florida. Gino has a home he bought with a partner in the gorgeous Fiddler's Creek development; it's outside of Naples on the way to Marco Island. Gino stays in the condo part of the year with his family, visting his parents in Marco, and then rents out the condo to friends and associates. He was looking for some help with a website to showcase the condo, and when he sweetened the deal by saying "Why don't you take your family down for a week and take some pictures", we couldn't refuse. What can we say? He caught us when we were at our weakest point, having been beaten down by a terrible winter.

Jack had a lot of fun in the condo. He's become an expert crawler and is moving on to standing. He pulls himself up on all furniture and can no longer be trusted not to get into whatever it is that you don't want him to get into. This was our first vacation with Jack along, and it was great. It takes more time and planning to have him along, but he's so much fun. He was adorable crawling around the condo and kept Becky and I laughing at his antics.

The Condo we stayed at thanks to the DiFranco family was beautiful. It was part of a community called Fiddler's Creek. One of the perks was that we got to enjoy the beautiful pool at the "Club". It rivalled any of the nicest pools that I've seen in Las Vegas, except that it was much less crowded. And they would bring around the most delicious mojitos I've had. I think that Mojitos will need to be this summer's drink. I need to plant some mint in the garden.

Jack and Sophie crawling from The Fullers on Vimeo.

In the condo in Florida, Jack crawls over to visit, then scrambles off again. He loved carrying around his favorite toy, "Sophie le Girafe", and we both got a kick out of the way it would squeak wherever he went. It helped to always know where he was, even if he'd crawled out of sight.

Jack on the Beach from The Fullers on Vimeo.

We spent a beautiful day at Vanderbilt beach in Naples, Florida. Jack loved the beach and had a ball just playing with the sand, finding shells, and slapping at the sand with his little shovel.

Becky and Jack in the Gulf from The Fullers on Vimeo.

Becky took jack out into the surf. The water was amazingly warm and the sun reflecting off the water with mom and Jack made for a beautiful sight.

We visited two beaches in Florida: Vanderbilt Beach in Naples

and what seems to be called the "Resident's beach-South" on Marco Island (per Gino's reco)

The weather was beautiful-high 80s, blue skies, sunny. I never used to see the point of a beach vacation (so much to see! why lay around?) but I could have drifted in the ocean for hours quite jhappily. As it was, we immensely enjoyed our beach visits. Jack liked playing in the sand, and lloved the seashells. In fact, we found one in his mouth (!) at Vanderbilt that he managed to sneak in when we weren't looking. Guess that which does not kill him makes him stronger...

Jack is April "child of the month" at daycare. Yay, Jacky! The pic they used is funny...it hardly looks like him to us. But we're proud nonetheless.

A one act play starring Sophie le Giraffe from The Fullers on Vimeo.

Learning to Walk from The Fullers on Vimeo.

On a whim, we got out Jack's Walker after we got back from vacation. We ordered it with a few other toys off of E-bay when he was four months old, so it had been sitting unused for a while. But after watching him pull himself up like crazy on vacation, we thought maybe he was ready. And boy, was he! Jack pulled himself right up and proceeded to march across the family room repeatedly. He looked like he was mowing the lawn--John sees his freedom from mowing in ten years or so. He's worked up to being able to turn it around as well.

We are members of the Art Institute, and decided we wanted to see the Edward Hopper exhibition, so we loaded Jack up early on a Sunday morning to make the Member's hours before the exhibit officially opened for the day. We were glad we did, as later in the day the line was crazy! We really enjoyed the exhibit, and Jack professed his approval as well by doing his usual-sleeping through most of it. He did wake up at the end and expressed his thoughts about Hopper's later works while having a bottle.