New Videos

I'm sure my family will enjoy these. The second video is a little shaky, because I am still learning how to use our hand held video camera.

Jack is 6 Month's Old

We are back with another monthly installment about our cutie patootie! I think I'm going to nickname his cute legs as "Thunder Thighs." He has the perfect amount of chubbiness so it is only natural they should be known as T-squared! He has grown in leaps and bounds this month and I am happy to report them on this ol' blog of mine, which has become far less about travel and much more about family life. Oh well.

Nicknames: Peanut, Little Man, Nut Butt
Temperament: He continues to be an easy baby to care for. In fact, tonight he played in his jumper while we ate dinner, then while I played the piano, and even for five games of Boggle. I think that was over an hour, but he just loves it. As you may have noticed from some of the previous videos he has the cutest laugh and it makes our day when we find the magic formula that gets him going. He now knows how to sleep without a swaddle, however we are slowly weaning him off nap time in momma's arms. I'm sure it is my fault, because I like it too much. He does just find at bedtime though, so we must be doing something right, I just need to work on that this month. People always comment that he is a cutie, and of course I think he puts the charm on, because he is always smiling when we are out in public.

Weight: We actually went into the doctor's office today for a diaper rash that just didn't want to go away (I figured it was a yeast infection and I think I was right). Anyhow, I found out he is 16 pounds.

Items/Toys That We Love The Most: Now that I figured out how to use the stroller...I didn't know I could make the front wheel swivel...I am in love with using it. Sometimes I just strap a sleepy baby into the stroller and bring it out in the yard to work on the weeds. He naps and I work on the yard. It also came in handy when I was working at a Model UN conference with a couple students. Jack would nap in their and it became the station for storing diapers and bottles. The pack-n-play is also coming in handy lately too. Sometimes I will put Jack in there while I'm making dinner and he will roll around and at least I know he is not going to roll into anything. Of course Jack still loves the jumper and I have found he loves this simple musical toy that my grandparents bought him. Lately I have him play with it during diaper changes so he doesn't wiggle right off the changing table and I can attach the diaper to his body much easier.

First Experiences: Jack was able to try lots of different foods this last month. Here is the order of different foods: Rice cereal, baby oatmeal, sweet potatoes, bananas, back to cereals, avocado, squash, and this week he will try peas. He did not do so well with the bananas. I don't think it was an allergic reaction, but his digestive system just might not be ready for it. Or maybe it was the little seeds inside? I'm not sure but after the second day he has a seedy stool and immediately developed a diaper rash. This rash would fade away and come back in a different spot until I finally decided to just go to the doctor today and it was diagnosed as I thought...a yeast infection! So he also got his first diaper rash too (if you don't count the rash from the jaundice at birth). I hope to try bananas again, but in a month because he really enjoyed the taste.

I think we are finally at a point where he will begin eating solids for breakfast and lunch. He is growing up so much! He also started eating four main feedings during the day at 7 oz. at each feeding. Sometimes he even tries to grab the bottle to put it in his mouth, but he doesn't really have the hang of that yet. Oh, and he has finally mastered how to roll. He can roll from back to belly or belly to back and he can go in both directions. In fact, sometimes he will get onto his belly and drag the blanket to get his toys or pacifier closer to his mouth. I figure it won't be long before he learns how to army crawl. Then I will really have to baby proof the house! Until then, I will just enjoy watching him play in one place.

We Captured This Last Night At Dinner

So we were simply eating dinner while Jack was banging his hand on the bumbo seat. I decided to do it too and this was the result. It was so funny that we had to grab the camera. I am sure that our families will appreciate this one. It shows how happy of a baby he is. We love him to pieces!

Jack Update: For the Family

When your family lives hours away, these updates are a lifeline. I know my parents love them and I'm pretty sure all his aunties and uncles, plus his nanny does too! So since my dad has been pestering me to update with some video footage and since they will be at my grandparents house this weekend, it is time for a Jack update. I went to a conference with some students (I'm and their adviser, even though I'm still on maternity leave). I probably go into the school once a week with Jack for meetings. Well, there were other babies at the conference so Jack got to play.

After eating bananas, Jack broke out with a diaper rash. I think it might have been the yeast from the bananas, so occasionally he had some naked butt time. Don't you just love those baby rolls?
He has started smiling for the camera now. He used to just stare at it like it was the weirdest thing....which makes pictures not as fun!

Here is a video of him rolling both ways!

Stairs Update: New Paint Colors

Back in January/February we decided we wanted to paint the stairway. It is a low cost alternative to replacing them, which we don't have the money for right now. But a gallon of paint is cheap (or even cheaper if you only need a half a gallon). So anyhow, we first painted the stairs green with hopes to bring a pop of color. It was definitely a "pop" of color, but my husband hated it. I liked it and those that saw it had mixed opinions. So I tested out white on the risers and realized I liked that so much better. If you were to see up close then you would know there are a lot of flaws, so the white does not hide them, but overall it looks much better. Joe wanted to paint the tops brown to keep them neutral. I was against brown for a long time but finally sucked it up since he let me have the white on the risers (which he did not like too much). So now you can see what we finally settled with. Oh, and I think it looks SO much better. We should have done that to begin with!





The Ugly Green Stairs: