Jack: 8 Months



 I can NOT get enough of this sweater...we now have three of them for the kids (dark brown, green and peach)

 I am going to sound like I am copying my my neighbor's blog touching on how much she loves her son...but I swear, I also had the same feeling this month and absolutely wanted to document it...she just beat me to it :)  With that, I feel SO much love for Jack this past month and can absolutely say with confidence that I LOVE being a mom of a son.  I have this increased urge to be around him, teach him, suck on his cheeks and just generally engage with him lately and Im not sure what it is about or where it came from...but I love it.   

One second happy and carefree...

 the next second: cautious, hesitant and suspicious of puppet frog :)

There may be lots of pictures of Jack sitting up lately since that is pretty much all he does.  I know he is "just" 8 months old, but he shows NO interest in standing up or crawling at this point and I have to say, it has made me start to worry.  BUT....after a bit of research, thanks to the intergoogles, I am feeling a bit more at ease as it appears he is still within the average range of developmental milestones.  Moreover, there are lots of fun tips and pointers to encourage babies to stand and crawl.  That may also be because that is the only stuff I am reading so I stay sane and not start freaking out that my kid will have to have PT or OT or DAPE (all great resources and helpful support dont get me wrong) :)  From the get-go, Jack has just been so chill, in no rush to do anything and quite happy just chillin...I guess it is ME that needs to slow down and just relax...he's just fine, Molly (you crazy woman).

I SHOULD do a whole separate post regarding our first family flight and trip to Disney World with my parents, but I just don't have the time or energy at this point so I will include some pics and stories in this post and in Mia's 3 year post...but that's all I can do right now.  The stars and moons aligned, the travel fairies were with us the whole way and things literally could NOT have been better for our trip.  BUT....I now know I will NEVER EVER go to Disney World in any other circumstance than what played out for us.  First off....traveling to Disney needs to be done during the off season.  Both flights there and back we had extra seats and were able to spread out and enjoy our DIRECT flight :) 

 His very first flight...living large in his free extra seat :)

This fuzzy book kept him occupied for a long time on the flight, whew!  Overall, a HUGE success.

SPACE is also crucial when traveling above and beyond the airplane.  Having a place with two large bedrooms, 2 large bathrooms, a kitchen area, living space and a deck was awesome.  With that, everyone had their own space....Jack had his own "bedroom" in our bathroom and the kids had their own fort (aka closet).

Mia was so nice to share her closet-fort with Jack...he was so happy!

Check out Jack's pimp set up at our resort...he got his own shower, two sinks, private toilet room and jacuzzi tub...we made him share

We also got a lot of SPACE in pools, at restaurants and at the theme parks traveling in the off season.  Having this extra space was awesome and appreciated by all of us and very conducive for the kids.

 First swim of the trip...he was annoyed at first but adjusted well and ended up loving it

Here are a couple more pics from our Florida trip during Jack's 8th month....more will be included in Mia's 3 year post coming soon :)

Awwww, shmoopie...look at the baby sitting on the elephant

The family at Hundred Acre Wood.....aka outside of Rainforest Cafe in Buena Vista

His new obsession we discovered at the various theme parks in hot weather...

empty plastic bottles...must.get.in.my.mouth!

 He SOOOO knows he's the cutest thing ever



In front of the castle 

If you look close enough, Jack is waving at the camera...not really, but I tell myself he was

Ha!!!! Nate took this pic in a men's bathroom that had no changing table....Jack thought this shit was hilarious!

So...back to Jack...I get off topic and am easily distracted these days when I come home late from work.  In addition to him improving his "sitting up" skills, Jack has developed a LOT lately in the areas of verbal expressions/communication, eating and sleeping.  Jack is such a blabber-mouth lately and makes so many silly squeals, nosies and outbursts...it is amazing to watch and witness and I love just letting him go nuts and make noise.  Of COURSE when I want to document and video him doing this...it just doesn't happen. So, you'll just have to take my word for it I guess :)  He also is starting to shake his head "no" when he is done eating...where the eff did he learn that?  I might have to start paying attention to things more and try to teach him all of that sign language stuff I did with Mia...all done, please, more, thank you...better sharpen up on those skills I guess.

He was making squeals in this pic, I swear.  

I love this pic...I love my son

"Ummm, mom, I'm busy watching the game...take my picture later."

  Unfortunately, Jack was only able to wear this outfit once...due to his belly fat.

Speaking of belly fat...Jack has some...and leg fat and chin fat and just rolls all around.  He definitely isn't "fat" per se.....but he is sure a lot "bigger" than Mia was at this age....and he loves eating.  Let's see...his foods so far have included: squash, sweet potatoes, avocado, peas, pears, bananas, blueberries, peaches, green beans, carrots, rice, oatmeal, and I basically just lost track at this point.  Apparently at 8 months the day care licensing people are "required" to give the babies meats...so Jack has now had chicken as well.  I haven't done too much of the finger food stuff due to laziness and I suppose a fear of him choking.  Plus...he just drags the food to the edge of the table and it falls in the floor...so why waste it?  He has had a few of those puff things and makes the funniest faces ever like I gave him cat litter or something. 

Might as well make use of these football outfits while I can :)  As seen here, he likes the Gophers.

Take my picture foooooo

Awww, smiling at Koko at a Sunday dinner get-together

So Jack is on his 3rd straight week of sleeping ALL the way through the night and not waking up before 6:45am....sometimes needing to be woken up at 7:30am.  When I say "all" the way through...I mean nothing that required any attention from us at all or nothing that lasted longer than a 1-2 minute whine, whimper or self adjustment on his end.  I would guess that this is a contributing factor in why I love him so much lately :)  He's just plain easy (for now).   Nate and I have this deal that one of us is "on call" over night for one week and then we switch.  I used to get so mad when it was "his week" and Jack would sleep all the way through.  Im not as annoyed anymore because he now does it for me too and I get to get a full night of uninterrupted sleep.  I know this won't last and I know tonight will surely be the night that he sticks it to me by waking up 5 times or something...but it has been glorious nonetheless.  It reminds me of Mia where we now are able to change his diaper, put on his jammies and give him a bottle and plop him down with little to no fussing (not including nights with constipation, sniffles, etc of course).  The other thing that is so weird is that there have been two night this past week when we stayed out WAY too late with the kids and did not get home until after 9-10pm...with both kids still awake!  Yikes!!!  BUT......both of those next mornings, they slept in.  What?!!!! That NEVER happens and almost always bites you in the ass with the kids wake up at like 5am or some god awful hour.  I am not going to push my luck with this one and take it as a two time "you were lucky" freebie...I need more evidence and data to actually put this in to consistent practice :)

Recap: Jack sits up and rolls and doesn't really progressively move other than that (unless you count backward movement sliding across the floor or pivots in a circle ),  Jack eats a lot and has gorgeous smooth cheeks, Jack sleeps through the night as the norm instead of the exception, he babbles more now, he interacts more, he went to Disney World, he loves life and has a mom that brags about him on her blog (sorry).

Hog pile on Daddy!!!

Forget Halloween costumes...he could be a Hershey Kiss.
I seriously can't get enough of this sweater....you haven't seen the last of it yet :) 

Jack: 7 Months

I'm BEYOND tired, it's been a long weekend and I have run out of energy for this post but I do want to share some random pics and stories from this month.  

Jack's "firsts" this month include:

• sleeping without a swaddle
• sleeping consistently through the night on his belly
• sitting up in his own
• eating more and more food (squash, sweet potato, banana, avocado, apple(sauce), rice cereal, oatmeal)
• Jack throwing up and getting sick :(
• Jack's first urgent care visit :(
• Jack's first two teeth! :)
• Family photo shoot
• Target catalogue casting call (I know...I know...we were invited to do it from an "insider" friend)
• floating in the creek at the cabin
• I'm sure there is more but I almost just fell asleep

Look at me!  I'm trying to get better at sitting up!  

Jack seriously is so chill and generally seems to prefer just relaxing and NOT MOVING much at all.

He has gotten a tad bit more mobile this month and more interested in moving but overall...he'd rather just lay in one spot and watch the world go by :)

You'd have to look really hard but Jack got his first two bottom teeth this month...roughly the same time Mia got her first two as well.  Since then..he has been more of a drooling machine and really wants to grind anything and everything he can get in to his mouth.

Earlier this month were some of the last few days using a swaddle for Jack.  We started by leaving his arms out...and then basically called it quits especially when it was clear he would not stay in one spot anymore or sleep on his back all night.

Can you believe this was how he looked when we took him to urgent care?!  SOOOOOO many illnesses go through his day care and Mia has usually been the last one standing...but Jack finally got sick and threw up a couple of times while also having liquid diarrhea; therefore, we were advised to have him checked out just to make sure he wasn't dehydrated...which he wasn't.  He was totally fine but we were told to ease him slowly back on formula and solids...so for several days sprinkled throughout the month, we held off of solid foods and formula to try and get him "back to normal". 

Nerd Alert!  

If he had grey curly hair, I would call him Pearl.

Jack is SUPER in to watching his big sister, Mia.  He loves smiling at her and basically anyone who is around him.  He totally thinks she is funny and is no doubt going to try date her friends one day.

Hi guys...we're just going for a walk :)

Walking around Como Lake one gorgeous day this month

After a long hot day...Jack went form this...

...to this :)

Jack's first "Music in the Park" at Lake Harriet.  That afternoon, we had a picnic, relaxed by the beach, listened to music, watched the ducks and drove around looking for dream houses.

Jack has a big boy spot at the dinner table now :)

Snuggle time on the pontoon at the Osceola cabin

Took him a second to calm down, but once he recovered from the shock of cold water, he LOVED it :)

Greta, Luke and Jack modeling the latest fall color clothing lines

Next up:....Jack's first airplane rides and trip to DISNEY WORLD with Nana, Papa, mom, dad and Mia :) Weeeee!!!!!!

Jack: 6 Months

Yeah yeah yeah, I know, I'm a bit late....but I'm pretty sure the only people who read my blog are my mom and my neighbor and they see Jack all the time anyway :)  Regardless, here is my little 1/2 year old peanut!!!

This series of pics accurately depicts Jack's first encounter with baby oatmeal...

just about the cutest thing I've ever seen :)

He starts off so happy and excited to try something new...little does he know...

 Um...what is this in my mouth?  I thought it was ice cream!

That shit was nasty, Mom!

I  feel like I say this just about every month, but this one has gone by so quickly...I am still recovering from and catching up on sleep from two weeks ago!  Jack's 6th month started off super hot and sweaty with what felt like a record breaking hot as hell 4th of July.  We braved the weather, quickly decorated the double stroller and attended a small parade and pot lunch picnic in Shoreview with some long time close family friends.

We were out of town essentially three of the four weekends in July and that is just nuts.  Two of them were with the kids visiting other friends and one was without the kiddos...to a beautiful wedding in Oregon and additional travel time along the coast and in Seattle.  That's right, I left my kids for a total of 4 whole nights in a row (gasp! what a horrible mother!)...I don't feel the least bit bad about leaving the kids for that long but I absolutely missed them more than I ever thoughts I would and I was DYING to get home and give them hugs and kisses...even if I had to do it at 11pm when we arrived back at home.

How could I resist this?  I mean really?

To be honest, not a lot has changed this month for Jack.  He continues to get better at rolling over but he still seems like he is more interested in just sitting or laying around and watching us or the world go by :)  He enjoys sitting in his bumbo more and is much better at it; however, his fat chunky thighs are literally almost too big to fit in at this point....he actually often gets stuck when we lift him out :)  

I try to read to Jack but he is clearly "over it" and would prefer to do it on his own :)

Jack continues to work on his tummy time and likes to be around other kids...he really seems to enjoy watching other kids play.  Here is a pic of the boys rockin the stripes during a random get-together.

Lovin' life

A few new things for Jack have been the introduction of the jumper/exersaucer/johnny jump up type things.  There is a Johnny jump up at day care that he loves as well as one at his grandparent's cabin.  Ours at home is a bit different but he enjoys it and is figuring out how to bounce around and start jumping a bit....so cute.  Another new thing is the fact that Jack can now hold his own bottles.  He likes to grab on to things while drinking from a bottle and I remember this while he nursed as well.  So if he isnt holding my hand, pulling at my shirt or hanging on to my hair...he is grabbing his own bottle.

one of the first days in the bouncer

Ahhhh, nom nom nom

Jack is in the middle of a 6 months growth spurt and has been getting up 1-2 times a night for the past couple of days; however, if it wasn't for that, I'd say he was pretty much consistently sleeping through the night this month.  There were two weeks for sure when he slept from about 7pm-6 or 7am...so that's an overall improvement :) We continue to swaddle Jack at night but we keep his arms out since he wiggles free anyway.  Swaddling still seems to keep him cozy and in SOMEWHAT of the same position, although he turns around and sometimes flips over at night.

So sweet...sleeps just like me :)

Jack's 6 month appointment is this next Monday so I don't know yet how tall he is or how much he weighs just yet...BUT he certainly has been growing a lot and is packing on the pounds with his chunky neck and thigh rolls.   I'm sure a lot of it has to do with the fact that he now drinks formula; I can't wait to see how he adjusts to eating solids :) 

Mia likes to help feed her brother now too...she even wipes his mouth and chin with his burp rags

All in all, this month was a blur and zipped on by before I could blink.  I can NOT believe that Jack is half a year old already!!! Knowing he is 6 months old fills me with excitement for what's next, wonderful memories and pride with what a fun little guy he has become....but it also reminds me to stop and smell the roses a bit more as time goes by so fast.  Love you Bubbers!!!

Jack: 5 months

I seriously can NOT get enough of this picture..I am sooo one of "those moms" who whips out her camera and shows this pic to anyone who will look at it. What's more, my grandpa "Sonny" who passed away when I was in 6th grade, used to wear plaid pants and various "get-ups" similar to this outfit....LOVE it!!!

I reflect on this past month and very much view these last 30 days as a time where our whole family was "getting in to the groove" of things.  Many transitions have occurred lately and this month, we have worked on stability, routine, consistency and just creating some calm after the waves.  I would say that Jack is fully adjusted to 5 days a week daycare and is thriving in that setting.  With the exception of HOW our provider communicates with us and the lack of tact in some of her statements, she loves him so much and is really trying hard to help him develop and enjoy his time in her daycare.  I am also pretty much adjusted to being back in the groove of work and being in that setting again.  I have been SOOOOOO busy at work I can barely keep up and as we speak I have 6 outstanding assessments that need to be done and I am booked with back to back clients for the next 3 weeks.  It is a blessing and a curse to be so busy in my field.  

While being so busy and trying to keep up, it is with mixed emotions that I report Jack is 100% on formula as we complete this month.  He is a tank, he is a pig, he loves him some grub and I can not keep up.  I starting supplementing with formula right at 4 months and at the completion of this month, my freezer stash was gone, my pump sessions yielded next to nothing and our nursing (for nutrition and milk) has come to an end.  I am enjoying the new freedom and decrease in anxiety and "need to plan ahead-ness" that I used to have while full on nursing; however, I also sometimes feel like I failed my child knowing I COULD have done multiple different measures to try and strengthen my supply.  I know could have quit my job, I could have pumped 3x over night, I could have taken pills, ate more, drank more, slept less, pumped more, nursed more, ate oatmeal, overdosed on fenugreek, done cartwheels and painted my face purple but I didn't want to.  Adding an extra 5-6 months of breast milk knowing that Jack is about to start solids soon and seeing how healthy and fine Mia has turned out...I decided not to give a shit.  The hold up for me has been knowing that Jack will be our last child and that I will never again be able to experience the bond that is created through nursing again.  I know I'll have bonds with my kids in other ways, but the things was that Jack and I both loved this experience.  Ahhh bless...we had a good run Bud.  

Plus...he basically is chompin at the bit trying every day to get as many fingers/fists in his mouth as he can...I keep waiting for that 1st tooth. 

You kinda see this in the pic but a funny thing I have noticed with Jack lately is his intense eye contact...like almost a little stalker creepy-like :)  He is so curious of his world around him that he will just sit and stare at people even if he's doing his own thing...but it's cute nonetheless.  

Jack loves his baths now which makes everything more pleasant.  He has outgrown the sling type thing and basically outgrown the infant tub...but he looks too cute in it to stop using it just yet.  Plus, he can't sit up on his own yet to be in a real tub...so there's that too.

 Jack is still rockin the swaddle at night and doing quite well with it.  We have had to switch to the larger size of course, but he seems to stay still and sleep solid when we wrap him up tight and prevent the random flailing of arms that can occur.  Mia was swaddled until 6 months and I imagine Jack will be too....especially since this chill lump of a dude hasn't mastered the art of rolling over just yet.  Jack CAN roll over if he wants to and I have seen him do it on several occasions...he just doesn't AT ALL seem interested.  It's like...why would I roll over when I am fine just chillin right here?  I won't start worrying about his motor development too much until he decides not to walk until he's like 3 or something.

Another huge "groove" our family is getting in to is the fact that Nate is now finishing his 3rd month ( I think) of being self employed and working full time at home in our basement.  It has been a while since started his venture of "sticky" and switching it over to full time employment has been an adjustment...that has been extremely beneficial so far....thank GAWD!  Nate seems to bond more with Jack and the kids seem to like being around their dad more now that he has the freedom and space to do his current passion.  With that, we have not had a lot of time to upload and photo shop pictures...let alone take them.  Jack has come along with us for some fun family outings and cabin visits this past month, but we did not do a good job of documenting...our bad.  So the random segue I guess is that Fathers Day was fun as we went out of town to our neighbors cabin for the 3rd year in a row and Jack was able to enjoy some family time with us and with good friends.

 Jack and neighbor buddy Luke lounging in the shade while the older kids went bonkers.

There are so many pics from this weekend but we didn't take many...these few pics are thanks to our neighbor :)

Same old thing, different location :)

Luke and Jack: High on life.

This is the Fathers Day art project the kids made for Nate.  Jack looks so startled by the whole thing but damn that is cute! 

Well, Jack-a-boo, Buds, Bubbers...I am, as always, very excited to see what you have in store for us next month and beyond.  You have been such a chill and cuddle-bug baby and I am loving all the snuggles I can get.  Sleep tight, love you.

Jack: 4 Months

Ahhhhhhhhhh!  I am so happy and so cute! 

And I actually like my Bumbo now too!

Looking at the calendar this week, I was SHOCKED to actually realize that the month was basically done and we would soon be in June...seriously, where has this month gone?!  I think this month has gone by so quickly because this is my first full month back at work and adjusting to my new "normal"...and by normal, I mean organized chaos :)  I feel like I blink and my little newborn baby boy has grown up so much.  He's basically off to college.  I am not even sure what to write about because this month was such a quick blur.  Actually, now that I look back at my May calendar, I kind of get sad because the majority of it was spent at work or somehow otherwise away from Jack, snif snif.  My birthday was this month, two nights were spent brewing and bottling beer for the first time, mothers day was a date night kind of thing with Nate, each Thursday I have music class with Mia, we had an overnight wedding spent away from Jack and every Tuesday night I work late and sometimes dont get home until just after Jack goes down to bed....sad!  Well, before I get too upset about all the time spent away from Jack this past month, maybe I can show some pictures and talk about some "firsts" or new developments this month :)

For a week or two Jack now seems to prefer front facing holds in the Bjorn.  His head control is really good lately if he isn't tired and on this particular evening, he spent over an hour in this position as happy as can be observing just about everything that came in to view for him.

 This was another one of those group baby/kids pics while in Minnetonka visiting with good friends.  Jack was cooperative but preferred staring at the lamp instead of smiling and looking at the camera.

 Jack's first mother's day brunch with Nana Terese. Nate took the kids so I could have some alone, sleep in and relaxation time....yes please.  Not the best pic of the ladies but this post is about Jack so I figured I had to find a semi-good one of him first.

 GASP! "A baby sleeping on their stomach!!?? And are those BLANKETS in his crib?!!"  Jack does not sleep overnight on his tummy yet as he has not mastered the art of rolling over; however, there are moments I do allow him a "kitty nap", as Mia calls them, in this position when we are all home and close by.

 He finally likes his Bumbo!!! Yay!!!

Now that I think of it, Jack really hasn't done many "firsts" this month that I can pinpoint other than more smiling, more cooing, a bit of laughter, practice with rolling over and finally enjoying his Bumbo and baths :) ...oh wait, there is that one thing....get a load of this!

So...if you know me or have read some previous blog posts of mine, I have been somewhat obsessed with trying my hardest to "keep up" with Jack and pump or nurse to give him only breast milk for as long as I can.  Nursing has been nearly 100% awesome for us, we both enjoy it and it is just plain great.  Pumping...yeah, boring, annoying, pain in the butt but I was willing to do it to give him what he needs. I was only able to nurse and pump for Mia for 3 months as my supply QUICKLY plummeted once I returned to work and I basically gave up and did not want to deal with the stress or pressure I was putting on myself.  Since being back at work this time around, I also noticed a dip in supply and having to use a lot of freezer stash sooner than I wanted.  I COULD keep up with Jack but that would require me to pump 3x at work, once around 10pm before bed and wake myself up in the middle of the night to pump all the while not knowing when he would actually wake up and want to be fed.  I did this for a while and it got old and exhausting.  With a few drunk nights and our first overnight away from jack and being back at work, I was swiftly going through my freezer milk and knew I'd make it a total of 4 months exclusive breast milk, but also knew I'd be needing to supplement soon...most likely within days.  I shared this with our day care provider and she understood my goals, congratulated me "making it this far" and "trying so hard to keep up" and understood we'd most likely be adding formula pretty soon.  On Thursday, ONE DAY BEFORE Jack would turn 4 months old and I would reach my goal, I find out that our day care provider "just decided" to go ahead and add 1 oz of formula to all three of his bottles (3oz in total)....WITHOUT my consent, let alone knowledge of it.  Jigga what?!  I was so shocked that I really didn't even know what to say or how to react so I played it off and just went home.    After talking with my hubby and neighbor, I felt like I should really say something and address things.  It isn't exactly WHAT occurred that bothered me, it was more about HOW it was done.  My neighbor convinced me to say something and call her so I did...and left one of those long embarrassing messages where you get cut off...oh great, Molly you are so lame.  She ended up calling back and OMG I answered the phone.  Long story long, it ended well, she apologized a lot and said I was right and that I  should absolutely know what my kids are eating/drinking ahead of time and then she told me how her daughter chewed her out for a similar thing...again, little to do with the ACTUAL outcome but way more to do with the method in which is occurred.  I know that in the grand scheme of things, she had good intentions, wanted to make sure we/she exposed Jack to formula before just dropping him off and crossing our fingers and in the end, everything was just fine, he ate the bottles and no harm was done to my son; however, again, it was disappointing that she felt she could go ahead and make "first time" decisions about what my son was going to ingest and when and how much.  It would be totally different if he ran out of milk, she spilled it or she went through her back up freezer bottle...but she didn't.  Whew, all in all, everything worked out and I am still TOTALLY counting and claiming that he was nursed/pumped exclusively for 4 months.  Im not sure how it will all go down at this point, but I am continuing to nurse and just think that his bottles from now on will have 1-2oz of formula in them.

This might very well be my favorite picture of Jack to date.  I swear all I did was prop him up on the couch.  He was the one who placed his arms and I melt every time I see this pic.  He is so ready to be invited to the yacht club :)

That's all for now...not much else to report. Since I'm already a day late in posting this, I better just be done. Hopefully I'll have more fun pics, news, developments, etc of Jack for month 5 :)