Three Against Four

As members of the minority, Jamie, Jack and Finnegan ban together to show their solidarity. They usually sleep in shifts, but, as is the case for most men, they fell victim to the recliner while watching tv.

Jack is now famous for his ability to sleep with his eyes shut--a useful skill that he'll need twenty-five years from now. He begins with the rolling of his eyes and then stares off into the distance until we lightly close his lids.

Kitty Naps

Charlotte, under the guise of protecting Jack from the Itsy Bitsy Spiders....

Future Conductor

Small, But Mighty

Jack's new sleeping pose, when he falls asleep in the Itsy Bitsy Bouncer. Itsy Bitsy spiders, beware.

Game Time

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World--The Pumpkin Festival Edition

Last Saturday we packed Jack up and headed out to the Morton Pumpkin Festival. The weather was just right; and since Jamie and I had gone last year and enjoyed some of the little activities, we thought we'd wheel Jack around the event for a little family time.

Why did we think this was fun last year? We were jostled from tent to tent and seemed to always be heading down the wrong way, against the surging crowd of festival-goers. We quickly decided to get the heck out and headed for higher ground. The fam was much happier eating at Steak 'n Shake than standing in a quarter-mile line for some pork chop sandwiches and pumpkin chili.

Yikes. The world is a much scarier place when you have a little one. Every bump to the stroller in Target seems like a personal affront. As if Peoria's drivers weren't already inane--they've now become insane ever since we've had Jack as our backseat driver. Each face in a crowd is a potential kidnapper.

Makes having a social anxiety problem seem a little less like a problem--it's seems like natural protection against the world out there. Still, while my issue is genetic, I don't want Jack's to become learned. We trudge solidly ahead, visiting the mall for some walking, Jack strapped firmly in his stroller and Xanax stashed in my purse.

Catching On...

Jack has been fine-tuning, or at least using, his motor skills. He's quite adept at grabbing his binkie out of his mouth and swinging it about in a fit because it's not in his mouth, but, since he is still a lil' itty-bitty one and also doesn't know cause-and-effect relationships, he can't get it back into his mouth. Mommy to the rescue!

Lazy Sunday

Jamie and all of the kids enjoyed a lazy Sunday afternoon, snoozing on the couch and watching sports.

We met up with Jamie's nephew Justin, his fiance Chrissy and their son Jace, who is almost two, at Old Chicago. It was Jack's first time 'out to eat' and he slept through the whole thing.

This Party is So Not Hot

Newborns are supposed to--in so many words--have a "party (potty) in their pants" quite regularly, or at least prolifically. Jack is what we'd call a "Party Pooper"--or more accurately--a "Party Non-Pooper". Measures are being taken...

Before mixing a doctor-recommended dark Karo syrup and water concoction to hopefully take Jack on a one-way ride down to Turdtown, I actually saved a formed stool out of his diapies (yes, that's diapers) last night in case I had to show any evidence. It's currently in a plastic bag on the top shelf of the fridge, next to the milk.

Yum-O!

P.S.--apparently, according to spellcheck, "pooper", "Turdtown" and "diapies" are not recognized as official words in the English language.

Patty Enjoys Tummy Time, Too

While Finnegan enjoys laying on our laps, weaseling up onto Jack, the girls keep an ambivalent distance, sometimes pausing to sniff lil' dude if he's sleeping in his bouncer.

All of the cats have confiscated Jack's toys as their own. Patty, our 8 year-old kitty, performed a double-taboo today: jumping up onto the table to lay on Jack's tummy-time mat. Of course, I reinforced the behavior by first snapping a picture before shooing her down.

So, Finn loves himself some Jack. For that reason, we're extra cautious about letting him around Jack, unsupervised. A well-meaning cuddle could be smothering if not caught in time. We let Finn on our laps to sit next to Jack while we feed or mug on him, but if we're not immediately next to him, Finn isn't allowed to touch him. Finn seems to have taken on a role of protector, though. As he lounged in the sun next to Jack's bouncer today, he swatted a curious Emily (our 2 year-old) away as she tentatively sniffed Jack's sleeping face.

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Jack loves the Itsy Bitsy Spider Bouncer that his Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Derek gave him. (High-pitched mommy voice not included.) Even without the play thing attached, the bouncer is a good way to get a tired baby to settle down for a nap. Hope the video works!

Birth Announcements: Coming to a Mailbox Near You

I finally finished Jack's birth announcement and will be printing and sending them in the next few days! The announcement looks a little grainer here than it's actual print version.

Pee Pee Le Pew

So little time to blog! Staying home the past few weeks has proven definitely harder and more stressful than going working full-time. But, it's been more enjoyable in a way, too. Jamie and I have found that talking about quantity and quality of burps and soiled diapers has in a strange way made us a stronger team. Recently little Jack has had a bought of gasterial-intestinal difficulties. I'm not sure if they're normal (considering his parents' experiences) or whether they're indicative of some illness. All I know is that they're rank and they turn an otherwise angelic faced baby the little cutie to a full-fledged, eye-popping, red and green-faced monster.

Trying to determine what I could do to soothe his little tummy, late one night/early, early one morning, I carried the screaming lunatic into the computer to look up "passing gas" and "constipation". I found that a reason to worry would be if the poo was the "consistency of peanut butter" or thicker. Yikes!

Frantically, I tried to remember exactly what his previous dirty diaper looked like and almost tore into the Diaper Genie pail to examine the contents and compare to the Jiff we had in the pantry. Luckily, little man's fussing was too extreme to allow me to take up that mission, which was soon forgotten once Jack (and I) fell peacefully asleep.