Movin' on up....

Jake was enjoying doing his own "blogging" on the other site, but it wasn't very user friendly...so I've made the executive decision to move the family blog here instead. Brian's been very busy (again) doing a bunch of house updates & yard work, so I wanted somewhere to show off his hard work as well. So Jake is just going to have to learn to share his blog. In return for being so generous by allowing me to use up his blog space with some of my stuff, I have agreed to post new pictures of him. (He also had me put in the contract that I would move his past blogs onto this site, so I'll be working on that as well, he didn't want to lose any of his precious writings....)

Here he is with his new BFF, Mr. Woofy (who is already slimy with slobber, but I don't have the heart to wash him):

So many cute outfits, so little time to wear them all...here is Jake in some of his "sporty" gear:

You know you're a parent when....

You realize that everything that belongs to your baby is nicer than most of the stuff you own. Case in point: bedroom furniture. Jake's furniture is great & I love being in his room...then I walk into our room & stare at the furniture that was Brian's in his college apartment (and if you had ever been in Brian's old apartment, you'd be even more disturbed that we still have the same furniture) I was especially reminded of this yesterday when I went to put laundry away & when I pulled a drawer of the dresser open, the whole drawer practically cracked in half and a bunch of clothes came tumbling out. Brian's temporary fix? To stuff the clothes back in, shut the drawer & pretend that it never happened.

You also know you're a parent when you don't care that the baby has nicer stuff than you, more clothes, etc...and you actually enjoy buying him stuff more than you do buying stuff for yourself at this point. (his stuff is much cuter anyway!) here are some pictures of his fabulous nursery, for those of you who haven't seen it:

Keep on rollin....

*archived from Jake's old blog*


So last night, I'm hanging out in the rainforest, doing my usual tummy time while admiring myself in the mirror (I must say, I am one handsome specimen)...when all of a sudden, I started building up some momentum while rocking on one arm...then bam! next thing I know, I'm on my back, mom is crying saying how proud she is and they're making some big fuss about how I rolled over? Meanwhile, they're just leaving me there on my back and I can't see myself in the mirror anymore! Fortunately, they flipped me back over and dad got out the video camera...I decided to not flip over again last night, I'm going to leave them hanging for a little while.... :) Here are some action shots of me getting my roll on:

Sunday, April 20th

13 weeks, 5 days old

Too cool for school

*archived from Jake's old blog*

Well, I took my first steps toward college this week...I started going to school! (ok, so really I'm just eating/pooping/sleeping in a different location than the past 3 months, but whatever) So far so good...I think mom took the change a lot harder than I did, she cried more than me this week! My teachers say that I'm doing a great job for being a "newbie"...I'm still having trouble adjusting to taking naps there. there's just so much going on, I dont' want to miss anything! They put me down in my crib & I pretend to be asleep for a few minutes, then when they're not looking, I open my eyes & start to kick my legs & look all around the classroom. hehe...suckers! :)

first round of shots-OUCH!

What a day! Mom got me all bundled up & took me to the doctor...I'm 10 weeks old and I weigh 12.5 pounds and I was 24 inches long! the doctor said that I'm a long, lean baby. Everything was going great at the visit, the doctor was tickling me and said that I looked perfect! well, that's what we came to hear, so time to go right? wrong! Next, a nurse came in and first she gave me this yummy stuff in my mouth that mom said was cherry flavored tylenol...mmm....I like this nurse lady! then, out of nowhere, she turned on me & poked me with 3 needles!! Traitor. I was NOT a happy camper! the weird thing was, when I calmed down, I looked over & mom was crying. um....mom, did YOU just get stuck with needles? Pull yourself together, woman!

Anyway---I slept for a long time when we got home, then ate dinner and turned into the ultimate Senor Pissy Pantalones (that's spanish for Mr. Pissy Pants)...I was just so uncomfortable, I didn't know what else to do :( but then I noticed that mom looked like she was going to cry again, so I decided to go back to sleep & give her a break. The whole thing was so stressful, I needed a drink to calm down!

bunnies & babies

We hosted Easter at our house...it's the 2nd year in a row, but I was anticipating this year to be more challenging with a new baby, but it went very well (it didn't hurt that I had a lot of help from the moms!) Everything turned out to be edible & no one got sick, so I consider it a success. I also loved the way the table turned out, I get really excited by the little details in life (plus, I love any excuse to bust out my china!)







The Easter Bunny was very generous to Jake for his first Easter...don't worry, the candy is for me, not him (and I'm not very good at sharing my sweets, so it's a good thing that he doesn't notice)



Here is my side of the family:








And here is Brian's:

walks & playdates

*archived from Jake's old blog*

It was another exciting week for us here...the highlight of the week was Monday, when we had a fabulous, random day of 70 degree weather and went on our first walk around the neighborhood! Mommy loaded up the stroller, the baby & the dog & off we went! Jake was awake for most of the walk, staring at everything going by & loving all of the light (he's fascinated by lights!)




On Wednesday, Jake had his first official "date" with his new friend, Amelia. Amelia's mommy, Michelle, is in my book club and the four of us met at Panera for lunch. Michelle is my friend who made these fabulous onesies for Jake:



After sleeping for most of the lunch, Jake woke up just in time to turn on his charm for Amelia...we'll have to see if he can handle an older woman!

Unfortunately, we had our first cold at the end of the week...I guess I really take for granted the fact that I can blow my own nose...poor Jake does not have this same ability and the last few days have been spent doing our best with an aspirator and a vaporizer running in his room at night :( at first, he seemed amused by the aspirator and would smile when we used it on him...I'm not sure if he liked the noise, or if it tickled his nose or what. Unfortunately, the novelty of that quickly wore off and his smiles were replaced with shrieks when he saw the little bulb coming at his face. It's hard to reason with a 7 week old that something is for his own good. He seems a bit better today, so hopefully it's working its way out of his system.

Road Trip!!

We've had a busy past few days! We took our first big road trip and went to visit Brian's family. It's about a 5 hour ride and it was a success! We packed so much stuff, we looked like we were going on a 2 week vacation, but better to be overprepared than under, right? :) Jake passed out pretty much as soon as we got into the car and we stopped halfway so that we could eat & he woke up long enough to decide that he wanted lunch too :) After that, it was back to la-la land in his carseat the rest of the way. We had LOTS of visitors over the 4 days we were there! It was a busy but fun weekend and we were glad that everyone had a chance to meet him. Nana Sally was nice enough to host a "meet & greet" brunch for Jake on Saturday and he was a perfect angel & slept most of the day, making it easy for everyone to hold & admire him.

In other news, Jake spent his first night in the crib on Wednesday before we left!! Daddy snuck him in there while mommy was at her book club meeting (see what happens when I leave the boys unsupervised??) :) but it was a success and he continued the trend over the weekend, sleeping in his pack & play in a different room and sleeping longer than ever, which was GREAT! (what was even better was that grandma & grandpa took the 2am feeding shift, so mommy & daddy got a glorious 6 hours of sleep in a row...they didn't know what to do with themselves!!)

All in all, a great weekend...we now consider ourselves pros at the road trip & look forward to visiting Aunt Melissa & Uncle Dennis in Virginia soon!!

6 week checkup

We've got a 10 pounder on our hands! Jake had his monthly check up today (he'll be 6 weeks on Tuesday) and he's 10 lbs, 22 inches, which puts him close to the 50th percentile for both things, so the dr was pleased to see that he's catching up in size. Other than that, it was a routine visit, everything is looking great. we go back at the end of March for the first round of immunizations (yikes!) the shots will probably upset mommy more than Jake :)



In other news, we plan on transitioning Jake from the bassinett in our room to his crib within the next 2 weeks or so (wish us luck!) I'm trying to put him down for naps in the crib during the day to get him used to being in there, but so far, the longest he's made it in there by himself is 25 minutes. we'll keep at it though....he just looks so lost in the giant crib all by himself!

The Daily Grind

Everyone always asks what Jake & I do during the day, so I figured I'd post a brief rundown of our daily activities:

-Daddy gets up for work around 6am; before he leaves, he changes Jake & tries to get him back to sleep for me before leaving

-attempt to get a bit more sleep, sometimes successful, sometimes not. (see below for "success" picture)

-Jake gets breakfast in bed

-tummy time for Jake while mommy eats breakfast on the living room floor to supervise

-watch "the view"

-lunch! (daddy normally comes home for an hour)

-afternoons are normally spent cleaning up around the house/doing laundry/reading a book -more tummy time in the hallway while mommy plays fetch with Gracie

-relax in nursery, read a book to Jake

-get dinner ready & await the return of daddy!

It's a demanding schedule, but someone's gotta do it :)

entering the world of blogging....

It's February in Pittsburgh, which means that 99% of the time it's freezing cold and snowing (like today)...the other 1% is normally warmer, but raining. Needless to say, activities with a newborn are rather limited. So I started thinking today...what does Jake not have in his life so far? He has loving parents, the cutest dog in the world, access to an all you can eat buffet that's open 24 hours a day, some of the nicest furniture in our house, piles of books, toys, clothes, etc.... he seemed to have nearly everything except....his own website. I figured it would be a nice idea to start this, since we have so many friends and family who are out of town. We'll do our best to keep it updated with current pictures, reports on how he's doing, doctor's visits, milestones, etc... Enjoy!