Category Archives: motherhood

jack: thirty-eight/thirty-nine weeks old

Last Thursday, Jack turned 38 weeks and tomorrow he’ll be 39 weeks old!

Last week Jack and I were both dreadfully sick with a stomach virus. With both of us feeling so icky, 38 week photos were not on the agenda.

Today, I am flying to New Orleans for a work trip for 4 nights, so I won’t be able to take a 39 week photo tomorrow.

But…

We have this video of Jack playing with his most favorite person when he was finally feeling better over the weekend.

So, here is Jack at 38/39 weeks old…

Funny monkey.
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jack: thirty-seven weeks old

Here is Jack at 37 weeks old…
(October 11, 2012)

37 weeks old!

Jack has now been out of my belly as long as he was in my belly – 37 weeks!

Sadly, Jack got another bad cold this week, but we tried to have fun anyway. Over the weekend, we went to a Pumpkin Patch at Lombardi Ranch, where we enjoyed many activities. First, we looked at some animals, like this cow…

mooooooo.

And we took advantage of Fall-inspired photo ops…

sittin' on a pile of pumpkins Untitled

We went into a petting zoo, comprised only of goats. Jack loved it…

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Then we got lost in a corn maze…

wrong way in the corn maze

Finally, we took a train ride through the beautiful sunflowers…

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Pumpkin patches are super fun.

Here are a couple of photos of Jack at the park…

playing with the dump truck swing

And here he is enjoying some puffs…

puffs

Unfortunately, Jack’s cold turned into a bad stomach virus. Poor buddy.
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dear jack: eight months

Dear Jack-boy,

You are now 8 months old and you just started daycare two days per week. When I picked you up at the end of your first day of daycare, we rode home in the car smiling at each other in car mirrors. When we arrived home and I took you out of the car, you wrapped your arms tightly around my neck and nuzzled your face into my neck so gently. I paused in my tracks, closed my eyes and took a deep breath so I could fully experience your tenderness. I hope never to forget the sweetness of your gesture, which I took to mean that you’d missed me and loved me.

Well, baby boy, I love you too.

Some of the things I love about you at 8 months are:
– Your open-hearted grinning
– The intense curiosity with which you inspect everything you find
– How much you adore your dad
– You go with the flow pretty darn well
– How excited you get when it’s time for a walk in the baby carrier
– The determined noises you made while belly crawling yourself across an entire room before learning to crawl on hands and knees
– The attention you pay to the books we read at bedtime
– The sweet sound of your babbling

With all my heart,
Mama
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jack: thirty-six weeks old

Here is Jack at 36 weeks old!
(October 4, 2012)

36 weeks old!

Photographing Jack is more and more challenging each week. If you had seen me trying to take the following photos, you’d have laughed at me. I was lying on the floor on my side with my leg up in the air and a toy dangling from my toes. This produced these photos of Jack looking up…

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Jack is working very hard on standing up. He gets to his knees and then can’t quite figure out how to get to the next level…

Untitled Untitled trying to pull up Untitled Untitled Untitled

On Sunday morning, September 30, I found him standing up in his crib, so I know he can do it, but since then he can only get to standing with a boost and then something to lean on…

standing up

Jack likes to grab anything and everything that I have in my hands. Curtain rods, for example…

helping mom carry things

This week, Jack attended the 2nd birthday of our friend’s daughter, Lily! We went to an indoor playground called Giggles & Hugs where we took a ride on all the toys that were fit for riding…

hanging out at a birthday party

i'm on the red car, but i like the yellow horse better riding a yellow bounce horse

Here is the birthday girl herself enjoying some ice cream…

the birthday girl

This was the week that Jack started daycare. He now goes 2 days per week – Mondays and Tuesdays (My mom still watches him on Wednesdays). On his first day I stayed with him for a little while so we could organize his things and get him introduced to everyone. When it was time for me to leave it was nearing his nap time, so I decided to let them get him ready for his nap and I would say goodbye. I gave him a kiss and told him I loved him and would be back to get him later. He began to cry and reached out for me. I didn’t take him from his teacher, but again looked him straight in the eye and told him I loved him and would see him later – I then started to go and he cried harder. As I put on my shoes and started to leave I burst into tears and, of course, the teachers saw me grabbing tissues to wipe my eyes. They were all so sweet and each of them told me he would be fine and they’d take good care of him and that moms cry all the time. I thanked them and told them I knew, but when I got to my car I cried even harder. My goodness, I didn’t expect to have that kind of reaction. The truth of the matter was that he was fine and he was so happy to see me when I arrived to pick him up.

boy.

Jack, your sweet face makes me so happy.
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jack: thirty-five weeks old

Here is Jack at 35 weeks/8 months old…
(September 27th, 2012)

35 weeks old!

As you can see, we’ve gotten back on track with our weekly photo project, but I’ve made one change. Last week and this I decided to coordinate Jack’s outfit with the fabric background. This way I can capture some of his cute clothes.

And speaking of clothes, Jack is now fully into 9 month size. He can also wear clothes labeled 6-12 months, but trying to get his yummy thighs and arms into pure 6 monthers is no longer an option. What’s fun is that my cousin, Jen, sent a ton of super-cute 9 month hand-me-down clothes which we are enjoying fully! The frog onesie in this week’s photo is one such item.

Jack is now crawling on hands and knees, however, he has yet to take off quickly. He has mastered the technique, but hasn’t found his speed. This is a blessing and I am not in a rush for him to go zooming. He likes to crawl straight toward me whenever I take his picture…

little crawler coming for you!

This week, Jack booked a second print job for The Children’s Place! I took him to the audition, at which he was so well behaved. Once he booked it we had to go back for his fitting. Here he is waiting patiently for his turn to get styled…

waiting to audition

On shoot day Jack did amazingly well. When they got around to shooting him it was nearing his nap time, so he was a little clingy to me and a bit impatient, but they snapped some cute, cute photos of him in a bunny hat and some baby geek glasses. The ad campaign will be used in the Spring, so I’ll be stalking it to see if they use any of his photos. I took a video of him on set, but I have a heck of a time uploading videos to wordpress. If anyone know how to do it, please let me know as I have many cute videos to share!

We’ve been working hard on getting Jack’s sleep in order – working on breaking the bad habit we got into of him eating to sleep. We also cut out the night feedings, which was hard, but so worth it. We added a dream feed at 10:30 or 11pm and then he only wakes up 1 or 2 more times before morning. We’ve been doing some sleep training, which is stressful. We started to make progress, but then Jack caught his second cold and that all fell apart. At first I wasn’t sure why he regressed, but then figured it out when he would wake with a crusty little nose, poor bugger. He is getting better at falling asleep on his own, usually fussing for 3-10 minutes. We’re hoping that when his cold gets better, the fruits of our labor will show.

Speaking of fruit, Jack is still a huge fan of eating fruit, but would prefer to skip the vegetables. His absolute favorite food is bananas, so if you sneak some peas or mixed veggies underneath those, he’ll sometimes tolerate it. He also enjoys apples, prunes, pears and sweet potatoes mixed with various meats, like chicken or turkey. He absolutely despises carrots, which cause him to make a very dramatic ‘yuck’ face, followed by a slight gagging cough, which is pure comedy. He also enjoys frozen mangos in a suckable mesh teether.

Jack continues to be so curious about everything! He loves to examine things closely and always looks as if he’s trying to figure out exactly how things work. He loves discovering new things, so keeping him occupied can be exhausting, but fun.

Here, Jack plays the bongo drum before bed…

baby plays the conga drum before bed

And here is Jack resting on our bed…

morning relaxation

Sometimes a baby just has to chillax.
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