So close

I read babycenter.com and they keep saying " By now, you should be hearing those wonderful belly laughs from your child."
HUH?
Jack has not given us a belly laugh or even close to one. If he does want to laugh, the only sound that comes out is "Ergh, Erhg. This big grunting noise that comes out of him. Which is kind of cute cause that at least tells us that he is enjoying our company. Brian almost got him to laugh on Sunday. And it wansn't a grunt but more of a hehe. For a quick second it came and then went.

Jack is very ticklish. Neck, under the arms, on his legs and he likes it when you put his feet on your face. He is a big fan of that.

Car rides are no longer safe

And what I mean by that is that we cannot always rely on a car ride to make Jack sleep now. He is older and when he is cranky, sleepy, or hungry no car ride will make him forget it. Especially if he is hungry. He will cry and sometimes scream until that bottle is in his mouth. Which I don't like because then when can I burp him? An hour later when we get to our destination? It has also come to a point that when we go somewhere, I am riding in the back with Jack and Brian is in the front by himself. The backseat is a barrier and I feel that we cannot have a regular conversation as we would if I were in the front seat.

Summer is coming soon and that means road trips to St. Paul. I am getting a little bit nervous about that cause if we have to stop every two hours for Jack then our usual seven hour drive may turn into a 12 hour drive. I think it may be time to fly to St. Paul.

How do the gramdmas do it?

Jack spent the day with Brian's mom yesterday. For some reason, Jack likes to give the grandmas a break because he will take 3 hour naps at my moms. He took a three hour nap with Grandma Terrie yesterday. What is this? If we put him down , he will sleep for maybe 40 min before he wakes up and starts crying. I have no idea what it is. Our room is not noisy, not too bright with the sun. I would like to think that he misses his parents so much that he does not want to sleep.

Other Jack news, we have discovered the swaddle once again. Brian was the king of swaddlers and he would wrap him so tight that Jack could not break out. Once Jack turned one month, he would break out of the swaddle and we thought that was the end of it. It wasn't until my mom started taking care of him that when she puts him to bed, she wraps him up tightly and therefore he falls asleep. Grandma Terrie did the same thing last night to put him to sleep.
So i guess that I am going to have to learn on how to swaddle again since I never had it right the first time.

VOTE FOR JACK!!!!

And so the pimping begins. I entered Jack in the Great American Photo contest. Brian and I always said that we wanted to have our child become a baby model. And with that face, who can resist? I just hope that Jack doesn't become the Macaluey Culkin. Where he gets so famous that he gets imancipated from us and will shun us away for life.

Anyways here is the link. Vote for Jack!!! Winner gets $2500.

https://www.greatamericanphotocontest.com/voter1/index_c.aspx?referid=EmailFriends&p=494145&x=.jpg

The zoo, the BBQ and the fire alarm

Jack had his first trip to the zoo on Saturday. My dream was to hold him in front of the monkees and he would get excited and try to reach out to them. Well by the time we got to the gorilla house, Jack was asleep and took his wonderful 5 minute nap. He did check out the small mammal house and I am guessing that he liked it cause it was so dark in there.

We then had dinner at my sisters and Jack was doing his usual fussiness before he went to sleep. The ceiling at my sisters is at least 10 feet tall which also means that the smoke alarm is way up there. Any little detection of smoke and the alarm goes off with of course the most obnoxious sound. My dad and I were trying to fan the smoke away and all the while I secretly hoped that Jack would not wake up. He did three times and at the third time, went out for good.

We went to my father in law's for a BBQ on Sunday. Jack being a winter baby was not used to the sun. In fact he complained a bit. I kept telling him that this is what real weather should be. That weather that we have seen before, the cold, the snow the rain and ice, was not how it should be. He must have listened cause he was very quiet while I explained to him what weather is.

Three months

The little lady in the photo is Jack's girl, Olivia.

Your bedtime is at 8 mister!!!

Jack had a strange day at my mom's last night. I got to her place around 6 and he was Mister Sleepy. All it took was a little rock in the arms with me to get him to sleep. And he did.. for 10 minutes. Then he woke up. Then went to sleep. Then woke up, then tried to go to sleep. At this point he was pulling the I'm so sleepy and cranky routine. I went to the bathroom and minutes later I came out and I hear "Puppy , kitty meow meow bark," in the style of the song ABC. I see Jack, wide awake, sitting in the bouncy chair. His arms and legs kicked as he listened to the song and saw the lights flash around.
Great. It's 7:45 pm and he should be at passed out point. And he isn't.
He was awake for another hour til Brian came to pick us up. It wasn't til our ride home that Jack fell asleep.
My concern tonight is that I hope Jack goes into his regular 8pm bedtime routine. Because we have worked really hard to get him to go to bed at that time. really hard.

Three months

I realized that he is very much a morning kid. Smiles are frequent. Still sleeps like a champ. From 8 pm to 6:30 am with one wake up at 4. Not bad. Getting better now at night. More awake, more alert and more smiley at night. I realized that his newborn fussy nights are ending. Babycenter.com says that he is now no longer a newborn but has now acquired the term of infant. Scratches on the face are less. I have now become a pro at cutting his nails. We have said goodbye to all the 0 -3 month onesies. Although there are some that I refuse to give away. Still on level 2 diapers. More friends are pregnant. Clothes to give away. We said farewell to the Oak Park Moms -at least for now. We do need to get reaquainted with them soon. Visits from friends and soup bowls are nice. Hello to work, goodbye to afternoon walks. Our new routine is hanging out in the morning. We found out that my mom is a pro at getting him to have a nap. How does she do it. First wedding for Jack. Too many people and not enough Jack that day. Sitting up on the sofa. More gurgles.Talks back now. More coos and I swear to you that he says" Good".

First Birthday party

Brian and I went to a photojournalism gathering at our old school. As we introduced Jack to our mentor, John White, a flash of bulbs went off in little Jack's eyes. He got his first taste of celebrity-dom. He definitely was a hit as people snapped his pics behind my back. Click click click, Yes I am the mom of a future star. Everyone commented on how adorable he is (of course). One girl said" Oh I just love sausage babies." Thanks... I think.

After, we went to our friends Allie and Ben for their daughter's first birthday party. This makes Jack's first birthday party too. I thought that Jack would be inspired by seeing other kids run around and get excited and debut his baby talk to everyone else. He could have done that, except that being at the PJ conference earlier, Jack was all peopled out. He was a bit cranky and wanting the milk constantly. Thus making him more of a sausage baby.

Sunday - got the first smile photo of Jack. We did go out on Sunday, but getting that photo was the highlight of my week. Thus ending his week of 11 weeks and now going into week 12. Turning 3 months on 4.22.

Three milestones in one day

Quite a day for young Jack;

1. Brian was holding him in the morning and Jack was staring up at him for the longest time. Then, without Brian doing anything like cooing at him, Jack smiled at Brian all by himself. I told Brian that that is called recognition and that Jack knows who his daddy is now.

2. Jack saw "The Graduate" for the first time last night. It was on AMC and since it is my favorite movie, and the fact that I have seen it a million times, I had to watch it again. I fed Jack while Mrs. Robinson was trying to seduce Benjamin. Jack and I danced to the Simon and Garfunkel songs in the movie. Jack feel asleep while we danced to "April come she will."

3. Jack spent the day with Brian at his work for the first time. I had visions of Jack crying and Brian holding him in one hand while trying to photoshop with the other hand. I also had visions of Rick the photographer and boss constantly taking Jack's pic in the studio, and Jack would come home with his eyes constantly blinking becuase of the flash of the camera. Both of which did not happen.
All went well with Brian and perhaps this will become a weekly Thrusday thing.

I'm fine....WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

First , Jack now is doing this realy cool thing called being cool. Before , he was fussy from 5 to bedtime which is around 8. Now he is Mister Cool until 7 and that really leaves us one hour of us having him as a fussy baby.
Yesterday was the first dinner that Brian and I had together at our house in a long time. Usually one of us would eat at lightening speed while the the other would hold Jack. Then we would switch. Yesterday, Jack was Mister Cool and sat in his bouncy chair and would do his little shrieks as he listened to us talk.
Second, 7 rolled along and he just went into this mood that was unbelievable. I thought that I would take him to our room to try to make him go to sleep. As soon as we entered the dark room, he freaked out and cried and would not stop. Brian did his thing of holding Jack under the running water to calm him down. And it did, until Jack moved and his little arm splashed right on the plate that had a puddle of water. The cries started again and his little face gave us that "i am so sad" look that I was about to cry. As I always do when I see that face. Things got way better when I gave him an ounce of pedialyte followed by 5 minutes of moms milk. Then off to dreamland.

Goodbye. Be a good boy

This is what I say to Jack every day before I leave for work. I have been working 9- 5:30 this week and it has been really nice to actually see Jack as he wakes up and we hang out for a bit. Plus, I don't feel as hurried. It's harder now to leave for work cause his little smiley face looks at me and I tell him "Sorry I have to go to work. We can't hang out much anymore." I feel that he understands me when his little face scrunches up. Weekends are not long enough and coming home from work I have at least one hour with him before he goes to sleep. I do hope that this gets better every week cause it is really sucking now.

PS next week I go back to 4-4:30 so that leaves me more time with him . Yay.

Sick update

Still has a bit of the bug. His temperment is a lot better and suprisingly, those fussy nights are fading away. Instead of getting fussy at 5 onward, he now gets fussy from 7 , which is fine cause his bedtime is 8 anyways. And he will go to sleep from 8 - 5:30 am. Nice for all of us.

Two months old and already on the monkey bars

Saturday was one of those perfect spring weather days. People were in shorts, jackets were not allowed, and my son for the first time went to the park. Granted, he couldn't do anything there, but Brian held him up by the mokey bars and we had a good laugh as Jack's little face was looking at us as if he were saying "What is going on." It was one of those first parent days with their child. Brian slid down the slide with Jack. He walked around the park with Jack. Jack was awake enough to see all the kids running around. With all the climbing around the monkkey bars, when we walked home he drifted off to sleep. He woke up a block away from our house crying for milk.

Still sick :(

Brian asked if I can go on maternity leave again, a bad sign that Jack is still sick. He had a good nights sleep but once he is awake, then that is when tummy pain begins. He was the cutest cause he was very still right before I left to go to work. Brian said "Give mama a kiss" and his little mouth touched my cheek. That was when I forced myself to go to work or else I would have called in. Is it too early to call in sick? I mean, I have been working for a full two days now.

Why are you so sick?

Jack is sick... again. He has a stomach bug that just won't go away. As a mom, it breaks my heart to hear his little cry as he winces in pain. It also broke my heart cause I always imagined that my first day back from work, I would come home and there would be my child, smiling at me and we would spend the night catching up and talking and he would drift to sleep and all would be well. We did talk for a couple of minutes and he did relax but then he would start crying all over again. Like he remembered that his stomach hurt. The hubby's cousin is taking care of him today so I hope that all is well and that he doesn't scare her away with his little cries.
The hubby is taking him to the docs so we will see what we can do to make this little two month old feel better.