Granny Roady

Granny Roady came to visit this week and we had a great time!  Dave and I had a date night and went out to dinner on Wednesday and Granny Roady stayed home to snuggle with Jack.  On Thursday, Granny Roady, Jack and I went out to lunch with Great Aunt Helen.  Jack was such a good baby while we had lunch.  He usually gets a little fussy and one of us ends up scarfing down our food so that we can tend to him.  This time, Jack just cooed and smiled and let us enjoy our lunch.  Great Aunt Helen loved seeing Jack and watching him smile.  He's such a sweet boy!

Granny Roady and Jack snuggling

I'm not sure who is loving life more...Granny Roady or Jack

Who's Your Daddy?

So, a funny thing happened while Dave was out of town last week.  Jack and I were hanging out on the couch and I was watching The Ellen DeGeneres Show (that's not the funny part).  Jack was laying so the top of his head was facing the television and his body was facing my leg.  He likes to lay on his side...don't judge!  Colin Firth was on the show promoting his new movie The King's Speech.  Jack had been calmly laying next to me dozing in and out when Colin Firth came on and began speaking.  Jack then began to wriggle around until he was facing the television and then starred and smiled and babbled the entire time Colin Firth spoke.

I truly believe that when Jack heard Colin Firth speak he thought it was his daddy.  Now, I'm a huge fan of Colin Firth, but I still think Jack and I scored the winner between Dave and Colin!

Custom Closet

This weekend, Dave decided to remodel Jack's closet in hopes of making it more functional.  We got up yesterday morning and headed out to Home Depot to get all of the supplies needed.  Jack seemed to enjoy being at Home Depot and got quite a bit of attention. 

Today, Jack and I headed out for a lunch date with Tatiatiatiatiana which gave Dave lots of time to work on the closet without distractions.

When Jack and I got home, Dave was just finishing up the closet.  Wow!  He did a great job!  Now we have more functional storage for all of Jack's really important things.  Now, if I could just get in there and organize things...

Before

After

Oh, What a Night...

Starting around five o'clock on Tuesday evening, Jack started getting fussy.  This is not terribly unusual.  Jack's "witching hour" starts around 4:30 to 5 o'clock and goes until about 8 o'clock.  During the witching hour, Jack is just whiny and fussier than normal but is fairly easily consoled.  Tuesday evening, he started getting fussy and I could not console him.  He did calm down while I gave him a bath...but I can't keep him in the bath tub for the rest of his adolescence. Then he was screaming (we have left Fussy Land and are quickly approaching HELL) off and on all night long.  He would fall asleep for about 45 minutes (I think to recharge his batteries) and then would wake up screaming again.  The only thing that would calm him down would be for me to hold him and walk around.  Well, that gets old after a while real quick when it's 2:30 in the morning and the baby weighs nearly 14 pounds!  I tried everything: putting him in bed with me, rocking him, the magical exercise ball and nothing worked.  I was in tears, he was in tears, the dogs were praying for silence.  This pattern continued for about eighteen hours.  Did I mention that Dave is in Chicago?  So I talked to Dave on the phone and he thought that Jack had entered the colic phase (or the Period of Purple Crying as we call it in Raleigh) so I was just trying my best to love this monster and remain sane until this phase passed...which apparently could be months! 

I called my mom and she convinced me to call the doctor because maybe Jack had an ear infection.  I called the doctor and they told me to bring him in.  As soon as the nurse told us to come in, Jack looked up at me and smiled (monster!).  We get to the doctor and he is the happiest baby I've ever seen (which made me feel like one of those crazy mothers I don't want to be).  He was smiling and admiring his plump physique in the mirror while we waited for the doctor.

Jack looking poorly in the waiting room

Jack admiring his portly physique

The doctor came in and said that Jack was indeed sick.  He has a headache (how the doctor knows that...I don't know) and his throat looked a little irritated (I think that's from 18 hours of screaming!).  So the doctor sent us home and told me to administer Tylenol, flush his nose out with saline solution and keep the humidifier going.  The doctor said Jack should be feeling back to normal in 3 days.  I'm sorry Jack is sick, but I'm glad that I'm not crazy!

After we got home, Tracie and Sophie came over.  I handed Jack over to Tracie so she could love on him and I could get a little break.  I cannot even begin to explain how grateful I am for Tracie coming over.  I think I would have lost my mind otherwise. 

When Tracie and Sophie left, Jack was pretty calm and he snoozed off and on throughout the evening.  I gave him a bath, fed him and rocked him to sleep.  I put him in his crib and he immediately started crying.  I rocked him and tried to console him, but he was pretty upset.  At one point I had to walk away and let him cry for a bit.  I went back in and rocked him to sleep and then put him back in his crib and he settled down and stayed asleep for a few hours.  He slept pretty good last night and has been a happy content baby this morning.  We watched Jeopardy (Watson the IBM super computer was on) and snuggled and he is currently taking his morning nap. 

Jack is pretty sure he's ready to take on Watson

I'm so glad Jack is on the mend, and I'm glad that we survived this together...now Daddy, PLEASE COME HOME!

He's Here!!!

The day Dave was born, his dad went out and bought him a teddy bear.  You can read more about Sir Tedrick here.  The day Jack was born, Grandad Fred went out and bought Jack a teddy bear.  He put it in the mail that day and we have anxiously been awaiting his arrival.  After nearly 10 weeks, Jack's teddy bear arrived (it has not been confirmed, but we are pretty sure the Queen herself delivered the package)! 

Yesterday, Jack and I ran out to the grocery store and when we got home we saw Mailman Vince delivering the mail on our street.  Jack and I went out the check the mail and sitting on our porch was a battered looking package.  We got the mail and then picked up the package on the way back inside.  When we opened the package we were thrilled to see the teddy bear.  Jack has yet to name his teddy bear, but we'll let you know when he comes up with something.

Jack and his package

Jack telling his new teddy bear a secret

the tag tied to teddy's arm (in case he escaped the package)

back of the tag

Jack looking lovingly at his teddy (while sucking his thumb)

Thanks Grandad Fred!  We love it!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Little Love Bug

My big Valentine is on his way to Chicago for the week, but my little Valentine and I are spending our day snuggling.

Raindrops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens...

These are a few of our favorite things:

Jack in the Moby on the exercise ball

Jack and Daddy on the big ball

Moby Wrap:  Jack likes to be held as often as possible and he really likes to be held while you are standing up.  This can become tiring and really limits what you can do.  The Moby is basically a giant piece of fabric that I wrap around myself in a strategic manner in order to hold Jack while freeing up my hands.  Dave doesn't like to wear the Moby, he has a different carrier that works better for him and Jack.

Exercise Ball:  No, we aren't working on Jack's core yet.  We sit on the ball and bounce or roll while holding Jack and it completely calms him down.  It's actually quite amazing.  We got the idea for the exercise ball from my friend Marisa's mom.  She had some in her house when we went up to Virginia and we got one for our house as soon as we got home.  Thanks, Mary!

Play Mat:  Jack gets a little "activity time" after his feedings and this is his number one activity choice.  We attempt tummy time on this, but Jack usually rolls over after about 30 seconds on his tummy.  It's plays music, lights up and is completely washable.

Baby Jogger City Select Stroller:  This is a pretty awesome stroller.  It will grow with our family and turn into a double stroller if we have another child soonish.  There are sixteen different configurations that it can do.  Currently, we have the carseat attachment configuration, but in a few months we can change that to the "big kid" seat.  When we have another kid, we can have the carseat attachment and the big kid seat at the same time!

Mobile:  Jack is fascinated by his mobile.  It spins, lights up and plays music (or it can spin and play music or it can just play music).  He will lay there and stare at it for 15 minutes.  The coolest thing about this mobile is that it has a remote control with it so if it goes off and we want to turn it back on and not have Jack see us, we can just stick our hand in the door and turn it back on.  Or if we are ready for it to go off, we can turn it off with the remote, too.

Video Monitor:  We thought a video monitor was silly until Jack starting fussing so much while he was in his crib.  Now, all we have to do it look on the monitor to see what's going on and if we need to go in the room.  We can also talk into the handset in attempts to calm Jack.  It also came with two cameras so we can set one up in our guest room to keep an eye on our company with another child and monitor both kids with the same handset.

Seahorse:  Jack is not a fan of riding in the car.  This is not only unpleasant for Jack, but also for whoever is chauffeuring him around.  The seahorse seems to calm him some and therefore has become everyone's best friend.

Sound Machine:  We have been using this since the first night Jack was home.  It travels with us and is on during naps and at night.  It helps to drown out the noise that the dogs make running around the house and helps to keep Jack asleep. It has several sounds; white noise, heartbeat, running water, music, but Jack likes the heartbeat sound the best.  We are pretty sure that sound is what it sounded like when he was taking up residence in the womb.

Wubbanub: Jack often finds a pacifier soothing but is unable to keep it in his mouth consistently and God forbid it falls out when he really wants it in his mouth.  The Wubbanub helps to keep the paci in his mouth because of the little bit of added weight that it has.  He is also able hold onto the giraffe easier than just the plain paci.

These are some of the things that we have found to be really helpful.  I'll be doing another post of some of the things that we weren't as impressed with.