29 Weeks

Hi Everyone!

Hope all is well.  Life with Jack has been lots of fun this last week.  He's into grabbing, sitting, army crawling and now walking in his walker more than ever.  He's obsessed with the walker!  I had to get a different one since the one we first bought him was about 4 inches too tall.  By the time he grew into it, he would likely be walking on his own.  I found one on Craigslist and its the perfect height.  He was SO proud when he took his first steps in it.  He's figuring out that he can now follow us, or go off on his own.  I took him outside yesterday evening while I was grilling dinner and he loved it.  The wind was blowing because a storm was rolling in and he had THE biggest smile on his face.  He just kept squealing and smiling and then would take a step.  We had to put shoes on him since we were outside, and he wasn't sure what to do.  Then he saw my plants, and quickly rolled over to it, took a handful and tried to eat them. Sigh.  Welcome to a mobile baby I guess :)  Jon and I have got to get started baby proofing!

Tuesday he had his big photo shoot.  He was exhausted by the time we got started, so he wasn't his normal smiley self, but I think it turned out pretty good.  I thought it was still between him and other babies, but apparently, he is it.  So, Jack will now be on the instruction manual and the face for Blueberry Diaper's buggy bag elite :)  She said she would send me the finished product once it's available.  I'll share once we get it.  

Today we had swim lessons and he did great.  He's still not kicking very much, but he's having a great time.  At least he's enjoying the water and seems to love Miss Amy.  

Jack has turned into quite the rough kiddo.  At our play dates he and Eli are stealing all the girls toys and grabbing arms, legs, and anything else they can get their hands on.  When I try to tell him "soft" and put his hand to my face gently, he cracks up at me...same thing when I tell him "no".  I can already tell this is going to be a long road. 

We had dinner with our friends Abby & Drew this past weekend.  I can't believe how quickly these boys are growing up!  Brady is already about as tall as Jack haha!  He's such sweet boy.  It was nice to hold him and have him cuddle up, rather than turning his head in every direction and reaching for everything in sight...ahem, Jack!  I miss the cuddly stage, but it's been so much fun to see Jack master these new skills.  Looking back, I can't believe how tiny he was.  It is so cliché, but they really do grow up so fast.    

Well, I hope everyone has a wonderful week.  We are off to the farmers market to get some squash.  Hopefully Jack likes it :)

Lots of love,
The Waags

Could he get any happier???

Jack eyeing up Eli's mohawk

Already making kiddos cry...oops?

Trying to get ALL 3 pacifiers in his mouth.

Trying to chew and walk...fail.

Jack and his buddy Brady

28 Weeks

We hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend! 

We got to meet our buddy Sawyer this weekend.  I went to school with Sawyer's parents and now our kiddos are only 6 weeks apart.  It was great to catch up.  Jack is taking an interest in other babies now.  He will reach out and try to touch them.  Unfortunately, he doesn't understand "gentle".  He's tried many times to rip my nose right off :)  He is also great at putting his arm around me and reaching up and taking a handful of hair from the bottom of my ponytail and pulling.  

Jack is on the move!  As soon as we put him down, he flips over and starts to army crawl everywhere.  Forward and backwards :)  He finally started going forwards this weekend when Jon rolled his beloved baseball in front of him.  Maybe he's going to love baseball when he's older??  He also likes to play "catch".  Jon will sit up him and roll the baseball to him, then Jack smacks it back to Jon.

Jack is now out of his sleepsuit and sleeping like a big boy.  He is trying to give me a heart attack while he's at it too!  He apparently loves to sleep face down. I had to ask my Dad if this was something normal or if I should be worried :)  I checked on him this weekend and he had his pacifier in his mouth and was face planted into his mattress.  I don't see how this could be even remotely comfortable, but he seems to think so.  I think the days of sleeping on his back are over.  I'll put him on his back and by the time I get downstairs and turn on the monitor, he's on his belly and moving all over the crib.  He even got his leg caught between the slats, so we now have a breathable bumper on the crib.  I guess we have all done the same and seemed to survive.  It might just be a few weeks before I stop checking the monitor every couple of hours to make sure he's still breathing.  :)

We had swim lessons today. He's doing great with the water!  He really seems to like it.  We had 2 of our friends drop out and I think the last one is about to. Their kiddos aren't crazy about the water yet, so it might just be Jack.  Now when you say "ready fish", he knows to take a breath and hold it.  You can actually hear him suck in air.  He isn't really kicking his feet really well, but each class he gets better. He is splashing a lot more and seems more comfortable with the water and Amy.  He swims to her no problem now.

We also started solids last week.  Avocado was the first since our doctor said it's full of good fats and is a good starter food.  Jack disagreed!  We tried to puree it and mix it with a bit of breast milk and he still wasn't impressed.  We decided to then go back to cereal since we didn't have any organic sweet potatoes.  That was an epic fail.  We tried bananas and he seemed to not mind those.  Then I decided to try to mix the bananas with the oatmeal cereal...fail!  Next we tackled sweet potatoes and I think we have found a winner.  What's not to love?!  We are on day 2 of sweet potatoes and he has actually swallowed some of it rather than just playing with it.  He does want to feed himself, which can get quite interesting.  I think it's more he just wants to chew on this spoon since these stupid teeth are taking their time.  The doctor said he is working on 2 teeth.  He has one on top and one on bottom that are slowly working their way through.  Our pediatrician thinks they will be here around 7 months.  I'm not holding my breath :)

Next week we have Jack's first photo shoot!!  A friend from the meet up group sent out a link that a cloth diapering company called Blueberry Diapers was having a casting call for babies 6-12 months old for their advertisement.  I submitted pictures of Jack, and the little turkey actually got picked :)  I'm not sure how many other babies were called, but we will see if he ends up getting the gig.  We go next Tuesday.  Hopefully he's a good mood and all smiles.

Well hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Lots of love,

The Waags

26 & 27 weeks...oops

I can't believe he's 6 months!!

Well, obviously last week got away from me.  We were having too much fun with our meetups and playing in the evenings.

Jack isn't crawling yet, but he is doing the army crawl/scoot.  As soon as we lay him on his back, he flips over and starts to move all over.  Who knows how much longer we have before he's crawling.  Now in the bathtub, his main focus is pulling himself up.  He's almost there, but not quite.  If he holds onto our arms or hands, he can pull himself all the way up, but the level of the tub is awkward for him to do it without....as of now anyway.

Today we had our 6 month checkup.  Our doctor and nurses were so happy to see him and proud of his progress.  They said he is still above average on his strength and how well he can sit up on his own.  The doctor was laughing at how curious he is about EVERYTHING.  You can see him thinking about his next move when he gets his eyes locked in on something.  She said he's doing great!  He's grown 2 inches in the last 2 months.  He's 25.6 inches tall and just under 16lbs.  His body is finally catching up with his head :)

We reintroduced dairy as the GI instructed us to and it doesn't look like it's the right time for Jack.  Same with soy.  We tried soy first and his face broke out with the eczema.  They said that's the first indication that his system is reacting with it.  With the dairy, we had Home Slice pizza (my fav white pie in Austin).  It was yummy, but I didn't really fully enjoy it because my stomach was in knots with so much anxiety.  I was so excited to eat pizza, but even more terrified of Jack being in pain.  It didn't seem to bother him that much, but the eczema showed up on his face and tummy.  He was pretty fussy yesterday and the doc said that's likely why.  Apparently, it can take a few days to hit him.  Soooo, back to soy/dairy free diet we go.  

Tonight we get to start solids!!!  Jon and I are super excited about this.  I think we are going to skip the cereal (doc said it's fine) and go straight for the avocado.  They say this is one of the best things to start with because it has the good fats like breastmilk.  We will be sure to videotape how it goes.  I'm sure it will be more of a messy game than actual nutrition.  

Well, I think that's about it for now.  Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Lots of love,
The Waags

Almost there!

He loves his new swing

 

Makeout session

"Hey, you look like me!"

Yummy

My Dad says I used to do the same exact thing. Get this thing off my foot!

25 Weeks

Well, we survived the 2nd round of flying.  Flying is a completely different ball game now that Jack is interested in the world and is more mobile.  He slept a little on the flight from Austin to Dallas.  The flight to Pittsburgh was supposed to be a completely packed flight, but lucky for us, someone missed their flight, so Jack got his own seat.  Unfortunately, he only took advantage of this cozy little bed for about 30 min.  It was still nice to have him be able to stretch out and be out of my lap though.  We played with his toys, practiced standing, met a little girl that was his age and doing the infamous walk up and down the aisle, and played with some of the baby aps on the ipad...basically anything to distract him from chewing on everything in sight.  He didn't care to chew on his teething toys, instead, he preferred the germ infested armrest or seatbelt.  GROSS.

The weekend was great; the weather was perfect!  Tinga and Paps were happy to have their time with the little guy.  He had some new toys there to play with that he loved.  The old tried and true, color rings and shape blocks that fit in the holes...don't you love my technical names for these?!  Jack didn't sleep much while we were there, but he still did pretty good.  The wedding was a great time.  It was so good to see everyone!  Now if we can just convince people to get married in Austin :)

The flight home was much easier.  Since Jack was exhausted, he actually slept most of the way home.  Every flight attendant and lady on the flight wanted to pinch his cheeks.  He got compliments again on how well he did.  I don't think he had enough energy to really do anything but sleep haha!

He started getting a cough the day we left, and is still congested and coughing but no fever.  Everyone is still saying teething, but I'm not convinced he will ever get teeth.  I'm sick of teething and we aren't even through the first set of teeth, LOL.  Poor little guy can't stop chewing on things.  He's really going after his pacifiers which is not like him, but I guess it feels good and is soothing.  

Today we have swim lessons and then on Friday we are going to drive to Dallas to see the family.  Hopefully, this trip he sleeps most of the way and doesn't need to stop every 1.5 hours like the last time.  Jon is flying there again, so I'll be doing it solo.  We are looking forward to seeing everyone!!  

Have a great!

Lots of love,
The Waags

24 Weeks

Happy Tuesday!

It's been a great week since the last post.  Last week, Jack was SO close to flipping back to front.  He would get about 3/4 of the way there- completely on his side and then decide it wasn't worth the effort.  We were having a tummy time session trying for that next flip and I decided to put the baseball just out of his reach...that was the push he needed.  Instantly, he flipped all the way over and grabbed his baseball.  Of course it wasn't all the bright, flashy new toys we've bought him, no, it's the baseball that Jon has had for probably 20 years, covered in God knows what.  Now everytime we go in for a diaper change or trying to get him dressed, he is trying to flip over.  My grandmother reminded me that they used to use diaper pins...I have NO idea how they didn't stick the baby every single time.  Jack is such a wiggle worm, if we used stick pins, I'm sure someone would have already reported me to CPS from all the pokes he'd get.  

This week we start swim lessons!  I'm so excited to start these :)  Today we have music class and then tomorrow is our very first swim lesson.  Luckily it's just down the road, so it shouldn't mess up his schedule too much.  The past few days, Jack has decided he wants to sleep 2-2.5 hours during his morning nap and doesn't really want his evening nap.  He's always changing it up, but I like this change up...a lot!  This means I have more time in the morning and he goes to bed a bit earlier.  Win, win!  The only downside is he is sleeping through the usual meetup group time.  Yesterday we hosted the playdate at our house, so it didn't matter if he slept the whole time.  I think most of the babies are starting to sleep more in the mornings, so we might be moving the times around anyway.  It was fun having everyone over.  We had a few new moms join.  Everyone seemed to have a great time.  We are all looking forward to the fall where we can get these babies outside without melting!

We are going for round 2 on flying this week.  I'm not nearly as nervous, but I'm sure I'll still get a panic attack right before we go.  We are heading to Pittsburgh for another wedding.  Steve Mac and Katie are tying the knot!  We are so excited everyone and I know Tinga & Paps can't wait for their one-on-one time with their grandson.  

After Pittsburgh, we are heading to Dallas to see my family.  It will be my brother's last weekend in TX before he deploys.  We are really looking forward to seeing everyone, I just wish it wasn't his time to leave.  His time at home always goes by so fast!  We are crossing our fingers, eyes, toes, legs, etc that this is truly the last deployment he does.  Hopefully it flies by for everyone.  

I hate deployments, but a big thank you to the men, women and their families that put their country before themselves. It is so easy to go about our day and  take for granted that we have our freedom and have a safe place that we can call home.  All too often, we forget that there are so many that are away from their families so we can have these freedoms.  I know I wouldn't last an hour living in Iraq or anywhere in the middle east.  These men (and women) miss the big events like the birth of their kids, as well as the little moments that sometimes mean the most.  My brother has missed numerous events throughout the years, it wasn't always the holidays that were the hardest- it was the day to day events and "luxuries" of just being able to pick up the phone and talk whenever I wanted or just having him visit for the weekend. I am so thankful he has an amazing wife and daughter supporting him through these deployments.  Today marks the 2nd anniversary of Extortion 17.  31 families and numerous friends lost their loved one that day.  I will never forget waking up and seeing the news brief that a chopper went down with some of our finest in it; I knew instantly that my friend JT was in it.  I had just heard from him the night before through Facebook.  JT was an amazing guy that touched so many throughout his life.  He was a great friend, as well as an inspiration.  It seemed like there was nothing JT couldn't do; he always welcomed a challenge and wouldn't accept any excuses.  He is missed by many, but he loved his job and he loved his country more than anything.  I am thankful there are people like him in this world, because I know I couldn't do what they do.

Well, I gotta get ready for music class.  Time for singing cheesy songs and dancing with my little man.  Hope everyone has a wonderful and safe week!

Lots of love,
The Waags

What are you looking at??

He loves this baseball

He's not sure what to think of his new speedo :)

Him rolling over for the ball- sorry for it being so blurry, but I wanted to get it for Jon since he was working.

Eating out in his new travel big boy chair.  So cool- it clips on the side of the table.

The balancing act :)

Our Sunday morning :)

23 weeks

Hope everyone is well.  I feel like Jack has grown so much in the last week.  

He's laughing a lot more, and it's easier to get him to laugh.  He's started getting crazy in his bouncer.  He'll start jumping like crazy and then with all his might pick up his legs and give one big bounce.  He rolled over from front to back.  He's toying with back to front, but I think he's going to make us work for it.  While sitting in the tub the same day he rolled over, he decided he wanted to stand up, so he grabbed the edges of the tub and pulled himself up about 3/4 of the way.  I was so scared he was going to face plant on the edge of the tub, but also so proud and excited for him haha.  Thank goodness Jon is there to balance me out :)  

5 months has been such a cool time to see him soaking in his surroundings and learning new things. I think our play dates are helping us out too.  He's getting used to other people besides just his parents, and I'm getting out of the house.  He's warming up to strangers so much more than before. He's flashing that smile every where we go and just melting all the ladies hearts that come up to him.  We took him to dinner this past weekend to one of our favorite places, Jack Allen's. He did so good.  He just sat and played with his toys the entire time. 

Today we went to a preview of our music class.  We had a great time!  Jack's friends Caroline and Eli went as well.  We danced, sang songs, played with shakers, clapped, and had fun.  Jack seemed to enjoy it.  We will start the fall semester sometime next month.  

Next week we start swim lessons!!!  I am SO excited about this.  I've been taking him to the pool in the afternoon at least 3x a week. He's getting used to the water and has now started splashing.  He splashes in the tub all the time, but just started to do it in the pool now that he's getting used to it. Caroline, Eli and Addie are going to do swim lessons with us.  These 4 will be seeing a lot of each other each week...which is great because I love their moms!  They do 1 lesson each week.  So Jack is becoming quite the social butterfly. Music, swim and play dates.

Well hope everyone has a great week!

Lots of loves,
The Waags

Video of Jack laughing:

YOU'RE FIRED!  Sitting in his big boy chair during dinner.

The usual...Jack trying to eat everything.

Jack playing at dinner.

22 weeks

Happy Tuesday!  

Well, yesterday went back to the GI specialist for his checkup.  He gained almost 2 lbs and grew a little over an inch in the 6 weeks between visits.  He's 15lbs and 24.3 inches.  Dr. Rangwalla said he's doing great and can start solids at the 6 month marker.  He said he's impressed with how well he can sit up on his own and hold his head up.  Another Dr. saying he's a strong one :)  He told me to start introducing soy back into my diet and see how Jack reacts.  If all is well after 2 weeks, I can start to slowly reintroduce dairy!!!  I'm already planning what the first dairy product will be.  MMMMM can't wait!   So excited, and yet terrified. If he doesn't have any reaction with the dairy for a month, then we can start weaning him off of the medicine.  Yay!!  The Dr. said usually around 6 months, babies start to out grow the reflux...though it could take up to a year; we are hopeful.  He seems to be a lot better now that he's sitting up more.

Yesterday, I tried to eat eggs again and that was a mistake.  Jack was not happy about how gassy he was.  Tooty pants and his teeth were bugging him, so he was up a few times last night...but he put himself back to sleep.  He has now started to rub the side of his right head/ear, which the dr. said is another sign of teething.  I'm glad we have all the symptoms, but where the hek are the teeth!? 

I bought Jack a wubanub (pacifier with little toy attached to it for easy grabbing).  He's never been big on the pacifier except when he's hurting, but I thought it would be easy for him to chew on.  He has started sucking on the pacifier!?  The first 2 days he had it, it was in his mouth most of the day.  It's losing it's newness now, but he still likes to suck on the frogs feet and chew on the pacifier.  Maybe it will help us on our next flight in August, so I don't have to nurse the whole time.  

Today we are meeting our friend Katrina and Caroline and going for a swim.  We took him swimming this weekend again and he did really good.  We went to the big pool and Jon dunked him a few times...of course.  He also did the "balance a broomstick" thing where Jack stood on Jon's hands and that's it- he did so good holding himself up.  

Well, hope everyone has a great week!

Lots of love,
The Waags

Standing all by himself

playtime with Daddy