Week 41

Dec 16-22

This week was pretty busy because we were preparing for our big trip to South Carolina so I didn't really get many pictures. We really didn't do very much because I had to work 5 days in a row so that I could have 8 days off. I still can't believe we both have off for Christmas and we get to go home. This will be our first Christmas home since we've been married.

That post will be next week, and I'm sure it will be extra long. In the meantime, here is a video of Jack waking up in the morning. He is pretty active. It shows how we had to move his crib from the wall because anything he can reach he will pull/grab/stick his fingers in.

Okay so after I wrote all of this and posted the video I found some pictures from this week. I guess we did do a few things...

We baked cookies for the pediatric nurses. We baked about 5 dozen peanut butter blossoms and packaged them up along with cards for all of my co-workers. It's always nice to appreciate the people who work through the holidays when everyone else is enjoying their families. I have been there so many times and it is nice when people think to send some goodies your way. As you will notice in the pictures, Jack was happy to help with the cookie making process.

Also on one of the many days I worked, Jack stayed up late enough so I could see him for a few minutes when I got home from work. I only work 3 days a week, but I leave the house around 6:00 am and I don't get back until around 8:00 pm. That is if I am

on time, sometimes it is even later. I am always excited to see him when I get home. Sometimes he is already in bed asleep. I realize I look VERY tired in this picture, but how would you feel after a bunch of 14 hour days in a row?? :)

We started to get Christmas presents in the mail. We decided that since we were going to be out of town for Christmas we would open some of our presents as they came in the mail. Here is Jack opening presents from his Gigi. These are all good practice for Christmas morning. :)

Week 40

Dec 9-15

Well we are now well into the "holiday season" and loving every minute of it. So far Jack has done very well with the Christmas tree. We usually put up two trees (one with colored lights and all of our assorted fun ornaments and the other with white lights and red/white themed decorations) but this year we just put up the main one. We figured it would be too much to ask of a 9-month old not to touch a tree all the time. So we put the tree in the front living room and Jack isn't really in there without us being right there. Don't get me wrong, he has tried to get at ornaments, but usually we grab him up and divert his attention to something else.

Jack had his 9 month well baby check-up. He weighs in at 22 lbs and is 30" tall. He is 90th percentile for his height and head circumference and 60th percentile for his weight. I told her that in the past month since he has been crawling and moving around so much I definitely feel like he has lost weight, or at least gotten much leaner. He will catch back up in the weight category and I'm really not too worried about it.

Ed and I have decided to switch pediatrician's. Don't get me wrong, she is a nice enough lady but she never really answers our questions, she pushes formula even in the beginning when I breastfed, and she really pushes immunizations. Even when some of the immunizations are "optional" according to her and I refuse them she has a fit. For example I refused the rotavirus vaccination and she was very distraught over that. I explained to her that he is not in daycare and not really around kids who are in daycare. Besides, I have taken care of plenty of kids with rotavirus and although it is not the most pleasant illness, it's not going to cause permanent damage.

I finally got fed up with the pushing of the shots and I want more control over when Jack gets them. She said at this appointment he was due for his 3rd Hep B and I was like, "according to the current immunization schedule there are no shots at 9 months," and she was like "well it's been enough time in between he can go ahead and get it." I told her no thanks. I have my own schedule now that I have been working on and so far it's looking like Jack won't get anymore shots until he is 2-3 years old. I do have a little more research to do about it. I need to get my hands on the Dr. Sears book because I really want to read the whole thing.

Just for the record...I am writing this as a mom. I am taking off my "pediatric nurse" hat and speaking as a mom. I do believe that immunizations are VERY important and I feel that kids should get most of them. They are a good thing that save lives and decrease terrible hospitalizations. I do think there is some credibility to the argument that our kids get too many, too fast. I don't see the harm in spreading them out and delaying the ones that can be delayed. This is a personal choice that every parent has to make.

With that being said, we are switching pediatricians and I will have full control of Jack's immunization schedule because she doesn't do the shots in her office so I will go to the base clinic and get his shots done. I plan on doing them one at a time and spreading them out. Okay enough about immunizations...I know this is quite the touchy subject for everyone.

Back to holiday season fun. Jack has been loving all of the traditional things we have been doing. We've made cookies for the hospital staff, wrapped presents for friends and family, and sent out Christmas cards. It is such a fun time of year and I LOVE sharing it with him. It kind of brings Christmas back to life again. I can't wait until he really "gets it" and is excited about Christmas morning. :)

Week 39

Dec 2-8

This was the first week of December and it seems like the Christmas season is starting to be in full swing! :) Ed and I have always both agreed that family traditions are imperative to a happy, healthy family. We have been talking about fun family traditions to do when we had kids since we dated so now that it is Jack's first Christmas, it is so neat to finally start some of these. Some traditions we already initiated, like the decoration of the Christmas tree.

It's really fun because we discussed things that each of us had done in our childhood as well as things we had seen others do that we liked. We kind of took all of the ideas and made them our own. I'm sure we will continue to add more traditions as our family grows.

One of the traditions we always discussed was taking the kids to see Santa. Now as you all know this is an age-old tradition that most people probably did as kids. We couldn't wait to see how Jack would react. We have heard stories from our friends with kids that their kids were freaked out, some were just in awe and stared at Santa.

Ed got off work early one day last week so we decided we would take Jack to see Santa Claus. We had already been planning it and the week before even picked out an outfit for him to wear. Part of the tradition of seeing Santa is getting to wear your "Christmas church outfit" for your picture. We want to keep them all and put them in a book one day. So we gave Jack a quick bath and dressed him in comfy clothes for the ride to the mall. When we got there we dressed him in his corduroy pants, plaid button down shirt (red and green of course), and reindeer sweater. We had to stop by a store on the way to get shoes as Jack does not own shoes yet.

Remember that although it is December, it is in the 80's everyday in Florida. So we went in the mall and found Santa. It was perfect because it was a time when they didn't have any kids there. The set-up was very nice and the Santa looked pretty real. There was Santa and two guys helping. They were just hanging out waiting for a kid to come over. We talked about the different packages and found out that if you buy a package you can also take your own pictures. Of course I brought my new camera so I was super-excited about this. We chose the "cheapest" package (cheap being $30) and proceeded to place Jack on Santa's lap.

Ed and I both kept looking at each other waiting for him to start screaming. No such luck. At first he just kept staring at Santa's beard. We were a little nervous about this because Jack loves hats, glasses, anything on someone's face. He likes to take them off. Of course Santa has a hat, glasses, AND a beard so we weren't sure if Jack was going to behave himself. After his initial staring and studying of Santa's face, Jack realized that we were taking pictures of him. He also realized that everyone in the mall was stopping to look at the cute little boy in the reindeer sweater meeting Santa for the first time.

So of course my little show-off decided to wave at everyone in the mall who stopped to look at him. Of course, as you can imagine this just made the crowd even bigger because they thought it was so cute that he was waving. Santa and his helpers were laughing and kept taking pictures because they thought Jack was so hilarious. I think we hung out with Santa for about 20 minutes before another kid finally showed up so we wanted him to take a turn too. Our "official" 1st Christmas picture with Santa Claus is of Jack waving to people. I'll have to scan that one in. In the meantime, here are some of the ones I took.

It was quite a memorable experience taking Jack to see Santa. I can't wait to go every single year and see how things change. I love family traditions! :)

Jack meets Santa

Week 38

Nov 25-Dec 1

Happy Thanksgiving!! Of course this was Jack's 1st Thanksgiving and it was pretty cool because he is actually old enough to eat some "real" food. :) As usual with my job I had to work on Thanksgiving. Since I have been a nurse I've felt pretty bad because Ed LOVES holidays and he always gets so excited to cook Thanksgiving dinner. Over the years he has started to perfect his Thanksgiving dinner menu and it seems like I am never here to help him cook. Not that he needs my help.As usual he made a DELICIOUS meal. Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, and crescent rolls. Mmmm. It is soooo yummy.

I did actually contribute to one part of the Thanksgiving dinner. Ed tasked me with the job of making the pumpkin logs. It is his mom's recipe and it is ridiculously good. I attempted to make them, but for some reason my oven did not want to cooperate. Pumpkin logs are basically a spongy, pumpkin cake that you bake on a cookie sheet. You get it out of the oven, roll it up into a towel sprinkled with powdered sugar, then after it cools you frost it with cream cheese frosting made from scratch.

After that you roll it up similar to a "jelly roll" and then place it in the fridge. To serve them you cut them and they are little round pin-wheel desserts. The combination of cream cheese with pumpkin is very complimentary. To make a long story short my oven didn't quite cooperate so the pumpkin part was a little too "spongy" and they tasted good, but didn't hold their shape quite as well as I would have liked. I guess I need a little more practice.

So Ed cooked the dinner and I had to work at the hospital. We had quite a few patients and they were pretty sick so I honestly didn't mind working. I got home around 8:00 pm and we had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner. Jack feasted on mashed potatoes with gravy as well as sweet potato casserole with marshmallows. He loved it and ate every bite that I gave him. Ed had put up the Christmas tree but waited for me to decorate it.

One of our traditions we started is putting up Christmas decorations on Thanksgiving day. Decorating the tree is always saved for last and it is a very special celebration that we look forward to every year. We get out our boxes of ornaments and place them on the tree one at a time. Our favorites of course are those unique ornaments that bring back memories. We tell stories about them and reminisce as we put them on the tree. We really get into the mood because we have all the lights off except the ones on the tree and we play Christmas music. It's a nice tradition that we can't wait to share with Jack one day. :)

One last fun thing that happened this week. Ed decided to give me my birthday present a couple of weeks early. He has been so excited about this gift and I have been anxious to find out what it was. He finally said he couldn't stand it anymore so he let me open them. I knew it must be something good because he is usually the one to make me wait to open my presents until my actual birthday.

Well I opened them up and I got a new Nikon D5000!!! Basically it's an amazing camera that I thought I would never get in my whole life. I have always wanted to do photography and now I feel like I can really pursue it. We went out last Saturday afternoon and tested out my new gift. It is pretty amazing! Here are some of the shots I took. I can't wait to experiment more with this. It also takes HD movies, which I can't wait to check out. I really want to make movies with the iMac using my HD clips I take on my camera! :) There are so many possibilities with this gift.

As usual Ed has outgifted me. I didn't think he would be able to top the Surprise 30th Birthday Party with all of his friends and family. I guess I have to work on outgifting him at Christmas. I think I have it in the bag already. I have his gifts hidden away and I can't wait for him to see them Christmas morning!! :)

Week 37

Nov 18-24

Jack is still going, going, going. I swear, walking will come any day now! He really has awesome balance for just learning how to stand up. There are many times when he will be standing up playing with his toys and will let go for awhile and just stand there without holding on.

He is soooo curious and is into EVERYTHING!! I love catching him doing something he's not supposed to be doing because he knows better, but he looks at you and does it anyways. Here is a picture of him getting into Hope's water. Poor dog, never has clean water.

I also have another video to post because after watching it I noticed that it did a great job of exemplifying the very thing I was discussing in my last post about our living room starting to look like a daycare. It's hilarious. No matter how many times you clean it up he just gets it all back out. It's a lose-lose situation. You can't blame him either b/c he wants to play with everything, which is great b/c that is why we bought them. It just gets frustrating when you can't walk anywhere without stepping all over toys.

Moms out there, any suggestions on ways to store toys? So far I have a big basket which did a great job for awhile, but now his toys are starting to get bigger and bigger and they definitely won't fit in a basket.

For now I will just have to ignore the mess and enjoy playing with Jack! :)

Week 36

Nov 11-17

I don't really have a whole lot of material for this week. We have been super-duper busy lately with work. Ed has been in and out of town on TDY and I have been working 4 days a week which equates to 50+ hour work weeks. We are all very tired.

Of course little Jack does not let any of that slow his day down. He is CONSTANTLY on the move and finding new ways to climb, jump, grab, etc. Ed and I can barely keep up with him and we try to stay one step ahead of him so we can predetermine how to keep his environment safe. We have been making all kinds of adjustments to the house to figure out a way that works to keep him somewhat contained but so he still has plenty of room to play with his toys. The key is for him to be safe so I can do dishes, clean up, etc without worrying he is going to get into something or get up the stairs.

We have moved furniture, bought gates, etc., but we haven't quite yet perfected something that will work for both of us and not look like our house is a daycare. People with kids you know what I'm talking about. I know it's a little bit vain to want to keep my house a little bit stylish, but at the same time it's not worth it to constantly be telling him "no" when he tries to get into the plants, or splash in the dog's water. I want him to be able to have an area he can touch everything without consequences and play with his toys. We will get there eventually. It makes me sad that he can't really play in his room since it's all the way upstairs and we're not really up there very often.

Well here is a video of Jack playing. He is so much fun to play with. He's really starting to talk and interact. I swear sometimes he answers my questions. :)

Week 35

Nov 4-10

Jack has learned some new skills. First of all he has definitely mastered crawling. He can go FAST!!! We have learned a new meaning to the word "tired" after chasing him all day. He not only crawls, but he CLIMBS.

He pulls up onto the coffee table, the tv stand, the couch, etc. He walks around all of these things and even will let go for a second to reach over and grab something else.

He is very brave and does not let anything stop him.Another new skill he has mastered is stair climbing. It is one of his favorite things to do. Surprisingly he's pretty fast and doesn't slip very much. It is amazing how quickly he went from scooting around the floor to speed crawling. Ed and I pretty much agree that he will be walking by Christmas.It is so sad when your baby grows up. I can't believe how fast the time flies by.

Happy Anniversary!

November 3, 2009

Happy 3rd Anniversary!!  We had a wonderful night.  Ed came home from work and surprised me with a dozen red roses and a beautiful card.  He instructed me to be ready at 6:00 pm.  I was sooo excited!  I love when he arranges fun stuff for us to do!  At 6:00 we dropped Jack off at his BFF Riley's house (thank you Paul & Jessa for watching him!!) and we drove to our favorite restaurant The Chart House.  Ed had made reservations for 6:30 so we were right on time.

Everything was perfect.  Our names were printed at the top of our menu with a message...nice touch!  Ed had planned everything and even remembered to bring cash for the valet service.  We had a lovely dinner with drinks and even splurged for dessert.  We had the Hot Chocolate Lava Cake...it is worth every calorie.  Here is the description to give you an idea...."A rich chocolate cake with molten center, made with Godiva liqueur.  Served warm, topped with chocolate sauce, Heath bar crunch, and vanilla ice cream."  Mmmm...deeee-lish!!  Yes, we will be running many miles to pay for that one, but I don't care!

For those of you who don't know Ed and I have two anniversaries.  One is for the day we got married and the other is for our wedding.  The reason for this is because once upon a time we were both in the military and although we were engaged, planning our wedding, we had to be legally married for the AF & Navy to make any efforts whatsoever towards us living together.

So anyways November 3, 2006 is our wedding anniversary and March 20, 2006 is the day we were married.  Sometimes we get confused as to which one we celebrate.  I think we have decided now to celebrate the wedding anniversary because that is when we were planning on getting married.  It is also the day all of our friends and family were a part of.  Here is a pictorial tribute to our wedding 3 years ago!

Week 34

Oct 28-Nov 3

Trick-or-Treat!  Here are pictures of Jack in his costume on Halloween!!  :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!  Of course this week we have been busy planning the fun festivities of our favorite holiday.  Jack is going to be Max from "Where the Wild Things Are,"  it is Ed's favorite book from when he was a little kid and one of the first books he bought Jack a long time ago.

We are so lucky because Jack is getting a custom designed costume by a fashion design major at FSU.  It is being sewn by Tammie...the best seamstress ever!  We are soooo excited for Jack to wear it around the neighborhood.  I will get lots and lots of pictures!

When Ed got home early from his short deployment we had time to go to a pumpkin patch sponsored by one of the local churches.  It really didn't feel very "autumn-ish" thanks to the blazing FL sun.  It was basically a random area with hay strewn around, a bunch of pumpkins, and a fence amidst palm trees.  The pumpkins were on fire and even though I put Jack in shorts and a short sleeved shirt he was soooo HOT so we had to kind of hurry to get him out of the sun.

When we got home we carved our pumpkins out.  Jack's little pumpkin has a "J" and we let him play in the goopy mess.  After awhile it was almost time for his afternoon nap so we quickly gave him a bath, put on his pajamas, and while he slept we carved our pumpkins.  I did a happy, fun face.  Ed did a scary, evil face as usual.  :)

Later in the afternoon Tyson came over to babysit Jack while Ed and I went to see a scary movie...paranormal activity.  Yes it is scary.  A little slow in the beginning, but scary.  It worked out perfectly since Jack had already had his bath and I had put him in his pajamas so Tyson just had to feed him dinner, play for awhile, and then put him to bed.