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