Snapshots

Here are some recent exerts from daily life.

Jack must be included in EVERYTHING.  Here he's helping Dad with the dishes.

 

and telling me he's done in the Jumper

and hanging out on Grammie's quilt with Mom.

and some backyard playtime, and I did not let him eat the leaves in case you were wondering

...and Now

I couldn't figure out how to get 2 videos in the same post, so look below for the other half, but I thought it was interesting how much Jack's behavior has changed in 1 week.  Last week and before that Jack did really well on his tummy and would hold his head up and look around, and sometimes even flip over (see video in previous post).  This week, he just digs his nose into the ground and tries to propel himself forward with is feet.  I don't think he has much chance of becoming a successful crawler at 14 weeks, but he's giving it a go and getting pretty frustrated that he can't do it.







And also, we're going to have to start calling him "bigfoot" because I finally found socks today to fit his huge feet and they are sized for 1 to 2 year old children.  He never even wore his cute little baby socks because I couldn't squeeze them on his monster feet.

Then...

Flipping over the easy way

Jackson decided to really work on flipping over this morning.  He flipped from tummy to back a few times around 6 weeks old, but it was definitely by accident and he hasn't done it since.  This time he was really deliberate about it and worked hard until he got himself flipped around.  He's getting a little closer to rolling over from back to tummy, but that will probably be a while yet.

3 Months Already!

I can't believe that the Little Guy is already past so many of the newborn milestones and moving into the baby phase.  He's the light of my life and staying at home with him has proved fun, challenging, and very rewarding.  I'm still trying to figure out what my days will look like with a more open schedule, but I'm so glad that I'm able to be here for him.  Sometimes Dan and I really look forward to when he's bigger and can run and play in the sandbox with us, but then again we can never get these baby days back when they have past and I want to hang onto now.  I love how he lights up around us and how he likes to me to hold him.  He's such a rascal!

Jackson got a new Bumbo chair yesterday and here's a clip of the whole family enjoying it for the first time.  Sorry if it's a little long.

And here's some of his everyday life.

Playing catch up

Quite a few things have been going on lately, so this will be a hodge-podge of the latest happenings with us.

The Gieseke side of the family had a big reunion this August in Santa Rosa and we joined in a met a lot of relatives. I attended a party while Dan was working one evening and met some folks that Dan's never even met.  This is the picnic grounds on the last day of the reunion with a little diaper changing action.

Family portrait in the redwoods.

Cousins Evan (8 wks) and Jackson (11wks) getting ready for a walk

Three babies, three Bob strollers.  That's Fletcher on the right, Jack's second cousin.

With Grammie Gieseke.  This is the first time Jackson wore that outfit and I had a flash back to when he first got it and it didn't fit at all...

How the little guy has grown in 12 weeks!  These are the same shorts modeled at 7 days old.

Dan's mom suggested that Baby might be ready for the Johnny-Jump-Up because his head control is pretty good, even though he hasn't reached the 4 month minimum age.

But he was a little thin for it and ended up chewing on the sides of the seat.

I stuffed some bankets in with him to make him thicker so he wouldn't topple over.  Maybe more success in a few weeks.

In other news, we think Jack may be getting some teeth soon.  He's knawing on everything, but mostly my knuckles and he bites hard!  He liked the frozen teething ring and drools a lot.

Munching and drooling.

Dan got a chance to wear Baby finally in the Baby Bjorn.  It's the most manly of the baby carriers we own.  We walked down to the frozen yogurt shop in our neighborhood and we had a great time.

Big boy.

Just playing at home.

And finally here's some fun smiley footage of baby talking and having good time.  He's such a sweet little guy!

Father Son Conversation

Night time

He was smiling a ton right before I could find the camera, and in this video he's mainly getting mad.

Finally getting some smiles on film.  When he sees the camera out he stops smiling and starts staring at it, so it's hard to capture those smiles.

Dan is actually trying to sleep here, but baby has different ideas.

Waking Up Happy

This is about a month old, but here's a video of our wake up routine.  Jackson's pretty happy in the mornings after a nice long rest and I love to cherish the time by playing with him in our bed before we get going for the day if I can spare the time.

Old Jeans

I got a very pleasant surprise this morning.  Jackson and I were trying to get out the door to the doctor's this morning for his 2 month check up (which is a little late since he's 11 weeks old today) and I realized that my stretchy maternity jeans had been peed on again and were in the laundry.  I rummaged through the drawer and came up with an old pair of pre-pregnancy jean and thought that I'd put them on for kicks, and what do you know, I could actually button them up!  Everyone says that once you fit into your old jeans then you have your old body back, but that's far from true for me.  They fit, kind of, but I've got a ways to go on getting back in shape.  But it made me feel really good to wear them today.

At the doctor, we got Jackson's latest stats:
Height: 25", 93rd percentile
Weight: 13lb, 14.25 oz, 80th percentile
Head circumference: 40cm, 33rd percentile

So this confirms my suspicions that my little boy is kinda big for his age, or at least rather tall.  People are constantly guessing his age to be much older than he really is.  Jack also had to get "a leg-full of shots" as the doctor put it.  He was pretty mad and it's been a tough afternoon and it seems like he feels kinda crummy.

To round out this post, here are some recent photos that haven't made it up yet:

At 8 weeks, his first try to play with a toy.  He held onto the rattle, but ultimately preferred his fist.

Here's a snapshot of the nightly battle.  Jack get's very fussy every night around 7:30 and we spend the rest of the evening until about 10 rocking, bouncing, nursing, swinging, and cuddling him trying to stop crying and get to sleep because it's apparent that he's exhausted.  But he's a fighter and won't settle until he's good and ready.  You can see it in his eyes.

Baby lost in the laundry.

This is a new baby hold that our friend Heather taught us that calms a lot of babies and you can see by the heavy eyelids that it's working on Jackson.

We finally got over to Martinez to see our friends the Drach's who have a tiny new addition.  Here's Kyle holding Jack, who looked like a pretty big guy compared to little Renee.

Sweet little Renee was born a little early, but she's doing really well.

But her parents aren't sleeping much at this point.

Playing with some of Renee's toys.  Jackson's toppling over in there because he's way to small, but having a great time.

Too many amazing things to look at!

He's great at sitting on laps now since his head is pretty stable.

Those are my guys!