Grant's wedding

We attended our high school friend Grant's wedding on June 19th.  Dan was in the wedding and it was so beautiful out in the woods outside of Santa Rosa.  Catching up with old friends and seeing Grant marry his girl Katie were the highlights.  Plus me and my mom got to dress Jack up in a silly outfit for the occasion and he was having none of it.

He mainly hated the hat.

The Groom

Montgomery High School people

At dinner

The sling is a life-saver.  He always fall asleep in it, so I can finally eat

Wheaton guys

Cousins

Jack's cousin Evan was born about 3-1/2 weeks after Jack and they first met when Evan was 1 day old.  They reunited when Jack was 5 weeks old and we got a lot of cute photos.  We're excited that these cousins are so close in age and hopefully they can be close friends as they grow up.  There are 3 more boy cousins that Jack will be meeting for the first time this coming weekend.

First smiles

Wow, I'm way behind on posting things, but one of the more exciting things to happen lately is that Jackson is smiling now!  He started the day before his 1 month birthday with a small little smile at me after his bath.  I wasn't sure at the time if it was a real smile, but it seemed intentional.  Later that weekend we visited my parents and they made it their mission to get him smiling at them.  He would give them tiny flashes of a grin (very hard to photograph because it was so fast).  Now that he's 6 weeks old, he can hold his smile for a long time and he'll whip it out for almost anyone who wants to talk to him and play.  Here are some photos of those first smiles.  You'll see that they start really small and grow bigger and bigger.  They warm my heart!

My Little Baldy

Jackson's already sparse hair is now falling out!  He accidentally peed all over himself yesterday, including his head, and during the bath to follow he started to really unravel.  He had already shed most of his skin that he was born with, but now his scalp skin and hair are coming out.  Apparently this is very normal to loose the newborn hair, but the poor guy is looking pretty goofy.  He's looking more like his mom when she was born.  Notice the pictures below that compare us.

Pee even got in his mouth. Dan was cracking up in the other room and I walked in on this scene.

After the bath with less hair.

He doesn't mind his new hair style.

This is me a little bit older than Jackson here.  Even less hair here than Jackson.  At least he isn't cross-eyed like I was as a baby!

Not a newborn?

Jackson's getting so big!  He's out of his newborn clothes and fitting into much bigger stuff now.  Eating is one of his strengths, so I'm not too surprised.  He's sleeping ok, with one 3-5 hour sleep stretch at night.  We're still trying to figure out the perfect combination of wake time during the day, swaddling, and meal times that will allow him to settle down for sleep around the time we'd like to be in bed.  It can be kind of hit or miss because of his age.  He's only had one really hard night with a lot of screaming and crying all night.  Overall, he's a real joy!  Here are some recent moments...

Dan came home during his lunch break and is reading Jack his first story book.  It happens to be "If I Were A Zebra"

He looks pretty interested.

On Dad's chest

Trying to keep his head up, but mostly eating his arms.

Marks on his face from sucking on his pacifier so hard.

 Grandma

 Taking pictures of his feet.

Aunt Natalie

Papa Barrett

Playing with awake baby.

A lazy Friday afternoon

Finally got himself a real belly button

My guys

His hair is really turning strawberry-blond

Two muscles.

Memorial Day, 2 weeks old, and an outing

We had such a nice Memorial Day weekend with a BBQ yesterday with our bible study.  There were 5 new babies in attendance from 9 weeks old to 11 days old, and Jackson actually wasn't the youngest.  Here are some pictures of the ridiculous things parents do to their children because it's just so cute...The Circle of Babies!

 Jackson's crazy arms kept hitting everyone in the face.  His friends are Emeline, Joshua, Noah, and Grace.

He was cold and Jackson wanted to cuddle up with Noah.

Elaine and I were due 6 days apart, but the babies ended up having a 7 week age gap.  Jackson's got some catching up to do to grow as big as Emeline.

Sizing up those babies.

Mohawk!

So today was my first day home alone with Jack.  I was a little nervous with no one else here, but it went really well.  We slept in and even got out of the house for the first time alone together.  With my c-section recovery, I've been pretty cautious about pushing myself too much, but we were able to make it to the baby store today and pick up some things I needed.  Jack slept through it like a champ and made it so easy on me.  I was very grateful and I look forward to more outings with him in time.  For now, one new thing a day is a good start.