Good-bye Summer

Summer is almost over for Jett and me. His last visitors of the summer, Aunt Heather and Cousin Lisa, have come and gone. They came to love up Jett, and they did a mighty good job of it.

The real sign that summer is over is that my parents left last weekend. After spending three months here getting to know Jett, their departure is a big adjustment for all of us, most of all for Jett. For the last three months they played with him, read to him, held him, walked him, rocked him, and gushed over him all day. This was our first week alone in a long time. I’m sure he’s thinking, “What, the bouncy seat again, Mom? Wasn’t I just sitting in that thing? Grandma never put me in here!”



Yes, Grandma and Grandpa never did a lot of things, all of which I managed to do the first day they were gone: leave clean laundry all over the house, shrink my new pair of pants, lose the crib sheet somewhere between the washer and the dryer, and affix all diapers to Jett so that he leaks through each one before I even get him off of the changing table.

Oh yeah, summer is over.

But it was fabulous.

Tummy Time

Look at the neck muscles on this kid!

Seeing Stars

Jett is an urban baby. He’s gone out for an iced chai, he’s stayed for just one too many beers at the bar,

he’s been to office buildings in the loop, and he can sleep through anything – ambulances, fire trucks, motorcycles, cell phones, trains, cars honking, and the drum corps that practices outside at the high school across the street. So heading out to the countrylast week was a fairly momentous occasion. It was his first trip out of Chicago, and his first (and hopefully only) week without his dad.

Jett missed his dad, but he did great. Maybe it was all the fresh air. Maybe it was his grandma.

Maybe it was the root beer floats we had at the A&W in Edgerton.

Maybe it was the humungous amount of nature surroundings us.

I like to think everything went right after he napped with his momma in a hammock. For two hours. Napping in a hammock. With his momma. Heaven.

I like living in the city with Jett. But I can’t believe he’s 2 1/2 months old and this is the first time that he’s seen the stars.

We're Back

We're back from our mini-vacation and I'm way behind in these posts. Charlie gets home in a couple of hours and Jett is just waking up from his nap, so I'll have to catch up on the blogging later. But I did add pictures to the two posts below. Enjoy.

Monday to Friday

At 3:30 am this morning, Charlie left for a 5 day trip to the Dominican Republic for work. So Jett and I must endure without him until Friday night. How are we all supposed to be separated for five whole days? It's only been 2 1/2 months since we all met! (At least, since we met Jett).

But so far we've been doing ok. The day started off on the right foot when Jett slept in until 8am.


Yes, sometimes he sleeps in his bouncy chair.

We took a walk this morning with Jett in the sling and he loved it. (Very cute photo of Jett in the sling). Woops - this picture is on my phone and I haven't figured out how to download it yet. I know he loved it because by the end of the walk he was fast alseep. And now it's 1:15 and he's down for his afternoon nap, thanks to Grandma for rocking him to sleep.



(And thanks to Grandpa for dusting our blinds while I type this). (Probably don't need to see a picture of my dusty blinds, so just stop imagining them).

So as you can see, we are doing ok, with the help of the grandparents. Tomorrow Jett and I head up to Rice Lake, WI with them for a mini 3 day vacation. Otherwise without Charlie we might go stir-crazy. We miss him already and he's only made it as far as Miami.

For the rest of the week I'm going to try to post to Jett's blog from my new fancy phone, since I won't have a computer at the lake house, but I have no idea yet if that's even possible, so I may not get anything new up until Friday. I know you're all on pins and needles waiting for the newest picture of Jett! (At least I know I always am). Have a good week, everybody.

P.S. Charlie - Jett says to have a good time and he loves you, and so do I.

P.S.S. Now my dad is dusting our door frames. I didn't even know we had those swiffer dust things. Clever.

I'm a Boy

The other day Jett and I were out and about when a woman stopped us to admire my new baby girl. She went on to tell me a little bit about her own newborn daughter, and then she walked on. I didn't correct her, but since then I've been wondering...

When looking at a baby's face, how do we know if it is a boy or a girl? Or can we know at all? Do infant boys and girls have different facial features? If not, when do boys and girls start looking like, well, boys and girls? Do we just guess the sex of a baby based on what he or she is wearing?

Does anyone have any idea?

Some of My Favorite Things

Sleep

I think we used to sleep.



I mean, it looks familiar.



We love it when Jett is awake...



but oh how we love it when he is asleep.

Sunday Mornings

When Jett was born and I started on maternity leave, I had sweet thoughts of taking my new baby on various outings - to museums, window shopping, and to our neighborhood's farmer's market, which is only a 1 mile walk away. An easy way to spend the summer, right?



Yeah, yeah, no. Every little outing requires planning and strategy: where to park/how far to walk, what to bring, what to wear in case I need to breastfeed in public, and what time to leave the house based on when Jett had his last nap and last snack. I haven't been to a farmer's market all summer. But Jett has, and so has Charlie.

On Sunday mornings Charlie gets up, changes Jett's diaper, packs him up in the Baby Bjorn and is out the door, headed to, you guessed it, the farmer's market. Where's the planning? Where's the strategy? There's none! They just head out the door with nothing - no burp cloth, no extra diaper, no baby wipes. Strolling through the farmer's market, making it look so easy, picking up blueberries and broccoli, and wooing all the ladies, I'm sure. Yes, I'm a little bit jealous, and no, I don't know how they do it.



But what am I doing during all this? I'm getting another hour or two of uninterrupted sleep. Now that's good strategy.

Baby Massage

A few weeks ago Charlie, Jett, and I took an infant massage class. It was awesome - except for the parts when we had to take Jett out of the room because he was crying. But we loved the class, and we left with a bottle of grapeseed oil and an idea that we'd massage Jett every night before bed.



We're so naive. As if we can ever predict when Jett will go to bed. Sometimes Jett decides he doesn't even want a massage (which we usually figure out after we've undressed Jett down to his diaper and slathered the oil all over him - sorry about that, Jett).



But it's so much fun to give this kid a massage. I mean, c'mon. Just look at him.



P.S. Happy Birthday, Jett. You're two months old today.

Cousins!

Jett has the best cousins in the world: Megan and Owen

and now Ellie too!

Welcome, Ellie!

Our Little Healthy Hero

Yesterday we took Jett to the doctor's office for his 2 month check-up. He is one healthy baby. He weighed in at 12 pounds exactly, and was 23 inches long. So he's in the 90th percentile for length (he's tall, if you can believe it), the 70th percentile for weight, and for head size he's in the 50th percentile. As the doctor said, he's a relative pinhead. But a cute and healthy pinhead!

Besides getting measured and weighed, Jett also received his first round of immunizations. That's 7 immunizations wrapped up in 3 shots. Here is a picture of him before his shots.



And here is a picture of him after the shots. What a little hero.



And those tender thighs.



Today Jett is still recovering from the stuff in the shots. He's cuddly and sleepy, and so am I.

It was the Halls, with the Baby, in the Conservatory

Yesterday my parents and I took Jett to the Garfield Park Conservatory. I thought Jett would like the conservatory. Whenever we take him outside he opens his eyes wide and throws his head back, like he is using all of his senses to explore his surroundings. I thought he'd like the big shiny green plants, the scent of the flowers, and the different temperature and levels of humidity in each room.

But of course he slept through all of it.

Here are some pictures of what Jett missed. Look at those sweet little hands.

What Jett Can Do Now

He can smile! He can stick out his tongue! He can do both at the same time!

One Little Happy Family

Our first family photo, taken on Jett's birth day: June 12, 2006.