Three Months New

Three months ago Charlie said we should skip the hospital valet service and get that free parking space around the corner. Three months ago Charlie listened to me and paid for the valet.



Two months and 30 days ago the nurses wanted to take Jett to the nursery so we could sleep through the night, but we couldn’t stand to have Jett that far away from us.



Two months and 27 days ago, we brought Jett home.



Two months and 23 days ago he still had jaundice.



Eleven weeks ago we gave Jett his first bath.



Ten weeks ago he used a pacifier for the first time, and held it in his mouth with his hand.



Eight weeks ago Jett met his cousins Megan and Owen. Seven weeks ago Jett drank from a bottle (from Charlie) for the first time. He grabbed my hair for the first time. He started patting my back while I nursed him.



Five weeks ago he noticed the activity bar on his bouncy seat and looked at the mobile on his swing.



Two weeks ago Jett started talking to us in his Jett-language.

Today we fell in love with our baby for the 90th day in a row. Today Jett turned three months old.



Happy birthday, Jett.

The GBPs

It’s fall. Most of our Sundays, for the next 263 weeks or so, will involve football in some way or another.

When the Packers play, Charlie is a stand-up-sit-down-pace-around-the-room-call-your-dad-to-talk-strategy-throw-your-hat-at-the-tv-sort of fan. He has the gear: the Packers t-shirt, the Packers hat, and the Packers obnoxiously big plastic cups, which are sold at Lambeau Field. He even bought me a Packers hat. But I’m just the wife. Think of the son.


Considering Jett’s young age, his room is a modest Packer shrine containing two Packer Christmas tree ornaments, a small model of Lambeau field, a Packers pennant, and a professional photo of a certain quarterback. (This is one reason why I chose a neutral color for the walls).

Yes, Charlie is trying to pass this legacy down to Jett. He just signed Jett up for Packer tickets...which should show up in about thirty years. (How's that for thinking ahead)? I can just picture it.... The first story Jett writes in 5th grade will star Brett Favre. He’ll grow up thinking that the colors green and gold are appropriate for casual Fridays. He’ll secretly salute all of those fans bold enough to wear a big block of foam cheese on their head. Someday he will purchase green and gold face paint.

I don’t mind this stuff, and I kind of enjoy football Sundays. When watching football is the only item on your to-do list, your day is entirely accomplishable.

And today was one of those entirely accomplishable days. It was Jett’s Inaugural Packer Game. It was The Day Charlie Watches the Packers With His Son.

The Packers lost, but I would say that Charlie won, wouldn't you?

Jett and Ellie

What greater thing is there for human souls than to feel that they are joined for life
- to be with each other in silent unspeakable memories.
~George Eliot

Everyone Needs...

a warm welcome.

First Day Down, Lots More to Go

This is how we looked when I left for work this morning, and it's just about how we looked when I got home too. It was a good day. We did it!

Going Back to Work

On Tuesday I go back to work for the first time since Jett was born. I've never been away from him for more than 3 hours, and on Tuesday we will be apart for 10. I know he'll be in the loving arms of his Grandma Katie, and that makes this a little easier. But I still picture Jett missing me and me not being there to comfort him. Those of you who have done this before know how it feels. Those of you who don't know the kind of sad this is, imagine seeing a puppy get kicked. That's the kind of sad I'm talking about.

But let's dial down the sad-o-meter.

I'm keeping in mind that Charlie and I weighed the pros and cons and decided that we would both keep working - or at least give it a very determined try. Millions of women don't have that choice. I'm grateful that I do.

I also sought the advice of friends who have successfully navigated this transition, and this is what they had to say:

"Trust is not about being there all the time. Trust is about always coming back. Whether you do it now or when he's five, he will eventually have to go through this separation. That's a life lesson. You can't protect him from that lesson. And believe me, it's going to be much easier on him to do it now, than to do it when he's older."

"One of the greatest things you can do to build a child's sense of security is to let them know that there are a lot of people in this world that they can rely on."

"I think it was harder on me than on my baby. I think kids are very adaptable especially at such a young age."

"Sometimes it's really nice to talk about something other than your child (children). As much as we love them and talk about them and think about them, it's a nice break sometimes to think about and talk about something else. I think it is actually harder on us than on them."

I just hope it's all true.

Reason Number 3,412 Why We Love Jett

He sleeps in on the weekend.



If we pull him in to bed with us and let him sleep on our chest, he'll sleep for another hour or two. And he wakes up full of smiles. It's the best time of the day.

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.