First Night Away

Brian & I had our first overnight away from our little buddy this past weekend.  One of Brian's fraternity brothers from RPI was getting married in Buffalo so off we went!  When we found out about this wedding last year, before Jack was born, we figured we would just bring Jack with us and bring along Nana & Grandpa to babysit and make a long weekend trip out of it...  Then we realized how many logistical challenges come along with a 5 month old nursing baby and attempting to bring that baby on a 4-5 hour drive and stay in a hotel.  Our next idea was to leave Jack with Grammy & PopPop for 2 nights so Brian & I could have a mini getaway.  Then I realized that 2 nights away would be a long time for me to go without seeing my little man :( not to mention that it would have entailed pumping about 13 times over the course of the 2.5 days away.  So it was down to driving to Buffalo Saturday morning and driving home Sunday morning.  :-P  Jack did great for Grammy & PopPop, they said he was absolutely perfect all weekend and they sent regular/frequent text messages with photos & updates throughout the day/night which made me very happy :)  We took Monday off to catch up on the lost time with Jack and it was a great day!  Jack slept in until 6:15 (woohoo!) and then we all snuggled in bed (even Buster!) where Jack proceeded to fall back asleep for his morning nap.  His morning nap usually lasts about 45mins-1hour...but yesterday Jack napped in our bed for 1hr 45mins when I finally got him up so he could eat again!!  Apparently he likes our bed?!  We had since gotten up and gone downstairs to start our day...neither of us is accustomed to actually staying in bed past 6am these days, nevermind laying in bed until 9am!! 

To say we enjoyed our day off with our little man is an understatement...

5 Months Old!

Overall "stats" for our handsome man seemed to have stayed pretty much the same since Jack's 4 month checkup...I got on the scale with him this morning and that showed him at ~15.5lbs and measuring his length, he seemed to be the same at 26.5".  He's getting better at smiling for the camera, meaning he doesn't just have a blank stare as soon as the black object is in front of his face :) 


Current happenings:
Jack is still eating 6 times a day, the exact timing depends on when he wakes up & his naps.  He still sleeps from about 9pm - 6:30am (except on the weekends where he consistently wakes up at 5:15am)
He will still allow us to go out to restaurants where he cooperates nicely & looks around at all of the new surroundings & action.  We'll always put him in cute outfits before our family date nights but more often than not, he doesn't leave his seat!  (Luckily for now :))
He rolled over this past weekend from belly to back:

 He also enjoyed his exersaucer for the first time this past weekend:

We consider ourselves pretty lucky with this little guy...he is still sleeping through the night, hasn't yet had his first fever and is overall a very happy & easy going baby. We love hearing that precious giggle and will do pretty much anything it takes to provoke it...including silly dance moves (Mommy only for this one), songs, funny faces, noises. The cliche saying of "time flies" has never felt more real until watching your first born grow. He hasn't become mobile to the point where snuggling is a thing of the past YET. I love holding him at the end of every day, feeling his perfect little breath on my neck and his little chubby hands on my shoulders. Our worlds totally revolve around this little guy in every way, logistically but certainly emotionally & spiritually as well. We are smitten.

First Call From School...



Well, we had Jack's first call from school today - I saw the number on my phone and my heartrate sped up a bit... Miss Nora wanted to let us know that Jack had a little bit of a rash on his belly and arms. She told me not to worry, he was still smiling away, eating and acting like himself. I had changed him just before bringing him in at 7:30am and she called me at 9:30am, so that rash worked quickly! I called the doctor who suggested I bring him in just to be sure. Jack was smiling away in the waiting room...

When we went in to the exam room and got him undressed he started to get a little more concerned about where he was & why!  (Plus it was nap time and he was over tired.)  The nurse weighed him in at 15lbs 7oz (an increase of 7oz from just about 2 weeks ago!)  His temperature was normal, no fever and everything else seemed fine, so we waited for the doctor...

His rash didn't have any raised bumps, but looked worrisome enough... the doctor tried looking in his mouth various times but Jack was having none of that.  He was a happy easy going boy until she put that tongue depressor in his mouth, then he became all business with a super serious face telling her - no way are you shining that light in my mouth.  Eventually the doctor and I were able to hold his arms aside, pry open his mouth and revealed that his throat was a little red.  She said it was likely a viral infection/rash and nothing we could do but let it work its way out of his body.    He was cleared to go back to school and Mommy was cleared to go back to work and not worry too much (though we always worry).  I called school to check on him a few hours later and they said he was doing great, napped, ate, played - his usual day.  He was happy as could be when I picked him up and the rash seems to have disappeared on most places.  Hopefully we don't get another call from school for a long time :)  Neither Daddy nor I like hearing that something out of the norm is going on with our little man...

A Ladies' Man

We've begun to realize that Jack has a thing for pretty blonde women.   There is one teacher at daycare that he seems to pay particular attention to...her name is Annalise.  Whenever she is in the room, Jack STARES at her with a big grin on his face and when she makes eye contact with him, I swear he raises his eyebrows to her.  I told her that Jack might think she is his girlfriend, Jack then celebrated a small victory when she replied to my statement with "Awww, well I'd love to be his girlfriend!"  During his most recent doctor's appointment he was none too pleased with the nurse that took his measurements and he let her know it.  However, when the blonde doctor walked in the room and poked/prodded him way more than the nurse did, he just batted his eyes, coo'd and smiled at her.  This past weekend we went out to lunch & had an attractive blonde waitress - he immediately made eye contact with her and gave an all-out smile.  It seems that we have a little bit of a Ladies' man on our hands...