Jackson in Action

Snagged a few videos of Jackson doing some cute stuff over the weekend and thought you'd enjoy seeing the little man in action.

Laughing

More Laughing

Sitting + Eating Books

More Sitting + Playing

Remembering Sara

Last month, Sara Cottrell, an amazing co-worker of mine, lost her 13-month battle with colon cancer and today, her friends, family and co-workers met up at the Kirkland Performance Center to celebrate her life.  It was a beautiful service and there was not a dry eye in the house after the many stories that were shared. 

While I had the opportunity to get to know her through work, it was great to hear the stories of her close friends and families and get to know the other side of Sara that I didn't have the opportunity to experience.  In addition to the stories that were shared, there were several wonderful slide shows that had us all laughing and crying some more. 

Sara was truly a wonderful person and was one of the most cheerful, fun, hilarious, and quirky people I know.  She was full of smiles and had such a quick wit.  She remained extremely positive and optimistic throughout her cancer battle, as can be seen on her blog (be sure to start from the beginning - you will laugh, cry and truly feel as though you know her, I promise).  If, after reading her blog, you're still interested hearing more about Sara, check out this blog post one of her friends wrote shortly after she passed away.

I am honored to have known her - my life is better because of Sara.

Here are a few photos of Sara from work --- she made it so much more fun and exciting. 

Nothing says "Happy Friday" like a snowflake headband and a fake bird on your shoulder.

Sara doing her impression of Michael Jackson as a way to honor him shortly after his death.

5 Months

J man is five months old today!  Again, I can't believe how quickly times passes or how many new things he learns and is able to do as each month passes.  And because he's so big, several of the teachers at his daycare thought he was already 5 months when he started.

Here are a few of the things that are big in J's world at five months old:

• Still absolutely loves to stand and can do it with less and less support and for longer periods of time.
• Can sit for a minute or so at a time without any support (but still falls over very quickly out of no where, as he proved last night when he did a face plant --- oops).
• Loves to try to sit up anytime he's laying down --- changing a diaper, pulling up on his rings on his Einstein mat, etc --- I can't tell if he's working on a six-pack or if he's just trying to get a better look at things.
• Continues to sleep really well all night.
• Has taken some longer naps at daycare in the last couple weeks - several 1.5 hour naps and even two 2.5 hour naps!
• Isn't too interested in food --- he'll eat it but definitely doesn't love it.
• Can stay up longer and longer between naps --- he typically goes between 2-2.5 hours, but can last around three hours or so if we push him.
• Is still drinking 7-9 oz. per bottle (he has five per day, which explains why Corey likes to say he drinks a Forty every day).
• Loves to touch and grab anything that comes near him including faces, my hair, necklaces, blankets, Roxy --- my favorite is when he gently cups my face in his hand while smiling at me, making my heart melt...until his gentle touch turns into a firm grip / claw.
• Is very vocal and loves to "chat", especially in the morning.
• Is so very happy when we wake him up in the morning, greeting us with a huge smile, excited arms and legs and lots of stretching after we get him out of his swaddle.
• Loves his Exercauser and easily entertain himself in it for 15-20 minutes.
• Is back to sleeping with one arm in his swaddle since he doesn't sleep to fall asleep or stay asleep as easy when both hands are rubbing his face and eyes.

All Night Long

I am (super) happy to report that Jackson's recent overnight sleep issues have greatly improved over the last few weeks.  I'm not going to say 'he's sleeping through the night' or else I know I'll jinx it...but I will say that since the day he started daycare two weeks ago, he's slept all night (8/8:30 until 6:30 when I wake him up to get him ready for the day) except for two or three nights (which, oddly enough, were weekend nights --- apparently daycare tires him out more than we do!).  And even the few nights he didn't sleep through the night, he still made it until around 4 or 4:30 before waking up and needing a little TLC from us to go back to sleep. In addition, he hasn't needed to be fed overnight at all since daycare started! 

That is HUGE progress considering we spent about four weeks getting up anywhere from 2-4 times / night to help him get back to sleep and to feed him.  It was especially hard for us since leading up to these sleepless nights, Jackson had been a great overnight sleeper, only waking to eat once and would go right back to sleep or, in the few weeks leading up to the issues, he slept all the way through the night on several occasions.  We were definitely spoiled there for a bit, so suddenly not getting much sleep, especially when we were both trying to function at work, was horrible!

Fingers crossed for more full-nights of sleep in the weeks and months ahead!

Our little sleepyhead is a total morning guy --- he is the happiest and chattiest first thing in the morning as seen here in his elephant PJs.  (BTW, this precious face is cute, but I'm not gonna lie - I think it's even cuter when we don't see it multiple times in the middle of the night!)

A Day in the Life

My friend Natalie got the great idea of posting her typical daily schedule on her blog from one of the blogs she follows --- and I thought it was a fun idea and decided to do it myself.

5:55 a.m. - alarm goes off; I check my work email, Gmail, Facebook and Twitter
6 a.m. - jump out of bed and into the shower
6:10 a.m. - get ready
6:20 a.m. - make coffee, feed Roxy
6:30 a.m. - wake Jackson, change his diaper and get him dressed for the day
6:40 a.m. - play with Jackson, get dressed and blow-dry my hair
7 a.m. - hand J over to Corey (after he returns from walking Roxy) for his first bottle of the day and head to work
7:35 a.m. - arrive at work (Manager of Sales Ops at T-Mobile); drink coffee and eat a breakfast bar
8 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. - write / answer emails, attend various meetings, update project trackers / documents
12:30 p.m. - eat lunch while continuing to work
1 p.m. - continue emails, meetings, etc
4/4:10 p.m. - jump in the car and head to daycare
4:30 p.m. - arrive at daycare to pick up a smiley, happy boy
5 p.m. - get home
5:10 p.m. - put J in the stroller (for a final nap of the day) and take Roxy for a walk
5:30 p.m. - get home, wash bottles and get J's diaper bag packed back up for the next day while he continues his snooze in his stroller
5:45 p.m. - make / heat-up dinner
6:30 p.m. - eat dinner and discuss our days; feed Jackson a snack (sweet potatoes, carrots, etc)
7 p.m. - family play time with J
7:45 p.m. - bath time for J
8 p.m. - feed J, read a book(s) and put him down for the night
8:30 p.m. - relax on the couch or in bed while catching up on TV, Facebook, blogs, email
10/10:15 p.m. - lights out and asleep before head hits the pillow

---End of day if we're lucky like the last two nights; otherwise, Jackson beckons us into his room for party time 2, 3, or 4 times throughout the night (usually 12, 2 and 4 a.m.)---

Daycare Day #1 Recap

I am happy to report that Jackson had a great first day at daycare - whew! 

Jackson handled drop off better than his mommy, who cried on the way to work.  I can't even imagine how sad I would have been and how much harder it would have been had it been my first day back to work today, and thus my first day away from him.  I'm definitely glad I was able to ease back into this whole working mommy thing with him staying at home with family the first four weeks.

When we arrived this morning, J smiled and looked around for awhile before we left him.  As we were closing the door behind us, we heard a baby cry.  We quickly looked in the window to see if it was J, but it wasn't him - he was just grinning at some of the babies.

It was hard to focus on work today, so I'm glad it wasn't too busy.  All day I kept wondeirng what he was doing at that moment and whether he was being a good boy.  Around lunchtime, I emailed the program director to check in and an hour later she wrote back saying he was doing great, had taken some short naps (surprise,surprise) and that he'd been eating well.  Even though that put me at ease, I was so excited to see him that I snuck out of work a bit early and rushed over to pick him up and hear about his day.

Every day, we'll get a form that says when he ate, slept, had his diaper changed, what activities he did, and how his mood was.  Today he had Spanish, music, story time, and went on a walk between his four naps and they considered him "happy", "vocal" and "playful".

When we got home, I definitely noticed the vocalness --- he had some loud (happy) shrieks while playing this evening.  And he was very happy and full of smiles.  He devoured his sweet potato snack while making 'mmmm' sounds and quickly opening his mouth again every time I put the spoon back near his mouth.

I'm so glad today went well and that J seemed to enjoy daycare - it'll make the coming days a little bit easier.

First Day of "School"

 

Tomorrow is a big day --- Jackson starts "school"! Tomorrow morning, Corey and I will pack J up and take him to Young Child Academy for his first day of daycare.

We are so thankful to my dad and C's mom for taking care of J for the past three weeks --- I was able to ease back into work much easier knowing that J was having fun with family --- but I am really hoping he enjoys daycare. I think it'll be great for him from a socialization perspective and with activities like Spanish, sign language, art, sensory time, etc, he'll be exposed to so many new, fun things.

Today I gathered together all the things on the infant classroom list --- extra clothes, diapers, sheets, blankets, burp clothes, etc --- and it looks like he's ready to move in! I also wrote up some instructions regarding his eating and napping but formatted it as a letter from Jackson to his teachers to make it a little more fun vs. an instructional document (thanks for the idea, Stephanie!), so that his teachers have an idea of what works well and what J likes.

Normally Corey will do the drop-offs and I'll do the pick-ups, but we'll both drop him off tomorrow.  I'm sure it'll be hard to leave him the first time (or, let's be honest, the first week or more!), but I'm glad C and I will be there together and I know J will be in good hands.  Regardless though, I can't help but look forward to tomorrow's pick-up so I can see how his first day went!

Gettin' His Grub On

Earlier this week, Jackson tried real food (brown rice cereal) for the very first time...

...and wasn't a huge fan. (Please excuse the hair; we were trying out an alternative style, but clearly it wasn't working as he looked like Donald Trump.)

After a few rounds of the rice cereal, we decided to sweeten things up with some sweet potatoes...

...which he liked much better.  Not only did he seem to enjoy the experience, he actually swallowed what was in his mouth and ultimately ended up eating a decent amount, with more ending up in his tummy than on his face and bib, like last time.

Looking forward to continuing to introduce J to more new foods in the coming weeks!

Happy 35th, Hubby!

Today is Corey's 35th birthday, which he spent hanging out with Jackson since his office was closed for the long weekend. 

With it being a big milestone birthday, I had been pestering him for awhile about how he wanted to celebrate.  He didn't want a big party or anything like that, but he finally decided that he'd like to go to a nice dinner at Canlis, which I was more than okay with.  Neither of us had ever been but had heard great things and it definitely didn't disappoint.  We left the babe with Joan (thanks again!) and met the Reeders there and enjoyed a fantastic view of Lake Union, a delish dinner, yummy drinks and quite the show at the end with the diablo coffee (think table side fire show), which my co-worker highly recommended.  The night was amazing, as was the service.  We both look forward to going back again in the future for another special occasion.

Happy birthday, C - I hope you had the best birthday yet and that you thoroughly enjoyed your first birthday as a (truly amazing) daddy!  We love you!