8 Months Old

Jack turned 8 months old today. Jen and I are sort of beside ourselves thinking that eight months have already passed with him in our lives.

A new member of Jack's crew

We are astonished at how Jack already has a large circle of friends. Yes, a sociologist would explain this phenomenon very quickly by saying, "As his parents, you have friends who are roughly your age, so it stands to reason you're all going to have kids around the same time." Still, it's like a baby explosion around here, and Jack has a lot of company.

The new kid on the block is Audrey (Jen is holding her in the pic below). Audrey and I share a birthday! Her parents, Kurt and Courtney, are getting used to life without sleep.

Jack has seen Ellie a few times this month and also got to hang out with his best buddy, Alexander. It's kind of funny that we have so few pictures of Sonja, the girl-next-door and half of our nanny-share. I guess because Jen and I are always flying out the door to get to work, the camera doesn't get pulled out. Fortunately, we captured these two in a few photos. Check the February album (still a work in progress) to her and the other little ones.

February Follies

Watching Jack's friend group grow makes me think of the things our cohort of friends have done together over the years:

• In the beginning, we got together to eat pizza on Thursday nights and watch "Must See TV" on NBC. We loved our dingy DC apartments with window air conditioning units and hosted fabulous parties with themes.
• Then we talked about trying to get promotions at work and complained about how we couldn't afford to buy a house in DC. We went to hip bars and refused to drink cheap rail drinks or light beer.
• We bought houses (in Virginia, or somewhere else entirely) and started nesting (er, renovating). We talked about the virtues of Home Depot versus Lowes and marveled at how it was impossible to get out of a Target without spending at least a hundred dollars.
• Finally, we decided we were ready to start families. We saw other young couples with babies strolling about and thought they looked adorable. We took our "big vacation" to a foreign country and then came home to get started.

And now we swap stories about baby's "firsts" and fret over eating and sleeping habits and growth percentiles. We celebrate each new birth and watch Jack's circle of friends grow.

Time to Read

Jack is a voracious reader. He enjoys fiction, mostly, but also keeps tabs on current events by reading the Washington Post. His guilty pleasure is reading the Style section front-to-back because he enjoys the snarky, too-cool-for-school attitude of the writers.

During the day, Jack asks his mom and dad to read him books like "Sheep in a Jeep" and "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish." At night, Jack likes to settle into some sleepy-time books like "Goodnight Moon" and "The Going to Bed Book."

On the boats and on the planes

So the entire household came down with some nasty virus. I caught it first and had a feverish Monday night after struggling through work during the day and class that evening. On Tuesday, Jen was feeling it and Jack had a pretty rough day, too. Tuesday night, Jack came down with the fever.

There's nothing worse than when your helpless little baby-- who depends on you for everything-- gets sick. Jack's recent ear infection came with a low-grade fever, but this was something new. On Wednesday morning, we spoke with the pediatrician's office and learned that his fever-- ranging from 101 to 103-- was considered "beneficial," meaning his body was fighting the virus. North of 104 and you've got a problem. (The threshold for babies is higher than adults.)

Well, since the whole family was sick, Jen and I were able to stay home and take care of our ailing child. It was a sad day, filled with short naps and fussiness.

Jack is generally a happy, go-lucky kid. But when he was working through his fever, he was completely out of it-- glassy-eyed and lacking his usual spark. There are a few things that you can do to easily get a smile out of the boy, but none of them were working (not even the hippo counting story!)

Last night, I found one thing that cut through the fever and got Jack laughing and smiling. And that thing is our national treasure, Neil Diamond. I put my forlorn little baby in the swing to try to distract him and, for some reason (I blame the cold meds I was on), "America" came to mind. Complete with triumphant finger-pointing ("Today!") and other signature-Neil drama, my hoarse singing sent Jack into gales of laughter.

Jack stayed hydrated, and with momma nursing him through the night, broke his fever to wake up a new baby-- smiling and happy again. The moral of the story? Everyone should know about the healing power of Neil Diamond.

Core Strength

Well, we're still not sleeping through the night, but at least we get to enjoy Jack's daytime antics. He started babbling again after a 10-day quiet period and he's getting a lot better at tummy time. Enjoy this short video of our bouncing baby boy.

January Stars

January Stars

You may have already noticed there was a photo album building behind the pictures in previous posts. Since there wasn't a big holiday or event in January, I just kept loading new pics into the same album. Click the picture above to see them all.

We're making our way through Jack's first ear infection, and it hasn't been pretty. Sleep has been a precious commodity and the little guy is difficult to console in the middle of the night when he's tired and uncomfortable. We have a follow-up appointment scheduled on Tuesday to see how the antibiotic did. Based on the way he shakes his head, we think the ear infection traveled from his left ear to his right, but the doc will tell us for sure. Sadly, I have passed this trait onto my son, as I was prone to ear infections as a kid. Hopefully, he doesn't have too much trouble.

On a brighter note, Jack is now a champion sitter and a happy kid during the day. His smile still lights up the room, and as he gets bigger, he shows obvious delight interacting with anyone who plays with him. Over the weekend, he positively lit up when Aunt Niki joined us at a restaurant in Del Ray for lunch. I'll add those pictures to a new February album soon.

Jack on the Run

(Title sung to the tune of "Band on the Run" by Wings.)

Jack's longest naps take place in the blissful, gently-rocking world of his stroller. The weather shield keeps the cold air off his face and is properly vented. Under this protective canopy, he is properly bundled for cold weather. Thanks to the cozy confines and steady motion, he settles in for as long as I'm willing to stay out there.

Unfortunately, my running really fell off the map last year. The longest run I did was a 10K, and I wouldn't exactly call it a record pace.

Jack is my motivation to run this year, although I know it will be a challenge. In addition to work, I am in my final semester of classes for my MBA. Busy times.

Still, between Jack's happy naps and my need to get in some semblance of shape, I see a nice ramp-up in mileage this summer. Who knows-- with Jack's help, I might be ready for the Parks Half Marathon. And then in 2009... my 2nd full marathon? You've gotta have goals!

7 months old

It's tough getting older, and Jack has been a bit grumpy about it lately. He's been suffering through his first ear infection. Although Jack is still a happy camper for the balance of the day, nighttime is a bit harder for the little guy. We will nurse him through this and get ourselves through more sleep-challenged nights.

I've got some photos to toss into an album later, but in the meantime, enjoy this short video from this evening. It features Jack's favorite new thing to do-- blow raspberries!

Hippos Go Berserk!

Jen and I both had a 3-day weekend thanks to the MLK holiday. I wish I could say we enjoyed it a little more. Our young prince had been making great progress on his nighttime sleep-- with at least a half-dozen nights of 8-9 hours in the sack-- but the past few nights have felt like Jack is a newborn all over again.

We consulted with friends and family who say all the right things, (e.g. "You're not bad parents," or "Don't jump off a cliff,") but we know that ultimately we have to just work hard to help our little guy establish good sleep habits. It's tough now because Jack entered the teething stage. Or at least the crazy-drooling stage.

On a happier topic, Jack's favorite book-- and I can't emphasize favorite enough-- is "Hippos Go Berserk!" Jack smiles at the mere recitation of it (you don't even need the book in hand) and often will give a funny little chuckle upon hearing the final line of the story.

What's especially funny about this is that when he hears the hippo story, he kind of hates other books. You can't go from the hippos to Dr. Seuss or he flips out. Maybe you can transition to something like "Good Night Moon," but don't launch into "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" when the boy is yelling for his hippos!

Cupie Doll, Corkscrew and Mister Man

At some point, I expect we will finally accept Jack's constant state of change as the simple reality of life, but in the meantime, we are regularly surprised and impressed by our little guy. As you know, Jen's "Cupie," as she endearingly refers to Jack, turned on the social charm just in time for Christmas. Lately, he's been working on bursts of babbling. This is entertaining stuff, especially when he slows down long enough to throw a "Ma Ma" out there with just enough of a pause to melt Jen's heart.

My "Corkscrew" has always preferred facing out when he is carried, but now that he's becoming aware of his limbs, he actively pushes and twists his way around rather than simply fussing about being held inward.

This past Sunday was a social day for "Mister Man" (another popular nickname). Josh and Jenn brought Austin in for breakfast down at Mancini's-- a lovely walk to and fro and great grub. Austin and Jack hadn't seen each other since December, but they picked it up just like old times. You know, old times-- like when they were 5 months old.

That same evening, neighbors Jeff & Kathleen brought Ellie over for dinner. Another 6 month old, Ellie is already very athletic and is rocking back-and-forth on her hands and knees. Meanwhile, Jack showed off his block-building skills. (Dad helped a little.)

We're lucky to have so many friends with young ones. It gives us the chance to commisserate about the challenges of parenthood and celebrate the small triumphs that, quite frankly, would bore the socks off anybody who wasn't in "new parent" mode.