An Event 12 Years in the Making

Twelve years ago today, I went on my first date with a cute guy from my English class named Jimmy Keene. We went to dinner at Ivar’s on the waterfront and then on to the Seattle Boat Show. We had a great time. 🙂

Last weekend, Jim and I finally bought a ski boat. It’s a 2008 Ski Nautique 206 LE. We are thrilled, to say the least! We got a screamin’ deal, since boats aren’t exactly flying off the lots right now, and it is pretty close to our dream boat. We skiied behind it last weekend too: Jim went on Saturday during our test drive, and we both skiied on Sunday after we bought it. Having a water temperature guage on the dash telling us how nuts we were didn’t keep us from having a wonderful time. I declared it the best ski of my life, since it was behind our own boat.

Then we went to the boat show yesterday to pick up some gear, like extra ski vests for our friends to use this summer and ropes for pulling a variety of toys. We got in for free because the salesman at Pacific Nautique met us and gave us passes. We also found out that he has had four different families wanting to buy exactly what we bought… so we are very thankful that the timing worked in our favor, or we might not have the boat now, and certainly not for such a great price.

Grandma Cole watched JT while we were at the boat show. She had some fun with his crazy hair, and this is how he looked in the morning…

JT had fun shopping this week with Aly in the cart to play with. Aly is already a great big sister, so she had no problem sharing the seat with JT.

JT likes green beans, but they don’t agree with his tummy. I’m going to wait and try them mixed with something else later on. Sweet potatoes are a big hit. We’re going to try avocado tonight. Jim thinks it is very cool that JT can drink water from his sippy cup now! Jim says it makes him seem a little grown up.

Today JT went in the nursery at church for the first time. We’ve been keeping him with us in service and he has always just played and looked around and napped. Last week he started getting pretty chatty, and we decided that he could join the other kids in nursery instead of talking loudly and distracting everyone around us. He did great, of course. The nursery director told us that he was the only baby that didn’t fuss once the entire time, and that he played and looked around all by himself for quite awhile.

It snowed here Saturday night and was still snowing on Sunday morning. I started a fire when we got home from church and JT played with his blocks while I made lunch. He sat by the basket looking at it for a moment and then pulled it closer to himself to get more blocks out. Soooo cute!

Is this posting long enough for you? Last thing… this week’s Flip Clips: 1 – JT playing the piano with Mommy, and 2 – sitting playing with toys. (2 is a few weeks old but I had some technical difficulties. He is a much better sitter now!)

Six Months Old

Can you believe it? JT is already six months old. We got professional pictures taken at Kiddie Kandids, and we think they turned out pretty well. He has his check up at the pediatrician’s on Tuesday, and I can’t wait to see how big he is!

JT started eating “real foods” for his birthday. Here he is enjoying some homemade organic butternut squash puree… yum… He didn’t seem to care that he was eating something totally different than cereal. (Big shock, I know… Mr. Easygoing.) It is significantly messier, though! Tomorrow he gets to try green bean puree. We’ll see how a new color goes.

Since he is able to sit up so well, JT gets to ride in the grocery cart like a big kid now. He really loves it. Someone gave me a “Floppy Seat” to go in the cart. At first I wasn’t sure about using it. We’re not germaphobes or anything, and it seemed a little silly. Now I see the glory of the Floppy Seat. JT isn’t big enough to sit in the cart without it, and since he loves to suck on the strap, it makes me feel a little better that the strap comes from something I have washed. Plus, there is a nifty pocket for toys, shopping lists, car keys, etc. Very handy. And no, I have no problem whipping out my camera in the middle of the grocery store to capture a moment.

JT and Slider continue to be such good buds. JT has recently discovered that he can play with Slider some. He reaches out to grab her toy and they tug it back and forth a little. He’s not quite sure what to do with it when he wins… and I certainly won’t let him put it in his mouth! We have a rule that Slider always gets her toy back at the end, because it only seems fair that she has her own toys and JT has his (think dog and it makes sense).

One of the highlights of the week was having our god-daughter over for movie night. We had dinner, played, and watched a Veggie Tales movie. We had Pirate Booty for a snack during our movie, and I think Jim was more impressed with it than Aly was!

Sitting Up

Sitting up has opened up a new world for JT. He can sit and play with toys, which makes him very proud of himself. He topples over but doesn’t seem to mind at all, which is good. (Plus, I say “Oh, kaboosh!” and laugh whenever he falls, so he thinks it’s kind of funny.)

He has also started grabbing for everything that is within arms’ reach. This new skill requires more attention to detail on my part, in which I’m failing miserably. Today he grabbed my half peanut butter sandwich off the plate and had the whole side of it in his mouth before I could stop him. This is partly because I tend to carry him on one side and several other things in the other… I think that has to stop. He will pull the tablecloth at the dinner table, grab for your coffee mug, and pull small things like hooded sweatshirt drawstrings. Like all babies, he loves cell phones, remote controls, and laptops. Oooooh, cool buttons!

All good things, until you leave him in his BebePod next to a tupperware full of leftovers and catch him digging into the peas with his little hands. Too funny. He is also becoming an expert in petting Slider. He reaches when she is in his sights, and pets her nose or ear. He also grabs… thank goodness we have been preparing her since she was a puppy. This week he pulled out an entire whisker. I felt so badly and apologized to the dog several times. She didn’t seem to notice, but seriously, that’s got to hurt.

After FOUR WEEKS of snow on the ground at our house, the last little bit should disappear soon. What a crazy winter it has been so far.

JT loves to laugh. Today we took Slider to the park and he cracked up everytime she ran by us. We think he is ticklish under his arms and on his feet. Once he gets going, it is hard for him to stop, which he must get from me. (He also gets really silly right before he is going to crash hard just like I do, which is a trait that keeps us on our toes. Jim is excellent at seeing this coming and getting us both to bed before the tears start rolling!) I have a great video of this that I keep getting upload errors on when I try to post it here. I will keep trying…

…and a Happy New Year!

2009 has just begun, and we hit the ground running.

This week our god-daughter turned TWO. We just can’t believe it. She is so active and adorable and full of things to say. We got her an Alabama cheerleader outfit, and she wore it to our house to model it for us. We had some friends over for our fifth annual New Year’s brunch, and she and Jim had a great time playing the piano, running in the house, rolling a big ball down the stairs, and other various mayhem. It was so fun – we had a two year old, a ten month old, a nine month old, and a five month old. Next year will be a zoo!

My friend Jen and I have a great deal going where we book our haircuts back-to-back and watch each other’s kids during the haircut. JT and Asher had a great time hanging out together in the stroller.

JT starting having oat cereal this week, and is using his high chair now. He looks very little in the big high chair, but he loves it. It is easier to feed him because he can’t twist around in it, and he likes to bang on the tray. I also gave him a sippy cup with water, just to see what he’d do. I’d like to have him drink a little water with meals when he starts having squash and sweet potatoes in a couple of weeks. He held on right away and sucked on the spout. I tipped it back to he could suck the water out, and – voila – I have a kid who can use a sippy cup. He was surprised that the water was cold, being used to warm milk, but kept sucking on the spout to get more. Truly, he is quite happy with anything that gives out food! Of course, he seems to think his bib has food in it, the way he stuffs it in his mouth.

This week I decided that JT was finished with swaddling. He is too strong to stay in his swaddle blankets now, and he wakes himself up when he wiggles out… not to mention the fact that he can roll over in his sleep, and if he’s swaddled he can’t use his arms to roll back. I refuse to get up in the middle of the night to rewrap him anymore!

On Wednesday, I started a new nap routine: I sing a song, put him in his crib, give him a blanket, kiss his cheek, and do the sign for “sleep. ” Then I walk out. Period. I don’t come back in until nap time is over (which is after he has slept for an hour or more!). There was A LOT of crying on Wednesday. On Thursday, he didn’t cry at all for his morning nap and only cried for a few minutes for his afternoon nap. He woke up mid-nap and cried for a long time, but I was strong. Friday he didn’t cry for either nap, and when he woke up mid-afternoon-nap, he cried for less than 15 minutes and went back to sleep. I am soooo excited. All the stress of listening to him cry for a couple of days is worth having a kid who will sleep on his own. Here’s a picture of him how he fell asleep yesterday… all by himself!

A very merry Christmas…

We had two more Christmas celebrations last week: one at the Coles’ and one at the Keenes’. Lucky JT – he has so many people who love him!

Here we are having a yummy prime rib dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Cole.

JT got to open presents with Grandpa Cole. One of his favorite things is a new book with animals that are furry.

JT was so excited after all the action that he fell asleep on me just minutes before his evening meal time. He was so snuggly, I couldn’t help but let him doze for a little while.

At the Keenes’, we got all dressed up in our Bama gear after a fabulous ham dinner and took a picture in front of the tree. JT got to see his Great-Grandma Hall while we were there, too.

Grandpa Keene helped JT open his presents (what is it with Grandpas and presents?). My favorite gift were the alphabet blocks from Aunt Jennifer, just because they are so educational. 🙂 JT’s favorite is quite possibly the animal train. He got to test it out with Grandma Keene.

Merry Christmas!

Merry, snowy Christmas to you! We have had snow of some kind for two weeks now, and it hasn’t stopped snowing all day today.

This morning we opened presents, talked to family on the phone, and had a nice breakfast before Jim went to work. JT loved the tissue paper that came with his present. It made a crinkly sound. He was especially adorable in his Christmas pajamas, which I brought for him a year ago!

Here’s a photo tour of our morning.

Coming downstairs to see the tree and stockings

JT and his stocking – also my favorite picture
p.s. look who can sit by himself now!

Talking to my brother on the phone

JT plays with his new tool box toy (thanks, Skagens!) while Jim and I eat breakfast

Opening presents… JT goes for his tissue paper!

JT opening his first present

All done… so tired!

Flip Clip: JT opening his first present, of course!

Winter Wonderland

It is so unusual in western Washington that we have enough cold weather to make snow that it is a very big deal when it happens. To have snow for days in a row is completely rare, and hasn’t happened since 1990 (according to the news). Although we don’t have a lot in Maple Valley, what we do have has been here since last Friday. More north, people are reporting 8 inches +. The power has gone out, too.

Slider, JT, and I finally got out of the house and took a walk in the snow today. Earlier in the week we were fairly housebound, since the temperature outside was in the teens. I didn’t think it was a good idea to expose my child to such elements. 🙂

This week JT turned 5 months old. At his immunization appointment, he weighed 15 lbs 4 oz and was 27 inches long. He is working on sitting up by himself. It is tough work, but he manages to stay up for a moment or two before toppling over. The good news is that he doesn’t seem to mind toppling over and then we try it again. He is also working on moving around more on his tummy.

Today school was cancelled, so I stayed home and made peanut brittle and peanut clusters. Last night my mom and I decorated Christmas cookies. It’s a regular sugar fest around here. My poor mom left my house at noon today in the snow (she was on call as babysitter in case I had to go to work this morning) and it took her almost four hours to get home… that’s four times longer than usual. Yuck!

Last weekend, JT got to take a shower with Jim. We’ve been wanting to do that for awhile. As you can see, they had a great time. The best part was JT after the shower. What a ham!

Swim Lessons!

The most exciting this this week is pretty obvious (especially since it’s my title). JT finally started swim lessons at KinderSwimmer! They are Wednesday mornings, and Jim got permission to go into work one hour late so he could be there. He and JT had the best time! The instructor said “He’s a natural!” and all the other parents were pretty impressed that JT didn’t mind putting his face under water. We can’t wait for next Wednesday to come so we can go again.

Since I am a big nerd, I made a little video of the whole event.

In other news, JT has figured out his feet. He plays with them and tries to get them in his mouth. He has been very vocal lately, and I love hearing him awake in his room after his nap, just talking away to himself. It is a pretty great way to start the day, too. This is what I found when I came in his room one morning this week.

We have started using sign language with JT. I bought a book called Sign Babies and got some flashcards to help us all remember the signs. We are beginning with just ten: eat, more, milk, all done, change, clothes, book, bath, and up. Soon he will be able to sign something back, which will be a blog-worthy occasion for sure.

We are officially ready for Christmas. JT and Slider helped me wrap presents this week.

JT goes grocery shopping with me every Monday. Now that Costco and Fred Meyer are right next door to each other, we get everything done in record time. JT loves to hang out in the Bjorn carrier and look around while we shop. He gets LOTS of smiles from the employees and other people in the stores. Usually he falls asleep on me by the end of the time, but he’s so much happier this way than when he’s stuck in his car seat.

JT’s BDF

Yes, that’s right, JT’s best dog friend. JT has been reaching for Slider lately and has been successful some of the time. For instance, last night Slider calmly sat by the exersaucer while JT tried to get her ear into his mouth… ew. (I think he would have succeeded had I not intervened, armed with baby wipes to clean the fur off his hands.)

I was working on a project today while JT played on the floor. Honest, I didn’t set this up. Slider came in and laid down near JT, as usual. So I grabbed the Flip and got this action on video. I’m not sure you’ll agree with me on this, but I think they’re buds. 🙂