I’m not sure what happened, but I have a whole stock pile of completely adorable pictures… so there are lots of them this week!

We’ve been busy. A week and a half ago, we took our last sunny boat ride of the fall. Somehow those pictures didn’t make it on here. JT enjoyed laying on the floor and watching his John Deere keys swing back and forth. He also enjoyed helping Jim drive the boat. 🙂

JT got all geared up for Saturday football with daddy last week. Unfortunately, UW is having a horrible season. Luckily Alabama is having an awesome season, and we can’t wait to watch them play Auburn in November. Maybe next week the two boys will wear Bama gear instead.

Last Sunday we went to Salmon Days in Issaquah. JT stayed awake in his stroller for most of the time. Although he couldn’t see the salmon, I told him all about it.

I got to babysit Cole Skagen on Monday, so JT had a nice play date. They would stare across their toys and “talk” to each other; it was so cute!

I’ve been doing my workout DVD at home about once a week, and this week I had JT on the floor while I exercised. I included him in my workout, and he loved it. His favorite move were Push-up Smooches. I have to admit, they almost made me forget how many I’d done.

This weekend we went to Oregon for a baby shower and had fun visiting with family. JT’s favorite part of the weekend was having his cousin John (age 5) hold his hands and make faces at him. They also got to share some pj time on the couch before bed. Too bad I didn’t get a picture… here’s one Grandma Keene took instead.

Then we went to my parents’ house for my dad’s birthday dinner. I love this picture of the three of us.

Milestones this week:

• Played with the toy on his BebePod for the first time and loved it. He can hit it and grab on.
• Laughed outloud for Grandma Cole (I’m only a little jealous).
• First trip out of Washington.
• And Largest cheeks in all of Maple Valley… see picture for proof. 🙂

This week I went back to work. I only work Thursdays and Fridays, so it’s not quite the commitment as full time. Also, JT gets to stay home, snuggled in bed, when I leave for work. He wakes up to a full day of fun with either Dad or Grandma, so it’s a pretty sweet deal. I love my job, and it was fun to drive home at the end of the day and get excited to see JT.

I think he may have attempted to laugh for the first time this week. It sure sounded like a laugh, and he was smiling, but he only did it once. He has spent a lot of time recently smiling at everything and playing with his hands. He is becoming an expert at hitting the toys that dangle in front of him on his play mat, too.

Last night I went to the Just Between Friends sale with my friend Jen. It was a zoo! We both got some great deals (clothes, toys, books), but had to wait in line for an hour and a half to pay for it all. Poor JT got pretty hungry and cranky stuck in the Bjorn, so I went and fed him while Jen held our spot in line.

On Tuesday night, JT got some quality time with his Grandpa Keene. My mother-in-law took me back-to-school shopping, and Grandpa got to babysit all by himself. He and JT took some time out to call Great-Grandma Keene and say hello (notice the wedding picture in the background – seven years ago!).

Grandpa’s self-portrait

Calling Great-Grandma Keene

This week JT has been extra hungry… that can mean a growth spurt, a big milestone, or both. It turns out, this week JT figured out that he has hands and started looking at them and using them to suck on… AND he figured out how to roll from his tummy to his back. Fortunately, both events have been caught on tape for your viewing pleasure. 🙂

We’ve also been enjoying the jogger stroller this week. I went for my first run since last November. It was hard but felt great. We also took a nice walk along Lake Washington in Coulon Park, and JT loved being able to sit up and look around.

This week JT turned two months old. He had his checkup at the pediatrician’s office and was proclaimed a healthy boy. He’s 13 pounds (75th percentile) and 24 1/4 inches long (90th percentile). He was very brave for his big shot and only screamed for a minute or so after the nurse pulled the needle out of his thigh.

JT, my mom, my grandma, and I had a nice picnic lunch at Flaming Geyser park this week. The weather has been so nice. We got a four-generation picture and even stuck JT’s toes in Green River (he wasn’t impressed with the temperature and let us know!).

Jim, JT, and I invited Jen and Asher out on the Skagen’s boat with us this week to enjoy more nice weather. Asher and JT were in high fashion with their life vests (thanks to Cole for letting Asher borrow his) and sun hats. We swam, skiied, and ate pizza on the lake. Not a bad way to spend your weekday afternoon!

Sometimes JT likes to look out the window and Jim wants to watch TV. They’ve worked out a system, and it looks like this… 🙂

My mom and mother-in-law came over on Friday to get filled in on JT’s routine and what’s what around our house in preparation for when I go back to work. They will each watch JT two days a month while I’m at work. We are so blessed to have family who are willing and able to do that!

Recently JT discovered that there is something else in our house. Let’s see… there’s the lady that feeds him, the guy that plays with him, and something else. This week JT has been closely watching this other thing. He sees it go by, all black and blurry, and then it moves in closer. JT also got to touch the black thing with his hand, and it was soft and furry. He was pretty impressed. Someday he will realize that big black furry thing is our dog, Slider.

This week while I was cleaning, JT decided that he would like to be held, not sitting in his bouncy chair. Okay, I can vacuum with one hand. Part way through the downstairs, the excitement was too much for him… by the time I sat him down to clean under the couches, this is what I had left: a little man in a big chair. 🙂

He’s turning into quite the party animal (that’s what I call this first picture below). He loves to look around, so the first Flip Clip is of JT trying out his BebePod. The second clip is of his favorite game with me, called “soft cloth on my mouth.”

We got to visit our friends Mike and Sunny and their new daughter, Hallie Kate. She is about half JT’s weight, so her parents were surprised to hold him and see what a bigger baby feels like! Also this week, I got to water ski for the first time in a year. It felt great!

As some of you may know, Jim and I absolutely love our Flip camcorder. (We both bought one for each other for Christmas so we could take videos of JT!) Of course, we’ve taken many small videos of important events in JT’s life so far: coming home from the hospital, on the beach at Banks Lake, play time, and more. I decided to start posting some short clips on the blog. I’ll call it Flip Clips. Our first clip shows JT sneezing and smiling. Don’t let him fool you; he actually has a gigantic smile that he will flash at you, and the one in the video is pretty small comparitively.

Thank goodness, we discovered that JT just needed a different type of binky. It started like this… ever since birth, JT has loved sucking on Jim’s pinky. We had tried Soothies pacifiers, and sometimes he liked it and sometimes he didn’t. I had tried my pinky, and he never wanted it (my pinky is about the same size as the Soothies). Then one day I remembered that Jim’s pinky and my thumb are almost exactly the same size. I tried my thumb instead, and he loved it. I realized that we needed a pacifier that was shaped like my thumb, not like my pinky. I went to the store and opened packages of binkys until I found one that is the same size and shape as my thumb. And he loves it! No more fussy night time… and when he’s ready for a nap, I just swaddle him, give him his binky, and he sucks himself to sleep. Very nice. I also read that children who fall asleep sucking on a binky have a lower risk for SIDS, so that’s a bonus. Mothers of the universe have hope: maybe you haven’t tried the right one yet! Sometimes we still snuggle him to sleep, of course.

This week JT has really started to show some personality. He thinks lots of things are interesting, and may gurgle or smile if he is so inclined: my hair tickling his face, a soft cloth brushed down his face, the “tickle monster,” watching the monkey toy that hangs over his changing table, holding his new rattle toy (pic below), and getting pulled up to a sitting position. Those last two are mostly because either Jim or I are making a really big deal out of his success, but he does look awfully proud of himself. Some of the pictures are fuzzy, but that’s because he’s moving so fast!

I almost forgot… he’s making sounds, too. “Muh,” “buh,” “oh,” “ah,” and “ooh” are his favorites.

First up, vital stats update: JT weighs 12 pounds and is 23 inches long. So much for all of those cute newborn-size clothes, and we ditched the infant insert in the car seat. We kept saying all week that he just seemed bigger, and sure enough, he is!

This was my 25th consecutive summer that included at least one trip to Banks Lake in eastern Washington… the eleventh for Jim, the second for Slider, and the first for JT! We were disappointed in the weather – rainy and cold – but had fun playing games and spending quality time with Grandpa and Grandma Cole in their warm trailer. We did get a little beach time, but JT stayed on the beach when Jim, Slider, and I went swimming in the 70 degree water (brr!).

In front of Grand Coulee Dam

Slider decided to spoon Jim in the tent…
she gets to sleep on the air mattress with us, and one night she rolled off 🙂

In front of “The Rock”

JT enjoying the beach from inside his sun dome

Our first Harley ride together since before I got pregnant

Morning smooches in the tent

Out to dinner at La Presa, our favorite local Mexican restaurant
(okay, the only local Mexican restaurant)

Two of our friends had babies last Saturday! Welcome to Liv Agedal and Hallie Lay. The picture below is of Liv and her dad Einar with Jim and JT. The funny thing is that Liv weighed exactly the same weight as JT when she was born and only two inches shorter, so you can really tell how much JT has grown in six weeks by this picture.

Okay, just kidding. But she does occasionally lay with her nose very close to JT and just watch him play. The other big news is that JT is starting to smile back! He has smiled at me at least once every day this week. I get a really big, cheesy grin after he’s fed and is happy to stare at me. It’s adorable, of course!

Two significant things happened today: Jim went back to work, and JT is one month old. He weighs 10 lbs 10 oz and is 22.5 inches long. That is a gain of 3 pounds since he left the hospital! We worked in a 1-month photo shoot once we got home from shopping… that’s my little boy (oops, I mean big man)!