Cold Weather Happiness

I’m so glad the summer is over.  It’s really my least favorite time of year, and I’m pretty sure Jack agrees.  Today we debuted the bear suit and took a nice long wintry walk.  You can see how much he enjoys the fresh air….

baby in a bear suit

As usual it has been some time since my last post, and in the last month or so Jack has become mister personality.  He has good moods and cranky ones, he talks to the kitties when they caterwaul around the house, he likes to roll around and play by himself, and he loves variations of hide and seek.  Chris has this game of running around the bed, popping up here and there shouting boo! that always gets belly laughs.  He’s also right on the verge of crawling– he can get up on hands and knees and rock but still does the roll and the army crawl to get around the floor.  We need to baby proof.  Unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot we can do about the kitty puke and animal hair that lovingly carpets the living room.

Last weekend we got our Christmas tree; Jack picked it out…

oh christmas tree

He LOVES the tree lights and gets really excited when I sing ‘Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree, How Lovely Are Your Branches To Me.’  Ah, the holidays. I love them.

One last piece of news, Jack’s first word is ma ma ma ma ma !  That is, if you don’t count huguh or eeaaa.  Merry Christmas everyone!

Casting our ballots….

Jack joined us at the polls on election day as we Baracked the vote. And he awoke this morning with a smile on his face! We couldn’t have asked for a better anniversary present than Obama as President! Elect! Here is Jack on a historical day…..

the BIG day

future voter

We spent our first Halloween in Columbia and had a great time hanging with Poppi and Tinka and cousins Gayle and Frances, Gayle and John, and Kate and John (now you understand why we decided to go with Jack instead of John). Jack was a jack-o-lantern for about 5 minutes (as soon as I get photos from Mom, I’ll post them).

In other news, I *think* things may be improving on the sleep front. He’s able to stretch the night feeding until 2-3am and is beginning to sleep more soundly from 3am until 6 or 6:30, when our day begins. Some nights, though, he is just restless and will stir and fuss every couple of hours.  It’s these nights that make me want to quit my job and learn to meditate.  I just have to keep reminding myself that he is only 6 months old and things will improve.  But when I can’t take it anymore, I go to Ask Moxie, which always makes me feel better.

More soon!  Love to all!

Pears pears the musical fruit…

Jack and I went to see the pediatrician last week because he hasn’t been terribly regular lately (sorry) and has seemed a bit uncomfortable, not to mention, well, gassy (apologies).  She gave us a 3-pronged plan of attack:  probiotics, laxative, fruit.  I decided that fruit seemed the most sensible of the three options, so just shy of 6 months we’ve started Jack on the solids.  Grandmamma Luken can attest to how well they are working.  We started with pears (see exciting video below) and yesterday I whipped up some sweet potatoes in the Baby Beaba, which Jack loved, too.  Food is fun!  Of course he still wakes up at all hours, alas….

Ode to the yellow spot

I’m not exactly sure if Jack is seeing 20/20 yet but his vision has certainly sharpened, and this new clear view of the world spells the demise of the happy yellow spot.  This patch of peeling paint underneath the kitchen cabinet next to Jack’s bouncy seat was a smiling friend to the blurry-eyed babe while Mom and Dad shuffled around trying to make coffee and eat.  Here’s the one picture we got of Jack checking out his little pal…

little friend

The blog must go on…..

I am a terrible blogger already. I’ve been writing posts in my head but haven’t found the time to update the real thing. Part of the problem is that our home computing situation is very sad right now with our slow and crappy laptops, and now that I am working shorter days I have less time to do recreational things on the job. Still, I will try to be more attentive to Jack Jack Goose since the cuteness never stops and must be shared!

Jack turned 5 months old on Wednesday, so to honor that here are 5 things I think you should know:

1. Yawning or panting like a dog never fails to make him smile
2. He loves red, chewing on book corners, rolling around on a blanket outside, staring at the radio
3. He does not love the carseat, and sometimes Grandpa Luken’s booming voice is really scary
4. Watching mom and dad drink water, fascinating
5. When he’s gone too long without sleep he looks like this-
   

   Need Sleep

Also, we’ve been sitting on a stack of baby announcements that our friend Kate designed as a shower gift.

Jack's Baby Announcement

Pretty cute, huh?  Ferdinand is one of our favorite books.  Someday you’ll get one of these in the mail, I promise.  I just haven’t yet figured out how to get things done in a timely manner.  I do think as Jack gets older and learns to entertain himself more, I won’t feel so bad trying to take care of stuff while he’s awake.

I’m getting really excited about Fall weather and Halloween and holiday breaks.  I want to dress up Jack for the trick-or-treaters, but I refuse to spend $40 on these newfangled baby costumes (organic banana!, hamburger & french fries!)  that you see at Pottery Barn Kids and the like.  Please send suggestions!

Good News for Emily

After 4 months of interrupted sleep, the crazies really caught up with me this week, making it a difficult few days around the Luken household (for one, I’ve been unnaturally obsessed with getting Jack–a wee 18 weeks old–on a schedule; talk about an exercise in futility).  On the bright side, however, I finally worked up the courage (or just got desperate enough) to ask my boss if I could cut back my hours for a few months.  So now I’ll  be going in from 9-3 instead of that life-draining 7:30-4:30…. hallelujah!  I’m thinking that the days of me looking weathered and drained, as exhibited in this scary picture, are now behind us.

scary mom

Jack is fully giggling now.  And this week he started flipping himself from back to tummy. He reminds me of one of those paper fish when he does it.  Pictures of this are forthcoming!

Jack = Chris

Is he appalled? Disapproving? Is he practicing his come hither look? I can’t put my finger on it. Kudos to anyone who can better describe this expression. Also, you may be able to see here how Jack’s eyes are taking on sort of a murky, brownish tint. Yes, he’s gonna have his Dad’s brown eyes. Yet another sign that over those nine months I recreated Chris Luken.

We’ve finally put more pictures on Flickr, but most are from several weeks ago. We’ve been using our film cameras more and more, which adds another step to getting the photos online. Hopefully I can get to it this week, because there are some great ones to share.

Jack attacks the blog world!

We’ve decided to chronicle life with Jack through a handy dandy weblog.  I am fully aware that we are WAY overdue in getting an update to everyone (so sorry), and this seems like the easiest way keep you positively saturated with news of Jack.  As soon as I can get to a Staple’s I’m going to purchase one of those flip cams, and then not only will we have photographic excitement, we will have actual live baby footage!

As an aside, I’m spending my Sunday before Labor Day at work manning chat Reference  from my cube–poor me!  Anyway, we thought it might be fun to bring Jack in to the SLC to see where Mom works and to keep her company (probably not something the boss would look kindly upon).   Wouldn’t you know, after 4 months of narrowly escaping being pooped on, little Jack blew right through his onesie onto my lap.  And Chris forgot the diaper bag.  And I don’t keep spare pants at work, joy!