Five months!

Jack is five months today! He changes so much and so quickly, but there are a few personality traits that has stuck with our little one.

He's focused: Jack decides what he feels like doing and focuses on that. When he was a baby he loved looking at our vintage travel posters in our rooms. If you were holding him and you turned around, he would often strain his neck just so he could keep looking at the same picture. He's still that way now focusing o
n one toy or task at a time and you won't have any luck distracting him with another bright, shiny object.

He loves his daddy's voice: From the very beginning his daddy's voice always makes him turn his head. If mommy is holding him and daddy starts talking Jack often turns his head towards his voice and smiles.

He loves hanging out mommy and daddy together: Just like all parents we are juggling many different things so often one of us has Jack duty and the other is getting something done. We noticed around 3 months that he smiles a lot more when he sees both of us are with him. We try to put him to bed together every night.

Don't get between him and a bottle: When Jack is hungry he must be fed immediately. There is no one minute or even one second. He needs to eat NOW.

He's a bit of a chatterbox: This one likes to talk. He'll go for several minutes just telling us about something that he feels we need to know. He also likes to join in conversations between mommy and daddy too. Oh...and he likes to scold us if we don't feed him on time. A few times at nap time or bed time we'll catch him mumbling in his pacifier as he drifts off to sleep.

He's careful: He can be wary or new things and situations and often looks to mommy or daddy for reassurance that this is ok. He actually does ok with new people as long as we are in the room. If he remains the same way as he is now, I won't ever have to worry about Jack getting in to a stranger's car.

He loves being naked: One of his favorite times of day is bath time. I think partly because of the warm water and partly because he is in his birthday suit. He also gets very excited when you change his diaper because he thinks this might be the time when he gets to hang out in just his diaper. It's been too cold lately for that, but the baby likes being sans clothing.

Jack's First Christmas

We had a good Christmas morning despite the fact that each Bigelow has had their own up chuck moment in the past 48 hours. Food poisoning, stomach flu, noro virus...something gave us their gift earlier this week.

Jack's big present was a jumperoo. He loves standing (with help of course) so much that we thought he would really enjoy it. You can tell from the video that he is a bit apprehensive and then daddy really makes him a bit scared at one hilarious moment. The good news is that we've put him in the jumperoo already a few more times and he's getting the hang of it.

Merry Christmas!!

Wax on, wax off

We love Jack's giggle and it is very rarely captured. Here's a video to show our success!

not quite clark griswold

For Christmas, I decorated the outside of the house and Lelaine and some friends decorated the inside. Unfortunately I didn't buy enough lights and didn't have a ladder, so our lights in the front leave a lot to be desired. While I suppose I could purchase both more lights and a ladder, we want to keep expectations low our first year in the neighborhood and then add more and more lights every year. There aren't many houses on our street with lights, so the half ass job I did is really noticeable.

Below is a pic of the Christmas tree and stockings that Lelaine bought. The inside looks very nice. The theme of the tree is either rustic-lux or ombre. One is the theme of the tree, the other is Lelaine's haircut. I get them confused, but both are lovely.

And one of the things on my to do list during paternity leave was to clean up the back patio and put up some lights. Unlike the front, I think I did a pretty solid job with the back.

day care

Today was Jack's first day at day care. It was more like a brief visit - we were only there about half an hour and I stayed the entire time - but he did a good job. Including JLB there are six babies in the infant room, and one of the little girls came and stole one of the toys they gave Jack to play with. At the very least it is nice that 1-he will soon have professional care from people who know what they are doing and 2-he will be around other babies. We are going to make another visit tomorrow, and this time I will leave him for a little bit. Hope he continues to do well.

Christmastime in DC

We had the great privilege of touring the White House while it is decorated for the holidays. Here's one if the pics from the day. 

Story Time: The Gruffalo

We've heard the demand for videos of our little one is very high! Unfortunately, this one is getting used to being in front of the paparazzi and isn't always showing how cute he is in front of a camera. We did manage to capture this great vid a couple of nights ago during story time. The Gruffalo is one of my favorite books to read to Jack. It is a story of a very clever mouse in the wood. Don't want to tell you too much...might spoil the ending!