Video of the Week

Jack loves eating meat of the bone. He's eating fried rice and a pork rib.

Christmas Eve at the Botanic Garden

JLB has not been feeling well the past few days. In fact, he threw up on mommy at a restaurant on Monday and he's barely eating. The latter is always a sign he's not feeling well. 

Being cooped up at home also isn't in Jack's nature, so even though he's not 100% we took him out for Christmas Eve to the Botanic Garden. They had mini seaside towns with trains for the holidays. It was very nice and the pictures don't do it justice. 

We travel to Pensacola tomorrow so we are hoping some of the side effects of his illness (he stays still for 10-15 min) might remain for the plane ride. 

Merry Christmas!

picture of the week

Despite the fact that he is only 16 months old, Jack knows how to live like an old man sitting by the fireplace with his legs crossed and eating a snack.

video of the week 12/6

Jack loves music and has been a lot more talkative (almost all jibber jabber) in the last few weeks, Here is a video of him singing one of his favorite songs with Lelaine.

bonus video of the week

Here is one of Jack dancing to Michael Jackson a month or so ago. Note that he is wearing a Royals onesie - this was taken the night of the second ALDS game when we beat the Angels in extra innings after Hosmer hit a home run in extra innings. A great evening.

video of the week

To update the blog more consistently, we are going to start posting a photo or video of the week. Here is the first one, in which is Jack playing with his current favorite toy. He continues to love music and likes to dance (and sometimes sing). I credit myself for our daily dance party hour when I was on paternity leave.

thanksgiving

 We spent Thanksgiving in KC. Jack got to spend a lot of time with the fam. The day after Thanksgiving, Lelaine and I went to Columbia to see Mizzou wrap up the SEC East with a win over Arkansas while Jack stayed with my parents, who took him on his first trip to the zoo. My favorite picture of the trip is this one, which was Jack holding Mimi's (his great grandmother) hand as they walked to the kitchen and she gave him some crackers.

The next trip will be Pensacola for Christmas.

Playing with the boys

We've taken a little break from posting, but don't stop coming to the blog! We'll start up again soon. We already have some ideas for posts. 

Jack was running around tonight shirtless and I just couldn't help but post this side by side image.  

14 months

Jack turns 14 months old tomorrow. We have done a poor job updating the blog since his first birthday, but as I listen to the hopefully playoff bound Royals on the radio on the computer this evening, I will try to summarize what has gone on in the last 60 days.

Jack went to his 16th state when we went to Colorado to visit family and friends in August. The first few days were rough - he was teething, didn't seem to adjust to the altitude very well, and had a virus and had to go to the hospital - but the second half of the trip was great. My family got to spend a lot of time with him and he even got to pet one of Iman's chickens.

Later in August and early September Jack has back-to-back visits from his grandparents. Lelaine's mom came out first and spent a week with him. He warmed up to her very quickly and they had a lot of quality time at the park that is two blocks from us, which is Jack's new favorite place to go. He likes climbing up the little swing set and going down the slides. My mom came next and continued the visits to the park.

He had a tough time going back to daycare after being out of it for two weeks, and we had some pretty horrible drop offs. But he is finally doing much better. He walks well enough now that when we arrive at day care, he walks into the room on his own. He is also napping very well - sometimes three hours a day - both at home and at day care.

Other highlights include him falling into a trance when he hears Al Sharpton's voice, learning to run/trot around the house, outgrowing his first car seat, going through a phase in which he is a somewhat picky eater (he loves fruit and a lot of vegetables, but doesn't like much else these days), several late summer trips to the pool, liking to walk so much that he often protests when I try to put him in the stroller to walk to the metro in the morning (if I let him walk the whole way, it would take five hours each way - he gets distracted very easily), helping me pull weeds but then trying to eat whatever he pulls, and still not talking much other than saying "mama" about 1500 times a day.

1

Jack turned one on Saturday. This has been both the slowest and fastest moving year of our lives. When I think about Polumbus Day and driving to the hospital after Lelaine's water broke, it seems like only a few days ago. But when I think about all the sleepless nights or the mornings when he wakes up ridiculously early and by 8am you think you have run out of things to do for the day, the last twelve months have seemed like 30 years. Here are a few memories that really stand out:

Long walks with him in the stroller to both keep him happy and help him sleep. I think we have walked around Lincoln Park about 700 times.

The weekend in September that Lelaine went away with book club - this was the first time when I was with him on my own. I didn't tell Lelaine this, but I was terrified. It ended up going well, and included Jack's first metro ride, his first block party/beer festival, and purchasing a little baby viking hat, but most of all it gave me confidence that I could keep him alive and take care of him on my own, although I was very relieved when Lelaine got home that Sunday afternoon.

Jack's first bike ride, which happened to be on a path in Santa Monica on the beach with the mountains in the background.

The trip with Doug to the Ole Miss-Mizzou game was one of the best weekends but also probably the dumbest. I'm really glad we did it - Jack did very well, the Grove met all expectations, Mizzou won, and it made for a great story - but I can't believe Doug and I took a three month old on an 1,800 mile road trip over three days.

His reaction when I get home from work and he is in a good mood. Sometimes when he sees me he starts to smile and bounces up and down.

The week he wouldn't sleep unless he was being held - this happened his first month home from the hospital and was by far the period of time I was most sleep deprived. The picture at the top was taken one night during this stretch. Despite the circumstances, it is my favorite picture of him.

Hearing him laugh - one day the three of us were in the car and for some reason he started laughing uncontrollably. The little guy's giggle is the best sound in the world.

That's all for now. Might add more later.

One Great Year

                                         

It's been one year since our little man surprised us and came into the world six and a half weeks early. We've spent the past few weeks reflecting on what a journey it has been and how excited we are for more happy times. 

The best way an 80s girl like me knows how to celebrate that is with a video montage. Hope you enjoy! 

Couch to 5K Finished!

I finished my Couch to 5K training today! It was a slog, but I am proud to say that I can jog for 30 minutes (not quite at the 5K distance yet). The most fascinating part about the training is that at some point you realize you can physically do it, but mentally it was tough. I would start jogging and then in my head I'd think "this really sucks" although I know I could physically go further. I really had to push mentally to tell myself keep going until the end of this song or until you reach that sign.

Next up is the 5K to 10K training app. I'm behind in my training for the marathon, but I think I am ok with run/walking at this point. I am holding out a bit of hope that I'll be able to run the whole thing.

lil' flipper

Jack is starting swim lessons next weekend. Because he 1-is pretty particular about a lot of things and 2-has not liked baths in the last couple weeks, we figured we should take him to a pool so that his first swim lesson isn't a completely brand new experience and we hopefully avoid a breakdown next Saturday at the JCC.

He loved it. In fact, he liked it so much that we went yesterday and then took him back again today. He isn't thrilled when his face gets wet and he hasn't quite figured out that the more he splashes, the more his face gets wet, but other than that he is very excited when we put him in the water. I have a feeling we are going to become regulars at some of the DC public pools the rest of the summer.

celebrating 'merica

 Jack had an excellent first 4th of July. He and I went for a run on the Mall and saw the setup for the concert and fireworks. Later in the morning the three of us met up with Clare and Brantley for Jack's first Nats game. The team stunk, losing to the Cubs, but the weather was surprisingly nice and Jack liked to be able to crawl around the astroturfed pavilion area in center field. Up next was his favorite spot to watch the World Cup - Biergarten Haus - for the Brazil-Columbia game. Like last time, one of his favorite things to do was to try to grab other people's liter mugs of beer. He is also now really into clapping, so whenever either team did something well and people got excited, he would start laughing and clapping. We finished the night listening to some fireworks in our neighborhood and watching the movie Independence Day.

Happy Family

We spent the past weekend in Princeton celebrating a friend's wedding and catching up with a couple of dear friends. 

On the way up we even had an opportunity to stop in Philly for Jack's first cheesesteak at Ishkabibbles. Jack seemed more impressed by the process of making cheesesteaks rather than the food. We then told him about how we don't plan on raising a vegetarian so he needs to get his act together!! Just joking...kind of. 

Traveler tip: The best croissants in the US have to be at this small bakery called Little Chef Cafe. Amazing. 

11 Months!

Jack Likes to Dance with Daddy

While we usually try to give Jack a bath at night to calm him down, sometimes daddy and Jack just like to break it down. And yes, Jack prefers to dance naked. Here's a cute video showing Jack and daddy dancing.

US Soccer Win Spurs Jack to Walk and Kick

#Ibelievethatwewillwin

Jack's First Steps

Jack took his first steps today sans walker!! A great Father's Day present for Chris--even though he crawled to Uncle Doug right after to give him five. Hopefully a video soon!

10 months

a week of firsts

Last Sunday, Jack participated in his first race. Lelaine ran a 3k and I pushed him in a stroller for a 10k. He did quite well, even crossing the finish line before I did.

Later in the week it got really warm, so we dressed him in a tank top which was another first. Let's just say that like his dad, some people weren't meant to wear sleeveless shirts.

But the big event of the week came on Saturday. He has been babbling for several weeks now, particularly in his sleep where he constantly says "ba ba ba." But when Doug was over for dinner on Saturday night, little man said (pretty clearly) "no." We all clapped for him and he was quite impressed with himself.

Jack's Toothy Grin

Jack's First Real Shoes

Playing Ball in the House

I get frequently reprimanded from the wife whenever I play with a ball in the house - she says I am going to break something. But last night Jack and I were playing with a ball and even Mrs. Bigelow thought it was acceptable. Check out how happy Jack is in this video.

There were a couple of other good developments yesterday. Jack has been babbling a lot (sometimes in his sleep), and in the last week or so he been babbling multisyllabic jibber jabber, almost always "ba ba." Then last night he said something that kind of sounded like "da da," which made me very happy, although I tried to get him to say "ma ma" for hours on Mother's Day to no avail. Also, while we were playing with the ball and it rolled by him, we both could have sworn he said "uh oh." Regardless of what he actually said, he is developing well and continues to be super cute.

Not a Jack Post

In the sparkle of the new year, I foolishly signed up for the Newport, Rhode Island Half Marathon. Of course, then DC gets the coldest winter in a decades and getting up to run in the freezing cold is not happening. Bam! it is the end of April and I have no mileage on my shiny new sneakers.

So, I am trying to use public shaming as motivation. I signed up for the app Couch to 5K to get things started. After three runs, I am feeling a bit more optimistic about my chances of actually running the half marathon. It's difficult getting back into shape, but afterwards I feel really good.

After the 5K app, I get to download the 10K app and then the 21K app. To answer the question in your head, no, technically I don't have enough time built in the apps to make it to Oct. 12, but I will be pretty close. Crossing the fingers for me will be helpful too.

Nine Months

Our little, big man is now nine months old. We caught him looking very relaxed in this shot just before bed time.  Jack "talks" in his sleep lately. We think there is a good chance that his first word will be said in his sleep. 

The Walker

Jack spends most of his day pulling up on everything. People, furniture, chairs, cribs, bookshelves. You name it. This kid is anxious to walk.

Lola said to buy him a walker, so we did and this is his first adventure with it on Saturday. Don't you love the gators on his walker?

easter

Other than Jack getting an ear infection, a bad rash, not drinking milk, and not sleeping, we had a very nice Easter weekend. On Friday and Saturday we hung out with my old roommates Matt and Erika who were in town and Sunday we had a lot of friends over for a massive ribeye Lelaine rotisseried on the grill a la Fogo de Chao, ham, and some drinks. And today Jack and I went to the White House for the Easter Egg Roll. He is a little young to participate in the roll or the hunt, but maybe next year (and I benefited from all you could eat Peeps). Here are a few photos.

We have two teeth!

BREAKING NEWS: 

Jack is getting two bottom teeth! (more scientifically know as lower bottom incisors) He likes to cover them with his tongue and we had to make him a bit unhappy to confirm, but hopefully we will have pictures soon.

Our little man is growing up so fast.

Jack Starting to Crawl

Jack is starting to crawl forward, but as you can see from this video, he is really more interested in standing up. He's really determined to do this... so much that he doesn't want to sleep at night. He just wants to keep sitting up, pushing up and trying to stand.

The quickness of all the phases is dizzying at times, but we are happy our little one is moving. He is so curious and wants to grab and look at everything.

Look what I can do!

On Saturday we woke up to find Jack sitting up on his own in his crib. He was very proud of himself! Then he decided to show us that he was ready for more than sitting up. He's pulling up and oh, by the way, he's always nearly crawling forward! Needless to say we had to spend a few minutes the next day putting the mattress down in the crib.

Pretty soon our little man is going to be running around all of our house. Not sure if we are ready for that yet.

A civic minded baby

Jack participated in DC's primary today. 

The Backwards Crawling Master

He is so close to crawling! Right now he is very good at going backwards, which they say is the precursor to crawling. He is planking a lot and is often going backwards so much we find him underneath the blue and white chair to the right. We plan on "baby proofing" this weekend to get ready for our soon to be mobile little one. 

8 months!

An Independent Little Man

This guy likes to try and feed himself with the spoon. It hasn't been easy to catch it on video, but I was successful today. He had a mix of sweet potatoes and blueberries with cinnamon. He also had a few cereal puffs.

A New Playspace

We have a little Reggio-inspired playspace for Jack. He is enjoying his new space especially the mirror! Hopefully, we'll post some videos soon of him enjoying the space.

Jack eating asparagus

Today we tried a little homemade blueberry buckwheat pancakes, a French fry and some asparagus. Not sure if any of those three things made it into Jack' tummy. He doesn't have any teeth yet so it makes it hard to chew on anything. Hopefully, little man doesn't get frustrated, as you can tell from this video--he's trying!

Jack's First Finger Foods

Last year was so crazy around this time because we were trying to figure out what we were going to do with our condo, where we wanted to live and where we could afford to live and then...looking for places to live.

Everyone told me to sleep...and of course, I couldn't sleep because I was constantly worrying about all of this stuff and then being put on bed rest was scary because now I had to make sure everyone at work knew I was actually working from home. Let's not forget I was trying to keep Jack inside as long as possible while then trying to eat NO CARBS since when I found out I had gestational diabetes. I'll spare everyone the diatribe about the countless hospital visits.

This is a long introduction into the fact, that I feel I am now getting into parenting-type literature. We certainly don't have everything together, but I think we are more confident parents now and are trying to move a little beyond frantic getting through the day type stuff.

So far, I think we are very baby-led parents with a little pushing of encouragement here and there. I'm not sure we would have chosen that from the get go, but a lot of our style has to do with Jack's personality. From day one, this one knows what he wants to do and what he doesn't. There's no pushing him.

At first, I was fearful that he would stay stagnant, but he's always come around on his own, learning new skills and exploring the world. Now we can introduce something to him and while he may or may not choose to partake right away, I know that he'll find his way to it eventually. In fact, we're amazed everyday at his development.

Yet, I can't be all fly by the seat of your pants and I felt I need to be more informed. And I am slightly disappointed in myself that I just found out about Baby Led Weaning.  This is probably a self pat-on-the-back comment, but we're early adopter, yuppie-hipster-city snobs.This kind of thing is in our wheelhouse. That being said, Jack was very ready to start eating solids way before he was clearly capable of putting food in his mouth, so we would have had to modify our introduction at any rate.

So on a weeknight (we almost always try new things on weekends), I decided I had to see what our little one could do with apples and sweet potatoes a la "baby led weaning" style. Please enjoy Jack's  first finger foods!

snow day

We took Jack out in the snow today for the first time. He liked it, then this happened.

sweet dreams

After a long day of playing, Jack can hardly stay awake to finish his last bottle before he goes to sleep.

7 Months !

We're so proud of our happy baby! 

mcconkron, ramen, cronuts, wine, and diaper blowouts

Last week we went to California for our good friend Christy's wedding. Christy went to grad school with us at GW and lived with Lelaine for part of the first year we we were dating (before Lelaine got a new and permanent roomy). I was a little apprehensive about taking Jack on a cross country trip, but he seems to be a good traveler, flights we reasonably priced, Christy is a good friend, and Lelaine was in the wedding, so there were a lot of reasons to go.

And it was Los Angeles in February during the coldest winter DC has had in a long time, so that worked out well. In fact, a big snowfall had begun as we were waiting for our flight to take off. We were off to a rocky start when 1-Jack threw up on Lelaine and simultaneously had a diaper blowout within minutes of arriving at the airport, 2-our flight was supposed to leave at 10pm but we sat on the tarmac waiting to be de-iced for more than two hours, and 3-while sitting on the plane waiting to take off, Jack managed to have yet another diaper blowout (luckily we had two spare outfits on us).

But things took a significantly better turn once we arrived. Thursday morning Lelaine took me to LA Mill in Silver Lake, her favorite coffee shop. That is saying something considering that she has been to approximately 1500 coffee shops. I had a coffee made with a contraption for which only six exist in the world. After breakfast we drove to Santa Monica for what was my favorite part of a trip, a bike ride along the beach with mountains in the background. It was a pretty amazing setting for Jack's first bike ride. We rode for ten or so miles (saw people working out in Venice and Muscle Beach, but no Hulk Hogan) and then went to Umami for burgers. Lelaine convinced me to get their special monte cristo, which was a burger covered in gruyere fondue and prosciutto on vanilla custard-soaked buns there were deep fried. It was good, but had too much going on. We were met by our friends Jeff and Ashley who live in DC and were also in town for McConKron (the bride's name is McConville and the groom's Lowenkron). For dinner we had ramen, which is Lelaine's favorite thing to have in LA. She was pretty pleased that I enjoyed it, and Jack must have thought it looked good because at one point he slammed his fist into one of the giant bowls of soup and noodles. That is a recent trend - sitting there and acting fairly calm but then very aggressively grabbing things, which led Lelaine to start calling him Bam Bam.

She always talks about how good the donuts are in California, so Friday morning we went to a donut place. The donuts were good, but the cronuts - the first I have ever consumed - were better. We spent the rest of the morning driving around Beverly Hills and Hollywood, then went to east LA to King Taco. Tacos are one of my favorite foods and I was really looking forward to it. While not exactly disappointed, I didn't see what was so special about them other than that they were pretty solid and dirt cheap.

That late afternoon and evening were the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Christy went to UCLA and is a huge Bruins fan (we once helped her paint her condo blue and gold) and the wedding was on campus. While Lelaine was at the rehearsal, Jack and I walked around campus and he had his picture taken next to a John Wooden statue. He has now been to four campuses - GW, Ole Miss, and Georgetown were the first three - and UCLA's is definitely the nicest.

Saturday was wedding day. While Lelaine got ready, Jack and I took a walk to Beverly Hills (we stayed at a hotel in Century City, which is only a couple miles from both Beverly Hills and UCLA). We even saw the high school, but sadly no sign of Dylan or Brandon. We dropped Lelaine, who wasn't feeling well, off for wedding stuff and we did some more sightseeing. Jack and I had lunch at a pizza place in Westwood that was very crowded and had tables very close together. The table of three students next to us talked about the different TV scripts they are writing, with one guy going on and on about his political drama that he claimed is like the West Wing but without the moral high horse. The pizza was fantastic - Neapolitan style with great crust and a lot of bacon - but the beer list was pretty sorry.

We then mosied back to campus and I let Jack roll around on the grass, which he loved. We realized it was the first time he has ever touched grass, which is kind of sad, but we don't have a yard and he wasn't very active in his first few months before it got too cold for him to be playing on the ground in a park in DC.

The wedding was very nice. Isaac, the groom, is a sportscaster for the Clippers and went to USC. He is a better man than me. If Lelaine told me that when we got married, we would do so at UF, play the UF fight song at the wedding, and that I would wear UF colors, I would tell her it has been nice knowing her. Instead, Isaac was a good sport about the whole thing. Jack was sporting one of his tux onesies, but of course, he had a blowout in the middle of the reception and had to put on his back up outfit. 

Following one of the best breakfast burritos I have ever had at Huckleberry in Santa Monica, we drove up the Pacific Coast Highway through Malibu and up to Santa Barbara. We walked down the beach, drove through town, and then set out for a vineyard that was in the movie Sideways. The drive was really impressive. There aren't too many places where you can go from the ocean to a mountain pass several thousand feet above sea level in 15 minutes.

The winery we went to was ok, but wasn't anything special, so we set out for a second place. On the way there, as we drove through a rural area with a lot of vineyards, cattle ranches, and mountains, we passed through Los Olivos and decided to scrap the second winery and spend the afternoon there. It is a little town that is just a few streets and old western looking buildings, but it has more than 30 winery tasting rooms on those few blocks. We hadn't eaten since breakfast, so ate at one of the restaurants that was also a wine store. Lelaine ordered the roasted vegetables, and they were so good that even I liked them. We also had pizzas and a little wine at an outdoor table that was a perfect way to wind down the trip. It looked like a place out of a movie. On the way home, we realized that it was also the setting for a scene in Sideways.

That was pretty much it for the trip. We drove back to LA that night, slept for a few hours, and flew back home the next morning.

can't believe we have made it this far

The little guy is six months old today. In some ways it seems like only a few days ago that Lelaine's water broke and we jumped in the then brand new car. In other ways it seems like he was born about 20 years ago. Here are a few observations from the first six months:

I have very little idea of what I am doing now, but I now know ten times more about parenting than I did on July 26. Lelaine always seems to know what to do, and did from day one.

Jack sometimes likes being on a schedule, but he couldn't care less about anyone else's schedule.

He is probably the cutest baby in the world. Ever.

For such small creatures, babies go through a lot of things really quickly, particularly diapers, wet wipes, milk/formula, bibs, and sizes of clothes.

My thinking on whether or not I would like a sibling for Jack can change several times in one week.

It is hard not living near our families. 

I can't imagine not having Uncle Doug or some of our other friends around who have helped out so much.

My being able to immediately go back to sleep after being woken up makes things much easier for me than Lelaine, who always has a difficult time getting to sleep.

I lucked out with my paternity leave, both for the length of time and the time period, when he was more active than he was when Lelaine was on maternity leave.

The most dangerous place to be is between a hungry Jack and a bottle of milk that he can see. And laughing at his anger doesn't help the situation. However, he has a totally fake cry that he breaks out every now and then that can be diffused by laughing.

I can't believe how easy things were pre-Jack, when we were DINKS in a small one bedroom and a busy night meant working late or there were several good TV shows on. Although if there is anyone reading this who has more than one kid, I'm sure they think I have no idea how easy I have it now.

The last six months have been difficult. While I assume/hope the first few months are the hardest (when running I always think the first half mile, no matter how long the run, is the worst), I have a feeling that things will get much more hectic once he is mobile.

The last six months have probably been the best of my life.

6 months!

Wish we could write a longer post, but True Detective and sleep are calling. Jack Lincoln was loving his 6 month photo shoot today. I couldn't decide which picture was the cutest so you get three.

Popeye!

Little man likes spinach!

bananas

Big weekend for Jack. On Saturday he broadened his intake from milk, formula, prevacid, and rice cereal to now include bananas. And then on Sunday he sat in his high chair for the first time. Big accomplishments. Here is a video of his Sunday night feast.

ski day

Yesterday was my last official day of paternity leave; I have to go back to work on Monday. To help ease his transition into day care we wanted to send Jack there for most of the day yesterday, so I needed something to fill my time. Instead of using my last few hours to rest or do anything else productive, I decided to drive up to Pennsylvania and go skiing. I hadn't been for a few years/since the last time I dislocated my knee cap, so I was nervous at first, but ended up doing just fine. In a couple years, Jack will be out there on the hill, although I have a feeling he may want to snowboard (boo), which means his mom will be teaching him.

Here is a video of one of the runs, which I took with the Go Pro that Lelaine's dad gave us. I had to decrease the quality (it shoots in HD) and sorry it is so shaky, but the faster you go the bumpier the ride.