Spoiled at Gramma & Grandpa's House

Toys, toys, and more toys...
Grif loves to go to his grandparent's house too (here he's waiting for a piece of toast...with butter).

Jack LOVES his grandpa!

No More Bumbo

The Bumbo can no longer safely contain my "extraordinarily active" baby. Notice what he's reaching for. Can you guess why we have ear plugs? I'll give you a hint - it's *not* because Griffen has started barking all night. Josh's snoring would be a good guess - but it would be wrong. That's right - we're implementing the cruel and unusual "cry it out" strategy to help Jack learn to fall back to sleep when he wakes up at night. (Incidentally, these particular ear plugs have a noise reduction rating of 29 decibels, and they only succeed at dulling the noise of Jack's crying.) I'm not going to lie, it's horrible and heart-wrenching to listen to your baby scream and not run to comfort him. He's doing great though. Last night was the fourth night and he only woke up once, cried for exactly 4 minutes, and fell back to sleep. Hopefully he won't have any lasting emotional damage, but the truth is I NEED a full night's sleep in order to have the energy to be a good mommy all day long. So, hopefully Josh and I can stay strong, and Jack can stay asleep!

Places To Go, Things To Do...

Jack is doing a little early Christmas shopping from the Pottery Barn catalog. The photos came out a little blurry because HE NEVER STOPS MOVING. EVER.

He had a physical therapy appointment this morning.* His therapist was very impressed with his progress. The last time we were there he would start screaming the minute you put him on his belly, and now he lays there happily playing with toys for 15 minutes or more. He is also trying VERY hard to move. He actually pulls himself on his belly across the floor to get to a toy he wants (sometimes even giving himself "floor burns" on his belly from dragging it). Apparently, this is an unusual tactic. Most babies first master pushing up to their hands (he only pushes up to his forearms) and hang out in that position while looking around. Jack, however, doesn't "hang out." In fact, he hasn't remained in a stationary position during any waking moment since the day he was born (and actually well before that, as his exhausted mama can attest to). The therapist was enjoying his antics, and turned to me and said, "Wow, he is an extraordinarily active baby for his age." She was gracious enough to leave out the implied, "you're in deep s**t lady, you're going to have your hands so full, and you don't even realize it yet," but I heard it loud and clear.


*For those of you who I haven't talked to in a while, he was diagnosed with plagiocephaly (flat head) and torticollis (twisted neck - in his case, he only wants to look to the left). He has been doing physical therapy for the past month, and has made tremendous progress.

Sigrún Pétursdóttir

Sigrún came for a visit last weekend, and Jack was excited to see her (so were Josh and I, but we didn't giggle and bounce about it like he did). She is on a mission to teach him some Icelandic, or at the very least to make sure he can pronounce her name correctly. If she is successful, he will be the only one of her friends here in the states to do so.

Extra, Extra ~ Read All About It

Apparently Jack doesn't like his newsboy hat as much as I do. (Josh wants me to say that he is now a delivery boy for the 'Daily Crier').

Does Jack need a helmet?

Nope, no helmet here. Jack was referred to the Craniofacial Clinic at Children's Hospital so that the doctors there could decide if his plagiocephaly was severe enough to warrant treatment. They said that his was a mild case, and that the shape of his head would either improve or stay the same (but not get worse) over the next couple of months. So, we are just supposed to continue with the physical therapy for his torticollis, and not worry about his cute little lumpy head. Yeah!

Fish are Fascinating

The whole family went down to the University of Washington Hospital last week for Josh's kidney check-up. It was fun to meet the doctors who have seen Josh since he was younger than Jack is now, and Jack was mesmerized by the fish tank in the hospital waiting room (thank goodness because we had a REALLY long wait...in fact, they forgot about us). It was a long day, but thankfully Jack saved his screaming meltdown for the car ride home. It made for a stressful drive for Josh and I, but at least the other hospital patrons were spared the wrath of our overly tired, fussy baby.