Put the Champagne on Ice

Good news in the mail this morning. The conditions on my temporary green card (essentially, having to prove that we're still married after 2 years) have been lifted and I'm a permanent resident. The new green card will arrive in the next 60 days. In the meantime, I'm free to book overseas travel and begin the application for dual citizenship.

There will be some celebrating tonight!

Jack's Stats - 6 Months

We went for Jack's six-month well visit today and had him weighed, measured, and poked (vaccinations). He is now 18 lbs, only up 1.5 lbs since his four-month visit. That puts him in the 60th percentile. The doctor said it's normal for his weight gain to be slowing down a bit. Frankly, I'm relieved it has because I was worried that if he kept gaining at the initial rate, we'd have a 30 lb kid by his first birthday! He is 27 7/8" long, which puts him in the 90th percentile for height.

He was lucky enough to have Daddy there to do the soothing during his shots and Grannie Collins (Mick's mum) to sing to him on the way to and from the office. I was along primarily to ask the doctor my list of questions. We now are able to start feeding him solids twice per day; we tried banana for the first time this afternoon and he was a big fan. The jury is still out on the avocado. Here he is enjoying sweet potato earlier this week.
He's doing a much better job of sitting up unassisted, as you can see in the top photo. He continues to be loads of fun, dazzling us with his smiles and generally good-natured personality. Grannie thinks he's extremely clever, and I must say that his proud parents agree.

Six Months

Where did the time go? Parents always say "they grow so quickly" and I used to just smile and nod and pretend to understand. But now I do get it. I honestly cannot believe that it's already been six months since Jack was born. And I'm constantly trying to figure out how I can simultaneously love the stage he's at now while longing for the days when he was tiny (relatively speaking... he never really was that tiny). When I realized today that it was the 13th - and thus the six month mark - I thought about what Jack's birth was like and how much I was in a daze those first few weeks. In retrospect, it seems like I was just going through the motions, without letting anything really sink in. It made me realize how much I really need to focus on every day (and middle of the night) I have with him because before I know it, he'll be toddling off away from me and on to his next big adventure.

Jack's favorite activity now seems to be playing peek-a-boo with Shergar. He gets such a kick out of her. He also loves taking my face in his hands and giving me a big, wet kiss on my cheek. I say "thank you!" in a really expressive voice and then he just laughs & laughs. He also continues scooting across the floor and I fear crawling is not far off. At playgroup yesterday, he sat, unassisted, for about 5 full minutes. He never does that at home and I think it's because he's constantly trying to see where Shergar is so he leans to the side and falls over. But being eye-to-eye with kids his size seemed to really influence his desire to sit still.

The other thing I absolutely love about this age is that he and I laugh together! Unfortunately, these laughing fits usually come when I should be laying down the law and not rewarding his naughty behavior. But I can't help it! A classic example is nap time, which has become a real battle these last few weeks. Sometimes, when he really works himself up, I will go pick him up and sit in the rocking chair with him. I'll get him calmed down with his head on my shoulder and will just about think he's asleep when he lifts his head and looks right at me. I usually try to close my eyes and just peek out of one of them so he thinks I'm sleeping too. But then he smiles at me -- a huge smile behind his pacifier that makes his eyes crinkle and his whole top of his hair move back. And when he does that, I cannot help but smile back. Frankly, I dare anyone to keep a straight face when he does that to you. So then he sees that I'm smiling so he'll start to laugh. That makes me laugh. And then he laughs harder. You can see where I'm going with this. Generally, this means that the nap is delayed further as all of my frustration goes out the window and I just sit and laugh at my baby. But really, I can't think of a better way to spend my time.

Here are a few pictures of our activities over the last week.

In this one, he and I took a walk to the grocery store and back. The reason this is commemorative is that this is the FIRST walk we've ever taken with him in the stroller where I've made it to the store, done my shopping, and walked back home without him screaming. He didn't fuss at all! Maybe he's growing out of his stroller-hating days (I hope!).
On Saturday, he sat and watched the Liverpool/Chelsea game with Daddy. As you can tell, he's very into it.
I took this picture just because I wanted you to see his crazy hair. This is how it is every day. Now you know why we had to cut it.
And these two pictures are from today's nap. I put him in bed and he didn't do any screaming. That is unheard of with naps. Usually it takes at least 4 tries for me to go in, roll him back over, sing a song, give him the paci, and tell him it's time to sleep. So, after about 10 minutes I peeked in to see if he'd miraculously fallen asleep on his own. He hadn't. He had burrowed himself under the quilt which I just today tossed onto the end of the crib while straightening his room. (Yes, I know the quilt isn't supposed to be in the crib. It has lived on the back of the rocking chair for the last 6 months; today I just draped it up there temporarily and then forgot about it.) He was all smiles when I uncovered him. So much for hoping his eyes would be closed.

Belated Inauguration Pictures

It's been a hectic couple of weeks, but here are a couple of photos from my trip into DC for the Inauguration. I cycled from our home through Rosslyn and across the Potomac to The Mall. Other than it being incredibly cold, the ride was fun--with many of the roads being closed, I could cycle along previously-inaccessible routes.

I made it to 15th Street, at which point the crowds prevented me getting any further. I turned back and headed to the corner of 17th Street and Independence Ave, from which these photos were taken. We were approximately 1.5 miles from the Capitol site and yet the space was still full of people watching the event on the big screens. The atmosphere was jovial--cheers went up everytime President-elect Obama was pictured.

I watched the ceremony to the conclusion of Obama's speech, then turned and trekked the 6 miles back home. A day to remember, wherever you were.

He Sits!

OK, I'm sure this is only a big deal for me & Mick, but Jack sat up unassisted for the first time tonight! His accomplishments always come just after we go to playgroup. In December, I commented to the other moms that I didn't think he'd ever roll from back to front because he's so big. The very next day, he rolled. And he didn't stop (made it halfway across the room before I was able to stop him).

Today, we went to playgroup for the first time since Christmas. Some of the other babies had learned how to sit (although most of them still aren't rolling or creeping as well as Jack is... always the proud mama!) and I was lamenting that Jack had no interest in sitting and no balance - something he's definitely acquired from his totally uncoordinated mother. Sure enough, he and I were just playing around about a half hour ago, waiting for Mick to come home, and:


As you can see, it was hard for me to video and catch him at the same time. So once Mick got home, we had another set of hands to do the recording and we captured this:


My heart swells with pride!

The Results Are In

We found out the results of Mick's biopsy today: he just had a virus. The doctor said it's very rare to have a virus cause such extensive damage to the esophagus (in terms of the number of ulcers) though he has seen it from time to time.

Mick has a follow-up endoscopy in 2 weeks just to ensure that all of the ulcers are gone, which is pretty likely.

Thanks for your well-wishes and thoughts. We are so grateful this wasn't something more serious!

Vacation Memories & Haircut Trauma

I have finally gotten around to posting our vacation photos to Snapfish. Have a look if you are interested in seeing some good photos of Jack! We spent lots of time relaxing and...

Walking on the beach (this really was a candid shot - my timing was just right as the cool water from the Gulf of Mexico splashed up around Mick!)...



Swimming in the pool (this is a video - click on the arrow to play)...


And being together as a family.

We are going to try to get away again this spring as there is nothing better for the mind and soul than relaxation and quality time together for the three of us.

This weekend, Mick decided it was time for Jack's first full haircut. I had held him off as long as possible but I must say that even I started thinking it was cruel to let Jack look the way he did. He couldn't see unless we constantly swept his hair to the side and it was growing so long down his back that people were mistaking him for a girl. Despite my objections (and, yes, even tears), Mick said we needed to not only trim the front & sides but the back as well.


Jack did MUCH better than I did. Notice all the hair we cut off. My mom said we could have used it to make a wig for a bald baby.

I had a hard time saying goodbye to the hair that my little guy was born with, but he does look much better now (sigh... yes, Mick, you were right).