Another first finished

Jake celebrated his first Christmas in Massachusetts. We weren't sure
if that would happen due to weather, but we caught an early flight out
of Sacramento to make it. It was worth it, even though after one
cancelled flight and close to 12 hours of planes and airports we still
had a two-hour drive home. Oh and we're all sick, too. But, besides
the hassle of travelling,, it was so nice to spend Christmas 'home.'
And thanks to my nephew Jack and his letter to The North Pole, Santa
was able to deliver Jake's gifts to Lancaster (and Santa went
overboard!).

No way

This was the title of an email I opened today. Seven months! I know I just said this a month ago, but it's so hard to believe how fast time goes by.

Jake is now sitting up on his own, and it's great. He can sit and play for a while - he's doing so well at entertaining himself, and definitely loves being off of his belly. He isn't making much progress as far as crawling, but pulls himself along with his arms. He gets very frustrated when things are out of reach.

He is solely on formula now. That has both it's good and bad points. I miss feeding him at night, and I really miss it at 3 am! He still wakes in the middle of the night and we have a lot of trouble getting him back down. I think by the time we have a bottle ready he's wide awake and ready to play. He is doing much better with solids and eats just about everything. Prunes are still his favorite, and even though we fill him up with them, he still has trouble pooping! He doesn't like peas much.

He just loves bouncing now. He bounces in his door-way jumper, bounces on our laps, tries to bounce in his car seat. He is the epitome of a bouncing baby boy! He also can sit in his bathtub now and loves to spend a little extra time in there playing. He gets all excited when I come in to get him in the morning, and now I understand why Chad said "it's like Christmas every morning." What a cuddly little guy he is.

We're excited for Christmas, but I can't say that I'm looking forward to a 6 and 7-hour flight with a 20-pounder on my lap. Dave and I are praying he sleeps!

'Christmas' morning

We had so much fun with Jake this morning. He was really into opening
presents and seemed genuinely excited with his new toys. But here he
is with his favorite, which wasn't from Santa but Grammie. It's a lion
cub that purrs, growls...even blinks. The thing is so realistic it's
bizzare. I find myself getting upset when Jake yanks on her ear and I
keep gasping 'gentle with the kitty!!'

My favorite was the adorable REI vest Dave got him. It's just too cute.

Santa came!

We're looking forward to celebrating Jake's first Christmas tomorrow
morning. Or at 3:00 am, you never know when he's going to decide to
start his day!

Yes, the small teddy bear is the Snuggle fabric softner bear. When I
read the description of 'snuggle bear' on Amazon, I didn't make the
connection. And when the bear showed up plastered with tags that said
'snuggle fabric softner' I ripped them off thinking the bear looked
generic enough. Then I showed it to Dave and he immediately said 'I
will make your laundry soft!' :(

Happy birthday Lu

I tried to get Jake into the christmas penguin costume that Lucy gave
him this morning, but he was not having the giant penguin head. Can't
say I blame him. We sent this picture off to our friends (and now ex-
neighbors) Lauren, Steve, and Lucy took off last weekend on a cross-
country drive to move to Iceville, i mean - Massachusetts. Lucy
turned 2 today!

Bundled up

If this is how I dress him when it's 57 degrees, what am I supposed to
put him in in Massachusetts?

The hat is a gift from our neighbors who hunt.

Christmas shopping

We took Jake Christmas shopping today, which seemed weird, but it
seemed more weird to leave him home alone. :) We'll be doing his first
Christmas in our house on Sunday, since we'll be 'home' for Christmas
this year. So yes, those are his presents from Santa in the cart.
Hopefully he didn't catch on! Anyway, it was the first time I tried
him out in a cart. Look at how proud he is of himself.

I don't know why we're in the bike aisle!

Dad dressed him

I got a nice surprise this morning when Dave offered to get up with
Jake and let me sleep in a bit (formula is really starting to win me
over). I got an even bigger surprise when I got up and saw what Dave
had dressed him in.

Hey, the clothes were clean and I got two extra hours of sleep so I'm
not going to complain!

Frosty's

We decided last minute today to find somewhere to cut down a Christmas
tree. We ended up at Frosty's in the Santa Cruz mountains. (Frosty's
was located right next to "Tabacco Ranch Tree Farm" - wonder which
gets more visitors?) We're looking forward to decorating it tomorrow
with Jake, along with the mini-tree in our front yard, which is a
Willow Glen tradition.

Christmas in the park

We went to downtown San Jose for 'Christmas in the Park.' It's this
annual festival with rides, food, and booths with animated Christmas
scenes. It's actually run down and sad, but Jake kind of liked it. He
went on his first carousel ride (I panicked because it was going so
fast and I thought I was going to drop him!), got lots of compliments
from the other attendees, and seemed to enjoy having his picture taken.

In other news Dave and I are over the moon because some of our closest
friends had healthy baby boys over the past few days. Steph and Sean
welcomed Connor Andrew (I think that's his name) on Sunday and Allison
and Vishal welcomed Deven this afternoon. We are just holding out for
Conan and Lori - their baby boy is due Friday (Dave's bday!).