Jack is 9 Months Old!

Jack is 9 Months Old!!!

Very exciting. Even though this is our second time around the block (read: we're pros), we still celebrate every month. 9 seems big. It's so close to 1. He's doing so much. We're getting glimpses into what he might be like when he's Lauren's age. Sometimes it blows my mind that there are only two years separating Jack, who can't speak to speak of, can't walk, etc., from Lauren, who uses complex sentences and can climb around a jungle gym.

9 months has Jack sitting up like it's no problem, putting himself to sitting on his own (that's in the last week or two), and army crawling. Not crawling like Lauren did, where it looked like she'd broken both of her legs, but real deal army crawling that involves his arms and legs. He gets up on all fours and rocks, and the stomach off the ground crawling is clearly coming soon. Yesterday, he pulled himself up to his knees, so I imagine he's going to be pulling up to standing soon, and then cruising. Every milestone is such a huge victory for us.

Below, an impromptu couch race progression, where Jack gets a head start but has to body check at the end, and Lauren still wins.

Jack is a different beast than his sister. While he's slightly behind the curve like she was as far as crawling, pulling up, cruising, etc. goes, their methods are different. Lauren was so easy, we didn't have to baby proof anything, if she found a questionable foreign object on the floor she picked it up, deposited it in my hand, and then scooted away, like "I'm pretty sure I shouldn't have that." Jack's arms and legs are moving before we even put him down on the ground, and then he surveys the area, finds the most dangerous object, and gets there. In a hurry. Then puts said dangerous object in his mouth. He's taking years off of our lives, but mostly in a fun way. The best part is that he and Lauren can play together more now, when Lauren's in the mood. Sharing is still a bit of an issue with Lauren, but I think it makes for a pretty mellow Jack, so I'm OK with that byproduct.

Jack is still saying dada a lot, and now he says mama, too. I'm not going to say he's saying it directionally yet, but there are some indications that he might be figuring it out. I've just started giving him some finger food little cereal puffs recently, and he's not great with them yet, but I'm sure that's coming. He has his bottom two teeth, and then instead of his top two teeth, he has the teeth on either side. Little fangs, if you will.

We recently had Jack's 9 month appointment, and he is still long and skinny.  Of course I can't locate his stats right now, but I'll edit the post later and update with those; this is, after all, his baby book.  If I'm remembering correctly something like 85th percentile height, 15th weight.  Get this boy a cheeseburger.

Jack Attack

Oh, I've been remiss. Poor Jacko, the neglect of the second child is such a real thing (just ask me. I was a second child and completely ignored for most of my life. Ask Matt and Arie. Poor me.). These photos are from January, when Jack was but a wee 8 months old. Now he's working on 10 months. Around 8 months Jack started sitting up really well, clapping (he maybe started that around 7 months...see? I'm terrible, I can't even remember.), and enjoying pushing himself up on his arms during tummy time. Towards the end of January he also started saying "dada." Why do dads get the first word, always? Why??? I don't care, it was so cute it really doesn't matter.

Jack's favorite activities around this time consisted of a) watching Lauren and b) watching Stella. The picture above is Jack mid clap. He takes the palm of his right hand and claps the top of his left hand. It's about the cutest thing ever. Jacko also has his bottom two teeth, which you can see in the photo above, just slightly. He got those around 7 months, both at the same time like Laur.

Jacko in his stroller at the zoo on an unseasonably warm January day (no coat!).

Above, some serious baby perfection. I mean really.

Jack and Lauren are patient with their mother wannabe photographer, like all Coleman children (my mom and Aunt Jane are relentless photographers. Yes, I intended to use the word "relentless." I am happy and proud to have inherited that trait from them). Bless them.

First Vacation (and First Wedding)

We recently took our much-awaited first vacation as a family of four. Really we hadn't done what we consider a "big" vacation since I was first pregnant with Lauren, so we skipped over vacation as a family of three, mostly. Everyone told us before we left that it was a "trip," not a "vacation," since we were taking our kids. I thought that was pretty Debbie Downer of them, but then the morning that we left for St. Thomas both kids woke up sick. Like really sick. Like we probably would have taken them to urgent care sick. But did we take them to urgent care? No. Mama and Dada needed a vacation. Off to the airport we went (sorry everyone on our flight who was exposed to croup). There would be a doctor in the house in St. Thomas, after all. As a result however, Jack, during most of the trip, did not look like this:

Or this:

But more like this:

And this:

Mostly the former. Sigh. But we made the best of it, because if we were going to be home with two sick kids anyway, why not be "home" with two sick kids in St. Thomas? Because it looked like this:

And this (both shot from the patio of our villa):

And, every once in awhile, Jack managed to look like this:

And once both kids managed to look, at the same time, like this:

Most importantly, we got to spend time with family:

Witness a very important wedding:

And see a moon like this:

We were in St. Thomas for seven days, and we made it to the beach four or five of those days. We stayed at a villa with the new joint families all together (Arie and my clan on Dad's side, and Terry's three kids with significant others and two of her five grandchildren on the other side). It was a great opportunity for everyone to hang out and get to know each other. We even had a celebrity chef (he has a show on the Cooking Channel) for the wedding reception. AND, the day after Dad and Terry's wedding we found out that our family had expanded by one, when Matt and Jo announced the arrival of my first nephew Greyson!

Jack didn't like the ocean water at first, it was just a touch cold (which was refreshing, the air was warm, but he's used to bath water) and he cried a little. By the end he loved it and I could motor him around and he'd kick his little legs. My good little sleeper regressed quite a bit because he was so congested and had a bad cough (did I mention that one of his bottom teeth also started to pop through on this trip?), so most nights he ended up in bed with me and Sean, because honestly I couldn't handle walking around with him anymore (he required carrying and walking all throughout the day). Despite the sickness and sleeplessness, we had a great vacation. Luckily Sean and I have a kids-less vacation coming up next week. I think we'll plan a follow-up recuperative adults vacation after family vacation like this more often.

4 Month Stats

We just got back from Jack's 4 month well visit, and he passed with flying colors. A little on the tall side, a little on the slim side, but healthy as can be. Our pediatrician says he's probably just going to be on the tall and slim side and that the slight percentile drop in weight (50th to 40th) is nothing to be concerned about. He also predicts early walking. It will be interesting to see how early, but we're pretty sure it will be earlier than Lauren (approximately 15 months old). We are free to give him any baby foods we want (he already has cereal most days), but he doesn't really need them (nutrition-wise) until he's six months old, so for now it's just for fun, and to help with the reflux (they stay down better than milk). He got some immunizations (very sad) and then passed out in his car seat. All is well!

4 month stats:

Height: 26 inches (90th percentile)
Weight: 14 pounds (40th percentile)

Jack's Birth Announcement

A co-worker friend pointed out that I'd mentioned in Jack's 6 Week post that I took some photos for a special project but never shared what that was. Most of you received it in the mail, Jack's birth announcement. I knew that I wanted to do a superhero birth announcement ever since my BFF Cathy pointed out that pretty much any name with "Power" sounded like a superhero. Then, come to find out, Jack Power is, in fact, a Marvel comic book boy superhero. So there you go. Also, please note that we often refer to Jack as "Jack Jack," who we found out (we're out of the loop) is the baby from "The Incredibles." Interestingly, his name is Jack-Jack Parr, which is pretty close to Jack (Jack) Power. It was meant to be.

I realized that with a graphic design Art Director sister, I had some resources at my disposal, namely one of her artist co-workers. So the wonderfully talented Tait Jeter took the idea and ran, and came up with the above, Jack's birth announcement. He even created some cool address and return address labels for the accompanying orange envelopes. The cards were 5x7, and were technically post cards that I could have sent without envelopes, but I didn't want them to get messed up in transit, so I went the envelope route. I used a website called Winkflash to print them. They turned out so well, I love them.

Jack's New Life

I mean really. Jack is giving Lauren a run for her money in the eyes category, non? So Jack has some new ladies in his life, Ms. Brenda and Ms. Tina, in the infant room at Union Hill. Labor Day was our last day together before I went back to work, and after a week of work (well, a short week), I can say that I think we're both going to be OK. It definitely wasn't as hard as with Lauren, I think because with Lauren I had all kinds of doubts. Will she still love me? Will she resent me? Will she still know I'm her mom? I really thought all of these things. But she does, in fact, think of me as her mom. She does scream "Mommy!" and run to me when I pick her up. And while Jack isn't as vocal, I get an expression like this when I pick him up every night. Jack and Lauren are a sight for sore eyes every evening, for sure.

Jack is changing every day. He's getting a lot better about standing, holding his head up, etc. We bought the "GoPod" (above) with our November trip to St. Thomas in mind (we weren't quite ready to pack an ExerSaucer), and so far we're loving it. Jack doesn't stay in it for incredibly long periods of time, he's still working on his strength, but this little gem keeps him entertained for awhile, and you just strap in new toys to the loops. It collapses, kind of like those fabric camp chairs, so we can take it all over the house. I highly recommend.

Jack loves his binky, but he loves to suck on his two fingers, as above, even more. I kind of prefer the binky because you can take it away...I have a feeling he'll be doing the finger sucking a lot longer. Good thing it's cute.

Jack and Lauren are still pretty big fans of each other. If he cries, Lauren says "ooooohhh, Jacky, it's OK! You're just so little!" and other words of encouragement.

Jack is starting to eat some cereal at school, although I couldn't get him to eat any this weekend while we were at home. He still sleeps through the night, bedtime is at 8pm and then he usually wakes up around 7am or a little before. He plays in his bassinet when he wakes up, just cooing and looking around. I know I shouldn't say these things because new parents might be reading this...it's not fair, I know. But if it makes you feel any better, Lauren was the same way and then put us through hell while I was pregnant with "sleep regression" (that's such a nice way to say it, right? Not so nice in real life). I expect it may happen with Jack, too, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now they're on the same bedtime and wakeup schedule, and it's kind of the best thing in the world.

Jack still nurses or has a bottle around 6 times a day, with cereal once a day. Slowly we'll start introducing some other baby foods and the schedule will probably change a bit. Typically he has one long nap in the morning, and a shorter one in the afternoon. He's still happiest being held or carried around when he's awake, but when he wants to sleep put him down, he's not interested in you anymore. Like Lauren, he can almost always be soothed by walking around outside and looking at the trees, although it's not like he's fussy that often. He's still on the reflux medicine and it seems to be working...he can still spit up his own body weight, but it doesn't seem to bother him as much. We go in for a well visit this or next week, I'll share those stats with you when I get them.

All in all, we are making it work as a family of four. Weekends are go time, and exhausting, but we are so very lucky that the exhaustion (yes, you're still exhausted even when you have good sleepers) seems like only a minor inconvenience. We are so thankful for every day we have with these two little creatures.

Jack is 3 Months Old!

It's hard to believe, but Jack is three months old. Which means that yours truly will be back to work soon (after Labor Day), and Jack will be following in his sister's footsteps and starting in the class that she started in at UH. His teachers are very excited to have him and keep asking when they get him every time I go in to pick up Laur. Back off, ladies! For now he's still mine.

Just like Laur, at 12 weeks he woke up all of a sudden and is so much fun. He laughs, smiles a ton, and even found his feet last week. He still prefers to be standing (I know, Grandma, this will allegedly make him bow-legged), thinks sitting is second best (and laying down is the WORST) and can hold his neck up like a two year old. Sean and I predict that, unlike his sister, he will be walking well before his first birthday. WELL before. He continues to mostly sleep through the night. He doesn't eat during the night anymore, since he turned 7 weeks old (night at our house is 8pm to 7am for both kids), but sometimes wakes up politely requesting a binky (by politely requesting I mean he screams bloody murder until he gets a binky) or that I re-swaddle him. I happily oblige since it takes about 10 seconds and means I get to go back to sleep. Life with Jack is good. Even though I went through it with Lauren I can hardly believe that some day he'll talk and have his own little personality. I mean he has one now, of course, but you know what I mean. Sean and I might be the two luckiest parents in the world.