9 month well check!

Jack had his 9 month well-check!

Stats: Weight: 21lbs, 13 oz ( 50-75%)
His weight has dropped in the percentile rankings, which the pediatrician said is most likely due to his inch-worm crawling, and just being more active. Totally normal!

Height: 30 1/2 inches (off the charts still)

So it appears we have a long, lean baby! Jack is now eating around 4-5 solid meals a day, with a bottle in-between. He seems to like all fruits, veggies, and he has recently started chicken and turkey! His absolute favorite is, yogurt! Put yogurt with anything and he will eat it up.

Another "A- plus" well-check!

A visit to Santa!

Jack was unlike most kids who you see visiting Santa! No crying, no reaching for mom and dad, AND he wanted to go back and hang with the guy after his picture was over! That's my boy! Everyone always comments about what a cool, laid-back kid he is! He has no fear of strangers, and smiles at everyone! Just don't try and take him out of mommies arms when he is tired, or his teeth hurt!!
Year one of seeing Santa, A success!!


Check Santa out!


OK! We like him!

Christmas day 2010

We had a wonderful Christmas day that started out with homemade french toast, bacon, and eggs! Yummy! Every year we try to think of something that we don't normally eat, and have a special indulging breakfast on Christmas day! After everyone was finished, we opened gifts which is now all about Jack! He had received many gifts from our friends and he had a lot of fun ripping into them!!


The first gift...." this looks like fun"!


Starting to unwrap...with a little bit of moms help!


Very determined!


"OH, that's what was in here"!


After the first gift, Jack started to figure the point of this unwrapping stuff! TOYS!!
On to the next one!!!






VERY exciting!!!! :)))



The wrapping paper is also fun to play with, in case you didn't know!


After all the gifts were unwrapped it was time to head to the grandparents house for more gifts and dinner! Jack got to see his great grandmother, and they a lot of fun catching up! So much fun that he decided to say his FIRST word. My dad was talking to Jack and said" Jack, say hi to granny"......so he did!! I think we were all in a little shock, and excited!! Such a cool moment!





After a yummy dinner, and opening more gifts we were exhausted!



Merry first Christmas to our sweet, precious boy! As your Grandpa said, " you made it magical"!!

Christmas Break!!

It is now Christmas Break which means Daddy is home and now we can have fun adventures as a family of three!! Our first item on the list was to visit the Austin Children's Museum. I had heard great things about it, and Jack is getting to the age where we are needing to get out of the house and explore new activities! It is located in downtown Austin, which means lugging a baby, diaper bag, and stroller alone from whatever parking spot you can find. So we waited until we could explore with Daddy! I was pleasantly surprised to see how easy it was to locate, get parking, and explore the museum! They were even having a ten dollar off a year membership. We took advantage and got one! We will be back a lot!!

Playing in the " Raising Stair Ranch"! A gated area with educational toys/ activities for kids under the age of two!




Story time! A few of the employees come through at random times ringing bells announcing that there will be a story time. Since we love books, we had to attend!





We all had a wonderful time! This is a great place to take kids on cold days!

Fun at the Park

Jack and I decided to venture out to our neighborhood park on what was a very nice 70 degree day...yep that's our winter. Jack is not yet walking, or even caring to crawl for that matter, but I knew he would most likely love the swings! I sat him in one thinking well, he will either cry and get scared which is really not like him at all. Or, he will LOVE it. Yep, in true Jack nature he loved it!

Our fun day at the park! The only thing missing was Daddy :(







We also found these cars that you could bounce back and fourth!





We had a great time, and will be going back a lot!

8 months!

Jack turned 8 months old on December 5th! It is hard to believe it has already been 8 months! Everyone says enjoy every moment, because it goes by really fast. I have defiantly found this to be true, and it makes me a little sad....

Every now and then we have dinner with our neighbors, the Kapoor's. They have a little boy who is 4 months younger than Jack, named Neel. We usually alternate between their house one night, and the next at ours. We all have a lot in common, and always end up have a great time together! We always order dinner, and while the guys go pick it up Namita and I have our girl talk! It seems like the more we hangout, the more I found out just how much alike we are! Who knew we would have so much in common with such a sweet couple from India!
This past Sunday, we had dinner at there house and they surprised Jack with an 8 month birthday cake! It was such a nice gesture, and so unexpected!

Family Christmas pictures 2010!

This past Saturday my side of the family came over to help take our 2010 Christmas pictures. My sister loves taking pictures, and always does a wonderful job! So I asked if she would be willing to take our pictures this year, Why pay a pro, when you have one in the family?! Now that we are a family of three I wanted to make sure and get some "dressed-up" pics taken this year! My mom and dad assisted in making Jack laugh, while our photographer snapped away! Here are some of my favorites.




Love this one of Jack and his Daddy!


Stairs are fun!


" I just figured out that I am tall enough to pull down these stockings!"


Our handsome boy! Love, Love, this little face!


Our family of Three :)


Consoling my little man....taking pictures is just exhausting!


Thank you Katy for helping us to create this beautiful memories!

Oh you’re a stay at home mom? So, you don’t work then?!

Yesterday while waiting for our appointment at Jack‘s pediatricians office I got into a conversation with their “super-sweet” receptionist, Annette. She asked me, “Do you work outside the home also”? Not, “so do you work”? We then got into a lengthy discussion about how many working women, most of them without kids, don’t consider being a Stay-at-home-mom, a “real” job. As you have probably figured out by now, I beg to differ!

So what does a day in the life of a stay at home mom look like? Well, I start out the day by sleeping in late, and getting to enjoy a leisurely breakfast followed by a leisurely shower. Sounds nice uh?! Get real! Don’t get me wrong. I am NOT complaining, or even saying that my job is harder than anyone else. I would not trade being able to stay at home with Jack for anything. As Rob says, I would most likely end up in therapy if Jack were in daycare. This would be caused by my constant worrying all day! Is he crying? Is he hungry? Is he getting the attention he needs? Is he sitting in a dirty diaper? Yes, I am that mom, and I am proud of it! This little boy means the world to me, and I feel so lucky every single day to be his caretaker and mom!

So what does our day look like? Or, my “job”?

Starting between 6-7 a.m. he wakes, usually in a VERY good mood! I walk into see this little, beautiful smiling face looking up at me, and I love it! We head down to get a bottle, which I usually make one- handed because he is still waking up and is not ready to be put on the floor to play yet. Jack has his bottle as we cuddle and talk. About 30 min later I get to eat my breakfast, which is now a protein shake because drinking your breakfast is much easier when you are also trying to entertain a baby while eating. Jack plays for a while, which includes me making sure he doesn’t put anything odd in his mouth, squeeze one of the animals to hard, fall over while holding onto something while trying to stand-up, ect. Then he eats his solid food breakfast, which he now tends to eat more of if he is able to watch Sesame Street while doing so! You say bad mom? I say, if it gets the kid to eat his solids! After breakfast we change diaper, which he now loves to squirm all around while doing. This of course makes it pretty interesting, and quite the task! Imagine putting a diaper on a small puppy, while try to entertain him at the same time so he will be still! We are now headed up to change for our morning walk. I put Jack on the floor with a toy, which sometimes works, and sometimes he wants to be held. So I put on my shirt, pick him up for a bit, and then we both sit on the floor while he plays with my tennis shoe while I am trying to put it on, but hey it’s entertainment! Then I change his outfit, which takes a while because sometimes he just doesn’t feel like changing or wearing a sweater for that matter. I sing to him, and entertain him while trying to also get him into the change of clothes. We head down stairs; I get my phone, water bottle, ect, all while holding him. Finally we are off! Get back from our walk, give him a bottle, he falls asleep for morning nap. I run and jump in the shower, because who knows if he will wake-up while I am in there or not. So I shower quickly, dress quickly, and no there is not time for blow drying the hair or putting on make-up. Now I need to eat something, wash bottles, clean up the house, fold some laundry, and get ready for him to wake-up!

He wakes; we change the diaper which is another battle of “pinning the diaper on the baby”. Go down to get a bottle which I make one handed again. Try and feed him while he is watching the more entering animals. We go outside and play, come inside and play, time to then fix his lunch and mine. Feed him, while also trying to eat depending on whether I got to eat while he was napping.

Now it’s time to get ready to run some errands, AKA get out of the house for a bit! Hmm, where should we go today that we can get to, and out of in about an hour, so I can get Jack home for his afternoon nap at 2:30? Oh, and we want to be in the car headed home by about 1:45 or else he will take a cat nap in the car and will be ready to roll once we arrive home, which also means no mental break for mom!

Ok, now pack the diaper bag, also one handed ( Have I mentioned jack now weighs 21 lbs?) which includes, making a bottle to-go, re-filling wipes, making sure we have a toy and putting the BOB in the car ( which also weights about 40 lbs! no sweat, right!?). Get Jack in his car seat, diaper bag in, and we are set! Arrive at our destination; grab cart liner, diaper bag, and Jack. Or BOB, diaper bag, and Jack, depending on the place. If using a cart fumble with cart liner to put it in place while holding jack. Half way through trip Jack no longer wishes to sit in the cart I of course I pick him up while pushing the cart.

Check out, get everything back in the car and head home. Back home get everything out of the car while holding Jack, give Jack a bottle and he goes down for last nap. OH! Just kidding… he decides he doesn’t wish to take his last nap today. No break for mommy until jack goes to bed now! New game plan! Time to think of ways to entertain him for the next 5 hours! We read books, play with the animals, go outside, make a few more bottles, have a solid food snack, watch sesame street video he LOVES for the millionth time ( I know all the words!) and around 5 head out to take our dog Gracie for a walk. Now imagine pushing a stroller, while walking a dog who doesn’t walk in a straight line…oh yes, fun fun! Around this time I start texting daddy, to see when he is going to be leaving work for today…because mommy has not had a break all day! That’s right at this point I have been going full steam ahead since about 6:30 a.m. that’s 12 hours and counting…and you think your day is long. Mine is not even over yet!

Get back from our walk feed Jack dinner play some more, and start getting Jack ready for bath around 6:45. The garage door opens HAAAA! Music to my ears daddy is home!! J Continue bathing jack, while talking with daddy about his day! Get Jack into his jammies, read a book, feed a bottle and he is down for the night around 7:30-8.

So now I get to relax while my wonderful husband makes us dinner! This lasts about 30-40 min, and then it’s time to fold some more laundry, wash someone bottles, pick up the house and generally get ready for the next day! The next thing I know its 9p.m. and it’s time to hit the bed, because Jack will more than likely wake-up at least once in the middle of the night with a wet diaper, and needing a bottle!

So that’s a pretty typical day. But of course, there are always variations but you get the just of it. HAAA! So, yes! To all the stay-at-home-moms out there! Kudos!