Portraits from Our Long Weekend

What a nice weekend it 'twas...time with family, lunch at the Kennedy School, walks around Mississippi Avenue, a singular glass of wine, warm comfort food at Serratto, a blustery autumnal walk around Northwest and lots of baby watching.

Does the weekend have to end?

Jack getting ready for Grandpa Bob's visit with some pajama push-ups

Showing off with synchronized push-ups

 Chillin' with Grandpa Bob and Grandma Amy,

we pretty much watched this baby all weekend

Babies are the new TV

Clasping is the step before clapping and boy oh boy,

does this boy want to learn how to clap 

Trying Papa's guitar on for size, a natural?

Somehow this boy is all smiles after pulling ANOTHER all-nighter,

 teething is the pits, but Baby Jack is well worth the lack of sleep

Long weekends are the best.

Long Weekend!

Did anyone else notice how goregous the moon was this evening? There is nothing like working in an elementary school on a full moon. Well, perhaps working in a junior high school...Anyway, let's just say it was a bit of a wild day! I am so grateful for a long weekend, a visit from my Dad and Amy and I am grateful for this little boy. He just gets cuter by the day.

P.S. He and Kya are best friends, they go everywhere together. It is awesome.

Cool Toy Tuesday: ASL Alphabet Blocks

Organic ASL Alphabet Blocks via Little Sapling Toys

Language has always been fascinating to me. When I was a kid I used to pretend that I knew how to sign. My friend and I would be out and about signing to one another as if we knew what we were doing. We didn't. We would also pretend we spoke a multitude of foreign languages. We didn't. Embarassing, yes, but only in retrospect. At the time we were just kids playing around with language. 

At this point in my life I have acquired a few real signs through an ASL class in college and by learning from a student of mine several years ago. I use a few signs regularly in class and Rian and I have been working on using some baby signing with Jack. I see towers of words in our future with these cool ASL blocks!

Well Child Visit: 6 Months

Jack and I visited our lovely pediatrician on Friday. She always makes me feel so comfortable and answers my 5,000 nervous-first-time-mama questions with ease and a smile.

No surprise to us, Jack is doing great! He is meeting all of his developmental milestones, toughed it out through quite a few shots and did not sit still for a minute through the entire examination (we have definitely entered a new chapter in this baby's development, as evidenced by the two photos I was able to snap in between corraling Jack on the blue table). He also managed to rip apart the entire exam table's worth of paper, that crinkle sound was just too tempting!  

Despite all of the new food we have been trying, the round' the clock nursings as of late and his sweet little arm rolls, our little sparrow is finally living up to his nickname, he was a bit on the thin side, only weighing in at the 27th percentile. His height continues to be fairly consistent along the growth chart. Grow Little Sparrow, grow!

Jack Milton, 6 Months
16 pounds, 9 ounces
27 inches

Saturday Morning Checklist

Made it to Saturday morning. Thank.Goodness.For.Saturday.

Here is my checklist for a successful Saturday morning:

• A husband who took our little nocturnal 6-month-old downstairs to play at 6:30am, so this exhausted mama could have a few extra hours of sleep, CHECK
• Flannel morning attire and a warm bed to call home all morning, CHECK
• Tired baby who finds his way back into the bed via said amazing husband for a long morning nap, CHECK
• Husband who heads to the grocery store to get fixin's for brunch and dinner while said baby and mama are hunkering down in said cozy, warm bed, CHECK

Coming up some day...Jack's 6 month well child visit,  a half-year birthday letter for our little owl, er, sparrow and possibly a very honest post about being a new working mama (spoiler alert: it isn't easy)