Getting ready for Christmas

We are busy in the Lanz house right now, trying to get everything ready for our trip to Minnesota! For the first time since we moved to Colorado, we are flying home for Christmas. After last year's (horrible) road trip filled with car trouble, sub-zero temperatures, and frozen pipes I vowed never to drive back in the winter again. So...Jack's first flight is coming up on Saturday! I'm sure I'll be more rattled about the experience than him. I'm nervous about how we'll be able to comfort him if he (as Adam calls it) starts "blasting" on the plane. He can be a little "blaster" sometimes.

When we get to Minnesota, we'll be picked up by the Hjelles and stay at their place for a night before heading up to Alexandria for the next few days. We'll spend Christmas Eve in Alexandria where Jack will meet his Great Grandma Gloria and Great Uncle Tom and maybe some other Southward relatives. On Christmas Day we'll head down to St. Cloud to spend a few days with the Lanz side of the family. Jack will meet numerous aunts and uncles (Sara, Darren, Tommy, Michelle, Joe, Kathy, and Michael) and his cousins William and Eliana. We'll go to three Christmases in St. Cloud...the extended Lanz family, the Weber family, and the immediate Lanz family.

On Sunday the 27th, Jack will be baptized. He will become a fifth-generation member of my family's church, Calvary Lutheran, in Alexandria. Both his godmothers, Lissa and Sara, will be there to help welcome him into the Christian faith.

After the baptism and all the other adventures I'm sure we'll have in Minnesota, we'll head back down to St. Paul and hopefully meet some of Jennie's college friends before we head back to Colorado on December 30th! We have a lot planned, but everyone assures me that I won't have any trouble finding someone to hold Jack while we're home. We're getting really excited to see everyone and help Jack celebrate his first Christmas!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Nine weeks ago....

And today...

Goo Gah!

Jack likes to chatter away while he eats. Usually it's "aahhh," "ooohhh," "eeeh," and the occasional "wehhhh."

While eating this afternoon, he momentarily stopped sucking, broke the latch, and yelled "GOO GAH!" then immediately when back to eating.

I laughed out loud and then told him how proud I was that he is learning his consonant sounds! Good job Jack! We'll teach him later that it's not polite to talk while eating.

P.S. Thanks for the new outfit, Grandma Mary; he is really is the "Most Adorable Player!"

What Jack Can Do

Jack seems to change every single day. Besides gaining weight (we think he's up to about 9 pounds now), he's mostly right on track developmentally for his age. We'll continue to use his "adjusted age" until the doctors are sure he's caught up with his actual age cohort. Still, we are pretty impressed with all the different things he can do. Here's a partial list of his achievements so far:

• Smile! (My personal favorite)
• Laugh? (sort of a devious chuckle in his sleep)
• Roll over halfway
• Hold his head up 45 degrees when on his tummy
• Watch and follow an object 180 degrees
• Find his hands and suck on them
• Hold his head straight when sitting up
• Look adorable

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a nice Thanksgiving Day here at the Lanz house. Jack was awake most of the day and enjoyed being held by his Aunt Lissa and Uncle Luke. They met Jack for the first time and fell immediately in love (and who wouldn't?!).

Our Thanksgiving dinner was amazing, everyone helped out: Adam made the turkey, Lissa made the cranberries, Luke made the stuffing, and Jennie made the green bean casserole and pumpkin pie. It was great to share a wonderful meal with family and friends (Adam's college friend Mike came over as well). We are all sufficiently stuffed and ready for bed...we want to be able to wake up early to get all the Black Friday shopping deals!

Milestone

New baby milestone achieved: Jack just graduated from "Newborn" sized diapers to size one! Unfortunately, the graduation came about because of a particularly messy "leak." Anyway, Congratulations Big Boy Jack!

The Many Ways to Carry Jack (and he looks cute in all of them!)

In Perspective

Adam did the math: If Jack continues to double his weight every two months, he'll be an 8000 lb two-year-old.

Big Baby

Adam just brought Jack home from his two-month doctor's appointment. Remember how I said there is no way Jack was over eight pounds? Well, guess what?! He's 8 lbs 6 oz! That means he has gained 25% of his body weight since his last appointment (the nurse said they try to shoot for a 10% gain). And remember, he got down to 4 lb 3 oz right after he was born. He is also now 20 1/2 inches long (up from 19 at his two-week appt).

Jack also had his first round of immunizations. He screamed when he got the shots but then seemed to forget about it ten seconds later. The doctor said he might be fussy for the next few days. The doctor also okayed him to fly home to Minnesota for Christmas! Yea!

Dr. H said we should just keep on doing what we've been doing (including feeding him at least every three hours) and that Jack looks great. I was hoping she would say we could try to get him to sleep longer during the night, but alas, it looks like I will be severely sleep-deprived for a few more months. However, I will willingly feed him as often as he wants if it means he continues to be such a weight-gain champ!

New Blog!

I thought it would be interesting and fun to start a blog about the daily adventures of Jack Lanz, baby extraordinaire! He doesn't do much besides sleeping and eating (and of course, pooping) these days, but hopefully that will start changing soon.

Jack has his two-month appointment (already?!) on Thursday. Since I have to work, Adam is taking him alone. I've already prepared a list of questions for him to ask the doctor! It's amazing that we haven't had to call the doctor at all yet with all my questions and concerns. Babycenter.com and What to Expect the First Year have been great resources to allay most of my new-mom worries. And, of course, laid-back Adam has been helpful as usual in helping me to see that Jack really is happy and healthy and thriving even though he had a rough start at life.

Since we returned our rented baby scale at the end of October, we haven't been able to weigh Jack with any accuracy--our bathroom scale says he is 8 1/2 pounds, and I don't believe that! If he has continued to gain one ounce a day, he should be around 7 1/2 pounds by now! I can't believe he's almost doubled his weight in two months! If I did that, I'd be...ugh, I don't want to think about it. But to think that he has become a (somewhat) chubby baby with a couple of chins and some fat creases on his legs in such a short time is amazing. I'm so proud of my baby boy (and myself for sticking with breastfeeding for as long as I have)!