Update: 14 months

Well, we are still trying to get settled into Bemidji. Adam is enjoying his job at TrekNorth Jr. and Sr. High School and Jack and I get to spend all day together at home and exploring our new town.

Jack had his 1-year-appointment when he was about 13 months old. He was in the 10th percentile for weight at 20 1/2 lbs and the 50th percentile for height at 29 inches. He was very upset to get four shots that day, including his first flu vaccine!

Jack is soooo close to walking right now! He cruises along furniture and behind his little shopping cart. He also lets go for just a second and stands on his own before he realizes it! We hope he'll be running around by Christmastime.

He still just has two teeth! He has definitely been "teething" lately though....lots of drool and fussy nights. We expect four of his top teeth to bust through any day now...(although we've been saying that for months).

Jack does a few baby tricks too: he claps and gives high fives, he says "beow" or "ka ka" (meow or kitty) when he sees our cat, and he dances when he hears certain songs. He loves playing peek-a-boo behind the couch and also loves sitting with a book and "reading" out loud. He can brush his own hair and teeth, although he confuses the two occasionally. He still loves bath time and hates getting his diaper changed. And, of course, he's still the cutest little guy there ever was!

Happy First Birthday Jack!

Today is Jack's first birthday!!!!



I cannot believe our little JackAttack is already a year old. It seems like yesterday that we were in the NICU watching him hooked up to all those machines! How far he has come in twelve months!





Here are some updates on what Jack, the one-year-old, can do:

• He is about 20 pounds, we think (we haven't scheduled his doctor's appt yet). He is still wearing some of his 6 mo. clothes, but also wears some 12 month (Baby clothes sizes are all over the place!).

• He has two adorable little bottom teeth!
  

• He can stand up against furniture really well. He pulls himself up from the floor and can stand for a long time, just looking around.
  

• He can "cruise" along furniture just a little bit.
  

• He still does the "army crawl." I'm pretty sure he's never going to do the "normal" crawl, he'll just skip to walking.
  
  
• He can use a cup without a sippy lid to limited success. More than half the water makes it into his mouth! With the sippy lid, he has perfected it!
  

• He loves bath time, any toy with wheels, and playing peek-a-boo. His giggle is the best sound in the world.
  

Happy Birthday, Jack, we love you so much!

Big Changes

Well, the Lanz family has gone through some big changes since my last post.

The biggest change is that we have moved from Colorado to Minnesota! We knew we eventually wanted to make the move back, and Adam finishing school seemed like good timing. It was really difficult to leave all the friends and family and the life that we had built there, but we want to raise Jack around all his grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. We are currently living with Adam's parents (thanks Sandy and Tom!) until Adam finds a teaching job and we know where we're going to end up. It's getting to be crunch-time for the beginning of the school year; so...if he doesn't get a job by September 5th, we'll start looking for other things.

Jack is really enjoying being around family and having kids to play with every day. His cousins William and Eliana stayed with us for the last two weeks and they both love "Jackie." Eliana always brought Jack his binky when it wasn't in his mouth and William would sing and dance to try to make Jack laugh.

It has quieted down a little bit with the McKeevers gone, but Jack still has plenty of playmates. Adam and I are home all day (obviously), as is Grandma Sandy and Uncle Michael. Grandpa Tom makes Jack giggle and scream with delight when he comes home from work in the evening. And, there are always a few daycare kids or haircut appointments to keep us all entertained and busy.

Jack has some new tricks of his own, however. He has his first tooth! It is really adorable and sharp! This has definitely pushed me to start the weaning process! Jack gets one bottle of formula a day and I only nurse him three times a day. We'll cut that down to two in a week or so, then to one, then hopefully he'll be one and we can put him on regular cow's milk rather than formula.

He is also showing interest in climbing up the stairs and standing up against furniture. He is definitely a few months away from walking, but we'll keep practicing. I can't believe his first birthday is coming up next month! In some ways, this first year has felt like forever (I can't even remember not having Jack around) but in other ways it has flown by (wasn't he just a four-pounder?). I can't wait to see what the next year has in store for Jack!

9 Month Check-Up

Jack had his 9 month doctor's appointment today. The doctor said he is looking great and is the "most proportional" baby she has ever seen: he was in the 20th percentile for weight, length, and head circumference!

Here are some of the highlights of what Jack is up to lately:

• He weighs 18 lbs 3 oz! I look back at pictures of him when he was a newborn and cannot believe that my chunky little boy was once only four pounds!
• He rolls around whenever he wants. He can get from one end of the living room to the other in just a few rolls. He can also pivot himself so that he can start from any direction in his rolling madness.
  
• No crawling yet. He is enjoying his tummy time a lot more and actually sleeps on his tummy most of the time now. The doctor said not to be worried that he's not crawling because he seems to be getting everywhere he wants to go by rolling.
• He "talks" all the time. No real words yet, but he definitely is making all different sounds, including rolling his R's constantly.
• No teeth yet, either. Jack still drools all the time, which is usually a precursor to teeth, but nothing so far.
  
• Despite his lack of teeth, he's a huge eater. He definitely prefers solids over breastfeeding nowadays. He eats oatmeal and fruit in the morning, a snack of fruit and cheerios or puffs in the afternoon, and rice cereal and vegetables or meat in the evening. He gobbles up his solids and makes a big mess of himself. What a big boy!

Boulder Creek Festival and Cadi!

Here are some pictures of Jack at the Boulder Creek Festival yesterday. He had a great time seeing the sights and meeting his friend Cadi in real life! Cadi's mom Cori is a coworker of mine. We were both pregnant at the same time and both had preemies in the same NICU! We always swap stories about motherhood and our darling babies.


Cadi's not too impressed with meeting Jack...



Chillin' in their strollers.





So cute together!!

7 Month Update

Jack is now over 7 months old. Where does the times go? He's also almost 17 lbs! He's quadrupled his weight since he was born. He's still growing out of some of his 3 month clothes, but he's mostly on to the 6 month size now.

The other big news is that he is sitting up on his own! He loves being able to sit up and reach for his toys and see the world around him.

He's also growing in some hair (it looks a little reddish to me) and his eyes are definitely not blue anymore...in fact, they are the exact green-brown color of Adam's.

Surprisingly (for me), I'm still breastfeeding. At first I thought "I'll try it for a few days," then it was "At least for the first six weeks..." then I thought I'd quit once I went back to work full time, but...I'm still doing it. I pump twice a day, every day, at work and feed Jack twice in the evening and once in the morning at home. So, it's a lot of work. But hooray for me! At this point, it would be harder to quit than to keep on going, so I don't see stopping any time in the immediate future. Anybody have any suggestions on weaning (and dealing with it physically and emotionally)?

Okay, that's all for now. I know I'm not very good at updating this, but the evenings are pretty short when I get home at 4:30 and Jack goes to sleep at 7:30. I usually want to crawl into bed right after we put him down!

Six Month Update

Jack is such a happy baby! He just had his six-month-old doctor's appointment today and he is doing very well. He weighs 15 lbs 8oz and is 25 1/4 inches long. He is in about the 10th percentile for both; this is the first time he's been on the charts! Jack also got another round of immunizations today, which he hated. I tried nursing him while he got the shots...I think it helped both of us!

Jack has been eating solids for about a month now. We started on rice and oat cereals and then on to the orange/yellow vegetables: squash, carrots, sweet potatoes. We are now trying out fruits; we've done apple and pears so far with bananas coming up next. He loves eating solids so much! He gobbles them up and cries when he finishes; he is a little piggy just like his mom :)

Jack again proved himself as a great little traveler. We recently drove down to Santa Fe and Taos, NM when my mom and sisters came to town. It was a long drive down there, a long day of day of sight-seeing, and another long day driving back. By the end of it, Jack was so ready to be out of that carseat! While we were down in New Mexico, we ate a lot of Mexican food, did some shopping in the cute plazas, and saw some great architecture. We also made a stop at Bandelier National Monument were there are cliff dwellings of the ancient Pueblo Indians. Totally cool. Jack enjoyed it all; Adam wore him in the Baby Bjorn carrier most of the time when we were trekking around. Jack just sat quietly and looked around, taking it all in.

This past weekend we helped Jack celebrate his first Easter. He woke up early to find that the Easter Bunny had visited! In his basket were a sunhat, a onesie, and a Curious George book (thanks, Grandma Mary). However, I think his favorite part was chewing on his felt Easter basket. Maybe next year he'll be a little more into it. Later in the day, we dressed Jack up in his Easter finest and went over to Adam's aunt Judy's in Denver. All the Schmidts and Webers were there. We enjoyed great food and company and Jack entertained everyone with his babbling and projectile vomiting (what fun!).
Jack is definitely at a really fun age right now. He has such a cute little personality: talking, laughing, squealing, and constantly kicking his legs. He is pretty much sleeping through the night now, and can almost sit up on his own. He rolls over consistently and is working on learning the finer art of the sippy cup. We are thoroughly enjoying our little JackAttack.

He's Growing Up So Fast!

Our little JackAttack is now over 5 months old! Here's what he's been up to lately:

• He can roll over all the way! He starts on his tummy and kicks his legs and all of a sudden he's on his back!
  
• He has started eating solids. We started with rice cereal once a day and now we're going to start adding vegetables and other grains and move to solids twice a day. He doesn't get all of it in his mouth, but does eat most of it! He loves playing around with the spoon and bowl, though.
• He just started experimenting with a sippy cup this morning. He didn't really understand its purpose and just wanted to chew on the handles.
• We think he has started teething. He had a really fussy morning on Sunday. Adam was home alone with him and tried everything: pacifier, teething toys, fingers, bottle, wet washcloth, etc....until finally giving in and giving him a little Tylenol after an hour of inconsolable screaming. He slept for two hours and then woke up and fussed for a little bit. Later that night he had another screaming session but was able to sleep most of the night. I think a little nub of a tooth is popping out of his top gum, though.
• He is going through a major growth spurt. At the beginning of February, he really hadn't gained very much weight since Christmas. Since then, however, he's packed on a couple of pounds. We think he's nearing 15 (!!!) pounds. He's still wearing 3-6 month clothing and size 2 diapers, though.
  
• Ever since Grandpa Tom came to visit (and be Jack's "manny" for a week--thank you!), Jack cannot stop making raspberry sounds. He thinks it's the funniest thing ever! He'll raspberry, then wait for you to do it back, and then he'll do it again and so on. It is an endless but hilarious game.
• He is still super super happy all the time. We really are spoiled to have such an adorable and personable baby.
  

The best part...

I forgot one of the most important milestones that Jack has reached...he can laugh out loud! He also SQUEALS with delight sometimes. It is absolutely adorable :)

Talkative Little Guy

Our little Jack loves to talk. He babbles pretty much all day. He can make most all the vowel sounds, and a lot of consonants. He has even starting babbling in French!

When I went back to work full-time, we hired a bilingual nanny to watch Jack every day. Her name is Amandine, she is a former co-worker of Adam's, and she is wonderful! She hangs out with Jack at our apartment every day. On Mondays and Tuesdays they go to playgroup; the one on Mondays is for French language speakers, just like Amandine. She also reads to him in French. We all swear his cries and babbles are starting to have a French accent!

Adam also tries to speak and sing to Jack in Spanish, and I try my best to throw in a little French and Spanish into our conversations, as well. We can almost see all the little synapses in his brain firing and growing! We, of course, think he's already a genius, but we'll try to give him every advantage we can, French-speaking nanny included!

Other news of note:

• Jack probably weighs about 13 pounds (on our inaccurate bathroom scale)
• He can roll over very easily onto his side from his back
• He can hold his head up very well on his tummy (see below)
• He watches us very intently while we eat. We're pretty sure he'll be ready to try some solids in the next few weeks (the doctor said anytime after five months is okay)
• He is wearing size 3-6 month clothing now; most of it fits him pretty well, but some are still too big, and he is making the transition from size 1 to size 2 diapers.
• He sleeps about four to five hours at a time during the night...which is a huge improvement from when we had to wake him every three hours! (I usually go to sleep the same time he does every night...around 8pm!)
• He is the smiliest, happiest baby we have ever seen. Everyone comments on how social and smiley he is.
• Il est tres mignon!

Four Months Old!

Jack had his 4-month doctor's appointment this morning. He is doing great!

Adam and I were making bets as to how much he would weigh, and Adam won (I was conservative with a guess of 11 lbs). Jack is 12 pounds and 1.5 oz now! He is also 23.5 inches long. We are super excited that Jack is finally measuring on the charts for weight; he is only in the 5th percentile, but we're sure he'll catch up soon.

He's been such a happy, smiley baby lately. He is so fun to be around, to play with, and to cuddle. Since both Adam and I went back to work full time after the holidays, Jack has been spending his days with his nanny, Amandine. She is a former co-worker of Adam's and loves kids and has experience. She comes to our apartment every day and spends the whole day playing with Jack. They both have a great time!

Another change is that Jack is making the transition from the bassinet in our bedroom to his "big boy crib" in his own room. It was more of a transition for me, frankly, as I cried a little the first night he spent in there (my baby is growing up!).

Jack is also advancing in other ways, he can: roll over "halfway" (from his tummy to his side and from his side to his back), hold on to things and bring them to his mouth, sleep five hours in a row (this is what Adam and I are the most excited about!), and continues to make new consonant sounds every day. Amandine is great about giving him "tummy time" every day and he can now lift his head up pretty well when he's lying on his tummy.

I think that he's outgrown his "colic" (or whatever it was) in the evenings, but still has somewhat of a hair trigger. Overall, Jack is progressing normally and is generally a very agreeable and happy four-month-old. We can't wait to see what the next four months have in store for us!

Christmas Adventures

We had a great time in Minnesota over Christmas.

Jack was a good little traveler; he slept the entire time on the bus and plane going to MN. There were several other babies on the flight but Jack was the best behaved and the cutest. We were lucky he was in a good mood because we were all over the place; trying to juggle a three-month-old and all of his accessories (bag, diaper bag, car seat, sling, bottles, etc) through security was pretty hilarious. Adam and I were running around trying to look like we knew what we were doing. We decided Jack won't fly again until he can carry his own bags. We also decided if we ever fly anywhere for Christmas, everyone is getting gift cards from us (and we won't ask for books again either).

After one night in St. Paul, we went up to Alexandria to spend some time with my mom. Jack met his great-grandma Gloria and great-uncle Tom.

This night, Jack started his "I'm going to be fussy for no reason from 7-9 pm" phase that lasted throughout our trip. He just didn't know whether to be hungry, sleepy, awake, happy, or sad. I figured out after a week that I shouldn't take it personally, and holidays are stressful for babies too.

Aunts Lulu and Lissa, and Uncle Luke came to Alex the day before Christmas Eve. We had a great time trying to figure out the game Lexagon and discovered that its absurdity should become a new Christmas tradition. We also visited my great-aunt Eunice who lives in Bethany Home. She loved meeting Jack and loved his adorable hat and coat.

Christmas Eve we went to church in the afternoon. Jack decided that church was a really good time to fill his diaper. In addition to that fun, there was a little girl (daughter of two of my high school classmates) sitting in front of us in church. She spent the entire service pointing at Jack and saying "Baby!" It was pretty funny, and I'm sorry to say I couldn't entirely concentrate on the sermon or the hymns with all the baby-ness going on. After church we went back to my mom's and gave her the newest shirt in our Ugly Christmas Sweater family collection. (Lissa and Laura forgot their sweaters, so they picked up some replacements at Walgreen's).
We ate Christmas Chicken and lefse and then opened presents. Jack got some adorable clothes and books and toys from everyone in the Scott family. We tried to put him to bed during the gift opening, but he wanted to be part of the action, so he stayed up and watched us open presents until midnight.

Christmas Day we went down to St. Cloud to be with Adam's family for a few days. We went to Adam's grandma Juletta's house. Jack was passed around by aunts and uncles and grandparents and slept through it all. We played the fast-paced and chaotic gift exchange game, ate a delicious meal, and then went home and slept (exhaustion was really starting to get to all of us).

On the 26th, Adam's parents hosted the extended Lanz Family Christmas. Jack was again passed around and loved by all. We played another gift exchange game and ate a lot more delicious food, and went to bed exhausted again.

On the 27th of December (doesn't it sound like I'm listing the 12 days of Christmas?!), we went back up to Alexandria for Jack's baptism. Both our families were there, and Jack got to meet one of his godmothers, Sara. Her family had been in Arkansas for Christmas with her in-laws, so she didn't meet Jack until the church service when she helped his other godmother Lissa welcome Jack into God's family. The service was very nice (and Jack was well-behaved, of course) and was followed by a small reception at my mom's apartment. All of our brothers and sisters and parents were there to help us celebrate.

After the party, we went back to St. Cloud to celebrate yet another Christmas with Adam's immediate family. We had a delicious meal of lasagna and opened more presents. Jack got books, I got food, and Adam got beer...we were all pretty happy.

After a few more days in St. Paul (during which Jack met some more friends and we ate more delicious food), we finally came back to Colorado on December 30th. Jack celebrated our homecoming by sleeping longer than ever before: five hours in a row!

We all had a wonderful time over Christmas. Jack was so excited to meet new people and they were pretty excited to meet him too!