Category: Jack

Posted on by John

In the past 3 weekends, Christine and I have attended three weddings. The spring really is wedding season I guess. We still have 2 more on our dance card in the coming couple of months.

I wrote a little about the wedding we attended in Guanajuato and posted the photos from it here. The Hill-Hernandez wedding was a lot of fun, and for us was a mini-vacation to a place tht we’d long wanted to visit.

On the weekend of June 4th, Christine, Jack and I flew up to Dallas to attend Angela Pierce’s wedding to David Waters (Angela was Christine’s roommate in college). Christine was one of the bride’s maids in the wedding. Jack wore his little white wedding outfit (that just barely fits him anymore) and was super cute. He did well at the wedding, but since it was a full Catholic Mass, we had to take a break about half way through to walk around a bit out in the foyer of the church, and to change diapers. Grandmother Mary was with us too, so she took care of Jack a little at the wedding and then at the reception. The reception was too much fun. Angela and David hired a mariachi band (2nd wedding in two weeks with a mariachi band, woohoo!) and after they left, the DJ was pretty good. Jack left the reception with Mary when he had had enough of the loud noise and strange people… not that anyone there was strange, just strange to him – 😉

Christine and I stayed until the wee hours of the morning… ok, maybe we stayed until 10:30 or so, but we closed the party down. And man were we partying. Christine was dancing. I was dancing. We danced with each other, and with other people… it was a lot of fun and it was great to stay out all night with friends.

Photos from the Pierce-Waters Wedding here.

Then, this past weekend (June 11th) we went to Eagle Lake to attend Stefan Schuster’s wedding to his fiance Periwinkle Ferguson. They were married at 5:30 p.m. on a glorious Saturday evening outside (which in Texas means it was 105°F). But that didn’t slow anybody down, least of all Jack. It was a really nice small heartfelt wedding ceremony in the bride’s proverbial backyard (he father owns the house that the wedding was held at), mixing traditional wedding elements with folk elements, and lots of love. They wrote their own vows, and you could tell they were very special and from the heart. Jack wore his little white wedding outfit again (and I think this’ll be the last time). Jack played in the grass at my feet during the ceremony, and because it was so hot outside, we were allowed to drink beer during the wedding (rock on! Actually, I don’t know if we were allowed, but TJ’s husband Jeff graciously brought me a Shiner Bock, so I had to drink it!)

Photos from the wedding are here. Sorry that they’re pretty much all of Jack…

We stayed at the Schuster wedding until about 8:30 p.m. before making the trek back to Austin (about an hour and a half drive at 90 miles per hour). Did you know that bugs make a really loud smack on the front windshield of a Volvo late at night? I swear we must have hit every damn bug between Eagle Lake and Austin Saturday night. It sounded like I was sitting inside of a snare drum as we rolled down the highway, and when I went to look at the car Sunday morning, it looked as if the car was used as a prop in the movie Starship Troopers. ICK!

So, three weddings in three weekends (and we actually had to miss Jill and David Aronson’s (former co-worker) wedding on June 4th) and we’re beat. We’re taking the next weekend off (Stephanie Stein’s (old Bellville family friends) wedding is this coming weekend, and I just dont think we have the energy to make it to it, and to do all of the stuff around the house that we’ve been meaning to do but have been putting off).

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Posted on by John

I took the day off today because Christine was feeling a little under the weather (we’ve both been suffering through some kind of flu-type affliction). It was fun to spend a day with Jack and my wife… made me wish I could do it more often.

Since I wasn’t working all day, I decided to shoot a bunch of video of Jack so I could put a movie up of some of the things he does now that he’s six months old.

Here’s what I came up with:

Jack at Six Months

We shot some more footage of him eating later in the day, but the video was already getting too long… maybe I’ll put that footage up later… maybe not.

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Posted on by John

Believe it or not, Christine and I didn’t take a million photos in May… probably because we were travelling too much. So, here’s the roundup from this month:

Holding a Bottle – Jack can sort of hold his bottle now.
Changing Table – Photos of Jack on his changing table after a bath.
Jack’s Faces – Jack was making funny faces at me one night.

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Posted on by John

On Monday of this week, Jack turned six months old.

Jack had a doctor’s appointment on Monday, so we got to see Dr. Treybig again, and Jack had to put up with those mean nasty shots again (only 2 this time though).

Dr. Treybig said Jack is looking good, growing well, and that he’s very strong. He’s hitting is developmental milestones… she also said he’s cute (which we already knew).

Jack was 16 pounds 8 ounces on Monday, was 26 inches long, and had a 44 centimeter head circumference. Jack’s measurements put him in the 50th percentile for his age-group. Jack’s growing steadily but surely…

He took his two shots like a man… that is to say he cried a bit, but was fine after a couple of minutes of comforting by his Mommy.

Jack’s smiling a lot now as a six-month old. He laughs alot, and enjoys himself during the day. He can sit up, and grabs things really well. We think he’s teething, as he’s constantly drooling and putting things in his mouth. He can almost hold his bottle in his mouth to feed himself (that is to say, he can hold it, but doesn’t always hold it at the right angle). He likes to try and feed himself with a spoon, but 90% of the feed he tries to feed himself ends up anywhere but his mouth if Mommy or Daddy aren’t controlling the spoon. Jack also goes to bed predictably at 7:30pm every night, but recently, he’s started going to bed on one end of the bed, and then after we’ve put him down, he crawls/wiggles/squirms to the other end of the bed to play with his crib toy before eventually falling asleep. We end up checking on him when we go to bed, and he’s so cute, sleeping there like a little angel, butt in the air, one hand in his mouth, the other out to his side grasping his little bear.

It was also Christine and my seven year wedding anniversay on Monday. We celebrated by going to bed early after watching a show or two on TV that we’d Tivo’d. We also treated ourselves to some Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches.

Oh, and we put down a deposit on the house we’re going to build. It should be ready by November, and we’re really excited about it… should be exactly what we’re looking for though it’ll take a while longer to get it than I was hoping.

So, to celebrate Jack’s six month birthday, we present this movie:

Where's Jack

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Posted on by John

I pointed out in my previous post that Josh had to change his first diaper this past weekend…

Read this if you want a quick chuckle. It’s too funny to read about Josh’s first diaper changing experience.

Josh: Christine and I and especially Jack appreciate your hard work bud.

Average Rating: 4.8 out of 5 based on 156 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

I’ve been traveling pretty much all month, thus we haven’t updated the website with new photos. We had two 512MB CF cards full of photos last night when I downloaded them from the camera. Here are some of the better ones:

  • On the couch – Photos of Jack and Wesley on the couch together, from yesterday.
  • Frank turns 60! – Some random photos from our recent trip to Dallas and Frank’s 60th birthday weekend extravaganza.
  • Payton and Peggie – We took some great photos of Peggy and Payton from their last visit.
  • The Arboreteum – We went to the Arboreteum for a picnic one Saturday with Jack. Jack enjoyed the open air and the trees, and especially the big pertified cows.
  • Jack’s First Real Food – Carrots. Blech! Mommy made Jack eat veggies for his first real food. Carrots must be the messiest food on the planet too!
  • Trip to the Park – Christine and I took Jack to the park at the begining of April. It was fun, and we got to meet some of the local kids from the surrounding neighborhoods.

I’ll try to post my ruminations on my recent trip to Denver sometime this weekend or next week. Sneak peak: It was snowing really hard there on Thursday, and I had to drive an hour north to the technology and agricultural mecca of Loveland.

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Posted on by John

Christine, Jack and I met Debbie and Raymond at The Cheesecake Factory for dinner on Friday night. Everyone’s dinner was good, if the portions were just a tad big… next time, we’re just getting one apetizer and 4 deserts. The cheesecake was fantastic. We didn’t stay long as Debbie and Raymond were both a little under the weather, but it was good to see them nonetheless.

On Saturday, Peggy and Payton came up to babysit Jack for us. Payton and I hung new blinds and valances in the nursery, and we enjoyed visiting, before Christine and I headed out for a fun night together.

We left the house around 6:30, and headed to Z-Tejas for dinner. We didn’t have reservations, and someone forgot to tell us that it was Prom night in Austin. We parked the car, took about 10 steps toward the door of the restaurant, and headed back to the car. There was at least 50 people standing outside waiting for a table.

So we drove down Capitol of Texas Highway, trying to figure out what to do… since it was prom night, that pretty much shot our chances of eating anywhere with a cool view… so we decided to head downtown to see what might be fun.

We eventually had a valet take our car on 4th street, and walked into Malaga, but the air conditioning was tool cold, and was blowing right on us. We really kind of wanted to sit on a patio, and they didn’t have one, or at least, didn’t ask us if we wanted to sit outside. (We noticed that they do have a small patio on our way out that had an open table on it).

So we walked next door to Fadó’s and quickly found a seat on the patio. Patrick Fleming was playing live music, and we were sitting under an open sky. The music on his website gives a good idea of how good he is, like this original: Nowhere, USA. I ordered a Black and Tan (what else do you order at an Irish Pub. We ate a Ahi Tuna Ceviche from the apetizer menu, and then sat back and enjoyed the music. Patrick did a good job covering a lot of popular music and he was fun to watch (we were sitting right behind him).

After Patrick Fleming went off the stage, we stayed to listen to a couple of songs by The Blaggards, an irish punk band from Houston. Go to their website and watch their irish punk version of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” … they’re pretty good and a lot of fun to watch in person.

On Sunday, we got up, and I cooked breakfast: Eggs and sausage, with homemade wheat bread toast. Peggy picked up the bread at Hruska’s on the way up from Houston on Saturday. If you haven’t stopped at Hruska’s in Ellinger on the way up from Houston… you need to next time. It’s on Highway 71, and is a little like stopping at the Czech Stop in West, Texas.

After Peggy and Payton left, Christine and I watched Super Size Me, the story of Morgan Spurlock and his 30 day McDonald’s only diet. Scary stuff. It’s a pretty compelling story, and will definitely make you think twice about ordering that Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese, or those 44 oz. drinks at the fast-food joint of your choice. I’m convinced that Jack will never eat at a fast-food restaurant in his life, and I won’t eat at one by choice again. I’ll find the place selling salads and apples at the airport, instead of making that quick stop at McDonald’s or Burger King in the future.

Check back for some cute photos of Jack and Payton and the rest of us.

Average Rating: 4.4 out of 5 based on 184 user reviews.

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Posted on by Christine

Jack rolled over yesterday!!! He is four and a half months now and getting to be such a big boy! He rolled from back to front and then got upset to find himself on his tummy. He did it for me twice yesterday and once for John today. He is also babbling… lots of vowel sounds with a goo, ga, and ba mixed in. It makes for lively conversation at dinner time.

We started feeding him fruits and vegetables last weekend. We started with carrots. He wasn’t crazy about them at first, but by the third day he was gobbling them up. Next came bananas. He LOVES bananas. He is cute while he eats… he gets so excited. Next up we try peas. I wonder how that will go.

Average Rating: 4.5 out of 5 based on 267 user reviews.

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Posted on by Christine

Tonight Jack didn’t cry at all when we put him to bed! He has come so far in a week! He had dosed off while I nursed him one last time for the day. Poor little guy was so tired. When I laid him down in his crib he opened his eyes, which is usually about the time he decides he doesn’t want to sleep and starts crying. He watched me as I tucked him in and set his little stuffed lamb on his chest. He laid there sweetly watching me as I prayed that God watch over him while he slept. I kissed my hand and touched his forehead wishing him good night and he closed his eyes and went to sleep! I watched him in disbelief for a minute and then quietly left the room.

It feels good to finally lay our sweet little baby down to sleep… quietly.

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Posted on by John

Today was a glorious day. Gosh it was gorgeous outside in Austin today.

Around noon, I went to Home Depot to buy some angle brackets and screws so I can hang the valances that Christine had Debbie get made for the baby room. While I was there, I also bought three water hose wranglers (you know, those boxes you store water hoses near the water spigot outside). One of them auto-retracts the hose for you… it’s spiffy.

When I got home, I started working in the yard. I raked most of the leaves out of the flower beds in the front yard, and then mulched them with the Black and Decker mulcher thingy I have. Then I spread new mulch down in one of the beds out front… I only had a few bags of mulch, and I’ll be buying more next weekend, along with some flowers for the beds out front.

I installed the hoses in two of the three hose wranglers I picked up.

I also rescued about 200 foot of water hose from the jungle on the south side of our house (that side is all ivy and ground cover, and the last owners of the house had left that poor water hose out in the jungle to die).

After all of that, I sprayed Sevin Dust bug killer on all of the plants and all around the house. Weirdly, though, I don’t think any of the spray actually came out of the applicator… No idea why, but I’ll take time to investigate the inner workings of the screw-on applicator next weekend.

I was exhausted by 5:30 p.m.

It was fun working outside, and I got the chance to listen to a lot of the new music on my iPod. I’ve decided that I really like The Used. The Postal Service has some catchy tunes, but some of their songs are weird. I like Eminem’s Encore album, and the Rob Zombie album I have … I think it’s called Hellbilly Delxue or something catchy like that.

I went inside and drank a cold glass of water. It tasted sooo good. Jack thought it looked good too, and when he grabbed it and pulled it towards his mouth, so, we let him try to drink it. It was hilarious, and after we got done drinking, he was soaking wet, as was I:

Thirsty Boy movie
Photos Here

After relaxing for a little while, Christine, Jack and I took a walk around the block. We stopped to smell the flowers, and tasted our toes on the way too:

Walk This Way movie
Photos Here

When we got home, Jack played in his exersaucer for a few minutes… it was a lot of fun, but I think it was toy overload..

Excersaucer movie

After playing, I went and got dinner from Freebirds (I’m sure burritos are on the Weight Watchers diet, somewhere). Mmmmmmmmm. Gooooood. Fooooood.

When I got home, it was Jack’s dinner time, then bath time, then bed time. He cried for 18 minutes (yes, my wife is a civil engineer and has the time written down) and was out. I think he was as tired as I am.

Looking forward to another week at work.

Oh, and by the way… I think Daylight Savings Time is a stupid idea (in the spring).

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Posted on by John

Last night, Christine and I got home from the Lockett wedding around 6:30. We quickly changed clothes, and then started Jack’s evening routine.

Jack ate dinner, then we fed him rice cereal, and then bathed him. Around 7:30, we fed him again, and by 8:00 or so he was in bed. Here’s the good news. He only cried for 10 minutes or so last night, and was out. For good.

At 8:45, Christine and I were in bed ourselves.

He didn’t wake up until 5:00 a.m. this morning… but, Daylight Savings Time was in effect, so it was really 6:00 (we forgot about DST until around 10:00).

I slept pretty good last night. Christine woke up at 5:00 wondering where Jack was, and sort of panicked (for a second) that he hadn’t woken up all night… then she realized he was peacfully sleeping, and she couldn’t believe it.

Christine and Jack got up and ate around 5:30 a.m., and I joined them around 8:00 (realize that we didn’t change our clocks until 10:00).

So, night number two went well. Jack was exhausted yesterday most of the day though, so I think this is just the beginning of building the schedule… hopefully this sleep training pays off for us in the long run.

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Posted on by John

Last night, Christine and I put Jack to sleep in his crib at 7:10 pm (after the evening ritual of feeding and bathing), and for the first time in his life, we didn’t go check on him again, until he was asleep. We are training Jack to learn to go to sleep on his own, and to comfort himself to go back to sleep when he wakes up in the middle of the night.

The decision to start doing this on Friday night, didn’t come lightly. We were ready to start doing it last week, but we wanted to talk to the doctor before we put Jack through this training, just to make sure we’re being smart about it, and not starting too early.

So, at 7:12, Jack started crying. He was asleep at 7:52. He slept for an hour or so, then woke up, and we listened to him cry again for about 45 minutes two hours. After he fell asleep the second time, he slept until 3:50 am. Christine got up to take a shower (it’s hard to listen to your baby cry for any longer than about 2 minutes) and by the time she was back in bed, Jack was asleep (and so was I).

Jack woke up at 6:10 am or so this morning, and we (that means Christine) started the day with him. He ate pretty healthily this morning (he usually eats once or tiwce during the night) before taking morning nap.

It’s 11:00 am right now, and we’re all getting ready to go to Rob Lockett’s wedding in La Grange, and we’ll come home tonight to start day two of sleep training.

All of the books say it takes three nights to train your child to sleep through the night without being checked on … for some reason, I’m having a hard time believing this training will be over after 3 nights.

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Posted on by Christine

Jack is getting so big! He weighs 14 lbs 14 oz and is 25 inches long. His height, weight and head circumference are all 50th percentile. Its been that way since he was born. Its reassuring to know that he’s growing and gaining weight like he should be.

The biggest topic of the appointment was sleep. Dr. Treybig says its time to get Jack sleeping 11-12 hours straight in his crib. It really sounds like quite a feat but John and I are ready to try it. She said there is no reason developmentally to wait another month, and that if we did, we’d just be getting him used to more bad habits (i.e. sleeping in his swing, rocking him to sleep, etc.) that will make it more difficult to correct as he gets more mature. Besides, I am ready for 11-12 hours of straight sleep!!! What a concept!

As far as feeding goes she says to keep feeding Jack the rice cereal (we started again last night and he was ready for it… he loved it). We can also start feeding him oat cereal, and Stage 1 baby food. She said to feed him a new food every three days or so and alternate between fruits and vegetables. She said to make prunes one of his first foods to help keep his system in check with all of the new solids (which can be constipating).

Dr. Treybig said that Jack is very strong and is ready for his exersaucer and Johny Jump Up which will help him gain more trunk support. I thought I had to wait on those toys till he was able to sit up on his own. It will be fun to see him playing with his new toys and jumping around in his Johnny Jump Up. That will make for a cute video for sure!

At the end of his appointment the mean shot lady came in and gave him his second round of vaccinations. He cried a little longer this time with big crocodile tears. Poor thing. We got home and I fed him and he has been asleep for an hour now. Those shots just wear him out. If he reacts like he did last time he’ll be really tired the rest of today and most of the day tomorrow.

I think that’s all.
Love you guys!
Christine

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Posted on by John

This was Jack’s first Easter. Christine and I had hoped to spend the afternoon at the church sponsored picnic and Easter Egg hunt on the lawn of the State Capital building, but, the weather proved difficult on Saturday afternoon. We went to the picnic, after picking up a couple of sandwiches at Jimmy John’s Sandwich shop (we found that place while we were at the hospital back in November).

When we arrived at the Capital, we ventured out onto the lawn with all of the other families gathered, sat down, and ate our lunch. We discovered Jack likes to people watch while Christine and I were eating. One of the preachers came and visited with us, and then we decided it was just too cold and wet to stay out too long… so we waited for the Easter Bunny to show up, took a picture with him, then headed back to the house. We stayed home Saturday night and watched Troy on DVD. (Nothing like watching a film about Greek mythology on Easter weekend right?)

On Sunday morning, we got up and went to church. Kim, Brad and Kim’s mom saved us some seats in the balcony (church was packed today with all of those Easter Methodists) and we sat through the whole ceremony without a trip to the “cry room”. I guess Christine got the feeding/nap schedule down this morning, because Jack was really good in church. He didn’t make any crying sounds, though he did start talking to me at one point during the service. We got a lot of compliments on how cute Jack was after the service, which tells me he wasn’t a bother to anyone around us.

After church, we drove out to the lake to have Easter lunch/dinner with Debbie, Raymond, Peggy, Payton and Shirley. Payton was wearing his school ring, which he’s earned as a Junior in High School… He sure is growing up to be a fine young man.

It was a gorgeous day today in Central Texas.

Right before we ate, we drove down to the Hamilton Greenbelt there in Lakeway, and took some photos. The best ones came from a setting on the creek, near a little set of rapids. Jack got a little cranky, because he was tired, so Christine and I headed back to the car early. Jack fell asleep in Christine’s arms as we walked back to the car. He was snoring in her arms. That was cute.

After a late lunch/early dinner, we watched Finding Neverland on DVD. Good movie. A bit slow at first, but a great ending.

Then Jack played “Who’s gonna eat that hand” with Raymond. Here’s a little movie from their playtime. Jack was laughing so hard. I wish I’d have grabbed the camera sooner to capture more of it on film:

We headed home shortly after 9:30, and Jack is sleeping in his car seat now (never wake a sleeping baby, right?)

Hope you all had a happy Easter. You can see all of our photos from this weekend in this gallery.

Average Rating: 4.8 out of 5 based on 262 user reviews.

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Posted on by John

Last night, after a wonderful dinner (Christine cooked a delicious lemon oregano chicked dish last night), I spent some time downloading photos and movies from the little camera, and here’s a round up of recent photographs and a movie:

  • 29 – A few select photos from my 29th birthday party.
  • Ella’s a Year Old – These are a few photos we took at Ella’s Birthday Party (I can’t believe we didn’t take more).
  • Reading his book – Mommy took these photos of Jack reading his book during morning playtime.
  • Goodmorning Sunshine – On Saturday morning, Jack and I went out to greet the sun, while laying in the hammock. Afterwards, we went inside and woke up mommy.
  • Reading with Daddy – Jack and I read a book before bedtime last night.

And for this week’s movie, we present Life of the Party. At my 29th birthday party, Jack and I danced to a song Josh was playing on the radio. The poor guy was tired, but he hung in there, and was the “Life of the Party”:

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