Christine, Jack and I piled in the station wagon yesterday around noon, and drove as quickly as we could to Hostyn, Texas for a wedding. Rob Lockett invited us to his wedding to Ashley. Rob and I grew up together and were the best of friends. Our families have stayed pretty close over the years… and so, we were delighted to be invited to the wedding.

Hostyn is about an hour from Austin, just south of La Grange. We got to the chapel with about 30 seconds to spare (we still haven’t adjusted to having a baby and getting places on time — not that we were all that good at being on time before the baby, but now it’s a lot tougher).

The ceremony was very nice. A simple short Catholic ceremony in a beautiful country chapel. The bride was gorgeous, and there whole town was in attendance (I really think the whole town of Hostyn was there).

After the wedding ceremony, Jack got to meet the Lockett family, and the Fox family (Rob’s Grandparents and Aunt and cousins). Mrs. Housley (my 7th grade social studies teacher) was there too. We headed to the reception after saying hi to a lot of people…

Kari Burt, Rob’s cousin, is doing well at A&M. She’s a freshman, and the last time we saw her was when she ran hurdles in the state track meet in Austin last year. She’s still growing up, and still getting prettier every day. Amy was doing very well, and seems to be pretty much fully recovered since her accident 2 1/2 year ago.

Lori (Rob’s sister) and Jason are doing well… Lori seems as happy as I’ve ever seen her.

Halley’s middle child (Halley is Rob’s youngest sister) is just too cute… a little ball of energy with blonde curley hair.

Reese (Rob’s younger brother and one of Evan’s best friends) and Karen are well. Their two little ones are cute. Kade (the oldest and the boy) was the ring bearer in the wedding and cried all the way down the aisle, until he saw his mommy, then made a bee line for her with the flower girl in tow. Gabby, the little girl, still has the most beautiful dark brown eyes I’ve ever seen, with those long eyelashes.

Nanny and Bussy are still Nanny and Bussy… we just love seeing them. Bussy introduced me to one of his neighbors (I didn’t ask how many miles away this neighbor lived, but I’m sure it’s at least a couple of miles) and we talked about choices… Bussy’s always teaching me something, and I love him for that.

We also ran into Bronson Pilcik and his wife Becky. Bronson and I went to school together when we were young. Bronson’s doing well now. They have 2 kids, a two year old girl and a six year old boy. The boy is just starting to play tee-ball. We laughed about old times, caught up on old friends and where they are now, and then talked about family. Bronson’ll probably take over parts of his family’s business in Industry in a few years, and is doing great.

We left the reception before they served dinner, as it was time for us to head back to Austin for “Learning to Sleep – part two”. We did stop at Dairy Queen on the way home though, and both of us had a “Dude Sandwich” … love those things! Funny thing about “the Dude” is that I think they only sell them in Texas… you should have seen the look on the face of the counter clerk in Kentucky when I asked her for a “Dude”. Heh… I’ll have to tell that story sometime.

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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.

Average Rating: 4.8 out of 5 based on 154 user reviews.

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

Average Rating: 4.8 out of 5 based on 152 user reviews.

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.

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Last night, Christine’s friends and I conspired to throw her a surprise birthday party at Kim and Brad’s house.

I don’t know how we pulled it off. I was horribly unorganized about planning it, and totally wishy-washy about the date and who to invite. Kim stayed on my ass about it though, and on Monday this week, we had a plan. Between Kim, Cyndi Erin and Elise, we threw a pretty decent party, I think.

El Arroyo catered, and arranged for a margaritta machine. Cyndi made the cake. Kim decorated and Brad bought the beer and liquor. I arranged for a baby-sitter for Jack (our first night to use a stranger to baby-sit for us).

Around 7:30, Christine and I left the house to “pick up Brad and Kim to go to dinner with them”. Christine opened their door to say “let’s go” and was greeted with a “Surprise!”

Lots of people showed up, and we had a good time at the party. (We really don’t need much of a reason to get together and have a good time). The hail storm that blew through midway through the party was interesting.

Thanks to everyone that helped us pull off the party, and to those of you that stopped by to join in the festivities.

Christine and I got home around midnight and were both exhausted after a great night.

Pictures from the night are here.

Happy Birthday Christine!

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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”:

Average Rating: 4.5 out of 5 based on 230 user reviews.

To follow up on yesterday’s garage cleaning, Christine and I got up late this morning, and headed back out to the garage, after eating an early lunch.

We worked until 4:00, and we’re now able to say that we’ve gone through every box that was in the garage. We’ve gotten rid of a lot of stuff we just didn’t need anymore (like a box of MacWorld magazines that spanned from April 1998 to 2004). We’d saved so much crap over the past 8 years, that it was pretty funny going through all that stuff. We had a box of every receipt for everything we bought between May 1998 and December 2001. No idea why we saved that stuff. We had a box of a lot of old computer peripherals that I’d picked up over the years – The Salvation Army is now the proud owner of a USB 56K Modem, for example.

I hung our bicycles from the rafters in the garage, to get them out of the way. We packed away all of the Christmas decorations properly. We stored a lot of Barbies and art. I’ve started sorting out my tools and the like. The garage floor is now completely clear of any obstructions, save for a small pile of a few trash bags full of trash, that need to go out on Friday morning.

Most importantly, we found the box that came from our master bedroom at the Travis Heights house, that Christine had packed all of our valuables in. It was buried under about 10 other boxes, that we just hadn’t gotten around to unpacking. Felt good to find that box and put our hands on those things again.

The garage looks great, and after Friday, we’ll be able to pull a car into it (it’s not wide enough for 2 cars). So, I’m planning on washing the cars this coming weekend, and then parking the Volvo in the garage from here on out.

It feels really good to get something that felt like a huge job done, finally. (Only took us a year to get around to doing it).

Average Rating: 4.7 out of 5 based on 266 user reviews.

Christine and I spent the better part of the day cleaning out the garage today.

Around 9:00 a.m., I took a load of stuff we had ready for Goodwill to the donation center, then went to Home Depot and bought 8 storage bins, and some trash bags. When I got home, I started clearing out the garage a little. I got the lawn mower and fertilizer spreader out of the way, then moved our bikes outside, along with the ladder. I also started a small pile of boxes that we just didn’t need to keep anymore (anyone else have a few empty boxes that you think you’ll need someday? like a box to the last printer you bought, etc…)

Christine put Jack down for a nap and joined me in the garage. We started unpacking the boxes that we haven’t unpacked since our move from the rent house we lived in in Travis Heights. We found some fun old memories (lots of photos from Christine’s 8th grade and highschool, and from our days at A&M and in the Army). We found a bunch of old books that we didn’t need to store anymore really. We found two pairs of boots that we had no idea where they’d gone to. We divided what we found into piles: One for Goodwill, one for trash, one for eBay, and the stuff we kept, we repacked in the storage bins I’d bought that morning.

Around noon, we ate pizza on the back patio … which was funny … Christine freaked out over a bee that flew near her face and she ran inside. I got her to come back outside to finish eating after about 5 minutes of coaxing.

Then I started burning (in the chiminea) a bunch of old files we were hanging on to for no good reason (we still had my old Austin County State Bank statements and cancelled checks for God knows what reason, for example).

All said, we did a pretty good job of getting rid of a bunch of stuff we really didn’t need to keep anymore (like about 40 books that were just taking up space — stuff like our AAA tourguide books of Kentucky we have from 7 years ago — sheesh). I took a load of stuff to Goodwill (4 boxes). I took a load of stuff to Half-price books (made $21.50 there for 2 boxes of books – what a rip off). I took a file cabinet we didn’t need back to Office Depot (made $70 there).

So now, we have a garage that’s on its way to being better organized… and is definitely cleaned out a bit.

When I got home from getting rid of the stuff we were getting rid of, Christine and I packed the car full of cardboard, and I took it to the recycling place in downtown Austin.

After that trip out, I fertilized the lawn, just in time for it to rain, so I didn’t have to water it in.

Christine started making dinner (a wonderful Talapia dish with spaghetti squash and rice for sides). Bob Beurlein came down from Ft. Hood, and we all ate dinner together (including Jack).

Austin WranglersBob and I then headed to the Austin Wranglers game for the evening. We watched the Wranglers beat the New York Dragons. It was a fun game. Arena football is a good sport to watch, and to take a family to, I think. It’s kind of like watching regular football, but at a basketball pace.

Got a lot done today, and now we’re tired… it sure feels good to get things done.

Average Rating: 4.8 out of 5 based on 236 user reviews.

Over the past week, we’ve spent a lot of time celebrating birthdays:

John turned 29 on March 10th. Yes, I’m still a year younger than my wife. She’s still wiser. I’m still younger. I’m 4 weeks into my Weight Watcher kick and so far I’ve lost 11.2 pounds. Feels good being a little lighter, I just hope the pounds are coming off the right parts of my body 😉 To celebrate, Josh cooked an amazing dinner, and we spent the evening at their house, playing with Jack and talking about stuff. Josh also gave me a really nice knife and some stuff we need in the kitchen so he can come over and cook at our house like he does at his (and so I can learn some culinary arts from him in the process).

Ella turned one year old on March 13th! And boy is she amazing at one year old. Shadel and Evan threw the little princess a wonderful birthday party in Bellville. Christine, Jack and I drove down on Saturday (the 12th) and spent an evening with them before the big event. Evan and his friend Jason got up around 5:30 to start cooking brisket. I got up around 7:00 to help them. Shadel and Christine decorated, and around noon, I guess, the birthday well-wishers started showing up. Lots of family and lots of friends. It was a lot of fun, and I shot about an hours worth of video, so Evan and Shadel can preserve the event.

During the week of March 14th, we just worked. Jack started learning how to sleep a little longer through the night. I started reading a book on how to get him to sleep through the entire night. I closed another deal at work, this one with a bigger client based in Chicago.

Then last night, March 18th, we met Cheri, Greg, Raymond and Debbie at the Iguana Grill on Lake Travis, to celebrate Cheri’s __th birthday (I’d never ask a lady her age). We went ahead and celebrated all of the March and April birthday’s last night too (Debbie’s birthday is April 5th). The food was great. The conversation was better. The sky was overcast, so the sunset wasn’t as good as it normally is over the lake.

Today, I’m hoping to either a) get the garage cleaned out, or b) get the yard in shape. Depends on how much time I have.

Jack’s sitting in front of me playing right now, so I’m gonna get off this darned computer and go spend some time with him. He’s so much fun!

Average Rating: 4.8 out of 5 based on 166 user reviews.

Tonight, Christine and I fed Jack his first meal from a spoon.

Over the last week or so, Christine has noticed that Jack smacks his lips when she’s eating. Supposedly that is one of the signs that your child is ready to eat real food.

We’ve read that your supposed to start feeding your kid real food when they’re 4 months old. Jack’s almost there, so, we figured we’d try feeding him some rice cereal tonight.

So, here’s the movie of Jack eating his first meal from a spoon. The movie is about 10 minutes long (and is 55MB in size), because I just couldn’t bear to edit too much of it … it’s precious to us, and we hope you enjoy watching him eat, and hearing us discuss the process. So, without further ado:

Jack Eating
Jack Eating

After feeding Jack that little bit of rice cereal, Christine fed him some of the good stuff. Erin showed up shortly after we fed him, and Christine and I headed off to Weight Watchers. Erin fed Jack a formula bottle while we were gone, and when we got home, he was sleeping. We fed him another bottle right before bed time, and here’s hoping he sleeps through the night.

Oh, and I’ve lost 8 pounds in 3 weeks, thanks to Weight Watchers.

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This movie comes to us from the backlog of videos and photos I have on my hard drive:

Terrified Boy
Two Crazy Girls and a Terrified Boy

heh…

Average Rating: 4.7 out of 5 based on 153 user reviews.

Wow. Wow. Wow.

Marc Swendner is a god. Ok, maybe not a god, but a demi-god, for sure.

I say that because his photography is amazing.

Marc came over last Friday with his two assistants and his lighting equipment and took photos for Christine and I. I’ve posted a few of them here, just so you can get an idea of what I’m talking about:

Flying Jack by Marc Swendner

On top of taking great photos, Marc is great on the service end of things too. He had proofs of our photos to us very quickly, and was able to get us a few of the best photos within a day or two, so we could use them at Jack’s baptism reception (the fact that I forgot to take them to said baptism should be ignored for a moment).

Marc is a great photographer, and I’m lucky to be able to call him my friend.

If you are looking for a photographer for any occasion, or for portraits or other shots, shoot him and email or call him. His contact information is on his website.

Average Rating: 4.7 out of 5 based on 166 user reviews.

Finally got around to cataloging a few more photos we’ve taken, and thus, I posted these galleries today:

Peggy Visits
Taking a bath
Standing in the crib
The Dog and his Jack
Jack up close and personal

Average Rating: 4.6 out of 5 based on 166 user reviews.

Today, Jack turned 3 months old.

He’s such a little man now, folks.

He gets up every morning with a smile on his face around 6 a.m. to eat breakfast (definitely doesn’t take after his Dad there) and plays with Mommy until 7 or 8 a.m. Then Mommy wakes up Daddy so Daddy can go to work. Jack gets a kiss from Daddy, and if he’s awake, he sends Daddy off to work with a big smile.

Then he usually naps from around 9 a.m. until noon or so, and wakes up with a voracious appetite. After his noon meal, Mommy and Jack head off to the nursery to play. Jack plays with all sorts of things now: He bats at his floor gym toys that hang over head, rattles his rattles (and tries to eat some of them). He loves his butterfly toy that makes all sorts of noises and has many different places he can hold onto it.

Somedays Mommy and Jack do baby aerobics, which Jack just absolutely loves. That always gets a giggle out of him. (Baby aerobics is basically Mommy bouncing around the room with Jack in her arms to the tune of Jack’s playtime music CD.) Daddy joins them during playtime whenever his schedule permits… though that’s not often enough, and never long enough.

After playtime, Jack eats a hearty afternoon meal before taking a short nap, usually with Mommy on the couch.

As the workday comes to a close, Jack sits in his bouncy seat and watches his Baby Einstein DVDs for a few minutes while Mom figures out what’s for dinner. Dad usually emerges from his office around this time, and plays with Jack until dinner is ready, or, if Mommy’s real lucky, Dad cooks dinner sometimes too.

At dinner time we all sit down for a family meal. Dad at the head of the table, Mommy at his side, and Jack on the table in his bouncy seat. Discussions at dinner range from what Jack did that day, to how our families and friends are doing, to what we’re doing that weekend or next. Sometimes Jack is in a fun mood at dinner, sometimes he’s not.

After dinner, Dad usually spends time with Jack while Mommy gets caught up on things she needs to get done. Jack does a lot of standing and jumping whenever he’s with Daddy. You should see how excited he gets to see the baby that comes to visit him in his mirror. It’s a hoot.

Around 7 p.m. or so, Jack’s day is beginning to wind down, and he is usually ready for a nap. Sometimes he takes his evening nap in his crib, and sometimes he takes it in his swingy seat. Mommy and Daddy try to watch a little TV during this nap, and relax a little.

Man it's been a long day
Man it’s been a long day

Anywhere from 9 – 11, Jack starts to wake up for his nightcap. He eats his last meal of the day, while barely awake, and then heads off to his crib to sleep. He’ll usually make it to about 3 a.m., before waking Mommy up for his early morning meal (gotta teach him where the fridge is someday).

During that 3 a.m. meal, Jack usually looks up at Mommy and smiles real big, and Mommy tries not to laugh at Jack, because he’s the one that got them both up, but she just can’t help it. They laugh at each other for a while, and then he finishes eating before Mommy puts him back to bed for the rest of the night.

And then we do it all over again.

Man how time flies.

Average Rating: 4.8 out of 5 based on 288 user reviews.

It was a long week last week… sorry for the lack of updates. So let’s start where we left off.

On Monday night, Valentine’s Day, Elise and Josh came over and babysat Jack for us, so Christine and I could go out for Valentine’s day. We decided to do something low-key, but fun, so we went to the Alamo Drafthouse and watched “Hitch” while eating dinner and having a couple of beers.

Hitch is a hilarious movie, especially for two middle-aged parents that don’t get to see movies in the theatre any more. Actually, it’s a good movie for anyone. Will Smith is great in it. We laughed pretty much all the way through it.

Also on Monday, Christine met with her boss and told him that she was more interested in raising our son for the next six months to a year than she was in coming straight back to work. He was totally understanding, and asked her if she’d mind staying on the employment rolls, and helping out here and there with reviewing reports and the like. She said that she’d be happy to help out when her time permitted. I’m so thankful she works for a company that can afford to be understanding of her wants and needs and can accomodate her for the short-term, with their long-term interests being protected as well. She’s an asset to any company, and I’m glad they know that too.

Let’s see… then the week flew by. I don’t really remember us doing anything spectacular last week. Oh, I closed my first couple of sales at the office. Felt good to finally do that.

On Thursday, Christine and I joined Weight Watchers. I’m tired of not being able to button the neck on my dress shirts when I wear a tie. And I can’t afford to keep buying new suits and new shirts. Enough said. Erin babysat Jack while we were there… Jack told me he had a great time hanging out with Erin after she left.

Then, the weekend came. And I was lucky enough to have President’s day off.

Christine saddled me with the kiddo for a few hours each day, so she could get out and get some things accomplished, and we did a little visiting with friends as well.

On Sunday we met with Pastor John at the church about Jack’s baptism, and Elise and Josh joined us. Afterwards, Josh and I hung out with Jack while the girls went shopping, or something. Then Sunday night, we joined Lisa and Spencer (Lisa is Christine’s cousing from Tulsa who now lives in Austin) for dinner and conversation. Lisa cooked an amazing roast and ice-cream pie. I mean an amazing roast! Spencer’s doing well in his MBA program. Wish we got to hang out with them more often…

On Monday, Elise and Christine drove all over town getting things finalized for the baptism coming up this weekend… Jack and I stayed home and drank beer and smoked cigars. Ok, that last part isn’t true, but I’ve got to make sure you’re still reading.

And I forgot: On Sunday afternoon, Christine and I were playing with Jack in his nursery, and he started laughing while we were playing “Flying Jack” so Christine shot the footage in this quick video … He’s too funny here:

Believe it or not, I’m walking on air…

Average Rating: 4.5 out of 5 based on 277 user reviews.