Week 35 - Cousins

Week 35 Picture

Jay's family got a little bit bigger this week! On Saturday, my sister Jessie and brother in law Bucky had their first child, a beautiful, healthy little girl named Jaina Marie Johns. This baby was a long time coming and is lucky to be entering the world into a great family that will love her and care for her for the rest of her life. Jessie and Bucky are truly wonderful people. New parenthood looks good on them.

On my end, I'm glad that Jay will have so many cousins at or near his age. Family get togethers are always more fun for kids when they have people their age to share them with. I'm also glad that I get the chance to meet the new baby soon. This weekend, Kimbre and I are headed back to Colorado to spend a few days with family and friends and meet the new baby. It's well timed too. I'm having a hard time getting my engine going and getting motivated to get the things done that I need to get done. Even this blog has been suffering a bit, as is probably evident by the recent dip in quality. It's getting to the point where I can no longer blame it on the move. I think this trip will help me in finishing this transition. There's just something about comin home to a place after a trip that well, makes it feel like home.

Really though, it's hard to complain. I'm blessed to be able to call so many places home. 

Week 34 - Perspective

Week 34 Picture

Something a little different this week! Kimbre wrote the blog for me while I was in Canada, but didn't tell me about it until I had already posted last weeks blurb. No need to let a good post go to waste, so I'll share it with you all this week instead. (The pictures are still from this week). Enjoy!

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Kimbre's perspective 

So it's my turn to offer my insight on raising Jay 4. I feel more qualified to do this week more than most because Dr. Jay 3 was off in Canada for six days at a conference. (Yes I had to add the Dr. to it. I love bragging on my PhD hubby.) This meant I got 100% of baby Jay duty. One thing that has been weighing on my mind recently is how having a baby really changes your perspective.  I know, I know most of you are probably thinking of course it does. In fact, it was something people had told me all the time. But many things in parenting you just have to figure out on your own.

For example, it's crazy how some things that would have seemed like the end of the world before I had the baby just do not feel that way anymore. Last week this brilliant mother put her nice iPhone 6 on top of her car and drove off. The result? A completely missing cell phone. I can't even find smashed pieces. However, when this was all going down, my sweet baby boy was cooing and giggling in the back seat. I couldn't help but think to myself, "yeah this sucks, but at least my baby is healthy, happy, and safe. Losing a phone really is not THAT big of a deal."

I also used take a large amount of pride in myself leaving the house looking well put together. You know, hair at least combed and a little big of make up on. My goal was to be a few steps above the people you see at Walmart. However, this week, and let's be honest, most weeks lately, my hair has been typically up because Jay 4 will rip it out if he can get his hands on it. My face is lucky if it gets washed at all, let alone foundation and blush. Oh, and the circles under my eyes would scare small children most days. Yet, when I'm out and about, the smiles I get from strangers for my son and the kind comments that they say about him make me feel so proud and beautiful in a way that being "put together" can not.

It is not all good persecutive changes. I've had a very hard time letting go of being selfish and getting to always put my needs first. In many ways I still want the freedom I took for granted when I wasn't a mom. However the joy I see in my sons eyes when I walk into a room or the way I can comfort him when he is upset... well, it changes my perspective. 

Week 33 - Home is where Kimbre and baby Jay are

Week 33 Picture

Sorry for the late post. I've been traveling all week in Vancouver and the Canadians have notoriously bad internet. I've got a bit of catchup work to get done as well, I'm keeping the post pretty short this week.

What I learned from my trip is that I do not like being away from my family. Not at all. In total, I was away from Corvallis for about 5 days and let me tell you, that was more than enough for me. I don't know how people who travel 50%+ of their year for work do it. It's certainly not for me. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy traveling from time to time, but it just feels empty when I don't get to end my day with a smile from my son and a hug from my wife. Coming home to Kimbre and baby Jay after my time away was really really nice, even though by many standards I hardly even left. Luckily, my job only requires that I take trips 2 or 3 times a year. I think I can manage that. Anyway, back to work for me. In the meantime, I'll leave you with the handful of pictures of Vancouver that I took on my trip.

 

 

Week 32 - Little big man

Week 32 Picture

A constant theme I seem to keep returning to time and time again in this blog is what an amazing and weird thing it is that baby Jay just keeps getting older. Stupid I know. What else is he supposed to do? It's just that it's really  hard to notice developmental changes when we spend so much time with him on a day-to-day basis. Yet somewhere along the way over the last 7 and a half months, he learned to roll, scootch, smile, bounce, stand, sit up straight laugh, and (thankfully) sleep through the night. For this reason, those moments where he does something big for the first time that he never did before are extra refreshing. 

For example, he's recently decided that he wants to drink out of big people cups just like his mom and dad. It's really quite the sight. He leans forward as far as he can, wraps his little sausage fingers around the glass, puts his lower lip below the glass and then thrusts his tongue in and out of the glass repeatedly while making loud slurping noises. Most of the water ends up on his shirt and most of his backwash ends up in the glass, but it's an impressive act nonetheless. I never would have imagined a few months ago that the sleeping ball of flesh that is my son would soon not only understand the concept of a drinking glass, but would also figure out just from watching us how it works. It's crazy for me to think that before too long, he'll be at the point where we can carry on carry on a conversation and have a relationship infinitely more complex than the one we have now. Again, this seems to be an obvious conclusion most people would be able to come to without much effort but not me. Despite all evidence to the contrary, I sometimes feel that he'll be this age forever.

 

I'm so proud of him. It's so much fun to take him new places and let him try new things. He has such a love of and active, engaged approach to the world that it's hard not to just smile and let him have at it. We went to the coast yesterday on a bit of a daytrip and he was all over the place the whole time touching everything in sight. At dinner, he even ate about half my bowl of clam chowder. I'm looking forward to the days when he gets older and we get to do things like fly kites on beach, go camping up in the mountains, fish on the lakes, and generally explore the beauty of the Pacific Northwest. Til then, I'll just enjoy the challenges and special moments that come with having a 7 months old.