Jalen in Winter Gear

On my last trip to Canada in December, I picked out a few winter accessories for Jalen from Roots: a hat, furry slippers and mitts. We've got so many complements on the bear paw furry slippers. My parents also love the hat I think because it's just so goofy. They took some pictures of Jalen totally naked after a bath with just the hat.

Jungle Jalen

Jalen has outgrown his bouncy chair. He constantly tries to get out of it by reaching out and touching the ground. Today, Rick said that Jalen actually managed to flip over entirely in his chair by reaching out. I guess no more unsupervised playing in the bouncer!

Jalen's First Christmas

We spent our first Christmas as a family with Jalen in Seattle. We opened presents at our house with Rick's family. Jalen got a ton of new clothes and some new toys. It was a white Christmas! But we didn't take any pictures in the snow with Jalen because he was taking a nap.



Trenton came over for a visit on Christmas Day and we put them on the floor to play. At first both of them were quiet and didn't interact much. Then my mom threw a block at Jalen and it accidentally hit him in the face so he started crying. That started a symphony of cries between Trenton and Jalen.

Here's Jalen trying to console Trenton who is still traumatized by the earlier screaming and crying.

We went to a holiday get together at Steve and Elaine's house and Jalen loved the massage chair padding on the sofa! The vibrations made him jump and giggle.

Jalen is 7 Months Old!

Jalen spent his 7 month birthday in Vancouver, Canada. It had been 2 months since my parents last saw Jalen and they just absolutely gushed over him. However, they also had their first run in with Jalen's new stranger anxiety. When we got to Vancouver late on Friday night, Jalen cried at the top of his lungs when my mom held him while I was unloading the car. He wouldn't stop until he was in my arms again. Then on Saturday night, when I was at my friend Tina's house for her Christmas party, Jalen wouldn't go to sleep. He didn't sleep until I came home late at around 11:30pm. Poor grandparents!


Jalen is shy when he's naked!

Jalen Gets Elfed!

Click here to see Jalen and his cousins as elves!

Jalen Meets Santa!

Last week we took Jalen to meet Santa. We weren't sure how he was going to react to a strange white bearded old man in a red suit. It turned out Jalen wasn't fazed by Santa at all. We tried to get a smile out of him for the picture but he looked a bit stunned because of the crowd and strange surroundings.

Snowy Jalen

For my 30th birthday, Rick took me to Vegas. It was my first trip since the baby and my first time spending a night away from Jalen. I had started weaning Jalen off in preparation for the trip. Jalen didn't mind formula at all. I think the whole weaning process was harder on me than it was on him. I was struggling with giving up breastfeeding because I know that it's the best thing for the baby and I enjoyed feeling special because I was the only one that could give him that special nourishment. On the other hand, being a working mom makes breastfeeding really hard. And because I was the only one who could feed him I had to get up in the middle of the night and I couldn't be away from Jalen for longer than a few hours. It was quite stressful. Once I made the decision, I just had to make peace with it and make the adjustment. I was able to enjoy a relaxing, fun trip away from Jalen last weekend. I missed him immediately after I left. I think it was because I knew that I was going to see him for a while. By the time we were coming back I couldn't wait to see Jalen and hold him and see him smile. Now I know what Rick feels like when he's traveling for work.

The day we left for Vegas Seattle got about 3 inches of snow. Here's some pictures of Jalen's first snow!