Jalen is Six Month Old!

Last week we took Jalen to his 6 months check up. He is 20lbs 5oz (90%) and 28.5 inches (97%). He has another tooth popping out. Jalen got another round of shots this time but he's handling them much better now and wasn't fussy afterwards. Jalen is too big for his baby bath tub now so we've started giving him a bath in the grown up bath tub. After the bath, I hold him and rinse him off with the shower. He really loves being in the water and doesn't complain at all about getting his face wet. It's a lot of fun for me too!

Jalen's New Tricks

Just when I thought Jalen was a slow learner, next thing you know, he's rolling over both ways. He can now roll from front to back and back to front with ease. When you put him on the floor, he's rolling around like a little worm. It's amazing how quickly they learn to do new things! When you offer to hold him he will stretch out his arms to meet yours. He's also got a couple of teeth breaking through!

Jalen and Katelyn

Jalen had a play date with Trenton last Saturday. They're already fighting over the same toys! Here's Trenton loving the baby gym.

Jalen is 4lbs more than Trenton and they're the same age!

Jalen's First Week of Commute

Our little family finally moved into our new home in Bellevue last Saturday. Rick had a break from traveling for work and he was home for more than three nights in a row for the first time in about four weeks although it feels like it's been forever. We had no TV, no internet but Rick and I were happy to be back in our king sized bed. :) I had done enough unpacking in the kitchen and bathrooms so that we could have all of the essentials. Unfortunately, I came down with a cold that same day and had a hard time getting rest because Jalen woke up several times in the middle of the night. Nevertheless, spending our first night in our new home was a huge milestone.

Living at our new house means that now I have to take Jalen on my daily commute. Our schedule for the last week has been something like this:

5:00 am - first feeding of the morning, then put Jalen back to sleep
7:30 am - I wake up and eat breakfast, get ready dressed
8:30 am - wake Jalen up, feed him
9:00 am - leave the house
9:20 am - drop Jalen off at his grandma's
9:30 am - get to work
12:00 pm - feed Jalen at his grandma's
6:00 pm - get off work and feed Jalen, eat dinner at his grandma's
7:30 pm - go home
9:00 pm - feed Jalen and put him to sleep
11:00pm - I go to bed

This is the ideal schedule. Some days, Jalen decides to wake up at 7am. So I give him to his daddy so that he can either be entertained or be soothed to go back to sleep. Some nights, Jalen wakes up at 3am or 4am and I just go and try to put him back to sleep without feeding him. I decided to give up the scheduled midnight meeting and just see how long he can last after being fed at 9pm. When it goes well, he'll sleep until almost 5am which is 7.5 hours! I hope he will develop a habit of it.

Here's Jalen all bundled up and ready to go. Look at his penguin hat! The feet keep his ears warm!

Jalen's First Halloween!

Last Wednesday Jalen celebrated his first Halloween as Tigger! I took him to trick or treat at Amazon in the afternoon where he met a few of my other coworker's kids. He was very well behaved and didn't complain at all about being in his Tigger costume. We discovered that Jalen knew how to reach and grab a piece of candy and put it in his mouth! After Amazon, we took him to Vulcan where they had even more Halloween festivities. They had lots of amazing Jack-o-lanterns, a ton of candy and scary decorations. We took Jalen through the haunted house but he is too young to understand and be scared. All of Rick's coworkers thought Jalen was just sooo cute. After almost 2 hours of trick or treating fun, he came home and completely passed out for an hour and a half. Then we took him to Betsy's house where we took pictures of him in his costume with his cousins and their friends. When we finally got home he was so tired that he slept from 9:30pm to 5am! Almost 8 hours!


Tigger and Pooh!


Finally heading home after a long day of trick or treats.

New Milestones

Jalen now eats rice cereal a couple of times a day. His grandma mixes breast milk with rice cereal and feeds it to him with a spoon and he likes it much better than the water and cereal mixture we gave to him on the first try. Last Saturday, we also saw Jalen roll over for the first time. He was on his tummy and he leaned more and more towards the side and eventually rolled over to his back. Then he repeated it for his Dad a second time. He still doesn't know how to roll from his back to front. My theory is that he's a lazy kid and it takes more energy to be on his tummy so he learned to roll to his back. I've also been getting Jalen to practice sitting up. He can now sit with his hands on the floor for a few minutes without toppling over.

Jalen sitting up with his hands. He has that stunned look on his face because of the flash.

Jalen Eats Rice Cereal

Last night we gave Jalen rice cereal for the first time. We followed the instructions on the box and mixed one tablespoon to four tablespoon of water. It was really watery. When we fed him with a spoon most of the cereal came back out of his mouth. He made a sour puss face because I don't think he's used to the taste. The whole process was quite messy and I'm not sure how much of the cereal actually made it to his tummy. But I thought it was probably good practice for him for learning how to eat solid food.


Rick shows Jalen how to open wide!

Poopy Jalen

Today is Jalen's five-month birthday. We took him to the pediatrician because over the past week or so, he's been pooping a lot more than usual and we were getting concerned. At the doctor's office we found out that Jalen is now 19lb 3oz! The doctor said he seemed like a perfectly healthy and happy baby and we didn't need to worry. Phew!

I've been trying to get Jalen to practice rolling over. He can roll to his side easily but he is totally not motivated to roll completely from his tummy to back or vice versa. I've also been letting him sit up while supporting him lightly in hopes that he'll develop some stronger stomach muscles. I kind of think that Jalen is a lazy kid. He's discovered the button on the Jumperoo that makes the music and lights go on. So he kinda of leans on the button with his arm to turn on the music instead of jumping. Go figure.

Jalen enjoys sucking on his thumb and he likes to shove as much of his hands into his mouth as possible.