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!

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!