Sunshine

Hello, people! It's been a pretty tame week around here, unless you count our little growling, biting, crawling boy. Jay is officially 9 months old!!! He is eating more and more real food, and he loves feeding himself. It gets pretty messy, but he ate a whole chicken puff the other night! Other happenings: we had a few lovely warm sunny days here this week and I just basked in the springy weather. I hope it's here to stay! I walked to the store and ran to the park and scootered to the post office--it's nice to not have to clamp Jay into his car seat every time I want to go somewhere! Jeff starts class observations this week and student teaching in 3 weeks. Jay and I are going to miss having him around during the day! If you can believe it, I did not take one picture this week, so I just quickly took some so this post isn't too boring...

Jay is getting better with a sippy cup

Man this little guy is SO much fun!! He's such a happy little fellow. We like him.

Jay has improved his crawling greatly:

Fraggle Rock

"Dance your cares away [clap clap], worries for another day-a-ayyy! Let the music playyyy, down in Fraggle Rock!" Who can resist a classic 1980's Jim Henson show? Jeff recently discovered that his childhood favorite, Fraggle Rock is on Netflix online streaming. Jay actually likes it! I must say, it is quite the cute show. I would watch it with them more, but space in front of the computer is rather limited...

Jay and Daddy watching Fraggle Rock. When Jay gets antsy (that usually happens after 5 min or less), Jeff just stands him up in his crib and Jay can move around and watch the show when he feels like it (during the songs).



Jay's room is the multi-purpose room: because we get the best Wi-fi signal in there, that's where we moved the computer. Yes, Jeff found our computer monitor out by the dumpster with a sign on it that said "works." (we used to use the TV as a computer screen) I kept the sign on it to remind myself that this huge ole thing actually does function...



Jay's favorite play area is by our big front window--he pulls himself up on the a/c unit and looks out the window and plays with the a/c switches. It's hilarioius when he actually manages to turn it on because he gets a huge blast of air in his face and he gets so surprised! People passing by our window often stop and wave at Jay--it is sooo cute to see his little head peeking out!


Where is Jay in this picture? He is so sneaky! I moved the trash can onto a chair, so luckily the only thing he can get in to back there is the diaper bag.

I love having a little friend to make forts with me!

Jay always stands on his tippy toes--I'd say he got his good-looking legs from his mommy, wouldn't you?

Hearty

Happy Valentine's Day! 4 years ago, Jeff and I went on our very first date together! Since then, we've tried to do something for V-day to celebrate our first date. Well, there was that one exception when we spent Feb 14th on a very unromantic all night train ride from France into Italy...across the isle from a very smelly guy whose body odor wafted over to our poor singed nostrils with his every snore...

ANYWAY, We had our special date the 13th this year. We stayed home for a frugal but fun evening (the whole date cost less than $9). Jay has recently started going to bed at 7pm, so that gave us plenty of time for an at-home date! We had a fancy dinner with a TABLECLOTH and a CENTERPIECE, watched one of our favorite movies (Peter Pan-the non animated version), and then we had a mini dance (2 songs worth of dancing...we're all about quality rather than quantity when it comes to dancing). Our stake had an adult Valentine's dance, but ever since we got married, we both lost that feeling of obligation to attend church dances. So we moved our furniture aside and had a surprisingly fun evening of dinner, movie, and dancing!

The card I made for Jeff

mmmmmm alfredo. On the left is a tiny twig of my centerpiece--a vase of jewels (from our Mancala game...) and sticks with Hershey kisses hanging off them.

Possibly the best part--dessert! We shared this hot gooey giant cookie topped with melty ice cream and chocolate mmmmmmmmm

Can you believe I did a whole post without any pictures of Jay??

Big Boy!

Sniff... my baby is growing up!!! Jay is such a little PERSON these days! He is a surprisingly fast little mover when he has a goal in sight, and he enjoys pulling himself into a standing position on anything in reach. It's amazing how much babies learn and grow in such a short time. I'm always surprised!

On Monday, Jeff had his all-day job interview with Teach For America at Seattle University, so we stayed 2 nights with my family--bonus visit! While Jeff was interviewing, Jay and I were hanging out with Grama Meri. I love my mom! It was fun to nip up and see my family for 2 days! Jeff thinks his interview went pretty well. He had a 2.5 hour wait for the one-on-one part of the interview, so he randomly walked 30 minutes to sit by the water for lunch...in his dress shoes. He came home with a big ole blister. We are excited to find out Jeff's acceptance/denial to this job in March!

Jay eats bananas just like his Uncle Kyle used to: all in one bite! I only give him 1 inch long pieces, but he likes it all in there at once!

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In December and January, Jay stopped sleeping all night, and after weeks and weeks of getting up 1-3 times each night, I consulted a book and my sister for HELP. The first thing I tried worked within a week! All I did when he woke up was go in, cover him up, and pat him for a few seconds, and then leave. I went back in every 10 minutes and comforted him with a few pats, and he eventually went back to sleep. It took an HOUR for him to get back to sleep the first few times (I'm sure our upstairs and next-door neighbors just love us), and I was exhausted, but now Jay is the MASTER at sleeping all night! Weeehawwww!

We got Jay a new carseat!! His infant one has been getting FAR too tight to munch his poor soft little body into, so we found this sweet convertible seat: it converts from rear-facing to front-facing easily! Best part: it cost a mere $60 from Amazon.

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All you students out there: Amazon does this sweet textbook buyback and they credit the money into an amazon.com giftcard online! All you have to do is enter the ISBN #s and it lists how much they'll give you for each book. Then you print off a free shipping label, stick it on the box, hand the box to your mail man, and POOF one week later you have Amazon dinero! (that's what we used to get Jay's car seat)

Even with an awesome new seat like this one, Jay's favorite time with his car seat is when he gets OUT!

Skills

Jay and I have been honing our skills this week. Jay is now a pro at sitting up from his tummy and clapping his hands. I am still a pro at making forts out of blankets (20 years of practice). And, I got a few ideas about homemade cards last time I was at Joann's craft store, so I attempted to make a cute thank you card for my mom... it was a LOT harder than I thought it would be! But I was pleased with how it turned out in the end. I hope you've already gotten it in the mail, Mom, or else the surprise is now ruined...

Trying to get out of the fort

Jay's fun fort!

Here's the finished product of my first attempt at a "paper-craft" style card.

And last but not least, here's a little video of Jay's latest skills in action. It's always tricky getting him to perform in 30 seconds or less, but he managed it in the end, and then he started attacking the camera!

Jay Kix Butt

It's time for more Jay pictures for all of his fans out there!!

And anyone who knew Grandpa White will appreciate the baby in a BASKET!

This past week was pretty low key for us. Jay figured out how to get into a sitting position from his tummy, which allows him to play and explore for long stretches on his own now. He loves his newfound mobility! We have had to make some drastic adjustments in order to keep cords, the computer, and our lower bookshelves out of reach to our curious little Jay.

Jeff and I both got an annoying stuffy head cold (mine was accompanied by an all-night fever). Luckily, it only lasted about 24 hours and now we're just slowly de-stuffing our heads. This process has us making some startling noises that earn us some very confused looks from our son. Jay has still never been sick in his life, (knock on wood), and that is why he "Kix butt!"