Hobbies

We have several hobbies around here:

Jay loves to crawl, climb, clap, and eat bananas

Jeff and I love to play weekly Sunday Scrabble games. I am on a 2 week winning streak, and I recently got my best score: 512 points!

And I have really started to enjoy the challenge of making cute cards for all occasions:

My brother Brad turned 21 yesterday!! He'll be home from Portugal this summer! YAY!

Who said ducks don't have teeth?

Le bebe au natural

Happy 10 month birthday to Jay! I can't believe he's that old already! Time really does fly. Jay's "GrandmaDear" randomly got a free sample of baby formula in the mail, so today at lunch Jay tried his first-ever formula. Since he won't drink from a bottle, I put it in his cup. He took two swigs and then did a huge, hilarious SHUDDER, and would not touch the stuff after that. I'm glad I didn't waste any money on this experiment! What can I say, I have an all natural baby!

4 months old

10 months old. He still fits the same shirt and vest! (different pants)

Oh, and speaking of "all natural," check out Jay's Sunday pants after church! They looked like this after a mere 20 minutes of crawling around the halls! [There was an activity at the church yesterday, so we think that's why it was so dirty this week.]

Apparently we need to vacuum our poor church more?

Sunny Jay

If you can believe it, Jay will be 10 months old in just a few short days!!! He had his latest doctor visit this week. BABY STATS: 18 lbs 12 oz, 28.5 inches tall, 100% healthy, and 200% happy! Man we love this little person!

Each day, the 4 rooms in our apartment start out clean and bare. After a few hours of Jay happily crawling around dismantling the place, it looks a lot more homey! Jay's toy box is slowly starting to resemble a trash heap-- he just loves junk! Examples: an empty vitamin container, a piece of yarn, a scrap of ribbon, an old water bottle half full, an old membership card, a granola bar wrapper (tied in a knot), and the lid to a baby food jar. Every time I get back from a run, Jay makes a beeline for my running shoes--he loves to bite the laces! Jay's love of random junk is one reason that the only toy we've ever paid money for is a single small ball!

Ok, so this little jump suit is still a tad too long--Jay keeps losing his leg in it!

Other stuff: ummmm My life has been kind of slow lately, but Jeff is officially DONE with taking classes for his Master of Teaching degree. Now it's on to GIVING classes: student teaching (along with job-hunting--prayers appreciated). It's spring and I've still only knitted about 7 rows on my scarf. New goal: knit a scarf by next winter! I'm still enjoying concocting creative cards, and I'm about half way through reading Born to Run. It's like the longest Sports Illustrated article ever written! But far more interesting since it's about the BEST sport ever... RUNNING!

Moving along

Yesterday Jeff was denied by Teach for America. Boo! When I asked him how he felt about it, he said he was surprised, but he felt happy! The only reason I was bummed about it is I just want to have the security of KNOWING that Jeff has a job lined up so we have a place to go when he graduates in June. I like to make plans. Oh the trials of faith (and patience). Why are they always exactly targeted at my ability to be patient? I guess a better opportunity will come when it comes. And by then I will be such a master of patience that it won't even surprise me!

And now, on to the token picture of the post. This is what Jay was doing until about 5 minutes ago...

Springy

It was another pleasant, springy week here: flowers started blooming, and I think it may actually really be springtime already! Yay! All of this good weather has inspired me to be outside as much as I can. So, Jay and I have made several excursions: we walked to the grocery store and ran to the park with the stroller, and even walked over to visit one of Jeff's grad classes with the baby basket (one of his professors loves Jay). We love spring!

Running makes Jay tired. I ran my 30 minutes around nearby neighborhoods and then stopped at the park, and by then, Jay was fast asleep...

While I was waiting for Jay to wake up, I did my crunches and played on the swings. (are you impressed that I took this picture of myself swinging with the 10 second timer on our camera?)

When I was done sprinting from camera to swing, I found a little cutie waiting for his turn!

Have I mentioned that I love having a little friend to take to the park? Jay swung on the swings, slid down the slide, and romped in the grass. Can you see that perfect strand of drool glistening all the way to the grass? I think Jay is working on some teeth, because he's been super drooooly and runny nosy all week, and now he has a little fever. Pobre hijo mio. We've had fun anyway, though!

One evening, we packed up and walked over to the university to meet Jeff after class. I love watching people's faces when they realize I have a baby in a basket on my back: indifference, confusion, comprehension, surprise, smile. All of that in the 5 seconds it takes for a car to pass!

Friday night was "date" night or (family outing night). We took a picnic to a nice open field behind the school and watched the sun set while we ate dinner. It got kind of cold, but I brought us fresh-out-of-the-oven enchiladas to warm us up.

Jeff finished eating first, whereupon he got all artistic with the camera. It was actually not dark at all--he just fiddled with the camera settings so he could get our silhouettes.

ooooooo

A delicious book:

If you haven't read this book yet, I HIGHLY recommend it!! My Mom sent it to me last week, and I devoured it in about 2 bites! It is the best, sweetest, "cozy-est" historical fiction that I've ever read!! I really want to visit Guernsey island now... just like how reading Anne of Green Gables makes me want to see Prince Edward Island... (don't worry, though, reading Twilight did not make me want to see Forks, WA. The Olympic National Forest, maybe, but not Forks.)

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!