In this corner, weighing in at...

Jason had his four month check-up today. He did really well, and we also decided we're starting to feel much more comfortable as parents, since the amount of questions we had for the doctor were significantly less than at the 2 month appointment. He weighs 13 pounds, 1.5 ounces and is 24 inches long! Two feet tall! He had 3 shots today (5 vaccines), but I thought they went much better than the 2 month shots. Maybe he's getting better at handling them, or maybe the Tylenol I gave him kicked in faster. Either way, he was giggling and hooing a short time later.

Weekend in the mountains

We're back from a nice 3 day weekend in North Carolina. Jason did really well, considering he spent a great deal of time in his carseat. Steve made a CD of over an hour of pink noise ("white noise, only deeper," Steve says), that saved us more than a few times in the car. Jason could be screaming at the top of his lungs one second; we put the white noise on, and poof! he's in a trance the next and asleep a few minutes later.

Once we unloaded the car at the house on Friday, we got back in the car and drove an hour to Asheville. We enjoyed doing some window shopping (especially since many stores closed early due to the holiday), got some tasty frozen custard, bought as much beer as would fit in the bottom of the stroller, and finally ate a fantastic dinner at Tupelo Honey Cafe. Other than having to nurse Jason in the car twice (we didn't bring any bottles and I can't find nearly enough comfortable places to nurse in public - my newest rant these days), we all really enjoyed ourselves. We made it back to the house around 9, just in time to watch fireworks. They weren't as impressive as I thought they'd be, since they were further away than I thought they'd be.

Saturday was a really relaxing day. We went into town for lunch and met up with Steve's parents later that afternoon. We went out to dinner at the largest Chinese buffet EVER and then went back to the house where we hung out on the deck and watched a gorgeous sunset.

It rained really hard overnight, but cleared by 10am. We went into town for Brunch at Hobnob, cleaned up the house and left around 3:30. We went home a longer, but more scenic way and stopped at Carolina's Smokehouse (the best bbq ever!) for an early dinner. We were still full from brunch, but the bbq is that good!

Jason hit his limit after dinner and no amount of pink noise or ssshhhing would calm him for very long the last hour of the drive home. I don't blame him since we all were ready to be out of the car, and we had been able to walk around and stretch. When we got home, Jason got a nice long bath to relax in (he was cooing and smiling by the end of it) and he fell asleep while nursing.

So, we survived our first trip away with baby and were able to relax too. Phew!

Then and Now

Here's a picture my sister took just a few days ago, much more updated than the picture from the last post.

We're going away for the weekend, so I'm hoping to have some good shots of Jason enjoying the mountains when we get back.

First Post

Here's the first posting on our new blog. I've created this mostly for my parents, who are about to move to Indiana, as a way for them to keep up with all the many changes of their grandson. But, I figure our friends that we just don't see often enough might want to take a look at it every once in a while too.

Thanks to our friends, the Schmidts, who have a blog here for inspiring me to do this.

So, here's the update on Jason. He's almost four months old (update on length and weight after Monday's appointment) and is surprising us with new things on a daily basis. He sleeps through the night, 10-11 hours, (woo hoo!) and oftentimes sings and "hoo's" to himself when he wakes up. He's in his own crib in his own room (woo hoo!) and smiles a lot in the morning hours. He's found his thumb (left one only at this point), and sometimes sucks on it so hard, I think it's going to bleed. He still hates being on his tummy, but loves to stand up. In fact, when I lift him from a lying position up to seating, he doesn't bend at the waist, but rather pushes himself up to stand! And he stays like that for a good minute before getting wobbly and wanting to take a break. He's learning to dance too (with Daddy's help). If he gets upset, all I have to do is take him outside, and he calms down immediately. We pretty much spend the "cranky time" (between last nap and bath time) outside, as it keeps us all much happier.

We'll get some new photos up soon, as this one is still one of my favorites, but was taken when Jason was only a couple weeks old, so stay tuned.