Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!

Nancy's parents are in town for the holidays. Yesterday, we all got to spend Christmas Eve with Brandl, Danielle, Brooke and Tyler. We hung out, opened presents, ate dinner and went to church. It was a great day. It is crazy how fast Brooke and Tyler are growing up. It seems like just yesterday when they were Jacob's age.

Next weekend, we will go to Lorena to celebrate Christmas with my family, which, as usual, will be chaotic, insane, crazy, and lots of fun!

I'll post some more pictures soon. That's all for now.

Merry Christmas!

Finally broke down and blogged

Jacob is a very smiley baby. He laughs, giggles, and shrieks at the slightest funny face, silly dance, or random song. But just as quickly as he starts to laugh, he can snap into Grumpy McGrumperson mode. It is literally like flipping a switch. One second he is belly laughing, and the next he is screaming like someone is pouring battery acid down his throat. Fortunatley, this doesn't happen but once a day or so, and the laughing far outweighs the crying. We try really hard not to laugh at him when he sticks his bottom lip out (he gets that from his mama). These pictures adequately capture the mood-switcheroo:

He went to meet Santa and tell him what he wants for Christmas on Wednesday. It was not a complete disaster. He didn't cry or spit up on Santa or poop on him. He just sat there looking at us like we were crazy while we acted like idiots trying to get him to smile. Of course, he smiled 2 or 3 times at Santa...he just wouldn't smile for the camera. Oh well, we still got a cute picture and, again, no bodily fluids ended up on Santa's beard or suit. Trust me, that is a tally in the win column.

J-Dub has started to really enjoy his solid food menu, now complete with rice, oatmeal, peas, carrots, pears, sweet potatoes, and applesauce. Shelby has also, for some unrelated reason I'm sure, begun to show more interest in him, especially at feeding time.

As I said earlier, Jacob is very much a laugher. But funny faces, silly dances, and goofy noises are all pretty hit or miss, depending on his mood. There is only one thing that will get him to bust out in a full-on, shrieking belly laugh every time. You guessed it: Young M.C.'s Busta Move. Not the actual song playing, though. Just one of us singing (err...rapping) it. His favorite part is:

Your best friend Harry

Has a brother Larry

In five days from now, he's gonna marry

He's hopin' you can make it there if you can

Cause in the ceremony, you'll be the best man

It is our go-to strategy for any time we want him to smile. Picture time? Busta Move. He's getting a little grumpy? Busta Move. I have no earthly idea how this started, but that damn song is now stuck in my head so much that I wake up sometimes thinking it is 1982 and I am a young black rapper wearing parachute pants and gold chains. Fo Shizzle.

The kid spits up so much that he has to change clothes at least 16 times a day. Every photo we have of him requires at least thirty minutes of photoshopping to remove the green regurgitated pea stain from the front of his shirt before I can blog or post it on facebook. It comes without warning, and each spit-up contains 3x the volume that he just consumed. It is a wonder that the kid gains any weight at all, let alone is in the 90th percentile. His favorite place to spit up is down Nancy's shirt, aiming precisely for her cleavage. We are seriously about a week away from just saying screw it, and wearing panchos all the time. It really is a good thing he is so sweet and cute, because he always reeks of stale, regurgitated formula and partially digested carrots. We'll even find crusty little bits hidden between his chins hours later.

He went to the head specialist last week to see if he needs to wear a helmet, since he flat refuses to face his head to the right, so he is getting a flat spot on his left side. So far, though, he is helmet-less. Nancy does have to put him through some stretching exercises, however. Those are fun. That is, if you consider... watching a four month old baby scream bloody murder for 10 minutes, three times a day, like someone is tearing him limb from limb, while his mother forcibly holds his head to the right while he flails about...fun. Glad I miss most of those "stretching exercises".

We have the best baby in the world, and are so blessed that he is happy and healthy. Used stomach contents down your shirt notwithstanding.

A few more pics:

Happy in his bouncy chair...his happiest of happy places:

Wearing some Christmas gear his grandma made him:

Rockin a few of his bibs. He gets a lot of use out of them.

Chillin' on my couch at work:

Are you ready for some Cereal?

J-Dub went to the doctor yesterday for his 4 month checkup. He was supposed to get his vaccinations, but since he still has a chest cold, the doctor put those off. He also has an ear infection, for which he is now taking antibiotics. To top it all off, he still has a flat head and may have to wear a helmet. Other than that, he is doing great! At least he's happy. Oh yeah, and he is in about the 90th Percentile for height and weight. It's a good thing he spits up incessently or he would weigh 30 lbs by now.

Since he is growing so well, the doctor gave us the go-ahead to start feeding him rice cereal. Of course, we couldn't let that momentous occasion go by without taking a few pictures:


He looks a little concerned




Shelby, of course, wanted in on the action.

Most of the cereal came right back out.

A little even made it down the hatch

All cleaned up and ready for bed

Four Months Old

Almost 4 months

It's hard to believe that 4 months ago this coming Sunday, we first said hi to that wrinkly, coneheaded little booger. And now, 9 pounds later, he is smiling, laughing, grabbing things, sitting up, and motoring through 8 gallons of formula a day (or so it seems). It makes my day every night when I get home from work and he smiles at me.

He has had a chest cold this week, so he has been coughing and congested and generally snotty. But he is still just as happy as ever. Nancy took him to the doctor today, but unfortunately at his age there is not a whole lot they can give him to help with the coughing or congestion. So we have to let it run its course, which kinda sucks. I bought him a battery-operated snot-sucker today, which, oddly, he really enjoys. Much better than the manual one. When we use that one, we might as well be pouring battery acid in his nostrils, the way he carries on.

I got to thinking about all the stuff I have learned about babies in the last four months that I had no clue about before Jacob was born. It's almost scary how clueless I was, and that I was legally allowed to produce a child. Thank God for Google. How often do I feed him? Google. How much should he sleep every day? Google. Anything you want to know about has 40 pages on the web dedicated to answering that very question. What did you old folks use when we were kids back in the day? Or did you just wing it?


Here are some recent pictures, since that's all you care about anyway:





He digs the jump-a-roo. Sometimes.



Watching football in our matching camo



Sitting up in his Bumbo chair



That jump-a-roo is tiring!




His preferred eating position

His laugh is hilarious

Sleep Sack?

Night gown?

Man, I thought that last post was pretty funny...but I get no comments**crickets chirping**

Anyway, this post will be more interactive. Audience participation, if you will. All 3 of you.

My lovely wife called me into the bedroom last night to put our MALE child, my son, down to bed for the night. I did a double take when I saw what he was wearing. It looked like pajamas, sure enough, but something was different. I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Oh yes, that's it, IT'S A NIGHTGOWN!

Where I come from (admittedly, Lorena, TX) girls wear nightgowns. Boys wear pajamas. My wife says it is not a nightgown. It has one opening for both legs, so what else would you call it?

The first definition I found online:

night·gown (nītˈgounˌ)
noun
A loose garment worn in bed by women and girls. Also called nightdress.

So my son is now wearing a dress. Awesome.

I have attached some photos, and I would like your opinion.

What would you call this thing? Nightgown? Sleepdress? Nightdress? Nightie? Neglige'?