Thanksgiving

Back row: Molly (my twin sis), me, Jay, Mom Amy, and Mandy (my sister-in-law)

Front row: Scott (Molly's boyfriend), Matt, and Scott (my brother)

This Thanksgiving was the "big" year with my Mom and her side of the family. Every other year my Mom's siblings (she's the baby of her family) and their kids (my first cousins) and now my first cousin's kids gather. This year 50 of us out of 73 were able to attend. We held the gathering in my Mom's church's fellowship room that has an attached kitchen. The location was great!

We have a tradition that each family group take a turn in the "hot seats" to give an update on what has happened in their life in the past year. It is really great since it would be really difficult to get around to visit with everyone. This also creates an opportunity for photos, so here is a quick introduction.

Beth and Lee

(Mom's oldest sister)

Beth and Lee's second oldest daughter, Lori, with husband Kirk and their family

(Oldest daughter Lisa and family weren't able to come)

Beth and Lee's third and first born son, Tom

with Emily and their two girls, Melia and Lara

Beth and Lee's youngest, Matt

with wife Melanie and kids

Mom's second oldest sibling, Joan

Cousins Connie, Cathy (and husband John holding baby Jack), and Ray J and their families

Joan's third daughter, Christy

with husband Rob and kids Alyssa and Scott

Mom's third-born sister, Mary Kaye with husband Roger

and Mary Kaye's third-born son Jacob

with wife Alisha (my best friend growing up)

and kids Julia and Zachary

(Cousins Kevin, Kathy, and Jeff and their families weren't able to come this year)

Mom's older brother Ray with wife Tena

Now here are a few candid photos taken during the gathering.

Here is a great one of cousin Christy's daughter Alyssa and my sister, Molly. They sure look alike, don't they!

Below is a funny photo of Jay.

I think he's telling me, "Yikes, Mom! You sure have a big family!" How am I going to remember all of these names??"

Little Zach was enthralled with the babies since normally he is the youngest in gatherings. He liked to "help" me and especially enjoyed watching Jay eat his meals. One time he pulled up a chair, climbed up on it, looked in the car seat at Jay and said "Baby cute!" in the sweetest tone of voice.

The following morning my cousin Matt's family came out to my Mom's house to pick up Beth and Lee who stayed the night. Here is a picture of 1 year, 2 mo. old Ella Beth hugging 6 mo. old Jay.

And I'll end with this photo below of Jay on November 28th (the day after Thanksgiving) in the arms of Grandma Amy playing on the kitchen island counter.

We sure had a great time COUNTING OUR many BLESSINGS, one of which is the love and support of family!!

Patty Cake

Weekend

What a terrific weekend we just had with Matt's Mom and Dad (Nana and PopPop) in Oregon.

We arrived Friday night in time for dinner and some play time with Nana and PopPop before we all turned in for the night.

Saturday morning we enjoyed a wonderful breakfast together and then a nice walk on the new walking path just out the back door of their home. (One time around the loop is a bit more than a mile so we walked the loop about three times.) The fall weather was really terrific this weekend with the highs being in the upper 50's.

Aunt Shawn (Matt's sister), Uncle Mike, Cousin Alex, and Cousin Josh came over Saturday afternoon for games and fellowship followed by a delicious dinner that Nana made. What a wonderful spread - it reminded me of Thanksgiving with lots of yummy things to eat.

This morning we all went to Mike and Shawn's church. We enjoyed their worship service and it was so fun to see and meet Mike, Shawn, Alex and Josh's friends. Nana and PopPop treated us to lunch before we got back on the road to head back home this afternoon.

Jay was such a good traveler. At the most he'll take a one hour nap, but when he wakes up I just feed him and then he is a happy boy. He loves it when Matt and I sing him songs. He just stops, listens, and sweetly stares as we serenade him.

I think Jay must be getting ready to have more teeth pop through his gums. His hands are often in his mouth and he is drooling alot. At first we thought he was sucking his thumb, but when we looked closely he wasn't sucking, he was rubbing it across his gums. I'll keep you posted regarding whether this theory rings true in the next week or two. His two bottom teeth that are in just add to his cute-ness factor, I think. But as you know I'm VERY biased.

Cousin Josh (5) and Jay (5-1/2 mo.)

Cousin Alex (9)

Jay, Aunt Shawn, and Cousin Alex having fun

Jay LOVES to stand (can you tell?)

Uncle Mike

Aunt Shawn


PopPop (a.k.a. Dad Jim) & Nana (a.k.a. Mom Carol)

Nana and PopPop, Mike, Shawn, Alex, and Josh - thanks for a fun weekend! We can hardly wait to come again!

Rash

Jay seems to have developed a bit of a rash on his stomach/chest. They are tiny red pin dot sized raised bumps. That is the only place the rash is, too. Any advice to what might have caused it? I introduced pears on Monday. Could it be from that?

I've placed a call to the pediatrician's office today to get some advice from the nurses there.

Thankfully the rash doesn't seem to bother Jay a bit. I'd just like it to clear up sooner rather than later.

P.S. The nurse at the pediatrician's office just called me back and said that many kids get a rash caused from a virus of some kind. Because it isn't bothering Jay, I'll watch and wait. If it doesn't clear up by the start of next week I will probably take him for a quick visit just so the doctor can confirm the theory or let me know if it is something else. Again, I'm so thankful it doesn't bother Jay.

Fun

Like I mentioned in my last post, Matt and I attended the Families Northwest dinner last evening. While we were there Jay enjoyed 5 hours with his Aunt Traci and Cousin Sydney. Here are pictures to prove it.

(In the above photo he is reaching up to try to grab the camera strap.)

I'll end this with my favorite video clip yet. When we first arrived for the evening, Sydney was showing us many of her gymnastics flips. Jay thought they were especially great as you'll see evidenced in this short video clip. Everytime Sydney's legs were in the air he thought that was so hilarious! Jay laughed like this for quite a while.

We Were Curious

Matt and I have been curious as to how much Jay weighs, so when I was out and about this morning I stopped by the Overlake Hospital Women's Clinic where you can just walk in and have your baby weighed.

Today his (naked) weight was: 15 lbs., 14.5 oz.

Later today Aunt Traci (Matt's sister) and Cousin Sydney will be babysitting Jay while Matt and I attend the Families Northwest fundraising dinner. We've volunteered to help out. Matt will greet guests by the elevator in the parking garage to guide guests to the main level and I'll be at the New Registration table with my good friend Kay. Later we'll enjoy a great meal, entertainment by John Tesh (the featured guest), and the latest information on the happenings at Families Northwest.

Ready For Bed

AWAKE - 8:56 p.m.

TIRED - 9:04 p.m.

ASLEEP - 9:08 p.m.

Pictures taken on 11/5/08

Floor Play Time

Here are two consecutive videos of Jay playing. I put him on the floor for some tummy time and a couple of minutes later he had rolled himself over and was just babbling away. The second video I took 2 minutes after taking the first video. He had rolled and moved himself over to that side of the blanket in just that short amount of time.

And here is a picture of my two guys whom I love so much hanging out on the floor blanket together.

5 months old

Yes, Jay is now 5 months old! Here are some of the things about Jay at this stage:

• Looking at him, his right bottom front tooth is through and his left bottom front tooth has just broken through the gum, too. He has bitten me a couple times when nursing, so that has made me a bit more motivated to continue the transition off breastfeeding and more on to solid foods.

• He is eating rice cereal, butternut squash, sweet potato, and applesauce, as well as drinking breastmilk every three hours during the day. He'll try his first taste of avocado tomorrow.

• He sleeps a continuous 8 hours at night, wakes up for a feeding, and goes right back to sleep for another 3 hours.

• During the day he is very scheduled. He wakes up and eats, has wake time/playtime, then at the 3 hour mark from when he woke up, he is tired and takes anywhere between a 30 min., 45 min., or 1 hr. nap. We repeat that routine six to eight times every day. If an errand needs to be run, I take him to do the errand(s) during his wake time and try to be back home when he is ready for the next nap.

• He sits up and is fairly steady, but still needs a hand on the back to steady him. He enjoys standing if you hold his arms or support his body.

• He loves playing patty cake and enjoys any kid song you sing to him (i.e., Itsy Bitsy Spider; Head and Shoulders Knees and Toes; I'm a Little Teapot; Jesus Loves Me; Old McDonald; You Are My Sunshine, etc. - he LOVES hand motions). His favorite word is "zoom." He many times smiles really big when we say that to him.

• His favorite play activity would be the exersaucer. He'll stay in that for 20 to 30 minutes and is perfectly happy. He especially likes it if someone is right there in the room watching him. He can really get that thing rocking as he laughs and moves around. He gets bored in the swing after about 5 or 10 minutes, and lasts about as long (5 or 10 minutes) on a blanket with toys during tummy time.

• He gives me really big, slobbery, open-mouthed kisses. More often than not he'll give me those kisses when I pick him up from the diaper changing table (kisses me for the clean diaper, I guess) and he'll return kisses to me on my cheeks and chin after I play with him kissing him on his cheeks, neck, tummy, and feet.

• He continues to get a 1 ml dose of his medicine every 8 hours (3 times each day). We see the cardiologist in January and will determine whether to take him off the medication or not at that time.

• I've started transitioning him this week into 6 month clothes. Many of his 3 to 6 months items are too small now.

Here are a couple photos I've taken this last week I thought you might enjoy seeing. This first one is a picture of him in his costume - this time looking at the camera and smiling.

The above photo is Jay's first time sitting in the highchair (thank you so much Mike and Shawn for giving it to us). He looks thrilled to be in it, huh? :)

I like this photo of Jay in the highchair. Matt had just come home for lunch from work yesterday so there is his smile and reaction to seeing his Dad. What a nice greeting, huh? I had just finished feeding and cleaning up Jay after his lunch of sweet potato and applesauce.

And the photo above is part of the work I've done in the kitchen making Jay servings of his vegetables and fruit. I roasted the butternut squash and sweet potatoes in the oven on October 25 till they were nice and soft. Then I put the softened vegetables in the food processor to puree them till they were nice and smooth and then froze the puree in my ice cube trays. The ice cubes make the perfect serving sizes. I took 5 apples (4 varieties) and cooked them down in a saucepan November 1, pureed them, and froze them in the ice cube trays. I love opening up the refrigerator freezer and grabbing a cube, sticking it in a bowl and microwaving it for 30 seconds to defrost it and to bring the puree to room temperature. These frozen servings can be in the freezer for around 3 months - so plenty of time for us to use them. I like making his food. It is so easy, and when it comes to serving it to him it is fast, nutritious, and it saves us money having his food homemade.

One other new thing happened this week. We left Jay with the nursery care workers at church this past Sunday while we attended our Sunday School class! I knew the last time we had him with us in Sunday School that it was time. He had a runny nose/cold that week so I didn't feel I could leave him in the nursery, but that Sunday he was VERY distracting in class. I felt bad about that and knew next time it was time to put him in the care of the nursery workers. The little turkey was tired when we handed him off, but he didn't take a nap and then didn't want to eat from his bottle when they offered his lunch to him. Other than that he was a good boy and the nursery care workers said they are looking forward to watching him again. That does a mother's heart good.

Halloween

Matt, Jay, and I drove to Edmonds yesterday evening to spend the evening with our friends Eric, Lea, and Asher. The city of Edmonds blocks off the downtown streets so trick-or-treaters can roam the streets visiting the various stores that hand out candy. Eric, Lea, and Asher took a portion of that in, but Matt and I missed that because traffic was really terrible getting from Bellevue.

Eric and Lea live a few blocks away from the core of downtown Edmonds so we arrived in time for dinner. Lea had prepared yummy chili and cornbread - the perfect warm, cozy, fall dinner. I brought a salad to complete our meal. When we finished eating we caravaned over to Westgate Chapel. That church hosted a really terrific Community Harvest Party. The theme was "County Fair" and they had a TON of games and activities for the kids. It was really great. We just might make the Westgate Chapel Community Harvest Party a tradition.

Here is a picture of the guys with the boys when we arrived at their home.

Jay (5 mo.), Matt, Asher (2-1/2 yrs.), and Eric

At Westgate Chapel they had a "Photo Op" place, so we took advantage of the backdrop to take family photos. Above is Lea, Asher (the frog), and Eric. Eric and Lea are expecting another baby boy November 22. We're all so excited. Doesn't Lea look terrific for being just a few weeks away from her due date??

And here is a photo of our family taken last night. Our pea in the pod didn't cooperate by looking at the camera no matter how many photos we took, but he still is cute, don't you think??

We would have taken more photos, but after these were taken the camera battery died. I learned my lesson that the camera battery needs to be fully charged BEFORE a photo op evening like this. Oh well! At least we got these!

Thanks to Eric and Lea for a fun evening!