Fam-Lee

Well, we got our new license plate this week. Our SUV will proudly proclaim that we are "One Fami-Lee!"



...also, Jake can now roll over to his back again (thank goodness- it was getting tiring doing it for him!). We'll try to capture some video of this amazing feat.

the pool

Last week we took a lovely trip out to Bethany Beach, DE.




The weather was terrible- thunderstorms every day!- but it was a relaxing time, and nice to hang out with Andrew's family. We took Jake to the indoor pool every day. He looked super-cool in his adorable swim trunks:



My two boys really had a fun time:




Jake took right to the water! He seemed to really enjoy "splashing", something I taught him in the bathtub. He now does it like his job; "Oh, water? Must be time to splash. Splash, splash, splash." He does this adorable thing when he's on his belly- he flails both arms and legs like he's doggy-paddling. It was too cute to hold him horizontally in the water and watch him do the same thing! He was totally "swimming"! I'm so happy that he likes the water so much, and can't wait to play with him more this summer!!

Here's a short video of his first adventure in the pool!

Easter

Hunting for Easter eggs is probably my favorite Easter tradition; I've done it every year. This year, Andrew hid eggs for both Jake and me- here we are in the front yard finding the easy ones wish Jake. He was interested in the brightly-colored (contrasting) eggs; he seemed to be able to actually notice them when they were "hidden". I was terribly proud of him- continuing the tradition!






Here's Jake's two Easter outfits:

Not a fan of the carrots...

Solid food experiments, day 2: Jake definitely prefers spitting the carrots on me (and rubbing them in his hair) to actually eating them. We're switching to bananas tomorrow.

mashed carrots

Well, thanks to the two teeth pictured below, we decided it might be time for Jacob to try baby food. I was all for waiting as long as possible (I love nursing him!), but he's been really interested in our food for a few weeks now, so it was as good a time as any. We started with mashed carrots, not the ideal first food, but one he was familiar with after the frozen carrot adventure.

Here's a (rather long) clip of our first adventure into real food. I love how he is really interested in the food at the beginning ("hmmmm... what is this?"), and then he suddenly decides that he doesn't like it at all ("Yuck, this is terrible!"). We stopped filming then, but believe me that we tried for a further 10 minutes. Jake had decided that mashed carrots were yucky, and we weren't changing his mind. His disgusted faces were adorable.

He did, however, enjoy feeding himself- he grabbed the spoon and put it and the food in his mouth. That was the only way he would eat anything, towards the end. I feel like he's growing up waaaay too fast.

teeth

We have teeth! Yes, 'teeth' plural! Here's one of the few good pictures (ie- no tongue) of Jake's existing tooth... and you can also just see the next one breaking through the skin. He's been a little trooper, not fussing too much, but we can tell he's not loving this. Hopefully, the next teeth will take a while before they decide to arrive.

This is what happens when Andrew hangs out with Jake...

I found this video on the camera, and have no idea when it was taken. Apparently this is what Andrew and Jake do when they're together. I love how Jake's so into the cars. Could he be any more of a boy?

Standing?

Jake practices standing, and seems to enjoy it... until it's no fun anymore.

Ticklish baby

Jake enjoys some time without a diaper. Andrew has a shirt that matches this one identically, and he too often wears it without a diaper.

I dare you to watch this without giggling. :)

Jake enjoying his new high chair!

Frozen carrots are yummy!

We peel and freeze whole carrots. They're hard and cold, obviously, but as they defrost, they turn rubbery. Jake enjoys the carrot juice, and they're impossible to bite through or choke on. The only downside is how messy he gets... Now we have special carrot-eating bibs: the orange ones from Halloween. :)

First Post!

Greetings, friends and family!

It’s been an exciting five and a half months since Jake arrived, and our adventures up ‘til this point have been chronicled over at Flickr (click here). We decided, however, that it was time to find a home for our stories, photos AND videos, and a friend recommended blogspot. I’ll try to update this as often as possible, and will be sure to share any fun stories or cute pictures.

Here’s a recent update from the baby front:

Jake's able to sit up on his own now for quite a few minutes, but still wobbly enough that he takes frequent nose dives. He's getting really good with his tummy time- using his back muscles instead of his arms to support himself. He’s really good with the rolling over from back to tummy (he only rolls to his left, though), but no luck on the rolling back over (which means he cries until someone rescues him). He has a rather small repertoire of sounds (I think he's going to be an introvert): "mmmmmm", "mamamamama" and "nanananana" (doesn't seem to connect me to "mama" though). We've heard "d" once, and he's recently discovered a sound that's a cross between a raspberry and "p". And he LOVES to kick- between the kicking, the (amazingly powerful) punching and biting, and the occasional nunchucking with his plastic toys, we think we've got a real martial artist here. :)

We recently spent a week down on Edisto Island, SC with my family, and had a wonderful time catching up and introducing him to all of his southern fans. Jake was baptized in the small non-denominational Christian church down there, with our immediate families as witnesses- a lovely, small, intimate and meaningful ceremony. He also got to experience his first oyster roasts, although we didn’t let him taste any! The big surprise of the week came when we invited my old friends Nathan and Mell Bell down to hang out over lunch one day. Nathan is a professional photographer, and they did the pics of our wedding (which were just stupendous!). They were excited to meet Jake, and they did what they call a “family session” with us- a ton of AMAZING pictures of us, Jake, my parents, the Island (and the dogs, Lacy and Gin). Here’s the slide show (and an “album” that Nathan designed for us is linked below): http://www.charlestonportrait.com/#/lee2/ Make sure your sound is turned on! They’re so talented!

Jake cut his first tooth last week (front lower right)! He’s pretty young yet, but I apparently toothed really early too. We didn’t even realize it was there… and then on the afternoon of April 1st, he started screaming in pain. It was an uncomfortable few hours, but by that evening, the tooth had broken through the skin completely! He’s apparently blessed to be one of those babies who tooth really quickly and easily… I hope it continues with the other teeth! We can already see his next one (right next to the existing one), so maybe that’ll be through soon too. Jake is REALLY enjoying biting things, and I recently made the executive decision that that means he’s ready for solids. I love being able to feed him myself, but this biting ain’t cool. Baby food, here we come!!

Further updates as news warrants.