Smiles & Sleeping - 11 weeks old

Jackson has been giving us smiles - not gas ones, real ones - since he was 5 weeks old, but lately he's stepped it up (or maybe he's just a ham for the camera). And we have been giving him smiles all week because he is sleeping through the night! Starting at 10 weeks, he did 6 hours a few nights, then 9, then 7 - and we'll take it over 3, 4 and 2. At 11 weeks, he is 17 lbs and 24 inches, and wearing 3-6 month clothes. Here are a few of our favorite smiles, including this first one that started as a smile and turned into an all-out laugh...

Highlights from Month 2

We've definitely kept Jackson on the move this month, with outings and visits from family and friends. Here are the highlights, by week, followed by a slide show of the pictures:

• Visiting daddy at work wearing his "future doctor" socks - the nurses ate him up!
  
• A trip to Roosevelt Island with the Londons to get both dogs and babies out and about


• A picnic at the zoo for my work's fall outing, where we met up with other PRTM babies


• A day trip to Maryland's Eastern Shore to escort daddy to his conference, check out the new, very nice hotel, and grab a drink and stroll in Easton on the way back


• Visits from Nana and Zeidi on daddy's side


• Our first overnight trip back home to Loudoun for the annual Waterford Fair, with Jamie, Chambers, and Tj


• Visiting newly-engaged Jenn and Hugh at their beautiful new house, with the Ross family


• Visits with Aunt Kelly, Sue, newlyweds Dave and Stacy, and Ahmad and Mona


• First solo shopping trips with mom (yippeee!)
  

The Precious Present

These days I'm often reminded of the TV ad "Having a baby changes everything" - I think its by Johnson & Johnson. My version would involve the ways our lives are different, like how yesterday I finally got to do yoga while Jackson napped in his swing, and just as the insructor on the DVD asked us to focus on our breath, Jackson punctuated my inner peace with a series of still-asleep toots. Nice. But it made me laugh, which probably gave me more peace than a DVD would have anyway. And I'm surprised at the way he has changed me. Like how my pre-baby self would try to accomplish way more in a day than I could possibly hope to do; now, getting a shower and a load of laundry done in the same 12 hour period is a huge feat. But somehow, I'm not as frustrated - perhaps because he's managing my expectations much better than I ever did. And though I still try to multitask, he seems to sense it and either won't eat well (I know, that's unlikely!) or chooses those moments for a blowout. So he really forces me to pay attention and be in the moment. And at the rate the moments are flying by, thank God for that:)