A big boy!

Dad discovered this weekend that he can now lift Jack up and his head won't fall off of his neck! Jack can hold his little head up really good all by himself now - but only for a few minutes and then he gets tired....
We also discovered that he likes to stand up straight on his legs - he is doing so many new things it is hard to keep track.

Jack had his 2 month doctor visit on Friday - he is growing so fast! He weighs 11 lbs, 13.5 oz and is 24 inches long. He had to get his first set of shots - which mama was not excited about. I felt so bad as we sat there in the office playing with him and watching him smile and talk - he had no idea what was coming. ): I had to go to the waiting room and let Phil hold him for shots - I could still hear him screaming out there at which point I did end up going in at the very end but they were all done. Jack did great - he cried most of the way home (so did I) but after that was smiling and acting normal. I am definitely not looking forward to the next round of shots at 4 months....

On Saturday we went to Grandmas and Papa's house and Jack got to see both sets of grandparents -we are so blessed to have so many people who love our little boy so much! Of course he was great as usual - he is taking naps really well at other peoples houses which makes him really portable....who knows how long that will last....
Jack loves his swing, and every time we put him in it he looks up at the mirror and the birds - it is so cute! Jack is such a good baby and we love him so so so so much!

After Christmas

Jack had a little too much fun on Christmas day - the day after Christmas he spent a lot of time doing this......














When we got home we realized that Jack has now outgrown all of his newborn and 0-3 month outfits- so we got out the 3-6 month outfits and even some 6-9 month outfits, which basically shows nothing except that baby sizes are all over the place!







He looked sooooo long and skinny in the red and white stripes! And the blue outfit in the swing is one of his 6-9 month outfits - he turned 2 months on the 26th.





I am glad I investigated the back of the closet or we would have wasted these clothes by the time he got to 6 months old!





Jack has been laughing and playing after he eats! He always holds up his left fist and stares intently at it - like he is discovering that it belongs to him. When we put him in his swing he immediately looks up at the mirror and the moving birds and stares at them. He is always making bubbles with his mouth, and really starting to work hard at making noises and baby talk. He is becoming a lot more predictable and is just the best baby! We are so blessed!

Christmas Day - At Grandma and Papa's

We woke up to a quiet Christmas morning -Jack did GREAT, sleeping almost 8 hours on Christmas Eve. By 1:00 pm the quiet was gone! All the cousins had arrived, all with light sabers and various other toys to play with! Here is the whole Lozen clan....Aunt Barney (Yvonne) with all the grandkids. Matthew did a great job holding Jack and keeping him happy for the photo shoot!
Our family on Christmas day (:
"Don't kiss me MAMA"
Jacob, Matthew, Jackson, Anna, and Kyle (:
MERRY CHRISTMAS from the back of Jack's pants!
Sitting at the table with Grandma at lunch!
He managed to stay awake to open one present, (or watch me open it) but his eyes were closing just as we began! He took great naps, was a perfect angel for everyone! Jack got a sign for the woods, since all the trails are named after the grandkids - he got a bunch of cute toys, a big toy box from Grandma and Papa and a measuring chart to hang in his room. We actually measured him with a tape measure and are guessing he is about 24 inches now - and we weighed him by stepping on the scale with and without him and are guessing his weight at about 12 pounds~ YIKES! We go to the doctor Friday for the official stats - AND shots....mama is NOT looking forward to the shots at all!

Anyways Jack had a wonderful first Christmas and so did we (:

Christmas Eve

Our first Christmas Eve with Jackson! We hung out around the house and relaxed all day, packing for the trip to Grandma and Papas. Then we got Jack ready and headed to church at 6 pm for the Christmas Eve candlelight service....The three of us in front of our tree right before we headed out the door to church!
Jack in his Christmas outfit that Aunt Jessica bought him before he was even born (: He looked so cute and did so good at church. He slept through most of the service and mom and dad got to be together in the service for the candlelight part which was beautiful and amazing. The whole service was great - the band sounded awesome and looked especially cool with the lights off in the church and just shining on them - we had a guest appearance by Third Day singing O Holy Night, or wait, I think that might have been Rich - hard to tell.....we were very proud to be part of the Milan Vineyard this Christmas.....
Someone being a bit of a Grinch before church - I think he was mad that I was taking pictures before i put his pants on...."Mom, come ON! Put some pants on me!!!"

Smiling Jack Ross

Jack on Christmas Eve eve after waking up from a nap.

First Christmas Part I

Merry Christmas!

Jack is in the midst of his first Christmas, and we've had a blast so far. Now if only we could get some snow to go sledding. We went to Amy's parent's on Dec. 16 for Christmas in Grand Rapids. Jack (and mom and dad) got some great gifts (thanks grandpa and gigi). Jack did a great job traveling, sleeping the whole way to and from Grand Rapids. He took some great naps while we were there, too.

Most recently, Jackson's been giving his mom and dad early Christmas presents, sleep. I'm not bragging, and I don't want to jinx anything, but the last two nights Jack's gone 7 hours between feedings at night. It's almost hard to think back to week 1 when we were taking turns sleeping in the living room with him, getting like 30 minutes at the most.

This weekend we'll head to grandma and papa's in Lapeer for Christmas Eve and Christmas with the Lozen clan. Then dad's home for the whole week, not having to go back to work until Jan. 2.

Update for those that read my last post about our friend's baby: he's out of the ICU and recovering well. Still some concerns about his lungs but God has really watched over him and helped heal him. Keep praying for him and his parents as the process continues.

Gigi spent some great quality time with Jack.

As did grandpa.

Jack's really been smiling a lot lately, of course who wouldn't smile when near that handsome guy?

The happy family.

Our Christmas card photo. I'll scan the card next week and put it in for those who didn't get one (while we'd love to send one to everyone, we're not rich!)

Not a Christmas photo, but one of my favorites of late.

Jack's growing out of almost all his 0-3 month outfits, which means more pants and shirts as we don't have too many 3-6 month sleeper outfits.

That's it for now. We'll have more to say next week after we get back from Lapeer.

Merry Christmas!

PS: Head over to Brad Paisley.com and check out his song Kung Pao Buckaroo Christmas. It's a hilarious take on the recent attacks on saying "Merry Christmas" with Bill Anderson, George Jones and Little Jimmy Dickens getting bleeped every time they say Christmas in the song. Good stuff.

A few new pics and a prayer request

Couple updates for you, but more pressing matters first.

Our friends had a baby on Friday, Grant Samuel. He was born with a condition called TAPVR. Basically it meant that two of the four veins leading to his heart were not pumping, and his blood was getting no oxygen. He was med-flighted from Troy to UM Mott Hospital that day, and by Sunday they had to perform emergency open heart surgery on him.

His condition is slightly improved, but he still has a long way to go. They need your prayers in a very real way. Here's a link to a blog they created to update his condition.

Now for some Jack news. in the last week or so we've made some good strides:

• He now goes right down for naps and bed without rocking or holding him until he falls asleep. He's done great with it so far, only fighting sleep a couple times.
  
• We're now leaving his arms out of his swaddle when we put him down. Again, he's done really well with it. The times we have fully swaddled him, his arms have always been out by the time he wakes up anyhow.
  
• Grandma came for a visit this week and he spent the day at the mall with his mama, aunt Barney and grandma. He was perfect the whole day.
  
• He's now smiling quite a bit. It's so fun to see his face build up from nothing into a glowing smile. So rewarding.

Here's some pics for you to check out of the last week.




Christmas at grandpa and gigi's this weekend, so there's sure to be some pics from that. Until next time.

Xbox and new pics

Dad loves to play Xbox, and since Jack came along, his time playing has been drastically cut. Not that I'm complaining, I love taking care of Jack. However on Monday, I figured out I could combine the two.

While he may not look too excited, Jack had a blast watching me play Gears of War. My friends, those on the other end of the headset you see me wearing, got a kick out of hearing Jack while we were playing. Jack's mama, on the other hand, was none too thrilled with the chainsaw weapon on the game, and has vowed Jack will never play that game. At least not until he's older. Her reactions ranged from "gross" to "ohmigosh what is that" to "that is horrible". Ain't video games great?

Before everyone freaks out, don't worry, when he's old enough to understand what's on the TV screen I won't play these types of games while he's watching. Just when he's in bed.

Here's a couple new pics and a couple new Jack info bits for this December 5.

Jack went 5.5 hours between feedings Saturday night, quite amazing we thought. Of course we woke at the normal time he would get up and then kept commenting on how long he was sleeping, rendering the extra hours nearly useless for sleep.

To make sure we didn't get too comfortable with his new longer sleep pattern, he was up pretty much from 1 a.m. until 7:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, with a few short naps in between. I think that's him laughing at us above.

Also of note, Jack has taken to his play gym pretty well, smiling at the elephant that pulls down off the arch. He's smiling quite a bit lately, although mostly at other people and inanimate objects and not so much at mom and dad. Kid's a wise guy already. He also a growing wise guy, as we've had to retire at least three outfits and a couple more are on the border, and he's wearing a couple 3-6 month outfits already.

Finally, for those in the Lozen clan, doesn't Jack look like a young Kyle in the above picture? I sure think so.

Catching Up...

Let's catch up after the big holiday weekend. So much has been happening in Jack's life since the last post. Dad only worked Monday and Tuesday and then had six days off over the Thanksgiving weekend. Let's look at the week that was.

Wednesday
Mom and dad took Jack to Target and we got all our holiday decorations in order. That afternoon dad decorated the outside of the house (man did the memories of decorating our house on Terra Bella come flying back standing on that ladder, putting hooks on the gutters). Meanwhile, mom started unpacking and putting things together inside the house. Soon enough we got the tree up and all decorated.

Thursday
Happy Thanksgiving! We all piled into the car and headed to Grand Rapids to hang out with Amy's family for Thanksgiving. We had a great meal at her aunt's house, and Jack got to hang out with his grandpa and gigi.

Jack got all dressed up for his first Thanksgiving.

He also got to meet Maverick, who was a bit jealous of all the attention Jack was getting.

Jack was awesome the whole day, never fussed with anyone who held him and then slept the whole way home.

Friday and Saturday
We headed back to Target to return some things and pick up some other things and finished up the decorating. Mom's friend Ronni came over to watch Alias, and dad went to Jesse's to play FIFA '07 on the 360.

Jack apparently had a difference of opinion with dad over the jacket he was trying to put on him.

And somehow, during the weekend, Jack seems to have joined a gang and is now proficient at flashing his "East Sideee" sign.

Here Jack looks pretty content taking his first real bath in the bathtub.

Sunday
Papa and grandma came over on their way to the airport (they're now in St. Thomas) and then Jack went to his friend Elle's birthday party.

Monday
Dad was off on Monday, too, and Jack had his latest doctor's appointment. He's now nine pounds 11 ounces and 22-plus inches long. Doctor said both numbers were better than he thought they would be, so we were happy to hear that. Mom was not, however, happy to hear that the next appointment meant shots.


So much has changed in just the time dad was home. I submit for your consideration:

• He now goes down for naps after feedings in his crib.
  
• He has smiled a couple times. Maybe not on purpose, but they were smiles.
• He takes a bottle now, and mom was happy to get more than three hours of sleep in a row for the first time.
  
• He went five hours between feedings for the first time, only once, but it was encouraging nonetheless.
• He seems to be going through a growth spurt, he's eating like a maniac the last three days.
  

In the next couple weeks, the doctor says we can look forward to:

• The number of poopy diapers steadily decreasing
• Him smiling on purpose
• His night-time sleep patterns getting longer

All good things.

Only 26 shopping days left until Christmas!

Big Weekend

Man, Jack was a traveling superstar this weekend. Actually, starting on Wednesday, he left the house every day through Sunday. Wednesday he went to church with mom, then to the dentist on Thursday. Friday he visited dad's work, where a world-record for the amount of people in an 8x8 cube was set.

But Saturday was the big day out.

It started with his first spectator sporting event, the finals of the church basketball league dad plays in. Dad's team, Milan Vineyard Church, was playing Ann Arbor Vineyard Church, a rivalry second only to the other big game on Saturday (sorry UM fans, I was actually pulling for them this game). Milan pulled through with a 10-point win after trailing by 14 in the first half. Jack was very excited (ok, he spent most of the game eating, but I could feel his support nonetheless).

We then took his biggest road-trip to date, heading out to Rochester Hills for a big family party.

He got to hang out with all his first-cousins, from left Jacob, Anna, Kyle and Matt.

Then he spent some time with the extended cousins, all 10 of them!

Papa played some patty-cake with him.

And finally spent some time with newly-born Riley.

It was a pretty busy day for him, but he did great. For some reason he didn't want to fall asleep in the car on the way home until we were 20 minutes into the ride, but he did fine after that. He must have been tired, because he went four-plus hours between feedings twice Saturday night.

Speaking of Saturday night, he got his first bottle from dad at 2:30 a.m. He took the entire two ounces in like 10 minutes, but that wasn't enough so mom still had to feed him a bit more. Ahh yes, like father like son, always hungry.

Sunday we went back to church, and he made it through the entire service this time. Then while dad was at Kroger after church, he returned an entire feeding on mom's lap. And her pants. And the chair cushion. And the ottoman. And the floor. And his blankets. And his outfit. And his face. Basically dad was the only thing to stay dry because I was in the frozen food aisle two miles away.

Good times indeed. Dad's looking forward to this week because he only has to work Monday and Tuesday and then he's off until the following Tuesday. I'm already sifting through my clothes to find the most forgiving waistband for Thanksgiving.

Finally you may have noticed a new author in recent days. Mom will be making regular appearances on the blog from now on. You can tell her posts by the lack of paragraphs, capital letters and punctuation (and she was the UM grad). Just kidding, we love mom!

jackson

jack and i are getting much more comfortable going places - wednesday we went to the new moms group at church - it was our first trip alone and he did GREAT - he slept the whole time! thursday we went to the orthodontist. we thought we should get jack started on braces right away (: actually i got my bottom braces put on and jack was very good while aunt carrie and grandma sandy watched him for me - lucky for me they work at the orthodontist (: jack did great even though it wasn't very fun for mama. here is jack before we went to visit daddy at work today - he did great again and he seemed to be a big hit with phil's coworkers.

the other day jack was so sleepy that it took both dad and mom to wake him up to eat (: jack didn't want dad to leave for work on thursday - so he was hanging on to his shirt. (:

friday jack had a visitor - his friend gabrielle came over to hang out - here they are just laying around....tomorrow we are going to watch the big basketball game between the ann arbor vineyard and the milan vineyard! jack is very excited (: go milan!!!!