5 Months!

Jaydon has learned a few new things this month - he rolls over both ways, he sits for short periods of time without falling over, he makes a few more noises, he passes toys from hand to hand and he has started trying to turn pages in a book. He watches me drink water from a water bottle and we have tried him on a sippy cup (without the part that makes it spill proof because he does not have the sucking part down) - he still does not want anything to do with a bottle or a pacifier and he still has sleep issues. We look forward to all that is to come.

A new favorite activity: getting swung back and forth in dad's arms.

Sitting and looking intently at one of his favorite books.

He found his toes and likes to touch them. He can't get them to his mouth and I am sure he is a bit bummed by that - or would be if he knew what he was missing.

Another favorite book - this is where we really noticed him reach out to turn the pages.

Visit with Asia and Sophie

An old college friend of mine had a baby a month and a half before Jaydon was born. We got together for a play date. It was great to meet baby Sophie and see Asia again.

Sophie sits amazingly well - excellent posture. Jaydon was doing okay on his own for awhile but will list to a side and eventually go over.

What a cutie!

Jaydon did it!

After trying for quite awhile and always getting most of the way over but not quite there, Jaydon rolled from his back to his tummy. He then of course rolled onto his back again and I am sure in no time I will be losing him under tables with him rolling all around the living room.

The Park!

We took Jaydon to the park on a beautiful day and tested out some of the equipment. The baby swings are a bit big but it worked okay and Jaydon did seem to enjoy his time, here are some of my favorite shots.

On a teeter-totter!

Going on the slide with Daddy (he tried both the slides - and to be truthful didn't have much of a reaction).


SWINGS!

Lily loves all things for Jaydon

Lily loves to sleep on Jaydon's things. Today she decided she wanted to go on the walk too, it wasn't until we were almost to the elevator that she decided to jump off.

She found the foot rest of the stroller in addition to her many previous posts of being in his swing, crib, bouncy seat, floor blankets and if she could figure out how to get into his jump-up I am sure she would be in that too!

Rolling...so close

These pictures do not quite capture what I was going for. Jaydon is doing a great job of rolling from his back to his side. He hasn't quite gone all the way to his tummy but he sure is close. When he is fighting nap time we often find him on his side with his head tilted up and back arched (doesn't look too comfy but after he falls asleep he will fall back onto his back). He has now decided that unless we are helping him crawl and scooch he wants nothing to do with tummy time and will roll over immediately.

Sleep!

Jaydon needs more sleep - we know this and are working on it. He is now taking three or four naps a day (almost all in his crib, unless we are out and he falls asleep in his car seat) but he still refuses to sleep for more than one sleep cycle. That means after he goes down he will wake up in about 30 minutes (it is scary how close to exactly 30 it is most of the time) and he will not go back down. At this point we have had to go to the cry it out technique to get him to even go to sleep but we haven't been too successful at getting him to cry his way through from the first sleep cycle to get to the second. It is extremely painful to sit and listen to your baby cry but he is a stubborn child who will fight sleep with all he has. His bedtime is now about 6-6:30pm and he still wakes up three times a night most nights.

He fell asleep in his bouncy seat playing with dad one morning.

After a poor day of napping we were trying to get him 10 more minutes before putting him down to keep with some semblance of a schedule. You can see Jaydon couldn't quite wait that 10 minutes.

We have seen some progress so hopefully we will have more success soon. Jaydon is not the easiest baby I have been around but he sure is worth it.

Sucking...anything

Jaydon loves to suck on anything - he gave dad's arm a hickey and in this picture he actually found just his thumb and was truly sucking his thumb only. In fact the only thing he doesn't like to suck on would be pacifiers and bottles - go figure.

Baby Brenna Rebekah has arrived!

(I am switching the order of these two posts to make it flow better)

Baby Brenna was welcomed into the world almost three weeks early on 1/12/10 at 9:07pm weighing in at 6.0lbs and 18.5 in long.

We got to go visit on Friday and Brenna, Mama Wendy and Papa Greg are all doing well.

How adorable is she!?!

The Smoldons with baby Brenna!

She was just so cute and tiny - Jaydon was never that little and it was incredible to hold her after lugging around my big guy.

Jeremy enjoyed holding her.

Jaydon didn't know quite what to think. He actually didn't even look at her too much because she wasn't moving. When she cried though he certainly took notice.

Wendy's Baby Shower

I got to return the favor of Wendy throwing me my baby shower by throwing her one. Her mom and I hosted a baked potato bar shower (what a great idea for food, thanks Wendy!) for about 25 adults and 5 children in a smallish living room/sitting room combo.

A picture of the diaper cake that Jaydon's Grandma and Graham got for Wendy, Greg and baby (Brenna or Mason). This diaper cake was pretty dang cool for a baby shower gift.

Wendy opening one of her many gifts.

Dessert (mmmm, I am still hungry).

Proof that Jaydon will nap (after only about 20 minutes of crying to get a 25 minute nap).

Wendy's due date was January 31st, good thing we had the shower on January 9th because...

First official date night!

I guess going to have my surgery back when Jaydon was 6 weeks old doesn't count as a date. So, Jeremy gave me tickets to "Meet me in St. Louis" at the Village Theater for Christmas and we got grandma to babysit. It was a wonderful evening for us - we went to Black Angus for their dinner for two special (mmmm, I am now very hungry) and then out to the show.

A bit dressed up for the evening.

This picture is proof of a couple things. 1) Higgins will be friendly and cuddle with someone other than Jeremy or me. 2) That my mom did survive the evening, unfortunately, Jaydon doesn't like a bottle and he is already a cranky pants for people other than his parents so I guess he cried for about 2 hours before bedtime. Sorry Grandma, it will get better :-)

Jeremy did in fact lose his job

Wondering why I haven't posted much? Well, other than the fact that I only seem to get around to this every couple weeks and we are right about on schedule...

Jeremy did find out on the 7th that in the merger he was no longer needed. He did, however, register for 12 credits of grad school before finding out so he can get reimbursed, but that does mean he is a tad bit of a computer hog - understandbly so. This is not a bad thing for us though it is crazy to think that neither of us are working and we are okay. Jeremy was given a nice severance package and as long as he can find work by the end of Sept we are in fine shape. So he has been spending time working on his three MBA classes and being around to help out with the teaching Jaydon to sleep quest.

Where did December go?

Wow this holiday season flew by. I am just now getting around to updating the blog from the past three weeks - sorry about the delay for those of you who crave updates. Be sure to click back a few posts because I am going to go back and enter posts based on the approximate dates they occurred. Happy New Year to everyone!