Booties for JJ - August 26th

A few months ago, a friend of my mother's gave a pair of booties and a cap that she knit to JJ as a gift. This is actually the first time I put them on him, but they fit just perfect! I love the way he looks in the glider; for some reason he looks SO old! I guess it's because he looks like he's sitting up, which he is, but he's not really supporting himself. He kept slowly falling over after I took each picture and it made me laugh and laugh. He's pretty adorable.

I just can't believe how big he's getting, and how fast it's happening. I took him to the doctor yesterday and they told me that he's in the 75th percentile for his age. He was 13 lbs, 3 oz and 23 1/2 inches long! That's pretty big for a boy who's not even three month old yet! Before we know it, he'll be off to college :(

"Playtime" Starring JJ Hansen - August 20th

I've been taking some video of JJ with my digital camera and decided to dedicate a post to it. The first one is JJ playing with his new activity mat. I have three videos of this, and in some of the videos he's more active, whereas in another he makes more cute sounds and looks at the camera. I decided to post the latter. Apparently he's a little camera shy because many times he'll be cooing and playing and then as soon as I start taping, his activity and his vocalizations drop dramatically. I don't know how he knows I'm recording, but he seems to.

The other video is JJ laying belly-down on Daddy's legs (calves). He was making really cute sounds so I started recording. Alas, he quieted down a bit after that, but there are a few good sounds from him anyway. Enjoy!

BUMBO - August 16th

Lately it's been more and more difficult to keep JJ entertained during the day, since he's awake for such long stretches of time. We really don't have any infant toys that he can play with by himself (meaning toys which don't require me sitting there, shaking it in front of his face). So I decided to buy a Bumbo seat for him.

A Bumbo seat is a rubbery sort of chair that babies can sit upright in as soon as their neck muscles are strong enough to support their head. So even though JJ can't sit upright on his own yet, he can sit in the Bumbo seat. I also bought an activity mat while I was at Target, and he seems to like that pretty well. I think he'll get more excited about both of these as he gets bigger/older, but for now it's nice to be able to put him down once in a while and not have to entertain him constantly. Don't get me wrong -- I don't intend on letting toys or TV and movies babysit him all day everyday, but my days with him are anywhere from 12-16 hours long (before Jeremy's home for the day) and I simply can't hold him throughout every one of his waking hours. These things just help when I need a break, not to mention that I think he enjoys the change of scenery and activity.

AND I can use the Bumbo seat and the activity mat together, if I sit him in front of the toys that are attached to the mat. He seemed to like that the most. Of course, eventually he gets bored of both the seat and the mat, but too much time doing any one thing makes him bored.

Farewell to Favre - August 11th

JJ fell asleep around 4pm and slept through most of the Packers vs. Bengals game. When he finally woke up, he was dismayed to find out that Brett Favre is no longer playing for the Packers. I thought we had mentioned this to him before, but I guess I was mistaken. In any case, he was really looking forward to being born just so he could see Favre play for the Packers and when he found out he was too late, well, you can tell by the photo that he was anything but happy. Like father, like son, I say.

We were all a little spooked by seeing Tony Kornheiser wearing the Jets #4 jersey. It's just WRONG. But it's the way it is. And Rodgers was looking pretty good tonight, although it's hard to judge from just one quarter of play. In any case, JJ, Momma and Daddy are all very sad tonight. But looking at JJ in a silly hat made us all feel a little better. Well, two of us anyway. JJ doesn't really like having to wear silly things just to cheer us up.

Jack Daniels - August 7th

Well, thanks so much to the anonymous commenter on my last blog entry. We opened a bottle of whiskey and let JJ go at it, and it WORKED! He slept all night. No wonder -- he drank almost the entire bottle. Luckily he left enough for me to have a couple of shots and, well, let's just say that we BOTH slept like babies!

This morning I wanted to take a nap, but JJ was wide awake. We were out of whiskey, but I gave him a beer and that was enough to knock him out. He likes to party.

Two Months Old - August 5th

JJ is two months old today (well, yesterday, since I'm actually writing this on August 6th)! And it seems to me that he knows it. He's looking and acting a little older. OK, so I've been cooped up in the house most days and maybe I've gone a little batty. But seriously, he really seems older. His hair is starting to fill out a bit, he's smiling, laughing and cooing a lot more lately and he just LOOKS like he's two months old.

Also, on his first night as a two month old he slept SIX hours straight!! Of course I went to bed an hour after him and I couldn't fall back asleep after the six hour stretch, so I didn't get to take advantage of the 8+ hour potential for sleep, but I'm not really complaining. I think my body is so used to short, fragmented sleep that once I get four or five hours, it thinks it's time to wake up. In any case, I read for a while and eventually fell back asleep for another hour or so before JJ was up for the day.