Christmas

Josh and I hosted the Carlson family Christmas this year per usual. Josh's grandma fell and broke her hip a few weeks ago, so Paul and Gail extended their trip to spend some extra time with her. Grandma Millie is doing well and was discharged from the temporary care facility on Friday. Paul and Gail wanted to make sure that she was able to get around her apartment easily. Nissa, Brian and the kids, and Brett and Kai and his girlfriend, Ashley, came up over the weekend.

All in all, it was a good holiday. And by far the best part was watching Jesper play with his Papa and Grandma, aunt and uncles, and cousins. :)

Jesper playing by the Christmas tree. Notice his eye? I accidentally dropped a lotion bottle on him earlier in the week and gave him a bruise! Worst mother moment to date.

Josh and Jesper relaxing

Grandma and Jesper

After several years of hosting, Josh and I have learned something new every year. The first year, we planned nothing. We had just moved in and didn't even have a butter dish. The second year, we planned a few appetizers but still left most of the meals to chance. We added a few blankets and an air mattress to the equation. Last year, we planned EVERYTHING and tried to make the bedrooms as comfortable as possible. The towels and bedding were a success, but the meals were incredibly time-intensive. And wow, did we have leftovers!

This time around, we planned a couple meals (soups on Christmas Eve, ham and potatoes on Christmas Day, appetizers for snacking), cleaned the house, and stocked the bedrooms and bathrooms. And amazingly, everyone still got fed and seemed to have a good time. :)

Playing in front of the tree. So many presents!

Jesper had a great time opening gifts. One of his favorites seemed to be the Curious George. As soon as it was out of the package, he was giving it hugs and kisses just like his mom and dad give to him. He also received a V-Tech alphabet train (we realized right away that it's a little too old for him right now), Gopher hockey clothes, a shape sorter, emergency vehicle stacking blocks, a see and say, pop-up plane, nativity set, Dino popper, and a ferris wheel toy. So much new stuff to play with! He's still figuring out a lot of the toys, but it's nice to have some variety for him. I think he was starting to get sick of the Playskool gears he's been playing with for the last 3 months. :)

Jesper also opened his gifts from Grandpa and Grandma Ratzlaff over skype. I miss my family over the holidays, but technology certainly helps me feel like I got to spend a little bit of the holiday with them.

Grandma Gail, Aunt Nissa, and Cousin Grace

Paul and Gail

Nissa and Grace

Brett, Brian, and Granmda Millie

Walker read Jesper his bedtime story. So sweet!

Grace and Walker

Josh and Jesper. It's WAAAY past his bedtime.

Turns out they don't make 18 mo. baby clothes that say "Baby's First Christmas", so I settled for a bib.

Christmas Eve

Playing with Grace and his new toys

Curious George - already a favorite!

More presents!

Ashley, Kai, and Brett

Nissa and Grandma Millie

Paul reading the paper

One of the highlights of the weekend was that Josh, Paul, Brian and I went to Gander Mountain's shooting range. I shot Josh's pistol for the first time. The target below was at 20 ft., and I was aiming for the upper circle. Not bad, huh?

 Merry Christmas to all and Happy New Year! I hope your holidays were bright!

Gourmet Group

Joe and Becky Pitzl hosted December's Gourmet Group. As always, the food (Christmas-themed) was delicious! They had a meatloaf with a gorganzola cream sauce, rice pilaf, and fingerling potatoes. Yum! But sadly, we had to say good-bye to another couple. Kristen and Dillon Whitacre are moving to Indiana, and Gourmet Group was their last night in Minnesota. We are so sad to see them go - they will be missed!

Jumping!

Jesper and Sam

The girls - Kristen, Becky (+1), Sarah & Sam, Debi & Jesper

The boys - Dillon, Josh & Jesper, Joe, Brandon & Sam

8 Months Old & Curtis' Visit

Another month has flown by (and once again, I'm writing this post when he's almost a month older). Now that he's not growing so dramatically, I feel like I've watched him gain new skills almost every day.

8 Months Old

We weighed him at Thanksgiving (approximately a week before his 8 month mark), and he was 22 lbs. 6 oz., right on track with about a pound per month like normal. He usually eats about 6 oz. bottles per day with three full meals. He's jumped up to about 4 Tbsp.+ of food with cereal every meal, with one meal of the day usually about double that. We've been giving him water in a cup (no lid) at just about every meal, and he's really started to improve in his coordination. There are still plenty of wet shirts after meals, but he's starting to control how much water he wants in his mouth and overall it's a much easier process.

His bedtime routine is very much like it was. He goes to sleep between 7-7:30 (usually closer to 7) and has now eliminated the 9pm feeding. It was much easier to eliminate than I thought it would be. Josh and I thought that he might cry for a long time before settling himself down, but he only cried for a few minutes a couple nights and then began to sleep right through that 9pm mark.  He still takes a morning and afternoon nap, usually about 3 hours total between the two. 
I just reread the 7 mo. post - it's amazing how much he has changed in just a month! He is definitely starting to prefer tummy time, especially once he realized that there was a possibility of him moving around from that position. He JUST started creeping along the floor. We play a game with him where we stack up blocks and he has to move towards them to knock them down. For about a week he's been pretty good about turning towards them to knock them down but he just realized at the beginning of December that he could move forward as well. Oh boy! Here comes the babyproofing!

Along with awareness of the outside world comes more opportunities for getting into trouble. Jesper is starting to just barely understand that there are some items that he shouldn't play with. Right now that doesn't mean anything but that we continue to distract or remove him from situations where he shouldn't be and saying "No", but I think we've passed the "golden age" of babyhood and discipline is going to be a bigger part of our relationship with him. It sounds so unpleasant, but I keep reminding myself that the goal of parenthood is to turn out a high-functioning, socially responsible adult into the world. :)

In other news, Curtis came to visit during the second weekend in December. It was so fun to introduce him to Jesper! Curtis is remarkably good with babies and it never ceases to amaze me how great it feels to watch a family member you love having fun with your kid. We didn't do much other than some early Christmas shopping and hanging out, but I really enjoyed spending some time with Curtis and catching up.


Curtis and Jesper



Curtis gave Jesper an early Christmas present - a Fisher Price race track. It has blinking lights and the cars make a lot of noise as they clatter around the track. Jesper wasn't so sure about it at first, but he loves it now!!                                                  

Thanksgiving

We went down to La Crosse for Thanksgiving with Brian and Nissa, Grace, and Walker. As usual, Nissa made an awesome Thankgiving feast with all the standards - deep-fried turkey, potatoes, cranberry salad, green bean casserole, and corn. Yum!

When we got back to Minneapolis, we met up with John & Stacie, Elise, and Ariana at the MOA's Underwater Adventures aquarium. They were in town visiting John's parents for the holiday. So good to see them again! It's always fun to see how much Elise and Ariana grew in just a couple months since we'd seen them.

Josh and Jesper at the Aquarium

John & Stacie admiring the jellyfish

So much to see!

 Later that night, we met up at Bruce & Marnee Brandenburgs for dinner and to hang out a little longer. Jesper opened his first Christmas present (he didn't really know what the goal was - Ariana was much better at pulling the wrapping paper off the package). :) He got a bear, a couple books - one of which is a new fave, "I Love You Through and Through", and a car toy.

Opening presents from John & Stacie

7 Months Old!

Happy 7 months, Jesper (in early November - a little behind on these posts)! I'm not sure exactly how much he weighed at the 7 month mark, but I imagine it was a little over a pound more than he weighed at 6 months. He hit a MONSTER growth spurt in mid-October. I felt like I couldn't feed him enough! He was eating 3 full meals a day (2-3 Tbsp of ceral and 3-4 Tbsp of fruit/veggies per serving) plus 5-6 6oz. bottles. He also jumped from 6 mo. clothes to 12 mo. clothes in two months. Wow! So much for making sure I had enough 9 mo. clothes - he literally only wore that size for a few weeks.

 

 

7 Months

His bedtime routine is similar - goes down at 7:30, sleeps until 6:30, with one small (3 oz. bottle) at about 9pm. During his growth spurt, I think he really needed the 9pm bottle since he would drain the whole thing. Now it might have become just a habit. He rarely drinks over 3 oz. and we have decided to let him cry it out and not feed him at that time of night within the next couple weeks.

 

He was also sleeping a lot more when he was growing so fast. He would often take a 1-2 hour nap in the morning and a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon. Now those naps seem to be getting a little shorter.

   

We had such a warm day in early November so we let him outside to play

 

Developmentally, I feel like he hasn't reached any new milestones this month. He was concentrating on growing and sleeping! However, he is a very good sitter and still very much prefers that over being on his stomach.

 

I've noticed just the first stirrings of separation anxiety. He doesn't have a meltdown, but he certainly seems to notice (and gives just a little fuss) when I leave the room. He also wants to be held much more than in the past.

 

After a bath - happy baby!

 

Halloween!

Jesper celebrated his first Halloween the entire week prior to the actual holiday. My office had a Halloween party for all the kids on Wednesday. I got to pick Jesper up from daycare and spend the afternoon with him at my office, showing him off to all my coworkers.

Jesper and I at my office party

Little Monkey in my cube

Halloween photo booth

Halloween photo booth

Jesper with my manager, Jessa

 On Saturday night, we had Joe and Becky Pitzl and Nick and Amanda Wilson over for dinner and pumpkin carving. Linden (Nick and Amanda's little boy) and Jesper dressed up and we took a few pictures of them. Joe and Becky are expecting their first, so they will be able to participate in the costumed fun next year. :)

Pumpkin Boy and his mom

Jesper the pumpkin

Nick, Linden, Jesper and I

Pumpkins!

Scary!

Halloween drinks

Finally, on Monday, the actual holiday, Jesper took his costume to school and his teacher took several pictures of him. Monkeys were apparantly a very popular costume - of the 12 kids in his class, 5 of them were dressed as monkeys this year. :) Josh picked him up early and brought him to his office because they were doing a Halloween event for the office kids as well.  

We didn't do the actual trick or treating this year. We will probably head out next year when he can actually sample a piece or two of the candy. :)

Playing

Jesper is so fun! I've had a few days off recently to just hang out with him and they are definitely my favorite days of the week. His new favorite games include rolling the ball, hitting blocks together, playing peekaboo, and of course, watching Sabi. :)

Ripping paper = Hours of fun

Jesper and I did an art project together recently. I thought it would be fairly easy (his teacher does art projects with the kids every week). Turns out she's a very talented lady.

I undressed Jesper to his diaper, printed off some "Happy Halloween" pictures, and used baby food (beets) as the paint. He looked like this in less than 5 minutes. And ripping the paper was way more fun than painting it. But I think he enjoyed himself. :)