Gopher Hockey

Jesper went to his first Gopher hockey game on Friday, October 21 against Vermont. He loved it! So many sights and sounds. Gophers won, 5-0!

Going to a game with a squirmy little boy, however, is a lot of work! I think we'll all enjoy the games a little more from the comfort of our living room this year. We tried to feed  him dinner in between periods, but there was WAY too much going on for that to be successful. He was too busy charming the people around us to worry about eating. :)

Gourmet Group

Josh and I hosted our Gourmet Group on Saturday, October 15.

Menu:
Appetizer - Stuffed Mushrooms, Crackers and Olives
First Course - Butternut Squash Soup
Main Course - Pork Tenderloin with Apples and Apple-Brandy Cream Sauce, Asparagus, Bread
Dessert - Cherry Parfait

The meal turned out very well. Jesper cooperated and napped for a couple hours on Saturday afternoon and Josh and I worked hard to get as much prepared ahead of time as possible. As a result, we only had to bake the mushrooms, and cook the asparagus and pork once the guests arrived.

It's always so fun to hang out with our friends, but the gathering have certainly changed over the years now that we have two babies in the group with a 3rd on the way. :)

6 Months!

Jesper is 6 months old! At his 6-month appointment he was 19 lbs. 8.5 oz. and 27.5 inches tall. Both of those measurements put him in the 75-90th percentile. He's growing perfectly!

He slowed down on his milk a little and is only eating about 4-5 oz. per bottle. But he is really loving his food. He will often eat 4-5 oz. but be fussy 15-20 min. later and want to eat a full meal. He's taking about 5-6 bottles a day and we are just starting to move him to 3 small meals a day. We are also giving him a little water with dinner in a cup. He gets so excited when we bring him the cup - it's a messy process but he's getting the hang of it!

6 month checkup

He typically goes to bed around 7:30pm and sleeps until 6:30 or 7:00am with one bottle at about 9pm. He's excellent at putting himself to sleep initially, but has just a little trouble putting himself back to sleep in the middle of the night if he wakes up. We rarely feed him at night anymore though. 

6 Months!

                                             
He is getting very good at sitting (he can sit for a couple minutes by himself, although we usually put the boppy pillow around him for safety). However, he still has no interest in rolling over. He scoots backwards and in a circle when he's on tummy time, but is definitely not "mobile" yet. Let's hope that stage holds off for a little while yet. :)

Jesper at school

Hat Season

Jesper is also incredibly social. He is fascinated by other babies and hasn't shown any fear of other people yet. His teachers say that he giggles at the other kids. He is generally a very happy baby. We're so lucky to be his parents!!

Some of my new favorites:
 - He gets excited when I pull out the last book we read every night (Moo, Baa, La La La by Sandra Boynton). Thanks, John and Stacie - he loves that book!
 - Kisses! He grabs our faces and pulls us to him for a big, sloppy, wet kiss on the cheek. It's the cutest thing ever, but I haven't been able to catch it on film yet!! Still trying....
 - He giggles so hard when we make noises that he thinks are funny (Josh - "What sound does a chicken make? Bok, bok, bok". Jesper - "hahahahaha")

Aunt Jodi Comes to Visit

Jodi came to visit over Columbus Day weekend. She arrived on Thursday and stayed until Tuesday morning. We had such a good time over the weekend! On Thursday night we ordered pizza and hung out. Friday was spent playing with the living room furniture arrangement and shopping. Friday was also the Gopher hockey season opener. Josh and Jesper got dressed up in their Gopher gear and watched the game together (Jesper only watched the puck drop and a couple minutes of the game before he had to head up to bed).

Dad and Jesper in Gopher gear

Watching the first Gopher hockey game

Sisters

Jesper and Aunt Jodi

On Saturday, we headed over to an apple orchard by Stillwater and took the required "baby in a pumpkin patch" fall pictures. Afterwards, we decided to head into the town of Stillwater. Surprise - they were having a pumpkin festival! We arrived just in time to watch the "pumpkin regatta". That's right - some brave souls raced each other down the river in giant carved-out squash. Only in Minnesota.



What is this stuff?!

Baby in a Pumpkin Patch

Heading to the Stillwater "Pumpkin Festival". Jesper loved  his sunglasses!

Pumpkin Regatta

 Later that night we made a new Mediterranean dish called lamb kapama. It was delicious! Definitely a keeper. Jodi and I watched Bridesmaids. I thought it was the funniest movie I'd seen in a long time!

Sunday night we got a babysitter and headed downtown for a meal at Bar La Grassa. Jodi had eaten there in the past and recommended it. It was Josh and my first visit, but it won't be our last. Most of the menu is pasta dishes, but this is not your typical Italian joint. We tried several dishes and decided the foie gras and ahi tuna entrees were our favorites. After the meal we went to Seven's rooftop patio for a nightcap. It was the first weekend in October but a gorgeous, 65-degree evening. What a treat! A babysitter meant a deadline, though, so we headed home by 10pm. Jodi and weren't ready for the night to end so we had a glass of wine on the patio. I was reminded again how much I like my sisters. It's amazing how fun it is to get to know your siblings as adults rather than the children you grew up with.

                                      

Josh and I had a couple appointments on Monday morning (Jesper's 6-month checkup) and hung out with Jodi in the afternoon. We needed to find a recipe for our upcoming Gourmet Group dinner so Jodi and I found a pork tenderloin with apples and apple-brandy cream sauce recipe to try out. It was a success! Now we only had to decide what to serve it with.

Thanks for a fun weekend, Jodi! Already looking forward to the next one!

LA Business Trip

My job requires some travel (usually only 1-2 trips a year) and I was due to visit my clients in LA at the end of September. Infrequent business travel is was not a big deal to me. Enter Jesper. Now spending two days in LA was absolutely terrible to think about. Especially toting a breastpump.

My plane left at 7:30am on Tuesday, September 27 and I was scheduled to arrive back in Minneapolis at midnight on Wednesday.

I prepared as much as possible the night before my plane left, but left the house about 10 minutes behind schedule (not a big deal, as I arrived at the airport at the same time as my colleagues had planned to). I drove into the parking ramp and saw that floors 2, 4, and 5 had parking available. Great. No big deal, right? However, after driving around floors 2, 4, and 5 for 20 minutes and realizing that I still had not found a single parking spot and my plane was boarding in 10 minutes, I shot out of the parking garage and looped back around to use short-term parking. Thank goodness for expensable parking!! I made it to my gate just in time to be one of the last passengers to board the plane.

As for the rest of the business trip, it was uneventful. I learned very quickly how to discreetly carry and use my breastpump in airport restrooms, at business happy hours, and in airplanes.

Picture that Josh sent me with the text "Hurry home, Mom! I love you!"

I missed both of my boys, but it actually wasn't as dreadful as I'd imagined it to be. However, I must confess that I woke Jesper up for a feeding when I got home "to make sure he'd sleep through the night." There's nothing better than holding your little baby after not seeing him for a couple days!

September's End

Josh's dad came to visit on September 22 during a stop in Minneapolis for work. He couldn't believe how much bigger Jesper was since the last time he saw him! We're looking forward to having Paul and Gail come visit again sometime in the next couple months and have a little more time to play with their grandson.

Jesper is continuing to get better and better at sitting alone. By the end of September, he could do several minutes by himself and is even starting to be able to reach for toys and keep his balance. I thought these pictures tell the story a little better. Sometimes when you think he's going to fall....

.....he doesn't. :)

In other news, Jesper loves to play with his toys and it's so fun to watch his face everytime he tries something for the first time. We've been rolling the ball to him and he is learning to "roll" it back to us. Ok, so his aim isn't great and sometimes it only goes a few inches, but he's definitely trying to imitate us. :)

By the way, can you guess what his favorite toy is from these pictures?

Jesper has also been experimenting with new foods. He tries about 1-2 new foods per week. So far, avocados are the only foods that he has absolutely rejected. We send cereal and a vegetable or fruit to school with him and then he eats another serving of cereal and a vegetable or fruit in the evening.

We're still making 6 oz. bottles, but he doesn't finish them like he used to. He's only been eating about 4-5 oz. so we're actually thinking of reducing his bottles back down to 5 oz. The lead teacher at his school, Kristina, said that it's pretty typical for babies to vary their bottle sizes from time to time so I'm trying not to worry about him not finishing those last couple ounces. Now I know why there is a stereotype about mothers trying to get their sons to eat more!

Happy 3rd Anniversary!

Josh and I celebrated our 3rd Anniversary this September. It was a wonderful excuse to go on a very nice date. Josh got reservations at Restaurant Alma in Minneapolis (surprisingly, it's almost directly across the street from where I used to live in college and I never knew it existed until recently) and our friend Becky was willing to babysit.

Dinner was fantastic!! We both agreed it was the best meal we've had since eating at La Belle Vie.

Restaurant Alma

It was a beautiful and warm evening (and don't forget - we had a babysitter!), so after dinner we walked down to the river by St. Anthony and had a nightcap at one of the restaurants. Here's a shot of the Minneapolis skyline outside our restaurant.

It's been three beautiful years, and I'm hoping for many more just like them. :) I love you, Josh!