Janey's First Christmas

Christmas time this year was very eventful. The most exciting part was Janey getting to meet lots of friends and family! However the Christmas season was complicated here in portland by a severe winter snow storm. So severe in fact, that more snow fell in a 7 day period than any other time since they started keeping records.

We had a great christmas and there so many things that happened between the last post and today, that I thought I'd let the pictures do the talking. So, enjoy!

Xmas decoration

This past Sunday we started to ride the yule tide. After sleeping in a bit we decided to head for the nearest tree lot. Having grown up in medford, our first instinct is to go to a u-cut, but the closest one is about 30 minutes away and I have no idea what the crowds are like during the second weekend in December. Therefore, I took the easy way out and opted for a tree lot. On our way, Kari pointed out that Fred Meyer has trees. Why not? Sure enough, they had great looking trees at a good price. We got a grand fir a little over seven feet tall, threw it on top of the subaru and headed home.

Kari and I pulled the xmas decorations out of the garage and while she sorted them, I attempted to mount the tree in a stand. Being the cheap-ass that I am, I puchased a plastic tree stand a few years ago. When I attempted to lodge the tree in the base it cracked. Of course, I didnt realize this until I had the tree perfectly aligned up and down, side to side, and had it in the house, in the perfect spot. What's missing? Water. The second I added water to the base, it covered the floor. So, it was back to freddy's. This time however, I splurged on the $34 cast iron stand so I wouldn't have to go through that again.

Eventually i got the tree in the cast iron stand and got it in the house. We decorated the tree and set up the "It's a Wonderful Life" town of Bedford around the living room. When all was said and done we had a pretty good xmas room.

Thanksgiving!

Janey, Kari, Rocky, and I all loaded up the sub and headed on down to Ashland for Thanksgiving. We had dinner with grandma and grandpa on thanksgiving. We dug into a smoked turkey and other goodies. Janey got to play with Grandma a whole bunch. She also got a chance to see Grandpa Fred as well as poppi and grandma cindy. It was a busy weekend and a great time.

Thanksgiving is always a treat, but nothing beats civil war weekend and Janey got to experience her first civil war in grand fashion as the ducks stomped the beavs for a trip to the Holiday bowl. Janey wore a duck shirt and some green and yellow baby legs. She had a great time hootin' and hollerin' with dad, but no beer for Janey!

Head Slider

Janey's been taking advantage of her tummy time lately. Shockingly, she's showing signs of crawling. She's got the foot movement down and can push her self forward with just her legs, but she tends to do so on her forehead. It's pretty funny. She hasn't figured out how to use her arms yet, but we encourage her because it makes us laugh.

Also, in some sort of freak accident, she rolled over last night for the first time. While hanging out on her tummy, I had turned to watch some tube when I saw a quick movement out of the corner of my eye, and there she was on her back! We tried to get to replicate it, but no luck. It was a legit roll over though and we're marking it down in the baby book as such! However we recognize that it was likely an anomalous event

Just because I love the pics

Update!

Since I've gone back to work, the posts have been few and far between and I apologize for that. Since the last post, Janey's weight gain has been impressive! She's eating like a champ and we have put the weight issues behind us.

Janey did pick up her first cold. She's been battling it for about a week. It's mostly consisted of the sniffles, but other than that she's still sleeping well at night and is generally a really happy baby.

A couple of weeks ago, grammy and Grandpa David came up to Stumptown to visit their granddaughter. As is always the case, I managed to get sick just before they came to town, so our activities were somewhat limited by the fact that I felt like poo.

Nevertheless, grammy and grandpa got a chance to meet Janey and hangout with the family's newest edition. They spent most of the time holding, feeding, and singing to Janey. Bean loved the singing and it's something that Kari and I continue to do for her. Of course, when we get lazy we just crack open iTunes and turn on some music for her. To date she's been exposed to the Beatles, Amos Lee, the Stones, Beans (of course), and Blitzen Trapper. She's love them all, but I think she's partial to the SGT Peppers!

For Halloween we traveled down to Eugene and spent the weekend with Kari's brother-in-law. We didn't get to go trick or treating, but Janey did go to her first live football game. Just like her Cousin Jack, we opted to start slow and give her a taste of small-time football before we step up and take her to a duck game. Although that time is coming as we are slated to go to the Arizona v UO game in a couple of weeks. She'll spend this weekend relaxing before she has to get set for her first visit to Autzen. Can't wait!

Weighting on Janey

We went to the pediatrician today to get a weight check on Janey. For those not in the loop, Bean hadn't been packing on the weight like the doctors would have liked. After several trips to the lactation specialist and personal deduction, turns out that Janey is lazy at the breast, but loves the bottle. Once we found this out, we ended up giving her breast milk via the bottle. The results were a 7 ounce gain in four days. So, now things are looking good!

Also, over the weekend, pops and grandma cindy came up to portland and spent the weekendwith Bean. We had a great time and had to pry the little girl from their hands when it came time to say goodbye. Janey got a beautiful quilt from Grandma Cindy (Rocky got one too and sleeps on it every night now!).

We just spent the weekend hanging out. We went to the Portland nursery, where they were having a harvest festival with apples and pumpkins. We bought Janey a Raywood ashe to plant out on the parking strip and we also got her a little pumpkin.

Fall is setting in on the Portland area and we got take lots of walks through Laurelhurst to enjoy the fall colors.

Also, Kari, Janey, and I went to the portland rose gardens and roamed around just to enjoy the weather!