Jane over time

Jane at birth.


At one month.


2 months.


3 months.


4 months.


5 months.


6 months.


7 months.


8 months.


9 months.


10 months.


Don't you just love her?

Can't Nobody Hold Us Down

Finally, a different kind of post, although I'm sure the five of you out there love hearing about Jane.





Something that Amy and I were determined to not have happen was to be a couple that stopped doing things just because they have kids. We've had some other good models to blaze trails for us, so we really wanted to make sure that we kept ourselves moving.


A lot of our ability to do that is just having such an awesome baby in Jane, but I have to think that part of it is just giving Jane every opportunity to adapt and learn to roll with things as we go and try and keep up with our adventures. I know that there are some people that would say that is selfish of us, but I think kids are really resilient and if we can give them a chance, they can get really good at adapting to whatever is thrown at them, provided that we still try and be sensitive to their needs and they know that while we might always be on the go, they can always know they'll find stability in their parents.



This year has been kind of amazing for us. Jane was born on September 12 of last year. Since then we've been to California twice, Vancouver, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arizona, Las Vegas, and driven across the country through Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana to finally arrive and live in Michigan for the summer. Since we've been in Michigan we have been to Toronto, Cleveland/Kirtland, Pittsburgh, Western Michigan (Holland and Grand Rapids), and Northern Michigan (Mackinac Island).





Just last week I was talking to my brother and telling him that we don't get to as many movies as we'd like, but we feel like we still do a lot. He kind of gave me a hard time about how I had supposedly commented on how funny I thought it was that he and his wife don't get out more. I took exception to that. We may not get to the movies as much, only because we don't have the army of available babysitters that we had in Utah, but this week alone we went to a Tigers game, Barenaked Ladies concert, and we are out of town for the third weekend in a row.





As I write, Jane is comfortably sleeping in her pack and play at the foot of the bed. Of the things that I value most in people, two of them are just being able to have fun and being able to roll with things. By September 12, 2014, I think Jane will be well on her way to figuring those things out.

Jane @ 10 months(!)

I can't believe this little girl is only a couple months away from a year. How does that happen?

Jane is just so amazing. Honestly. I think it was only last month that I was saying that Jane was kind of leery of strangers, men in particular. Well that went away just about as quick as it came. The other day some strange man picked her up while Amy had her at the pool and started splashing and playing with her and Jane couldn't have cared less. She just was happy to play in the water. And she courts interaction from strangers everywhere we go. She makes eye contact with anyone that talks to us, like waiters, and waits for them to notice her and she'll smile and make noises. That's another thing.

You can just tell she's understanding her voice and that it is the means to communicate with people. Probably my favorite thing that she does lately is when she's crawling around the apartment looking for me, she'll pause at the spot she sees me and makes her call which is something like, "ah!" And then I chirp back to her and she comes a crawling all smiling and giggly. She's really just so happy all of the time. For as much as we take her and do stuff - and we do a TON of stuff - she just rolls with everything. She can be totally tired and now she's just getting really good at falling asleep anywhere. Last night we went to an outdoor concert and even with the noise and the crowd (we were on the grass on the periphery), she just got really still in Amy's arms and fell asleep. Then I took her the rest of the show and she didn’t even stir while she laid on my chest. (Of course we’re the only bad parents there who had a baby in the first place, but that’s not the point.) 

She crawls with ease and stands every chance she gets. It’s really so fun and it feels like it’s just a matter of time before she just figures it out, although it felt that way with crawling and then it ended up taking her a couple months longer  than we would have guessed, but we’ll see. 

She still only has her bottom teeth. I’m excited for the other ones to pop in and fill out her mouth, but I still love just seeing those two little toofers on the bottom. 

She eats everything, but the fun part is seeing how she reacts to different foods. Amy gave her a lemon slice the other day and I was expecting more of a reaction from her, but she only seemed surprised by it initially, and then she wanted to hold it and ended up just licking it. That’s totally her mom coming out with that move. 

The best was her trying ice cream for the first time last week. We were at PNC Park in Pittsburgh just melting from the humidity so we decided to get a treat. She put her whole mouth on it, not really getting how to eat it at first. By the end, though, she started using her tongue and kept making her excited noises to let us know she wasn’t done. 

Jane is also pretty good with a sippy cup now. It took a little while, but she’s figured it out pretty well. Holding it upright is a still tricky for her when it gets low, but otherwise she’s got it mostly figured out. 

Jane is just so amazing. The two best things about her are just how happy she is and how she rolls with everything. She is so much like her mom that way and it honestly just makes life so easy for us. I could not feel more lucky to call her my own.