It's Santa!

We took Jax to see Santa today. Of course Santa was at the complete other end of the mall from where we parked. Not usually a big deal, but Ivan is on crutches with a really bad sprained ankle. Jax was really good with Santa and didn't cry until after his visit was over and the picture was bought and paid for. I need to hook-up our scanner and stick that baby on here. Until then this cute picture of Jax in his Christmas outfit will have to do.

Marrington Fields Forever

Things around here have gotten pretty busy with the holidays fast approaching we seem to have run out of time for everything else. Right after Thanksgiving Jax got his first cold it was a little scary at first because he's never been sick before or felt so bad before, but he has come through it with flying colors. Right after he started to feel better we had to go back to the doctor for his 2 month check-up and his first shots. The visit itself was pretty awful and Jax was such a trooper through the whole thing, it wouldn't have been so bad had the clinic not been so over-booked and we wouldn't have had to wait for 2 hours to get everything done. Jax is now weighing in at a whopping 11 pounds 3 ounces and is 22 inches long, for those of you keeping track that's 3lbs2oz over his birth weight and an extra 2 inches. We have to go back again this week for him to get his flu shot because the clinic was all out last week. Hopefully it won't be so bad this next time around.

We have been busy getting the house ready for Christmas and getting all of our gifts in order to send off. Christmas cards are in the works, but may become New Year's cards at this rate.

Mom is doing good, she and Jax go for a small walk most days weather permitting, she goes back to the doctor soon to see if she is cleared for exercise and off of her limited duty rest. Let's all hope that she is cleared, it would be a Christmas miracle.

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Daddy is doing well in school and everyone tells him so. This weekend his class held their class held their class picnic out at marrington fields here on base. We hadn't ventured out there before but it was on the to-do list since there are some nice nature trails there. It was the picture of southern beauty with it's mossy oaks and ponds. Ivan had a good time showing off his family while we watched the different sections of the class have football, ultimate Frisbee, tug of war, golf, and eating contests.




In other news, Sarge has figured out that Jax has hands too. You can now find him rubbing up against those hands anytime we set Jax down. I don't think Jax minds very much since the kitty is soft. Fitzy doesn't really care for the baby yet, but she loves to sleep under the Christmas tree and acts like her being here is our present.



Here is a picture of Jax at the 2 month mark:

a little info

Things here are a little hectic, so the blog has been neglected lately. Ivan has about 2 tests every week, so he is super busy studying or trying to go to bed early. All of his studying is paying off though, he is currently ranked 12th in a class of 319 and moves up a little higher after every test. Nora went to her 6 week check-up the other day and is still on light duty, she did too much heavy lifting and walking too soon after Jax was born and ended up delaying the healing process. She promises that she will be good and hold still for the next month so that she can be better and be able to move around again.

And now for Jax news (that's the whole reason you're reading, right?) Our little guy has decided that now that he's a month old he needs a later bedtime, so he grumbles for about 2 or 3 hours of being put down and finally goes to sleep long about 2. We had a small victory last night and he fell asleep for good after the first time that he was put down, and it was at 1, so we are making a little headway. Also as bedtime approaches he decides that he needs to be grumpy for about an hour. It isn't colic, thank God, but it is pretty frustrating. He is just too excited to go to sleep, but too tired to stay awake without being grumpy. We found out that he loves to be held so that he is standing up, and he will hold it as long as he can before his knees give and then as soon as he can he'll shoot himself back up. He is getting pretty good at balancing himself in a stand so that he can hold himself very briefly independent of our hands. I think it's pretty funny that he can support his whole body, but he is still having trouble holding up his head. We are working on crawling and he is just really improving every time he's on his belly. He can hold his head up at a 90 degree angle for a few seconds and has figured out how to roll over onto his back if his arms are underneath him. He will move his back legs and can actually scoot just a little, he could get further if he figured out how to move his arms too. He also LOVES to dance. Anytime he gets fussy or grumpy all we have to do is put him in his bassinet and turn his mobile on and he will lay there and kick his feet and wave his arms for about 10 minutes while it runs through it's cycle. Now he has started to coo so he will make baby noises and coo and smile at his mobile too. This makes life so much easier to have a solution to a grumpy baby. He is also quite the snuggler. He loves to be held and prefers to be held at all times during the day, but will go to sleep by himself at night (whether he stays asleep is a different matter). He is focusing on faces and he will watch people walking and follow them across a room. He is starting to smile and not have it be related solely to gas and has even smiled upon seeing either one of us and will coo at us. We know we are still really lucky to have a baby who is so sweet and is only fussy for about an hour a day, that is so much better than what it could have been.

Picnic in the Park

Today we took our lunch over to a park/playground area about a block away from our house. We spread out a blanket and had a nice picnic and enjoyed the warm sunshine. We set Jax up on his boppy pillow so that he could sit and watch everything that was going on around him. After we ate we took Jax for his first ride down a slide and he got his first turn on a swing. We tried to find a way to play with him on most of the equipment. He was a pretty good sport about everything and lasted for almost an hour before he was ready to go home and take a nap.

1 month

Jax is 1 month old today! Where is time going?

4 Weeks

Jax is now 4 weeks old. He is no longer classified as a newborn, just an infant. Here's a picture of him from today, doesn't he look so much bigger and alert than his pictures from 4 weeks ago?

Happy Halloween

Today was Jax's first Halloween. Ivan and I love Halloween so we dressed him up all day. First, he wore a sleeper that said my first Halloween with a matching hat. Then we put him in a body suit that said I love my mummy. On top of the body suit we put him in a dinosaur costume that aunt Rose and family sent. It was really a monster costume, but I think that it passes well for a dino. We sat out on the carport and handed out candy to trick-or-treaters for about an hour and a half before Jax and I had to leave daddy outside to get Jax some food. Jax was the cutest dinosaur in the neighborhood and all the kids that came by loved looking at him.

Jax went to the doctor yesterday for a weight checkup. He didn't weigh as much as the doctor wanted him to at his 10 day visit so we had to go back for a 20 day weight check. He needed to gain 10 ounces in that time, and that little chunk gained 17! That's almost twice as much as expected. So he went from 7 lbs, 15 oz to 9 lbs even. I guess we don't have to worry if I'm making enough food for him anymore!