Christmas and other happenings!

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We survived the 7.5 hour trip to Tulsa and back! Jack was a pretty good traveler except near the end for both trips, but we were all grumpy near the end, so I can't blame him! We had an exciting Christmas with the families, including Jack's first blizzard! It snowed about 7 inches in Tulsa on Christmas Eve. Unfortunately that did mean that Jack missed his first Christmas Eve service, which we were disappointed about. We never managed to get his picture in the snow for various reasons including fussiness, brightness, and freezing cold temps...oh well. One of my new year's resolutions is to be a more diligent picture taker. I made this resolution after realizing that I took no pics of him in front of OUR Christmas tree in Austin or with the cousins on Christmas day or on new year's day or eve.

Jack slept through the present opening on Christmas morning and was awake for the opening on Christmas day with his cousins. He received lots of cool gifts, including a RadioFlyer rocket from Jon's mom, which is for 10 mos+, but I am already excited to see him use it! I will post Christmas pics once I load them on the computer. Overall, we had a great trip and spent lots of time with family. Jon even got to go see a movie with his parents! Perhaps one day I will see a movie in the theaters again... It was fun to see Jack and his cousins "play" together and they were quite helpful in opening his gifts for him :) I think they even tested some out for him!

I've listed some of his latest stats below. Other than that, we are settling in to Austin quite well with just a few pics left to hang. Jon and his business partner built a drying rack in our garage to make more green roof tiles and they are currently finishing up the patent on the tiles. We are still trying out churches, but have a promising lead. As for me, I think I will start a mommy and me yoga class nearby as soon as Jack has complete head control (he is so close) and hopefully can meet some friends there... We are surviving all things UT around here. It is hard as OU and OSU fans... As a consolation, we have seen some TCU gear to break the monotony of burnt orange. Although we are a little appalled by the BEVO channel and UT sports channel. Are 2 channels really necessary for one university?

Jack lately:

• We weighed him at Christmas: 15 lbs. 14 oz.
• He is desperate for his feet! He looks at them in the mirror, he watches them in his car seat, he leans forward toward them when we have him propped up (with supervision of course). Seriously, can't a guy get a break?
• He loves staring at his twin in the mirror- this will usually get him to stop fussing and keeps him entertained for extended periods of time.
• He has male tv syndrome.
• Jack loves toys with lights, especially ones he can kick- again, he loves his feet! He loves to kick anything really- even mommy and daddy!
• He is starting to enjoy the bath- he likes to kick his bath duckies and turtles vehemently.
• He loves it when I tickle his face with my hair. He smiles so big and stops smiling when I pull back and looks at me surprised until I start again and he laughs/smiles.
• Drooling has taken over our lives and wardrobes. Seriously, how much spit can a baby make? We are headed towards bib city, but I am resisting...I guess I should think of my child's well being and how he might be more comfortable in dry clothes instead of drool covered clothes. I don't know why I am resisting...I just am.
• My 3.5 month old baby wears stage 3 diapers. We are doing cloth diapers as well...no worries, we are meeting the standards of an environmental scientist family (and living in Austin, for that matter)
  
• We found a pedi and have an appt. the 25th- this is where we will talk about starting solid food. I can't believe Jack is close to starting solids...time flies!
• For those who knew about Jack's crying/colic: things are much, much better. He goes to sleep in his crib with only a few minutes (if even that) at nap times, rarely cries when putting him down after night feedings (yes, we still have 1-2 night feedings/night- we are tired of them and as a result, tired, in general). The biggest crying spells now are at bedtime (yes, we seem to have come across a bedtime recently-more below), which can last about 20 minutes, but usually this is off and on and shorter most nights. Hopefully, we are getting over the colic...
• As for sleeping, he generally goes 5-7 hours after we put him down for bed around 7:30pm. He usually wakes 1-3am to eat and then sleeps until 6-7am.
  
• He cannot decide between his hand and a pacifier. He likes his pacifier during the day, but his hand for sleeping. If we lay him down with his paci, it falls out and that sends him into a tailspin. It's okay though because he can find his hand and fall back asleep. He can't really use his hand well enough to comfort himself when he is awake and upset, so that brings out the pacifier.

Well, that covers everything for now- look for pics soon!