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Action Jackson: there’s never enough time yet they grow up fast

It’s true, we haven’t blogged in awhile. We’re aware of the issue and we’d like to fix it, but that would require more time, and that’s one thing that seems to be in very short supply lately. I’m back at work pretty much full time now, Mike’s been at work full time since week 3 and Jackson- well we’re still working on those language/writing/reading/gross motor skills, so even though he’s not at work, it’s not like he can contribute. If one could blog by using a combination of precision drool, loud repetitive noises like ‘mamamama’ or ‘Mmmmmm’ or “bababa’ and then flailing your arms and legs up and down- well Jackson would be creating 50 blogs a day. Alas, we do not have that software, and even if we did, I suspect the blogs would not be particularly interesting. They would probably be something like

‘Mmmmm, I’d like me some more of that breast milk’

or ‘I see all of these bright and colorful things around the apartment- why must the world smite me so that I cannot shove more of them in my mouth?!?! I scream with the agony of it all!’

or ‘I say people, change the diapers, they’re soiled and irritating my delicate skin!’

or ‘no, no I don’t want to nap. I look tired, I’m acting tired but really I’m perky so let me be!’

or ‘look, I can take the pacifier out of my mouth. Yay, celebrate by waiving my arms and yelling. Now put it back in. Yay, celebrate by waiving my arms and yelling. Now take it out. Yay, celebrate by waiving my arms and yelling. Now rotate it and put it back in. Yay, celebrate by waiving my arms and yelling. Oh look, I took it out again! Yay, celebrate by waiving my arms and yelling!’

Repeat for 20 minutes. Then proceed with the other lines of thought.

So how are things going? Pretty well actually. I am happy to be back at work and they are happy to have me. My plan was to ease back into things, but it didn’t really pan out that way so much. Once I was back in the office and people noticed, the work started piling up and now it’s full time. But it’s fun to be back, and it’s an interesting time to be back with a new Administration and potentially new policies and all of us running around trying to figure out what’s going on as we wait for all of the new politicals to be appointed. No worries about dull moments and not enough to do.

Jackson is rocking out in daycare. He loves loves LOVES it there. There are 11 other small people -up to 13 months- in the room with him crawling, rolling, walking and slithering around. It’s LOTS of stimulation and he seems to take more and much longer naps there than at home. Mike and I just cannot compete with the exhaustion induced by the commotion of 11 other babies- especially since it seems like we can hardly remain upright most nites these days anyway. The only downside to daycare is the cesspool of germs that thrive there. Jackson has been sick so many times since he started that we’ve lost count. It’s sort of just merged into one long cold with lots of different symptoms. The good part is that none of it seems to phase the boy much- he coughs, his nose runs, some days he has a slight fever and he’s a tad more mellow, but he’s still happy and smiling and flailing around. The bad part is that he passes it on to us. And when Mike and I get sick, it’s not the cute mild baby version, it totally takes hold of our bodies, beats the crap out of our immune systems and knocks us on our butts. It’s been brutal and we’ve held several family votes -and voted ‘no’ on AJ bringing home colds- but he keeps doing it anyway.

In terms of growth how is AJ doing? He’s getting BIG! A recent non-accurate measure of his weight puts him in at ~ 17 lbs, and somewhere between 24-26 inches. He’s out-growing his 6 month clothes and he’s starting to get these really chunky thighs and arms and wrists. It’s soo cute we can hardly stand it 🙂 Additionally, he’s making progress on the motor control, he giggles when amused, and he seems to be more and more aware of his surroundings every day.

But if you don’t believe me, check out this recent photo:

(Special thanks to Kellee)

Posted 23 February 2009 † kirsten § Around town § Jackson § Uncategorized ‡ Comments (2) °

Cherub Action Jackson says…

Happy Valentine’s Day!!!!

To ensure that you have a happiest of Valentine’s day, Jackson has completed the critical shake and taste tests. Fortunately for all of us, even at his tender age, he realizes nothing beats empirical data. We are happy to report he has concluded that it is a Valentine’s Day of the highest quality, as it has both high tensile strength and good flavor.

Special thanks to cousin Henry for making the Valentine for us!

xxx
K, M and AJ

Posted 14 February 2009 † kirsten § Uncategorized ‡ Comments (0) °

Obaminauguration: no we couldn’t

For those of you who pay attention to politics, you may have heard that there was an inauguration on January 20th. The inauguration took place in our Nation’s Capital, which is Washington DC, which also happens to be where we live. The next logical question would be: did we attend?

Well, mostly no, but a tiny bit yes. There were a few complications with attending the inauguration which I will list here:

  1. We have a baby. Having a baby makes pretty much everything more complicated.
  2. US Inaugurations take place on January 20th. While DC is not as cold as say, Siberia, it still gets pretty cold. It was in fact in the 20s and windy. That’s mighty cold- especially if you have a baby.
  3. It was estimated that between 500 thousand and 5 million people were coming to watch. That’s a lot of people. Especially if you have a baby.
  4. Strollers were not allowed. Strollers are helpful – especially if you have a baby.

This is not to say that we didn’t enjoy or participate in the activities. No, that’s not true at all. In case you didn’t know, we have a baby and we what could be better than showing baby his first Inauguration?

After the inauguration part was over, Jackson and I bundled up and met up with our friend Anuja to walk down to where the parade was happening – well, as close as we could get with a stroller. We saw lots of happy people milling around, we picked up some cool Obama gear, realized we were freezing and came home.





More photos of our walk through DC and us wearing our Obama gear can be seen here in: Inauguration madness.

Posted 24 January 2009 † kirsten § Around town § Jackson ‡ Comments (0) °

Blinded by the light: genetics, genetics everywhere

When we dropped Jackson off at daycare this morning I saw this on the wall at the Holocaust museum -which is the building next to the daycare center. I thought it was really cool and I exclaimed with excitement: “Look Mike, it’s an art installation using chromosomes to show the loss of human life and humanity associated with the Holocaust.” And on and on I went about what I thought it meant and what a great idea it was and how it could be interpreted in so many ways and had so many layers of meaning.

Mike looked at me and said “Kirsten, it’s the reflection of the windows from the building next door.”
And we looked at the windows and lo and behold, he was right.

I asked him if this meant that I was a big nerd that I saw chromosomes instead of window reflections and he gave me a look and asked if I *really* needed at ask that.

But I sent around an e-mail and the picture asking all of my biology friends if they wouldn’t have thought the same thing and the answer was 100% resounding “yes”. Some people see faces, some people see truth, some people see justice, some people even see dead people. I see chromosomes.

Posted 23 January 2009 † kirsten § Uncategorized ‡ Comments (0) °

How do you like your blue-eyed boy? *

We get many comments about how totally cute Jackson is and “oh those blue eyes. Where do those eyes come from?” Well I tell you, you can get round many things, but genetics always gets you in the end.

*Line is from the ee cummings poem Buffalo Bill

Buffalo Bill's
defunct
        who used to
        ride a watersmooth-silver
                                  stallion
and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat
                                                  Jesus
he was a handsome man
                      and what i want to know is
how do you like your blueeyed boy
Mister Death
Posted 18 January 2009 † kirsten § Jackson ‡ Comments (0) °

Action Jackson meets solid food!

You’ll note that I wrote ‘meets’ and not ‘eats’, as we are not quite sure right now how much of the food actually went into the mouth, down the throat and reached the belly. Oh yes, there was redistribution of food to be sure – it did go from the bowl, to the spoon, to the mouth of Jackson, but where it went after it hit Jackson’s mouth is a lesson in Brownian motion of rice cereal.

He did seem to like the part where he opened his mouth and the spoon was put in.

So much so that he decided that I had poor technique and needed to be schooled, he took the spoon from my hand and did it ‘his way’. He may have overestimated his understanding of silverware etiquette as he put the wrong end in his mouth, but hey, who am I to judge. Maybe his generation will redefine how we use everyday objects to make them more beautiful and spiritual and meaningful. They’ll all be pretty damn thin using this technique, but they’ll look good doing it 🙂

More photos from this nutritionally challenged bonanza can be seen here at: Action Jackson meets solid food.

Posted 17 January 2009 † kirsten § Jackson ‡ Comments (1) °

Action Jackson: can he really be our offspring?!?!

I should really go to bed right now (Mike’s out of town and I’ve started back at work. I’ve learned that it takes me 2 1/2 to 3 hrs between getting up and arriving at my desk, what with getting myself and the boy and all of our crap out the door and to the Metro and to daycare and then me to work. I’ve also learned that by the time I get to my desk after all of that, I’d really like to head home and take a nap) but I feel compelled to write this while the thought is still in my head.

Action Jackson is an awesome kid. Seriously. I mean, every parent thinks that – and should think that- about their kid. But in addition to Mike and me thinking that, we are constantly being told that by other people.

First off, he’s super cute. A “Gerber baby” as random strangers continue to tell me. As a new born, I looked like a small Winston Churchill in a dress. It was not pretty. We were expecting our own wrinkled pink ugly, face-only-a-mother-could-love type of baby and he came out kinda cute. All of the docs and nurses at the hospital kept saying ‘He’s really cute. Really. Wow, damn he’s cute.’ And so he was and so he continues to be. How did this happen? I have no idea, but I’m going with it.

Second, he’s super happy, mellow, and easy going. What?!?! This one really baffles me. Mike and I can be described as many things, but most people do NOT describe us mellow and easy going. How the fruit of our loins came out with the personality of a surfer dude smoking a bowl after the perfect day at the beach is beyond me. We don’t even like sand. But there he is, every morning, smiling and happy to see us. He likes riding in the car to daycare, he likes taking the metro to daycare. He likes daycare. He’s happy and smiley to be dropped off there, he’s happy and smiley to be picked up there. Once we came to an understanding with his day care provider that he needed more naps, well he started sleeping for an hour or more three times a day. No problem. They LOVE him there. I see other kids crying when they come, crying when they leave and crying in between. Not our boy- he’s all smiles. Today they tell me he figured out how to sit up by himself (with the help of two boppy pillows, but still) and hold the bottle by himself to feed himself. They also asked how long we’d been giving him cereal and I told them that we haven’t yet, why do you ask. (The doc just told us to start and I’m hoping to get out to buy some tomorrow.) “Oh” Carileen -his main provider at daycare- says, “well I was feeding another baby while Jackson was on my lap and every time I put the spoon out to the other baby he opened his mouth too. He started to cry when I left to go clean out the bowl. We figured you’d been feeding him cereal for awhile. I think you’d better get him some cereal right away.” Let me get this straight, he taught himself the concept of how to eat by watching other kids at daycare for 3 days? Who is this kid and where did he come from?

I know he’s Mike’s baby because I was there when he was conceived and I know he’s my baby because I was there when he came out. And yet, I still wonder how this is possible. Are we really so good to deserve such a blessing? I keep thinking that somewhere, somehow the soul of a Buddhist monk got switched with that of our intended baby and one day a booming voice is going to say ‘oops, sorry for the mix-up, here’s your real baby’ and we’re going to get some normal, impossible baby that looks like Winston Churchill after a bender and acts like Winston Churchill after a bender.

In the mean time, I’m going to thank my lucky stars every day that we got our incredible Action Jackson and I’m going to stay far away from anyone that looks like they have an ‘in’ with higher powers of any sort and might clue them in to the mix-up.

Posted 14 January 2009 † kirsten § Jackson ‡ Comments (0) °

Happy New Year!!!!

Hello, sailor!Mike, Action Jackson and I would all like to wish you smooth sailing for 2009!!
Big smooches,
k, m and aj

If you’d like to see more photos of our man in uniform go to: Hello, Sailor!

Posted 31 December 2008 † kirsten § Jackson ‡ Comments (2) °

India photos now in!!!

It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for: we have finally posted all of our India photos. And when I say all, I mean there are A LOT of photos. We’ve broken them down into sub-folders so as to clarify and not overwhelm. No guarantees that we’ll be successful with that however.

We also intend to write some posts on the trip, which we hope to get to soon. And yes, we’re familiar with the saying about good intentions. 🙂

A link to the photos can be found here: North India, Tanuja’s wedding

Enjoy and hope all had happy holidays!

Posted 28 December 2008 † kirsten § Uncategorized ‡ Comments (0) °

Early X-mas in NJ

So we just spent the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Graven, Aunt Kathy, Uncle Nathan and Cousin Henry in NJ. A fun time was had by all. I really have lots more to say about it, but the cab is coming to take us to the airport to go to India, so let’s just use the whole, a picture is worth a thousand words thingie and then there is a TON to say if you click here on: Early Christmas in New Jersey.

Happy Holidays to all and we’ll have lots of photos and fun things to say after we get back on the 26th.

Smooches from K, M and AJ

Posted 15 December 2008 † kirsten § Uncategorized ‡ Comments (1) °