Jack - month 7

Jack is 7 months old! 

Jack is one awesome kid. I don't know how many crazy parents are out there that decide to fly overseas for fun...but we definitely joined the crazy train (plane?) of international travel with children this month. Million dollar question...how did Jack do? He did great. He was so sweet and so smiley the whole time. He hardly made a sad fuss the whole trip. He did not sleep well at night was the huge flaw. So how did mommy do? Lets just say I thought I was done with the infant stage of not sleeping through the night and I was not glad to see it back. Probably the worst part of international travel is the jet lag when you get home. You can grin and bare it (mostly) while you are in the foreign land but you want things back to normal when they get home and that is not what happens. We are still working through the jet lag. Ok other things about Jack this month. He is growing up so much. I call him rolly-polly for two reasons: 1) his obvious chunky rolls that are dreamy and 2) his rolling-all-over the place skills. We have not seen many signs of crawling and I am completely ok with that. :)  Everything goes straight into the mouth still. He loves to play with his toys. He is getting great at grasping things and not just "shooting in the dark" for a toy. His favorite toy is this silly fence post that my sister gave me as a hand-me down toy that goes to a little farm set. He likes the animals with the farm set but he LOVES the fence post to chew on. He's a southern boy already I guess. :)

Love those feet!

He loves his toys and his toy box!

Look at me mom! (seriously he was asleep like this!) :(

On 1 of the 6 flights he took to and from Japan. I think he was about at his limit here.

1st time in a cart!

1st time with baby food!

1st time with a sippy cup!

Jack and all of his Japanese friends!

Uplifting story:

Just like last month...I came across a blog this month that I wanted to share. Click here: Great Marriage Blog. Its a great blog about marriage and kids and not believing the negative self-talk you play over and over in your head. It was very timely for me. :)

**Story of the month**

So Japan. I guess the best story is the "6 flight story". Definitely the highs and lows of my life. It took 3 planes to get to Japan (Nashville to St. Paul, St. Paul to Seattle, and Seattle to Osaka). We were afraid, going into this, that Jack was going to have a blowout 20 minutes into the first flight and it would all go down hill from there. Good news: that didn't happen. He did poop 3x's on one plane ride though. :) For the long flight to Japan, we were under the impression that we would have a seat between Christopher and me to put Jack's car seat. Unfortunately the plane was sold out and we traded seats with the middle seat person to one of our aisle seats. So yes, Jack sat in our laps for 12.5 hours. Poor little guy! On the way back to the US, our 3 flights had us go from Osaka to Seattle, Seattle to Salt Lake City, Salt Lake City to Nashville. Each way its about 21 hours of traveling in air/airports. On the way back, we upgraded our tickets to Economy Comfort so that we could get the lovely contraption seen in the picture below. That bassinet saved all 3 of us. Jack slept for 6.5 hours on the flight to the US. This picture cracks me up because he barely fit into the bassinet and his face is like, "Mom...really? I am supposed to sleep in this thing?" He did great. Once we got to Salt Lake we had a "1 hour layover" which turned into almost 5 hours of a layover. It was our 6th flight, we were all tired and loopy, and all we wanted was to get home. Again, Jack the trooper...he took it like a champ. We arrived to our house at 2:30 in the morning and were glad to be home! It was a great trip that we made many memories. My only international travel tip is: anything goes! :)

Ok so onto the details of #babyjack this month!

• Highlight of the month - more teeth! Two top teeth. Funny story - the Japan team all laughed when I said getting off the plane in Japan "That flight was so long...teeth grew...literally!"
• Sleep: It has been going great. He still sleeps from 8:30pm-7:00am like a trooper! Except for the past 18 days since being in Japan and coming back. We have not found our groove yet...say a prayer for us!
• Schedule: The new schedule from last month is going great. He is doing great with his two big naps and his cat nap before dinner. 
• Clothes: He is in 6-9 months mostly now. We still have some 3-6 months stuff that is working...but it screams. New to this month since getting out of the swaddle is footed pjs. He is so cute in his PJs!
• Diapers: Size 3 staying strong! 5-6 a day!
• Food: milk for 30 days of this past month and then on his 7-month birthday we introduced his first solid food, homemade sweet potato and apple baby food. He has had it once a day for 4 days now. We are gradually moving into the food world. We also introduced a sippy cup of water yesterday...he has no idea what to do with that. :)
• New things: Peekaboo is new this month. He pulls the cloth down off his face and laughs. That's a lot of fun. He has started taking his socks off his feet...its new but not so fun for mama. 
• Bad things: Now that he has those top two teeth...he has learned to grind his 4 teeth together. I am not a fan of that at all. 
• At his 6 month check up he was in the 90% for height and 50% for weight. I think it was 17.5 lbs and 27.5 inches. 
  
  

Until next month...