We've been busy!

Wow, I can't believe it's been almost 2 weeks since our last post.  We have been busy, just nothing too exciting.  Annie has returned to work 2 days a week.  So far, she's a little overwhelmed and already diving into another project (opening another new clinic!).  Leaving Jacob at home has been hard, but he is in good hands with Matt. 

On Annie's off days, we still wanted to make the most of the time together.  Last Tuesday, we spent the whole day in Seattle, starting at Pike Place Market.  Jacob slept through most of it and Matt navigated the market crowds with the stroller with ease. 

Next, we headed to Greenlake for a little walk and then met Matt's parents and Aunt Stephanie at Duke's Chowderhouse for lunch.  Then we all headed up to the Woodland Park Zoo.  This stop was mostly for our benefit, since Jacob can only see about 4 feet in front of him.  We enjoyed seeing penguins, flamingos, monkeys, meer cats, and tigers.  Lots of fun animals!  We'll definitely head back when Jacob is older. 

We finished the day by meeting Annie's brother for dinner nearby.  It was a great fun and family filled day.  And the weather was just perfect for walking around town. 

We'll be heading to Port Angeles next weekend to help "man the store" at the winery.  Annie's parents are enjoying the trip of a lifetime to France and Italy, but someone's still gotta take care of the business.  Many friends and family are stepping in to help and it's our turn to join the fun. 

We hope you are enjoying your summer as much as we are.  When we are home, we love hanging out on our deck and enjoying our beautiful yard.  Our roses are going crazy!

Jacob is getting bigger every day and a having fun too.  He's smiling more and becoming more expressive.  So fun!  And he's been more awake during the day which has made for some longer sleep at night--up to 7 hours!  Hooray!

More celebrations since our last post. 

We had another baby shower and Jacob was the guest of honor!  Jacob attended his third Tacoma Rainiers game and we enjoyed their annual 3rd of July fireworks extravaganza.  On the 4th of July, we celebrated with some friends who live near the waterfront in Tacoma.  We watched the fireworks from their lawn, all bundled up.  Jacob slept through both big bang events. (Look at his chubby cheeks!)

The 5th of July was Matt's birthday.  We had a great party and the sun came out just in time for the "Birthday Olympics" which include events involving stacking ding dongs on your forehead, fishing with gummi worms, a tug o war, and trivia questions.  My favorite event was called "face the cookie" which required players to get an oreo cookie from their forehead to their mouth without using their hands.  We finished off the evening with delicious BBQ chipotle burgers and lemon cream cheese cake.  

Jacob had another follow-up appointment today where they did some developmental screening as well.  He's still very young, so there's not much to look for right now.  They did recommend some physical therapy to help with head control and neck strength.  It's good to know there are so many folks looking out for him.  He's up to 12 lbs 11oz--getting bigger every day!  He's just starting to smile and discover that his hands belong to him.  You have to be quick on the shutter to capture those smiles on camera, but we know that there are many more to come. 

Annie will be going back to work in the next week.  Please pray for her as she returns to the overwhelming mountain of email and catches up with her staff and co-workers. 

We love hearing how many of you are following us on our blog.  We love comments too, so don't be shy. 
Enjoy the sunshine, now that it has finally arrived in Western WA!

Happy Happy!

Happy first Father's Day to Matt! 
We celebrated in Port Angeles with Annie's parents and friends, feasting on delicious homemade wood-fired pizzas. 

The following day, June 21st, was our 2nd wedding anniversary.  We reminisced about that beautiful day two years ago and what a wonderful time we had.  Jacob was not even a twinkle in our eye at that time. 

Grandma and Grandpa gladly babysat Jacob so we could go out on a date to celebrate.  Dinner and a movie was all we needed and it was nice to spend some time together as a couple.  Of course, dinner conversation drifted to Jacob talk and plans for future family adventures. 

 We took Jacob back to the doctor this week, just for a weight check.  This new formula seems to be doing the right thing!  Jacob is now up to 12 lbs!!  After all the diarrhea and GI issues, he had some catching up to do.  He gained 15 oz in 5 days, which is amazing!   We're so glad he's feeling better and is back to his normal, happy self.  

We're glad summer has finally arrived and we've been enjoying visiting our local farmer's markets.  Here's hoping the sun sticks around for awhile!

Lots o' News!

We apologize for not letting you know we made it back from our road trip safely.  That was more than a week ago now!  I thought not much had been going on, but then I downloaded our pictures and found evidence to the contrary.  Here are a few highlights of the last week:

Drove across the North Cascades Highway (Hwy 20) and actually saw snow in June!  But also some beautiful waterfalls and green trees.  

We stayed with Annie's Granpa on Camano Island on our last stop and then headed down I-5 back to Tacoma. 

It was good to be back home.  But it was also back to the reality of laundry, bills, and cleaning.  And Jacob's reality of sleeping, eating, and pooping. 

We went to another Tacoma Rainiers game, this time with a group from our church.  The guys were all loaded up with kids and gear!  

This week, we had several doctor's appointments for regular check ups.  The neurosurgeon says everything looks good from his perspective.  Jacob does have some swelling around the valve, which creates quite a bulge on the side of his head.  The doc would rather not have that there, but it doesn't bother Jacob either.  We'll be putting a headband around his head to try to put some pressure on it and bring down the swelling.

Jacob also had a regular check up at the pediatrician this week when he got his first round of vaccinations.  He did great, only crying a little bit with each of the 3 shots he received.  At this visit, Jacob weighed in at 11 lbs 1 oz, and measured 23 inches long--all right on track for the growth curves.  We went back to the pediatrician today, worried that Jacob has had some diarrhea for about 3 weeks now.  Fortunately, he's gaining weight ok, but his poor bottom is getting very sore.  We're on to our 4th kind of formula now and hopefully this will solve the problem.  After a very fussy past couple of days (quite unlike Jacob), he seems to be feeling better today already.  Hallelujah!  Maybe mom and dad will get some better sleep tonight too. 

Physically, Jacob still has all that hair he was born with.  It's turning into an auburn color and his eyebrows and eyelashes are starting to darken as well.  His eyes are still a beautiful blue.  He's also focusing on mom and dad's faces a lot, but also is quite happy when he finds his hands in his mouth as well.   With the last few nights being the exception, Jacob sleeps quite well--about 4 hours at night.  That's not too bad for his age and mom and dad take turns getting up with him.

We can't believe our little guy will be 8 weeks old next week!  The time has gone by very quickly and slowly at the same time.  Annie will be getting ready to go back to work after the 4th of July.  We're looking forward to celebrating Father's Day, our 2nd wedding anniversary and Matt's birthday in the next couple of weeks. We'll keep you posted!

We continued on our road trip, leaving Spokane on Sunday morning.  We stopped at Grand Coulee Dam--an amazing sight!  Matt had not been there before and it was also an important stop in Annie's family history.  Annie's Grandpa Emry worked on the dam back in the 1930s.  They have a great visitor's center and it was neat to read about how the dam was built and what a major project it was. 

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 The weather improved a bit on Monday and we actually felt the warm rays of sunshine on our shortsleeved arms for the first time this summer.  What lovely weather for wine tasting in the Okanagan Valley.  The wineries up here are beautiful, with vineyards all around and views of the lake below. 

Jacob has been a great traveller so far.  We had to get a little creative in our feeding and changing options today, even changing him in the trunk of the car.  At one point, Matt had a baby bottle in one hand and a glass of wine in the other.   Jacob needs to get used to wineries early and only one person asked him for some ID. 

Tomorrow, we'll head back down the OkanaganValley and into Washington, ending up in Twisp. 

Jacobs first road trip.

Jacob went to the Doctors on Thursday and his weight is up to 10 pounds 8 ounces!  He is doing great.  He is tracking really well with his eyes and makes eye contact every time we feed him.  He is getting stronger every day.

Well Jacob is now five and a half weeks old and we are on our first road trip.  We left on Friday morning and went up and had lunch with Annie's brother Steve at his work and then left for Spokane.  Jacob did really well on the trip and only was fussy as we were going over the pass.  We got to Spokane around 7:30 where we met with much of Matt's family and stayed with his Uncle Stu and Aunt Dorothy.  We Spent Sat. in Spokane and met a few of Matt's friends and some more family.  Sun. morning we will leave early for the Okanagan Valley, where we will spend Sun. night, Mon., and Tues. morning up there doing some wine tasting and showing off Jacob.  We will then spend Tues. night outside of Winthrop.  Then drive along the north cascades highway and spend the Wed. night with Annie's grandfather on Camano Island.  Finally we will get home on Thursday and get back to our normal lives.

We will try and keep posting as we go along, but finding internet access is sometimes kind of tricky.  As it is where I'm sitting the internet keeps dropping me, so I may not even be able to post this!

Hope you all are doing well and thanks for taking time to keep up with what we and (more importantly) Jacob are up to.

Cheers! Jacob is 4 weeks old!

We celebrated Jacob's 4 week birthday today at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Port Angeles.  Jacob had his bottle of milk and the rest of us raised a glass of bubbly and ate cupcakes.  :)  Jacob continues to do well--eating, sleeping and growing.

We are in Port Angeles for a few days to spend time with the grandparents, but also to help out with bottling at the winery.  Matt has not seen the process before and it's quite impressive.

Today, we also hung out with our friends Nicolas and Sofia (Annie and Jamie got some good mommy time together too).  We can only imagine what trouble these kids will get into together as they grow up!

In the last week, we have had some more visitors and some special outings.  Annie's Auntie Joy came to visit and got in some cuddle time with Jacob.  The last time she saw him was in the hospital and he has certainly changed and grown a lot since then. 






We also went to Jacob's first baseball game on Friday!  We walked over to Cheney Stadium to see the Rainiers play.  After a 90 minute rain delay, they finally started.  Jacob didn't cheer very much during the game because he was asleep most of the time.   It was a pretty cold and wet night, but we all had fun.

People also ask how our cats, Jack and Phoebe, are adjusting to having Jacob in the house. Overall, they are doing very well. They don't get as much attention as they used to, but still manage to find some nap time together.

Matt and Annie are figuring out how to take shifts in the night and nap during the day.  We have also plotted out some fun trips for this summer and hope to see some of you along the journey.  Stay tuned for future posts on our adventures.