May Adventures

May has been busy and pretty exhausting, and it's not quite finished yet!  Here are a few photos that document some of what we've been up to.

The first weekend in May was the opening day of boating season, which includes crew races along the Montlake cut and a parade of boats.  We were invited by a friend to watch the festivities from the backyard of a home where she was dog-sitting, so we got a unique, close-up view.  Jadyn enjoyed the races, and Joseph slept through most of the event.

Jadyn and Daddy at the crew races

Joseph barely awake

The following week, Jenny and Joseph went to Wenatchee for a couple of days to attend a math conference.  Jadyn had accompanied Jenny to 2 math conferences in her first few months of life, and this was Joseph's opportunity.  At just 5.5 weeks old, it may have been a little crazy to take him over two mountain passes to listen to sessions about teaching math in WA community colleges, but he traveled pretty well, all things considered.  Everyone found him delightful!

Our little Houdini waking at the hotel

Ready to head for some sessions

Joining Mom for a beer

At Joseph's 6-week-old check-up, Dr. N was impressed with his neck strength and how active he was on his belly.  He weighed 11 pounds, 0 ounces (50-75th percentile) and measured 21.5 inches (25-50th percentile), which means he had grown 1.5 inches since birth and 3 pounds in 5 weeks.  Wow!  No wonder our arms, shoulders, and necks are tired and sore!!!  We were also reminded that his frequent eating, lack of regular sleeping schedule, and increased burping and spitting up are completely normal for a 6-week-old human.  And so we forge on, waiting patiently for his feedings to space out a little more, and his intervals of sleep at night to increase (at 6 weeks, he was allowing us a mere 2.5 to 3 hours at a time, but as of this writing we're getting a 4 to 4.5 hour stretch some nights -- yahoo!).  His evenings aren't as fussy as we remember Jadyn's being at the same age, and he finds solace in a pacifier, which she never really warmed up to.  So the sleep deprivation is just barely into the tolerable range, and we know this is a phase that will pass before we know it.

Napping in the carry pack on a fussy afternoon

Holding in the binky with his arm!

Joseph loves baths -- he hasn't cried during one since the post-birth bath at the hospital.  He also likes hanging out with his sister and/or a parent on the couch in the evenings.

Post-bath bliss

Playing air-piano

Go Mariners!

Jadyn 'reading' her Brain Quest cards to Joseph

Jadyn has been taking pictures with our digital cameras for about 2 years now, and her aim is getting much better.  These photos below are shots Jadyn took:

We're spending Memorial Day weekend in town, stopping in at our favorite coffee shop and playing at nearby parks with friends.  Here is Jadyn at a park just outside the zoo with Zoe and Rueben, two of her friends from school.

 

 

We hoped to catch a sunset on Saturday evening, as Jadyn has been trying to make sense of the difference between sunrise and sunset.  It had been sunny all day, but the clouds rolled in on the western horizon right at sunset, so we don't have wonderful sunset pictures to share.  Nevertheless, we had fun with our sunset visit to a park on a bluff above Golden Gardens.  We'll have to try it again sometime soon, but for now, here are some pictures we took of ourselves while we were at the park.

 

On Sunday we played at a different park with Alexa.  Alexa is a little older and taught Jadyn a new trick on the arched monkey bar structure.  The moms were spotters for their adventurous little girls!

Alexa pushing Jadyn

Joseph chilling at the park while the girls played

Going over the top of the arch

Descending carefully and successfully!

Jadyn still loves books and puzzles and dancing, but she is also very smitten with her little brother.  She kisses his head about 25 times a day, gives him hugs, sings to him when he is fussy, and helps with his pacifier and burp cloth.  Here are the parting shots for this post: the two of them together and Jadyn with freshly picked street flowers (weeds?).  Happy Spring!