Happy Birthday - Maiya (part 3)

(Please click on the photo to view more pictures.)

We all made it up to the hospital today. DLCnM were, of course, all there, along with Pete and Teri. Dana Wingblad paid a visit while we were there as well. She brought Lynette all sorts of snacks and sweets that looked like they'd really hit the spot.

Everyone is doing well, and it looks like Mom and baby should both be discharged tomorrow after a final checkup. Knowing how well Lynette does on exams, I'm guessing they'll be home in time for the Lions game!

Michele and I are about to settle in for the night and hopefully watch the Spartans clinch the GLI Championship over the Wolverines.

Happy Birthday - Maiya (part 2)

Please click on the picture to see a few more photos of Maiya. Hopefully we'll have even more shots to post tomorrow after our visit.

Michele also wanted to let everyone know that Dan WAS there. He may even be in some of the pictures on their camera. We'll be sure to link to them if/when they get posted.

Happy Birthday - Maiya

Congratulations to Dan and Lynette. They gave Colin a baby sister today at 4:10 pm. Maiya Anne was born naturally weighing 7 pounds, and measuring 19 inches long.

Michele was at the hospital for the delivery, so hopefully we'll have some pictures soon. Jake will get to go with me to meet his new cousin tomorrow.

For the record, Maiya owes us a dinner and a movie since we were originally going to go out with Dan and Lynette tonight. At least now, by the time the rain check is cashed in, Lynette will probably be able to join us in a drink. Of course, I doubt Pursuit of Happyness will still be in the theaters, but we'll make do.

Speaking of the Hermans, you can find their Christmas pictures here.

Also, here are some photos from Mark and Kelly (if it requests an ID and password, you can use andersonannex@gmail.com for the id and anderson for the password).

Lastly, we got some results back from Jake's head ultrasound. Unfortunately, they think there may be some excess fluid around his brain. Luckily, however, we were able to get an appointment with a pediatric neurologist for Wednesday, January 3, so hopefully we'll get some more definite answers then.

Merry Christmas!

(Please click on the photo to see more Christmas pictures.)

So, I think it's safe to say that, aside from his crazy sleep schedule, Jake really enjoyed his first Christmas. He got all kinds of great gifts, most of which would fall under the category of edutainment. Michele and I also learned how much more fun it is opening gifts for your child and seeing their expression! This could easily be the best Christmas we've had together. This even topped the Christmas that the Anderson kids got our very first Nintendo!

Christmas eve eve, we headed up and visited with GnGT for a while and got to see their new fireplace and entertainment system. While I don't appreciate the enormous amount of heat that thing can pump out like everyone else, I could appreciate their new LCD HDTV. I helped Pete make sure he had all the best cables for his current equipment, plugged everything in, and programmed and taught them how to use the universal remote.

Later in the afternoon we headed over to MPnA's. We went out to church and then came back to have delicious grilled cheese sandwiches from Colony. I think they've quickly replaced Halo Burger as the food that I MUST have when I'm in the area. God help us if I ever get transferred up that way. I could easily weigh 300 pounds within the first 6 months.

Christmas Eve morning, Jake decided he would continue to get up at 6:00 am, so we decided to do all our gifts in the morning. Alison seemed to have as much fun helping Jake open his gifts as she did opening her own.

Later on, we went to church at St. Matt's in downtown Flint before heading over to the Husted's. When we got there, Michele and I tended to Jake (as good parents would) making sure he was fed, medicated, and then finally asleep only to get down to the kitchen and realize that no one missed us, and most of the food was gone! I think we both got enough to eat though, and the lasagna and shrimp were as good as ever.

After ANOTHER round of great gifts, we tried to carefully move Jake down to the car with no success. He woke up got to see a lot of relatives briefly before we whisked him away around 9:00 pm. He fell asleep in the car almost immediately on the drive down to DLnC's. When we got there, he, of course, woke up again, and was up until just before midnight. 6:00 rolled around awful quick, yet Jake was ready for it. We got up and fed him long before anyone else was stirring... even Colin.

Once everyone did get up, we had a great Christmas morning with even MORE gifts for Jake (and us). The rest of the day was spent eating, relaxing, and playing with all the great new toys.

On the day after Christmas, we finished up our gift-giving/receiving with the Pruss family. Elle really seemed to like the bongo drum we got her. Jake couldn't take his eyes off of it either, so maybe we have a birthday present figured out for him all ready!

It was a great weekend for all of us, and we are very blessed to have such a great, large, family.

After you've visited our photos from the picture link above, be sure to check out MPnA's photos here. I'll post other links for DLnC and hopefully GnGT when they are available.

Also, we are heading out this afternoon to get Jake's head ultrasound. Hopefully everything will go well, and I'll be able to report that he just had a head growth spurt, and nothing else. I'm not sure when we'll find out the results of the scan, but I'm sure Michele will be on pins and needles until we do.

9 Months Old

(Please click on the photo to see more pictures.)

Well, well, well... two posts in two days. I don't want anyone to get spoiled, but I guess the stars just seemed to align.

Jake is 9 months old today, and did pretty well at his checkup. He got a flu shot and some blood drawn. We also found out that he needs to have an ultrasound done next week on his melon. Apparently his height and weight (27 1/4 inches, 19 pounds 8 ounces) are around the 35 percentile while his head size is in the 95 percentile. I think he's just going to be smarter than Michele or I, but the doctors think we should take a look just to be sure.

I forgot to mention in yesterday's post that while Meme and Alison watched Jake on Saturday, we went out to dinner and a movie with Mark and Kelly as our Christmas gift to each other. It's something we started with Dan and Lynette back when they were in Chicago, and we thought it would work well with these Wolverines as well. We had a delicious dinner at The Claddagh in Livonia, and then saw Deja Vu. We all thought the movie was pretty good, but probably a rent (if you don't see it in the theater). We'll be going out with Dan and Lynette on the 29th as long as she doesn't decide to give birth to "Coline" before then.

While I'm working for, hopefully, the last day of the year tomorrow, Michele will be getting together with "the girls". We are then planning on heading up to Grand Blanc on Saturday.

Also, for anyone that DID sign up for the e-mail notifications, you will not get videos and some images/links in the e-mail. You can click on either the blog name (Anderson Annex) or the title of the post, and be taken directly to our blog to see the full post. The e-mail is meant to serve as a notice that there's been an update. Sorry for any confusion that was caused. Going forward, the RSS feed and hopefully the e-mails will be truncated so you know to come look at the site.

It's Coming Quick...

So, you may have noticed that after the post encouraging people to subscribe to our blog, the blog has been pretty stagnant. Well, as I am sure is true of most families, we have been pretty busy lately. Not only are we trying to get things in order for the holidays, but we also have been dealing with a sick kid.

A little over a week ago, Jake scared Michele and I with breaths that sounded like choking while he was asleep around 9:30 pm. We quickly woke him up and determined that he was, in fact, breathing. They were just labored, wheezing breaths. It sounded like he was crying, but, in true Jake fashion, he was smiling away the whole time! We called the doctor's office and they advised us to take him to the ER. Of course, by the time we got there he sounded normal. Over the course of the next three hours, they observed him and took X-rays and determined that he did not have pneumonia. They then sent us on our way with advise to contact his pediatrician the following day.

After a few hours of sleep, we headed to the pediatrician's office and they determined that he could have asthma. I guess this is pretty common for preemies, so they were not really surprised. They also stressed that he could very likely grow out of it, or it might just be a seasonal thing. Basically, we shouldn't get too worried that he'll need to be medicated for the rest of his life to treat it.

After that little visit, he is now on Zyrtec as an antihistamine, two drugs given through the nebulizer, and another antibiotic because it appeared as though he might be getting a sinus infection on top of the breathing problems.

Jake has been a trooper through all of this, and besides a few days of being "less happy" than normal, he has seemed just like himself. He sounds a lot better, and we haven't had any more "incidents". Michele will be taking him in for his nine month appointment and a follow-up checkup tomorrow. Hopefully he'll come off of the antibiotic and one of the breathing treatments.

Aside from all that, we have most of our Christmas shopping done. Jake went to 12 Oaks with us last weekend and was an angel in his stroller. We wouldn't have known he was there if he hadn't giggled and squealed out loud occasionally as he grabbed his hands or the belt to his stroller.

Jake has also moved up to rear-facing car seats. As he's near 20 pounds now, it was getting a bit tedious carrying him in the baby carrier. We found some seats that we liked at Babies R Us, and after a "quick trip" to Ypsilanti (which is the only store that had them) I got them home and latched into the cars. Jake looks more comfortable than he did in the carrier, but he seems to like getting out of them better than getting in them.

We also got our Christmas cards all mailed out. We had a few cards that we needed to find addresses for, so they went out later, and we know of one that got lost in the mail. While no one has commented on the card, I decided to divulge our secret in finding the "perfect" photo for this year. You can see all about it in this little video that I made.



Lastly, here are some photos left over from November (including our new Christmas tree and ornaments) and here are a few from December. Michele is out of school now, so she brought Jake down to the Ren Cen where we had lunch with Mark, and Jake got to see Santa.

Subscription Setting Updates

Before I get into the "meat" of this post, I wanted to talk for a second about subscriptions. What are subscriptions, you might ask, and why should you care?

By subscribing to our blog, you get an easy way of finding out when I've found time to throw up a post without actually having to visit the site.

There are two main ways to subscribe to our blog. On the right-hand side, you'll see a subscribe section that looks like the image below.


The first way to subscribe is to enter your e-mail address and click "E-mail me updates". This will take you to a second screen where you'll have to enter some text to prove that you're a human and not a spam bot. After you enter the text and click the button, they will send you an e-mail. When you get the e-mail click the link to verify that you want to subscribe, and presto, you'll get an e-mail like the one pictured at the top of the post any time we update. It's really very cool. For anyone that already signed up, this should continue to work as before.

The second way to sign up is through something called an RSS feed. This is basically a way that website sends out short blurbs to a reader letting you know that there's something new to read. You can think of this as a headlines option in the news. You see what you want to read and proceed to B7. In the virtual world, you see a new headline and you click to read the whole post. I have setup two easy options, you can click on the Yahoo or Google buttons to add them to the respective readers. I personally use Google Reader to manage my 20+ feeds that I keep track of, and the newest version is really VERY good. You can also click on the RSS logo (orange button with white, curved lines) and try to figure out (or let your browser figure out) how to go from there. For the very few people that subscribed via this method, the address has changed. Please update your readers accordingly.

Now, onto the updates.

So there's not much new to post today. Jake had a follow-up doctor appointment, and besides learning that we want to find a new pediatrician, we also found out that he's over 19 pounds, and his lungs have cleared up. We're going to continue using the nebulizer twice a day for another week just to make sure.

On Friday night our house had an unsuspected visitor. Mother nature decided she wanted to take a peak at our basement and followed the storm water up our drain and fanned out quite a ways. I spent the vast majority of Friday night, and into Saturday morning sucking up all the water with my AWESOME shop vac. If you don't have a shop vac or are unhappy with the one you have, go buy one of these for Christmas. All the Anderson men have one (Jake doesn't yet, but he's not even walking... when he is, it might be a good reason to upgrade!). MPnA also came down Saturday to help clean up, and to hang out. Michele and I bought their old snowblower, so they were kind enough to bring that down as well. To help defer the costs of transportation, I sent my dad back with several sheets of drywall. I think he got the better end of that deal.

Michele left Jake with me on Sunday while she went Christmas shopping with her mom and Lynette. It sounds like they did some pretty good damage. I'll need to get started eventually!

Good luck getting subscribed (if you want to), and if you have any questions, post a comment with your e-mail address, and I'll get back to you.

8 Months... proof

(Please click on the photo to see more pictures.)

Jake wasn't in much of a picture taking mood yesterday, but he cooperated for a bit this morning. When he's sick, his patience seems to lean more towards mine rather than Michele's.

When we went to feed him his breakfast, he looked TOO cute in one of the bibs Meme gave him that we decided to push our luck and squeeze a few more pictures in. You can find those here.

We'll be headed up to Grand Blanc shortly to spend Thanksgiving with the Anderson side of the family. Hopefully the Lions will start our day out right and give us something additional to be thankful for.

We hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

8 Months Old

(Please click on the photo to see more pictures.)

Today, Jake turned 8 months old! Michele and I are both off tomorrow, so we'll probably put him through the paces with the camera at that time. There could be some new photos as early as tomorrow afternoon (although maybe not until tomorrow evening).

On Saturday, Brian and Di brought Cooper down to play with Obie. He has gotten a lot bigger, and at times the dogs were even tough to tell apart. Brian took quite a few photos, so maybe there will be a blog post eventually.

Speaking of updated blogs, there's a new blog added to our list of friends. Mike and Melissa Noll (Ohio folk) are expecting their first, and as such, have started their own blog. You can find a link over on the right. Also, Jason (writing for Elle) has updated their blog as well. Be sure to check them out.

Happy belated birthday to Mark. He celebrated his birthday with most of the family on Sunday.

We, on the other hand, were up in Fenton for a pre-Thanksgiving feast with the Trosko side of the family. DLnC were there with Grandmama and Grandpapa Trosko (the last time I'll EVER refer to them like that in this blog - from now on GnGT). Great Grandma Remenicky (GGR) was also there along with Pete's cousin Joan. Barb, another of Pete's cousins, also stopped by for dessert. We had a great dinner, and I got to spend time playing trains with Colin and watching Cars.

In other news, Dan went through a successful laparoscopic surgery yesterday. He went into the hospital to have his mangina, er... hernia pushed back. Everything went fine and he's recouperating at home. He's even expecting to be able to partake in a Thanksgiving feast on Thursday.

Jake spent some time at the doctors and the medical supply store yesterday as he was diagnosed with bronchiolitis. We had to go and get a nebulizer for his breathing treatments. He sounds a lot better today and is also eating and sleeping much better (thank God). We'll take him back in on Monday to see if things are clearing up and to find out how much longer the breathing treatments will be necessary.

November News

(Please click on the photo to see more pictures.)

I wonder if I'd get pestered by my mom as often about my recent updating frequency if she was not retired? At any rate, it has been a while, but that's because things have finally started to settle down. Sure we seem to be busy EVERY weekend, but it's typically more routine stuff. I'm sure there will be more posts than anyone cares to read around the holidays, so I think maybe my fingers were just taking a rest in anticipation.

Two weekends ago we ventured over to Charlotte for Isabelle's baptism. The ceremony went well, and the Goodrich's threw a great party afterwards. To top off the excitement of the day, the Lions actually beat the Falcons. That was only the second time I picked them to win in our football pool, and it was their second win (more to follow). Jake got to meet Jack for the first time at the part, and we got some good shots of the three kids together.

In other news, Jake now has TWO teeth! We keep trying to get a good photo of them, but they are quite tricky to capture with our SLOW digital camera. The photo at the top of this post was an attempt to show them. We are considering investing in a new camera as a Christmas gift to one another. Last year was cell phones. This year a camera. I love my wife! I don't want to have to wait that long, but maybe next year I'll give her an HD TV and she'll give me a PS3. I think we should swap those gifts for Valentine's, but there seems to be a much lower spending limit on the gifts for that holiday.

Last weekend my parents threw a dinner for family and friends to wish Melissa a safe journey to Florida. She got a job selling Super Bowl XLI gear for the next few months. We all got together at Max & Erma's in Auburn Hills. This was following my third prediction of a Lion's victory but my first incorrect prediction. I no longer feel any responsibility for their winning or losing based on my picks. Luckily, in our league, only one person picked against them so it didn't hurt too badly. Here are some photos from MPnA from the dinner. Also, here are a few photos of Alison after she lost her first tooth!

Michele has parent/teacher conferences this week, so Jake and I will get to spend some quality time together. The question is, "Will it be post-worthy?" We'll just have to wait and see.

Happy Halloween

(Links to photos can be found below.)

We hope that everyone had a wonderful Halloween. From what we can tell, it looks like Jake sure did enjoy his.

GnGT came down and took Jake to a shortened day of day care. Every year, the director of The Learning Tree rides in a helicopter and drops candy down to the kids. The infants, obviously, can't really participate, but they get to go and watch. Pete was kind enough to record part of the event with our camcorder. You can see the video below.



After the excitement with the helicopter, they took him to Salem Elementary for Michele's Halloween party. A few other teachers had their babies there as well.

When he got home, we threw his costume back on to get a few more photos and eventually Elle came over to take some photos with him.

Jake then went to bed before the first trick-or-treater arrived, and luckily slept well even with all the noise out on the porch.

Here are our Halloween photos. You can also see photos for the DLnC and MPnA's.

The weekend before Halloween, Jessi, Harlan, and Isabelle crashed at our place while they were in town for a wedding. Isabelle is a doll! It's actually hard to remember when Jake was that small!

The day before they arrived, Michele went to visit Steve, Melissa, and Jack. He was a week old, and didn't look quite as big as he sounded, but definitely huge compared to when Jake was born.

You can see photos from both visits here.

If you already followed the link to the photos above, you may have found out that shortly before Halloween, Jake cut his first tooth! We can't quite get a picture of it yet since his tongue always seems to be in the way, but trust us, it's there. It's like one little dagger in the abyss that is his gums.

Even BEFORE that, Jake turned 7 months old. He actually turned 7 months at Meme and Papa's house when we were off in DC. We still managed to get our photos, although he was not as cooperative as he has been in months past. You can find those photos here.

Lastly, we got his 6 month photos back from JC Penney. While probably not completly legal, I scanned them in, and you can see them here (1, 2, and 3). I left the quality fairly poor to discourage printing of the copyrighted photos (that should make up for the illegality of scanning them).

We're Back... with Congratulations to Give

(Please find the links to more pictures in the post below.)

Michele and I spent the weekend (October 20 - 23) in the Washington DC area.

The morning before we left, we found out that Melissa and Steve had their baby boy! Jack Stephen was born on 10/20/2006 at 3:03 am. He weighed in at a MASSIVE 9 pounds, 4 ounces at 22 1/2 inches long. Melissa ran a fever during her 22 hour delivery, so there were a few issues, but everything seems to be better now, as Mom, Dad, and their newborn toddler are all at home in Brighton.

The first person in our house to find out that Melissa had her baby was Jen. Jen and Bret came into town late Thursday night so that we could all ride to the airport together fairly early on Friday.

So, why did the four of us decide to visit our nation's capitol? Well, that's where the second set of congratulations come in. Francesco and Tiffany tied the knot on Saturday, October 21. They had a beautiful wedding in a small chapel followed by an intimate lunch at one of the groom's family's restaurants. It was a great day and it really seemed to fit their personalities. After some people caught some quick naps (and Michele and I made it to Church) a few of us got together to watch the Tiger's game. We had some trouble finding a sports bar, and when we finally did, we were bummed by the Tiger's loss, and even more bummed by the crappy service we got at the bar.

Sunday found Bret, Jen, Michele, and I taking the Metro train into Washington DC to do the amount of sight-seeing that lesser people might take a week to do. We saw all of the following: The Air and Space Museum, The National Museum of Natural History, the Capitol, the White House, the Washington Monument, the World War II Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Korean War Memorial. We visited all of that even with taking some time out to grab lunch and watch part of the Lions game, and end the day at The ESPN Zone in time for the start of the Tiger's game. When the wives started to fall asleep in the booth, we decided to leave the restaurant in the 6th inning and made it back to the hotel in time to see the end of the game. Luckily, even on the underground train system, my Verizon phone kept a data connection and I was able to keep up with their win through the mobile version of MLB.com.

On Monday, we got up and drove into Arlington. We visited the Marine Corps War Memorial, and spent the rest of the morning in Arlington National Cemetery. In the early afternoon we headed back to Dulles to catch our flight back to Detroit.

It was a great, long weekend that we'll remember for the rest of our lives. The only thing that might have made it better is if we could have taken our son along with us. Jake still had some fluid in his ears, and we decided it was probably safer to leave him home than risk the flight along with being in a strange place in the event that he might need to go to a doctor. GnGT got to watch him Friday through Saturday and Meme and Papa got him Saturday night through our return on Monday. While you might think it's unfair that one set of grandparents got 2 nights while the other got 1, I think they'd disagree (probably not out loud though). Jake had a bit of trouble getting to sleep and did not keep to his usual bed time of approximately 6:30 pm. His bedtime, instead, swung from 9:30 to as late as 11:30. Other than that, it sounds like he did very well being apart from us. It was awesome to see the expression on his face as he saw us when we got back on Monday night.

The Most Postponed Post

(Please click on the photo to see more pictures.)

I started to type this post on Monday, and here we are late Thursday night. This will be short and sweet as we're packing for a short trip (more on that when we return).

I celebrated my 28th birthday last week. Michele's parents stuck around for dinner (and delicious 4 berry pie) on Wednesday of last week after watching Jake for the day. My parents then brought my grandma down and met Mark and Kelly at our house for dinner the following Friday. We ordered PF Changs take-out and it was DELICIOUS. The picture above shows most of the gifts I received. I got a gift card from the Troko's so I'll still have to figure out what to order from Amazon. On Saturday my dad helped me put up a new shed which you can see if you follow the picture link above.

Other than that, Jake is nearly over his cold, as are Michele and I. I'm anxiously awaiting the World Series to see whether the Tigers can cap an awesome season.

Hopefully there will be another post up early next week (Tuesday or Wednesday). See you then.

Another Week Has Flown By

(Please click on the photo to see more pictures.)

OK, either I'm getting old, or having a child really makes you realize how fast time flies by. I can't believe it's already been over a week since my last post.

Everyone in the Anderson Household (Livonia Branch) has been sick - INCLUDING Jake. Yes, he got his first cold which led to his first ear infection which led to a trip to the doctors which led to antibiotics and decongestant syrup. That was a lot of "led to's", but that's how it happened. He seems to be doing better now while Michele and I are not so much.

Last weekend we headed up to Grand Blanc for our 10 year high school reunion. While I wasn't looking forward to it, Michele convinced me that we'd have fun. It was nice seeing a bunch of people that we hadn't seen in ages. A lot of our old classmates are in a similar situation with new kids, so that was pretty cool too. Maybe if we do a 15 year or our 20 year reunion, families will be a part of something. Then again, by then, I'm guessing a night/weekend away from the kid(s) will seem like a blessing!

The main reason I wasn't looking forward to going to the reunion was because it happened to fall on one of the biggest sporting days in the area. We didn't get to see the Tiger's move on to the ALCS which was a huge bummer. Then again, we also didn't get to see MSU fall to UofM 31*-13. While it really didn't matter in the end, I added the asterisk because that first counted touchdown for Michigan was NOT a touchdown. It also helps to consider that single botched call broke the Spartan's spirit which eventually led to their loss. Of course, that's probably not true, but whatareyagonnado? Maybe they'll pull out a miracle this weekend and beat Ohio State. Not only would it possibly help John L. keep his job, but it would work well to tick off the UofM fans that are hoping to meet an undefeated OSU team in the last week to decide who goes to the national championship (also assuming they make it past Penn State and Iowa, of course).

Also, there's some more big news today. Anna (a former co-worker of Michele's) and her husband, David, had a baby boy today. He was born at 1:30 pm and weighs 6 pounds and 11 ounces. They have not decided on a name yet, but hopefully we'll post that with some photos. Anna and David recently moved WAY up to Alpena for David's job. Maybe their living up there will help us get up to (and then through) East Tawas more often.

Lastly, it looks like the Herman clan is enjoying the fall. Here are some pictures to prove it.

Lots of Updates

(Please click on the photo to see many more pictures.)

Before you shake your head and rub your eyes, this is NOT a picture of Jacob. This is Jessi and Harlan's daughter, Isabelle. Even if the Spartans can't beat the Fighting Illini, it looks like she still sticks by them. I'm sure that won't always be the case, so it's good we caught it on camera.

On Saturday, we left Jake with GnGT while Michele and I headed to East Lansing for MSU's Homecoming. We tailgated with Dan and Lynette, Craig and Kari, and Mike and Dana. This is our third or fourth year tailgating as a group. We started off in a parking lot by Grand River, and then made our way to BW3 to watch the game. Een though the Spartans lost (first time Illinois has won a Big 10 game since 2004 - very depressing), we managed to have a good time. In fact, here are a few pictures and here are a few more.

After the game Michele and I headed to Charlotte to see Jessi, Harlan, and Isabelle. Jessi and Harlan seem to be adjusting quite well to being new parents. Isabelle is an angel! It's amazing how small she seems next to our growing 6-month-old.

On Sunday we headed down to Dan and Lynette's to celebrate Colin's 3rd birthday! Lynette made him an awesome train cake. He also got a lot of cool toys including a Leap Pad and several activity books to go along with it.

Today, Jake started going to day care. He is going to The Learning Tree. It seems like a very cool facility and they have a structured lesson plan even for the infant rooms. He seemed to do really well today, so hopefully that keeps up. While we didn't get to see it, we heard he got to do some art today. I guess it's just moving any object around with paint on it, but it's something he's never done at home. Maybe he can continue practicing at Meme's house. We would have never been able to paint in the living room as kids, but maybe Alison has softened her up enough so that she'll let Jake!

Lastly, here are a few videos that I finally transferred off of our video camera.

When in the right mood, Jacob laughs at pretty much anything. Here, all I had to do was breathe in loudly, or say his name and he was off!
Make sure you have your audio up!



Jo and Elle were over, and Elle shows us her new trick (while Jake continues to laugh in the background).

Cider Mill

(Please click on the photo to see more pictures.)

I spent Saturday away from my wife and child in order to go tailgating, watch U of M beat Wisconsin in the Big House, then play some beer pong with Mark and Kelly. So, after church, on Sunday, we all went to the cider mill. Mark and Kelly left an exhausted Simba behind at our house, and we headed to a small mill in Northville. It wasn't as large as the orchards that we're used to going to, but the cider tasted just as good, and the large line moved pretty fast. Once he woke up, Jake really seemed to enjoy looking around and being out in the fall weather.

Jake @ 6 months

(Please click on the picture for 6 month photos, or here to view some other new photos from September.)

Jacob has been having a pretty good week so far. First, he had his 6 month checkup on Monday where we found out he's doing great. He now weighs 17 and 3/4 pounds and is just over 26 inches long. You can see he's right around the 50th percentile in weight and length.

On Wednesday, Jake moved up from the various cereals we'd been giving him and got his first couple spoonfuls of carrots. Michele said he seemed to like it, and she didn't even have to mix it into the cereal.

Today is Jake's 1/2 birthday. Both grandmas called to wish him a happy 1/2 birthday. Since we were out all day and most of the evening, he'll have to hear the messages in the morning. Michele sure did get a kick out of them though!

Tonight was also an Open House at Michele's school. All week Michele had been bumming about not getting to see Jake since he'd be in bed by the time she got home. Instead, after taking some 6 month photos, I packed him up with his food and headed to her school. She was very surprised when another teacher pointed out that they thought they saw me in the parking lot! We played around for a little bit, then Jake and I left so she could do her thing, and also so I could get the little monkey down to bed.

Jake has been doing better and better with sleeping through the night. We have to get up a few times each night to pop his pacifier back in. We're afraid that if we let it escalate, he'll wake himself up. We both know that eventually we'll have to stop running in when he whimpers, but right now, we're not quite ready to risk it!

In other huge news, Jake has a new friend to meet. Jessi and Harlan welcomed their baby girl into the world yesterday! Isabelle Josephine was born on September 20, 2006 at 5:46 pm via cesarean delivery. She is a healthy 7 pounds, 12 ounces and is 20 and 3/4 inches long. The whole family is doing well. Michele is frantically trying to figure out when we'll get to see them! We'll get a picture up as soon as we get one (if, of course, it's OK with her parents).

HVSH CCN Reunion

(Please click on the photo to view more pictures.)

On Sunday, we headed back to Commerce Township to Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital. Along with an Open House, the Complete Care Nursery (CCN) also had a little reunion for any patients that had been cared for there.

Jacob seemed to be doing as well as most of the other kids whose parents we recognized. It was great to see how well all the children there were doing.

We also got to see a lot of the nurses that cared for Jake and for Michele. It really seemed like Jacob recognized the voices of most of the nurses because he was ALL smiles when they would pick him up and talk to him. They said a lot of the young kids still remember their voices or smell, and will respond the same way.

In other news, Alison made it through a full day of school without having to change her "light". Meme was very proud as that meant she had behaved and NOT talked when the teacher was talking.

"Why haven't you updated the blog?"

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"Why haven't you updated the blog?" There are two simple answers to that question: Fall TV and Football Season! It's just starting to ramp up, and I'm having trouble getting back into the routine while adding Baby Time to that already hectic schedule. OK, so it's easy to fit Baby Time in, especially now that Jake is starting to get a "regular" bedtime. He's sleeping pretty well through the night with only a few whimpers. We no longer use a monitor, and he's still able to get in touch with us when he needs us.

Last weekend, we headed up to Grand Blanc where Abbey Park held their annual Grandparent's Day celebration. Great Grandma Remenicky (GGR) was in very high spirits, and had a great day. She told me it was the best day she'd had in a while, and that was before everything got started. They have a picnic lunch, arts and crafts, little games for kids, COTTON CANDY, and a moon walk.

After the party we made a very brief stop at Meme and Papa's to say hello. Alison is getting into the whole school thing. Not surprisingly, she's having a pretty easy time making new friends. Hopefully, though, she'll learn to stop talking when her teacher is talking. Otherwise, expect her to have to carry a citizenship journal like her Uncle Mark was required to carry. Here are the pictures from her first day of school... she was SO excited.

Labor Day 2006

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On Sunday we headed up to Mt. Morris for my Uncle Bill and Aunt Vickie's annual Labor Day party. We don't usually make it since we are usually up at Brian's dad's. This year, however, Michele was a little stressed about starting school and didn't think spending the weekend in Oscoda would help that out. I'm bummed that we missed out on all of the fun with Brian and Di, and the delicious potato brats at the annual craft fair, but we had a lot of fun in Mt. Morris. Hopefully I'll have a link to all of the Woodruff fun when Brian gets around to updating his blog again. That is, if he hasn't still disowned me as a friend for not making the trip up.

Aunt Lynn, Michelle, and Amber were all in for a visit from California and made it to the cookout. It was great seeing them again. The visits are always too far in-between, but are always welcome. Uncle Bill grilled up some great steaks, and they had some of the world's BEST corn on the cob to go along with the other sides.

We had games of cornhole (Mom and I went undefeated), basketball, and then the night ended with a great campfire. Of course, as Michele says, "It's not a campfire without smores,", and they did not disappoint.

There was some debate as to the rules of cornhole, so I'd just like to point out the following official rules. Please note the following rules under Rule 5: Section C, Item 3; Section E; Section G, Item 1:E.

Click here to see pictures from the fun weekend.

Michele gets to meet her students tomorrow and Alison starts her first day of kindergarten! I'm sure there will be more stories to post soon!

In case you didn't catch the pilot, Justice looks like it's going to be a pretty good show! I think this fall I'm going to be up to about 20 hours of TV per week. It's a tough job, but someone has gotta do it.

Camping Trip '06

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We just got back yesterday from our annual camping trip. We teamed up with Dan, Lynette and Colin, and the Wegienka crew (Craig, Kari, Evan, and Lauren) and headed out to P.J. Hoffmaster State Park just south of Muskegon. We had two great sites again with a nice long hike down to Lake Michigan. The campground was pretty busy with pre-Labor Day campers, but the sites were so large it was hard to tell.

We got lucky and avoided all of the rain that seemed to be in the surrounding area. We may have gotten a sprinkle, or it could have been bits of acorns falling from the trees. Regardless, we stayed dry. While the humidity was a bit high, the temperature was great, and the evening temperatures lended nicely to shorts by the campfire.

Evan and Colin are about the same age, and Lauren is only a month older than Jacob. As they get even older, I'm sure they'll have more and more fun on the camping trips (if they are permitted - might let the grandparents have a weekend with them next year).

Jake did great while sleeping in his pack-and-play in the tent Dan and Lynette were so kind to share with us. He actually slept through the night both nights! He had a bit of a whimpering fit on Saturday night, but never woke up. I booked it into the car and calmed him down, and he continued sleeping right on to morning. Besides the night time, he was really only interested in 10 or 15 minute naps the rest of the time. I guess there was a lot for him to see.

Speaking of seeing, you can see Dan and Lynette's photos from the trip here.

Kari and Craig also post to dotphoto, so once they get their photos uploaded, I'll be sure to post a link. With two kids it's understandable why they haven't had time to upload them yet!

Lastly, here's a link to the pictures my parents took while celebrating Miah's birthday.

Miah @ 78

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Happy Birthday Miah/Grandma/Great-Grandma! Michele, Jacob, and I headed up to Flint last night to surprise Grandma for her birthday (which is today). Meme brought Alison over, and Papa came over as well. We had a great time chatting, eating sundaes, and then playing a game that's possibly older than Miah herself... Moon/Space Probe. The game says Moon Probe directly on it, but the box is clearly labeled Space Probe. It's from a time before brand awareness was even important.

Mark and Kelly are planning to head over tonight with the same crew for the "official" celebration. There may be more photos to link to after that.

Jacob @ 5 Months

(Please click on the photo to see more 5 month pictures, or click here for a few non-event shots.)

Summer is flying by, and Jake is already 5 months old! We decided to try to take after the Pruss' Family and create some professional looking photos at home, but it didn't work out nearly as well. They look good, but they aren't this good.

In other news, Meme got home last week from a few day trip to New York with Linda Rumbel. Linda's son-in-law, Darren, was being honored as one of 30 top traders under 30. While there, they were even able to catch two Broadway shows, Hairspray and Wedding Singer, in one day.

Dan and Lynette found out last week that Colin's likely going to have a baby sister. They quickly received a ton of name suggestions ranging from Danielle to Matti to Coline, but they don't seem to have decided on one quite yet.

If you haven't been keeping up with The Ferrell's blog, Jake got a mention and a nod in their photo album. You can see the photos here.

Summer Vacation

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We just got back, last night, from a great week spent in Shelby, MI. You can find our album from the trip here. DLC also have an album started here.

Last Saturday, while Michele got together with girlfriends to throw Tiffany a bachelorette party, Jake and I spent the day together. We hung out around the house, did some shopping, went to Church, and then went with Meme and Papa over for a barbecue at the Philippart's. Then, after Michele went to Church on Sunday, we headed for Lake Michigan. We had a great trip there as Jake's need to eat coincided with ours, resulting in only one stop for food, gas, and a quick car wash.

We then spent the week pretty much down on the beach of Lake Michigan. A lot of Dan's family made the trip over on their own this year including his sisters and their families from Indiana and New Jersey. One day, Dan and I went with his Sister Bonnie, her husband Rich, and their kids Matt and Amanda to Michigan's Adventure. We rode one quick roller-coaster, then spent the rest of the day in the water park. Later in the week, we also went go-carting and played some putt-putt with the same group.

The trip wrapped up nicely Friday evening when we all went to a Fish Boil. Dan, Lynette, Pete, and Teri had all been to a boil in Wisconsin, but it was a first for everyone else. You can read all about the custom here. Also, you can see the "over boil" for yourself in the video below.

It was a fun week, but now it feels like I need another week to decompress. But, it's back to work on Monday for me, and back to a routine for Michele and Jake.

Fish Boil - Over Boil

Date Night

Last night, Michele and I got to go see our first movie together in ages. Meme and Alison came down to watch Jacob while we went to Emagine in Canton to see The Illusionist. It was a very good movie. We received two free passes to the preview screening. I would recommend the movie as a definite rental. I'm not sure it needs to be seen on the big screen, but then, I'm partial to watching movies on DVD at home. If you want to see it in theaters, it's scheduled to begin on August 18.

What the ???

It's official... we're moving to Alaska. I thought 103 was bad on Tuesday, but this is what my car read yesterday. It's too bad I had an extra 1000 miles on my car because otherwise the mileage would have truly reflected where I thought I we were.

OK, we're not really moving to Alaska (yet), but we did have a great night with Alex and Deanne, and got to meet their son Logan. In case you haven't checked out their blog, Logan was a preemie as well. It's funny how many of the same traits Logan has that Jake had just a few months ago. The one thing we realized is Jake is a much quieter sleeper now as Logan was making all kinds of noises as he slept peacefully.

In other news, Jacob has now learned to roll over. Here's a picture of him getting really close. If you click on from there, you'll see the few photos we took while visiting the Ferrell's.

Flying through 4 Months

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So much has happened in a week! I'll just summarize the main events as many with pictures speak for themselves. Be sure to check out all the links.

July 21

• Melissa had her 24th birthday (photos)
  
• Jake turned 4 months old (many photos)
  Pete and Teri threw a little party to introduce Jacob to friends and family
  

July 22

• Jacob got his first taste of solid food (photos) (video below)
  
• We finally got to meet Brian and Di's dog, Cooper

July 23

• Alison's 5th birthday party (photos)
  
• Jake went swimming for the first time (video below)
  
• Mark and Kelly announced their engagement (video below)

July 24-25

• Got to install a new garage door opener... hence the delay in posting to the blog

July 26

• Michele and Jake went up to Fenton to celebrate Grandma R's upcoming birthday

Cereal


Swim


Engagement

Newly Catholic (and more)

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Jacob was baptized on Sunday, July 16, 2006. Deacon Bill performed the ceremony. Uncle Mark and Aunt Nez are his Godparents. Michele and I... still his parents. A lot of family and friends were in attendance, so that was very nice. The ceremony started off rocky as Michele tried to squeeze a feeding in, and then Jake "let everything go" right as it started. We were able to get a quick diaper change in when he went from his "old" outfit to his "white" outfit, and that seemed to calm him down.

After we had everyone back to our house for a cookout. Thank goodness it only got up to about 93 degrees (hottest day in July thus far). Our garage barely offered enough shelter from the sun with three fans going and most people ended up leaving or trying to find relief in our house (although our AC even seemed burdened). It seemed like everyone enjoyed themselves, had good food, and gave Jake many generous gifts (thank you everyone).

For anyone not there, or who didn't have a good view, here's a short clip of the initiation by water.



Our photos of the event seem to pale in comparison to these: DLC and PMA.

On Tuesday, Jacob had his 4 month check-up. The doctors seemed pretty impressed at his ability to hold his head up (they thought he was very able for a preemie). He's also now in the 50th percentile based on weight at 13 pounds, 4 ounces. He's still under the scale in length, however, at 23 and 3/4 inches. The poor little guy also received 4 shots (all separate this time). He'll get a few more in 2 more months when he goes back for his 6 month visit. The other cool news is he was green-lit to start trying solid foods. Once he has settled back in after the shots (took a few days last time), Michele will start him on rice cereal, and then within a few weeks, we can start moving on to veggies and fruits.

One last clip before signing off... Jake was SO out of it after fussing for about 30 minutes the night he got his shots. We captured this video of how "stiff" he sleeps. Enjoy!

4th Anniversary

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I probably should have a photo of Michele and I based on the title, but that snapshot of Jacob is so precious, I couldn't help but get it out there.

As the title would imply, Michele and I celebrated 4 years of marriage yesterday. We thought, what could be more romantic than a dinner with pretty much just the two of us... well, plus Jake... and Meme, Papa, and Alison... and Mark and Kelly... and JoAnn, Marshall, Nate, Gloria, Phil, April, Pete, Bill P., Tim, Rob, Jeff, Bill S., Matt D., Ninad, and Mike... and the patrons and crew at DBC... and Granderson, Polanco, Rodriguez, Ordonez, Guillen, Thames, Gomez, Monroe, Shelton, Inge, and the rest of the Tigers and Royals plus the nearly 32,000 people in attendance at Comerica Park. OK, so I guess it wasn't just the two of us at all!

We started off the afternoon by heading into D-town to visit my work. Most of the co-workers got to meet Jake, and then we took him into the Raised Floor Room to "play" a little and cool down. After our work visit, we walked along the riverfront, and eventually ended up strolling through Hart Plaza. We then walked up Woodward, and took a few turns to the Detroit Beer Co to meet the rest of the family for dinner. Game time was 7:05, and we got there just a few minutes late. Like Meme said, it's pretty bad that Jake made it to a game before his nearly 5 year old cousin, but all it did was make Alison more excited for her first ball game. She had the adorable Tiger's cheerleader outfit, and Papa got her a white hat with the pink English D to go with it.

I'm not sure if it was the heat, or the seating arrangement, but Jake was NOT happy at the game. He seemed to be pretty fussy, and then whenever the crowd erupted (a lot in the 5th inning) he went kind of berserk! We ended up watching most of the game on the TV near the carousel. It seemed to be far enough away from the crowd noise that he settled down a bit, and he enjoyed watching the lights on the carousel.

Michele, Jacob, and I took off in the middle of the 7th inning. We got back to the car in time to hear the Tigers get the third out and win the game 6-4!

All in all, we both agreed it was a great anniversary... but maybe, next year, there won't be so much walking!

Before I sign off this time, here's a very funny video that our friend Shawn sent to us. This is of her son, Ryden, who just turned 1. I wonder if Jake will get this worn out during his birthday party?

New Wheels and New Walks

(Please click on the map for some REAL pictures)

Hopefully the little route above will become one of Jacob's favorite walks. It's the path to the nearest soft-serve ice cream spot. It was a beautiful night for a walk, so we threw Jake into his stroller and headed up there. Michele got her favorite small twist, while I got a flurrie.

In other news, Jacob has a new mode of transportation as of late last week. He would have preferred this, or this, but Mom thought the HHR was the most sensible. It's a great car, and is Dad's new primary mode of transportation. It should get WAY better gas mileage than the truck, and even costs quite a bit less for insurance. We were luckily already talking about replacing the truck when the 0% 72-hour sale came out through GMAC. There were only 3 HHR's with all the features I wanted in the area, and we were lucky enough to scoop one up. It may have been just Dealer talk, but he said there were two other potential buyers for the car we chose. It wouldn't be hard to believe as I saw at least 2 other HHRs leaving the lot the day we took delivery of ours.

It sounds like Jake is about done being fed, which means it's my turn to burp/snuggle/soothe him.

Happy 4th of July!

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Jake sure has been keeping us busy lately. Besides all the attention that he demands at home (which we give lovingly), he's been in the mood to get out of the house a lot lately.

Last week Jake got a chance to visit Babies-R-Us again to look for an outfit for his three month pictures. While we found something cute, we decided it was too big when we got home... maybe it will work for his 6 month pics!

Last Friday night we made the trip up to Grand Blanc and Jake got to spend his first night outside our house since he came home from the hospital. He was a very good baby at Meme and Papa's house. You can see pictures of that visit here.

Saturday afternoon we met up with the Herman clan at Grandma and Grandpa's to celebrate Independence Day a little early. Jake spent a lot of time sleeping on the boat while I swam with Colin, Dan, and for a brief time, Michele. After grilling dinner, then a quick visit for Michele and Jacob to the nursing home, we headed back home.

Sunday we actually made it to 9:30 mass (instead of 11:30). We then headed over to our favorite bagel shop, only to find out that it was no longer there. We settled for Einstein's for breakfast, and it wasn't too bad. After breakfast we made our way over to 12 Oaks. We looked around for a while, and then we headed to the JCPenney photo studio. Jake woke up just in time, and actually cooperated more than I expected him too. If the sign is correct, we should have some of those shots posted in 7 to 10 days.

After all the excitement of the mall, we headed over to Trader Joe's and the new Omaha Steaks store in Northville. All of that shopping really tired the little guy out! We decided we should probably wait a little longer before we try to cram that much stuff into one day.

Today, Meme and Papa are bringing Alison down to Livonia to visit. We're going to head over to the Water Park at the LCRC with the Pruss crew.

As you can see here, the Herman family had a pretty busy weekend as well. Also, Lynette has finally gone public with their pregnancy! We're all very excited about it!

Lastly, the picture of Jacob above will link you to the end of our June pictures. Click here, or navigate through DotPhoto to get to our July album.

Congratulations Ferrell Family!

Deanne and Alex have welcomed a new baby into the world! Logan Alexander was born on Friday, June 23 at 2:15 am. He was 19.5 inches long and weighed 6 pounds and 3 ounces. He was born about 3 and 1/2 weeks early.

You can read all about him and see LOTS of pictures on their blog. You can also find a link to it in our "Friends" section.

By the way, the kid's got great initials to become a stand-up comic!

Go Tigers!

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On Saturday, Jacob got to go to his first Detroit Tiger's game! We got some free tickets from our friend Jen (her husband Bret was very bummed that they didn't get to go - more on that later). Since we had four tickets and kids under three don't count as people to Illitch, we invited Dan and Lynette while Colin and Jacob tagged along. I'm not sure, of the two boys, which was less interested in the game. Colin preferred to take walks or play with his cars. Jake, if pointed in the direction of the field, at least looked there, so I guess we'd have to say Jake was a better fan! It was a beautiful night, but between the temperature cooling down (aka getting comfortable), Jake's pending feeding, and Michele being exhausted, we left in the middle of the eighth inning. The Tigers went on to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth and win it in the tenth. While it would have been cool to witness in person, I would not have wanted to explain to Michele (who had been counting down to the ninth inning since the top of the third) what it meant that we were entering the 10th inning. This is the same woman that it took about 3 seasons of Spartan football to catch on to how the down system works.

As I mentioned, we got the tickets from Jen who got them through work. While they actually were in town for the weekend, they were here for a wedding and could not use the tickets. They did manage to stop over on Sunday for a cookout and then we all ventured to the new Ikea store in Canton. The store is huge, maze-like, and crowded with people. I don't think I'd go back on a weekend. Again, we had to think about Jake's feeding and had to leave after about an hour. I think you'd have to slate in about 3 or 4 hours to see the whole store!

Let's Take a Walk

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On Thursday, Michele decided she wanted to go swim at the gym so she abandoned her child with his father. After he quickly tired of me trying to get him to play (how long till he can throw a spiral?) I called up Jo and we decided to take the kids on a walk. Since it was sunny out, I broke out his sunglasses which you can see in the photo above. He didn't quite know what to think of them.

On Friday, Michele took Jacob up to Fenton to meet with Grandma/pa and Lynette and Colin. While up there they decided to check out a little carnival. Before checking out the pictures (too late?) try to guess what Jake did while they were there. Feel free to post your speculation in the comments section.

3 Months Old

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Today Jake is 3 months old! Time sure is flying by. Before long he'll be off to college. Okay, so maybe it's not going by that quickly.

Besides turning 3 months old, today he is graduating to his crib from the bassinet. As long as he does well in it, any way. He took one nap in it and didn't seem to mind too much.

Jake has also been sleeping better through the night lately. It's a trend that Michele hopes catches on, and only gets better. Right now he's sleeping between 3 and 4 hours at a time.

Double Time

Sorry, no pictures this time, just a quick post to commemorate today's "big" event. Today, Jake is twice as old as he should be.

If we round off and say he was born 6 1/2 weeks early, then at 13 weeks (which he is today), the math works out. Even his math-minor of a mother concurs!

In other news, you might want to check out the links to the other blogs on the right-hand side of the screen. Brian and Di have a few posts and links to pictures of their new dog, and The Pruss' site was just updated as well with pictures and info.

Tomorrow Jake turns 3 months old, so expect the 3 month pictures shortly. We were also informed that we need to get on the ball with "professional" pictures at this point - thanks Meme. It would have been more helpful if she'd just bought us a new digital camera like this one or this one.

Father's Day in Review

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Michele and Jake really gave me a great first Father's Day! I got some grilling accessories, and I got to spend the day with a lot of our families.

We started out with a brunch at the Trosko's condo. Dan, Lynette, Colin, and Grandma R. were all there as well. We had some delicious ziplock omelets. They might be the new "breakfast for a bunch"!

After brunch, we headed to William's open house. The weather held off until just about the scheduled end, so that was lucky. We drove through some real downpours leaving though!

Today, Jacob headed back to Salem Elementary to help Mommy get some stuff organized and boxed up for next year. It sounds like they might be headed back tomorrow to finish it up.

In other family news, Alison started swim lessons. You can see those pictures (and others) here.

Captured Smiles

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So, maybe it's not his first smile, and hopefully it won't be his last, but it was the first good picture we could capture. It's just too bad the flash was so bright on his face.

Here's another smile that we luckily caught on video!



Jake got to see where Michele works on Wednesday. We all went to Salem Elementary School for their last day. Michele students all got to see Jacob, and we got to watch the "Fifth Grade Parade". All the fifth graders march out of the school one last time while the other students line the halls and clap for them. Michele's first bunch of students were included in those marching! From now on, at least a few of the kids will have had Michele as their first grade teacher!

As we mentioned earlier, we have William's open house tomorrow. We're also going to grab brunch with Michele's family to celebrate Father's Day. There may be more pictures from that later.

Congratulations Graduates

Congratulations to Josh (left) and William who were both graduates in the Class of 2006. 2006... that means 10 years have passed since Michele and I accepted our high school diplomas. Time sure flies. Josh had a kicking open house last Saturday, and we'll be heading back up for William's open house on Sunday.

After Josh's party, we met Michele's parents for church at Holy Family. After mass we bumped into an old friend from highschool. Jennifer (formerly Rasmussen) was there with her husband and their adorable toddler daughter. They have another child on the way, and should have a new baby well in time for Christmas. The family seemed to be doing well.

After that, we all met my parents and Alison at Pete and Teri's boat slip and took a ride around Lake Fenton. Click here to see those pictures and more. Jake had no trouble sleeping through the ride again, but with how much he got passed around at the open house, it really wasn't much of a surprise.

Tonight we went to dinner with the Pruss family. Of course, we had to get back to East Side Mario's, even without our usual buy-one-get-one-free coupons. Jo and Elle are off for Arizona tomorrow to visit her family. Jason is going to try to remodel their entire house (at least it seems like it) while they are gone.

After sleeping most of the day yesterday (probably still recuperating), Jake had tons of energy and stayed awake most of today. He is really smiling a lot now, and seems to be responding when we do stupid stuff! As soon as I get my hands on a firewire cable, I hope to get a few more short movies up.

11 Weeks

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The end of Jake's 10th week must have been a rough one! He has become a little fussier every day. He's spending more time awake now, and seems to sleep quite a bit lighter. When he's supposed to be awake, he's a very happy baby, but when he should be sleeping, watch out! I think Jo considers his cries to be real at this point, and not just whimpers. Elle might be louder, but she's got a lot bigger lungs!

Last week we found Jake a life preserver and he got to sleep through his first boat ride on Grandma and Grandpa's boat. We're starting to notice a pattern for his firsts!

Other than that, Jake has been getting to see a few more Tiger's games on TV as the majority of our shows are on hiatus for the summer. Of course, there's always Rescue Me, The 4400, and Last Comic Standing to look forward to.

Another Crazy Weekend

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Jacob had quite a busy weekend. He got to meet most of the Anderson side of the family along with some family friends. He was so excited to meet everyone that he forgot to stay on his built-in sleeping schedule, and boy did we pay for it later. When everyone had headed home and it was time for Michele and I to head back to Livonia, he was very over-tired. He tried to sleep a bit (eventually) on the car ride home, but it took a long holding session once we got home to finally calm him down. He ended up sleeping very well through the night, so that was good.

Before meeting all the new people, Jake spent a little time on Grandma and Grandpa's new pontoon boat. Great-Grandma R joined us for a little lunch in the slip. The boat looks really nice. Since we don't have an infant life preserver yet, Jake had to be content docked, but hopefully he'll get out on Lake Fenton sooner than later.

Meme and Papa have finished the remodeling of their kitchen as well. It looks great! I especially like the granite counter tops. I've seen the big slabs at Home Depot, but I never would have guessed that I'd like it, but it looks REALLY good. Papa, as usual, did a great job, and I'm sure he was grateful for all the help he got from Meme and Alison. You can see pictures of their new kitchen here.

Also, it looks like Grandma and Grandpa figured out the new dotPhoto interface, and you can see (at least some) of their vacation photos here.

2+2 (months+days)

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So, Jake turned 2 months old on Sunday. I realize it's Tuesday now, but it took a little longer to get the photos processed this time... and by processed, of course, I mean taking the card out of the camera, sticking it in the computer, and getting around to uploading, commenting, and blogging!

As a treat for his two month birthday, Jacob got to go to Church for the first time. It was really just sleeping somewhere different for him, but it was nice for Michele and I to finally get to go to Church together again. Aside from his trip to Church, Jacob also got to visit Babies 'R Us, Costco, and Target. He doesn't seem to have picked a favorite yet.

When he wasn't busy traveling, Jake continued his steady stream of visitors. He got to meet Marie (another Salem teacher) and Brian and Di.

On Saturday, Jacob also welcomed Grandma and Grandpa T home from South Carolina. Keep an eye peeled for a link to the photos from their vacation.

2 Month Shots

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Jacob went into the pediatrician today for his 2 month checkup. Everything seems to be going well. He's up to 20 inches in length, and he weighs in at 7 pounds 15 ounces. By this time tomorrow he'll probably tip the scales at 8 pounds.

Besides the general poking and prodding, he also received 3 shots which, in total, contained 5 immunizations. I had to hold his arms while a nurse held his legs and another administered the shots. One to his left thigh and then the other two to his right. Michele sat in the corner and cried silently. Jacob screamed while the medicine was going in, but he was done crying before they finished putting a band-aid on his second leg. He then proceeded to have a good night, although it was slightly fussier than normal. As you can see from the main photo, he's not doing too bad! We let him soak in the "tub" for a few minutes to soften the band-aids, and just to sooth his legs. He really seemed to like it.

Jake got to meet a few more people over the weekend. On Saturday he met Jessi and Melissa. In a few months he'll get to meet their kids! As you can PLAINLY tell in the photo, they are both in their second trimester.

Then, on Mother's Day, Jake had even more visitors as Michele's Birthday week continued. Meme and Papa came down with Great Grandma Stewart (Miah), Uncle John, Uncle Mark, Aunt Melissa, and Alison. Alison also got to hold Jacob for the first time. We were supposed to wait until after his shots, but she had waited so patiently up till this point.

Jake's got a few more visitors lined up for this week and into the weekend. Then, on Saturday, Grandma and Grandpa T get back from South Carolina, so he'll be anxious to see them home safely.

Happy Birthday Michele

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Today Michele got one step closer to the big 3-0! She celebrated her birthday with her parents and sister's family last weekend, celebrated with our neighbors tonight, and will celebrate with the Anderson clan this coming weekend. Nothing like turning your birthday into one big long week of partying! Add to that the fact that she now gets to celebrate Mother's Day as well, and she's almost getting more attention than Jacob... almost. While Michele was opening and reading her cards, we found out a little tidbit of information about Jo as she proclaimed, "I just open the card and if there's no money just set it aside." So, if you are thinking about writing anything great in a card to Johanna, make sure there's some cash in there to help keep her attention!

Also, earlier this week our friend Kari stopped by with her daughter Lauren. Lauren was born, full-term, about a month before Jacob. You can see them side by side if you follow the link to the album. Michele and Jake have been offered a slot in the play group including Kari, Lynette, the Dana's and all the little ones, of which Lauren and Jacob will be the youngest.

Happy Sunday

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Another week has gone by and Jake just continues to get bigger. As of Wednesday, May 3, Jake was just over 7 pounds. For those keeping score at home, he was supposed to be born just a few days after that, so he's not doing too bad for a kid who has had to work a lot harder in the real world than he would have in his mom's stomach.

Jacob got to meet a few more people this week: Tiffany and Francesco (friends from Philly), Mrs. Pruss (Jason's mom), Patty and Julianna (Teacher and daughter) and Anna (another teacher).

For anyone that hasn't had a chance to meet Jacob yet, please feel free to give us a call. We're taking appointments now! While we are busy getting used to our new life, we aren't too busy for friends and family (any more), so please don't feel like you're imposing. We still have at least a few more weeks before we're officially allowed to take Jake anywhere, so we're pretty much always here.

Weekend Update (a bit late)

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Jacob had quite a weekend. Not only did he get to meet new people, but he got to try at least one new thing (that we know of).

Mike and Melissa Noll were in town from Ohio, so they were able to come over for a while on Saturday. We watched the NFL Draft, grilled out, and spent a lot of time holding Jake.

After the Red Wings lost game 5 I needed to blow off some steam, so we took Jake for his first walk! He really seemed to enjoy the stroller. He was wide awake before the walk, and seemed to fall asleep as soon as he was in motion. When we stopped for a picture - eyes open; start moving again - eyes closed. I guess we have a new trick for a fussy baby once the weather settles down and stays nice!

On Sunday, Jacob got to meet Jen as she made a solo trip over to Livonia.

On Monday, our friend Andy, in from Chicago, managed to swing by and spend some time with Michele and Jacob.

This afternoon Jacob got to see a different kind of doctor. Jake had his eyes checked out by an opthamologist. Apparently premature babies can have issues with their retinas. Jake's looked fine, but as expected, his eye muscles aren't too strong yet. He has to go back again in six months to make sure they've gotten stronger.

Hopefully you've subscribed to our feed either through RSS or email (check out the "Helpful Hints" for more info). The RSS feed will tell you almost instantly when the site's been updated, email will tell you the following day. As our son seems to be demanding more attention as his sleeping hours dwindle, we'll have less time to update this blog, but we're going to shoot for at LEAST once a week.