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.