Stange Family Blog

Wow, time sure flies! Christmas has now come and gone…and so has my vacation! Goodness gracious.

On December 20th, my family came over for our Christmas celebration. Greg smoked a delicious rib roast, and we had a blast. My parents got the Monkey a Texas suit (that we put on him when we went to San Antonio):

…and my sister and Matt got him this music cube thing that’s pretty cool:

When we went to San Antonio for Christmas Day, it was fun to see all of Greg’s sisters fight over who gets to hold him (and who is supposed to be Jordan’s favorite aunt). It was a fun-filled day of “pass the baby” and lots of loot from the fam. LOL. Here are some highlights:

Us with Grampa:

With Aunt Diane:

With Aunt Diane and Aunt Joan:

With Aunt Terrie:

With Cousin Sarah:

With Cousin Ryan (the oldest and youngest cousins pic):

Sporting the Texas outfit (along with a cap that Marshall & Laura got for him):

Grampa got him this Mickey Mouse for Christmas, that has quickly become a favorite.

OH! We debut Jordan’s Christmas portraits. Click on the picture below to download them:

This Monkey is also loving his ExerSaucer. He has now figured out how to turn the pages in the little musical toy. Smarty pants.

He is also now into 9-month clothes. It’s just crazy. He starts day care on Monday…I hope that he adjusts quickly without much problems.

It’s strange to say that I won’t be at work for the rest of the year, but it sure feels nice! :o) The weather has warmed up a bit, and the Monkey and I have been out and about. Yesterday we went up to the day care to visit with his teachers and for him to look around a little. It went pretty well. His teachers are nice…we got to see his crib and his little cubbie. He looked around a little bit and then fell asleep.

Today we played for a loooooong time in the morning. He was really good and played in his playard for about 45 min. I got to put dinner together and do the laundry. It was nice. Then we went upstairs and played on a blanket with some of the little blocks that we got. We also did some tummy time…he did awesome! See?

Jordan's Tummy Time

We went to lunch with Daddy at Anamia’s. It was fun…the Monkey decided to wake up and fuss though. :p Ah well. So it goes.

We’ve had a pretty successful day today. We went to Kiddie Kandids to get his portrait taken, and then came home to meet with a potential babysitter. We managed to get some good pics at the session…and the babysitter is just great. Jordan loves her (he was giving out lots of smiles and coos). :o) I think she’d work out just fine for the couple of days that I need to go into work in a couple of weeks.

What else…Thanksgiving went pretty well. Greg was going to Austin for the Texas/Texas A&M game, so Jordan and I went to have Thanksgiving with my family. We went to have dim sum with my family and my aunt and cousin, and then went over to my sister’s house to hang out. Jordan was pretty good the whole time, and even managed to take a nap in his playard…that was until my sister’s dogs woke him up by barking at the doorbell. *Sigh* He was a little cranky after that, and just wanted to be held all the time. But all in all, a pretty successful outing.

I have 3 more days of work until I’m off for the rest of the year (it sounds so long when I say that). Diane will be here Sunday until Wednesday night. Yey! It’ll be fun. Then we’ll be going to San Antonio for Christmas. We’re in the process of looking for a pet sitter for the kitties. That’s about it!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! from Christine Stange on Vimeo.

Month 2 ended with a traumatic experience at the doctor’s. Jordan is now 23.75 inches tall, and weighs 12 lbs 14 oz. He’s gaining a very healthy rate (straight up in the growth chart) and is in 76 percentile in both categories. Then he got the 1st shots for DTaP, Hib, Pneumococcal Conjugate, IPV, and Rotavirus. It was as much of a traumatic experience for him as it was for us. Goodness gracious. I’m dreading the next time we get to do this.

Anyway, last Saturday we took a trip to Babies ‘R Us to find an outfit for a J-Man portrait, and to check out their portrait studio’s operations. Jordan was styling in his new outfit (which he’ll probably promptly outgrow):

My parents came over Saturday afternoon and poured the love of grandparents all over the Monkey. The Monkey put on a great show too. He coo’ed and smiled and imitated facial expressions. My parents had a great time.

This afternoon Jordan had temporarily forgotten about the injustice done to him earlier in the day, and sat happily in his swing. He was actually wide awake and was watching the little stuffed animals hanging above the swing. It was pretty entertaining.

My Swing! from Christine Stange on Vimeo.

The rest of this week is going to be pretty exciting for Jordan. On Thursday, we’re going over to my sister and bro-in-law’s house for Thanksgiving. Then on Friday, we’re going to Tokyo One for dinner. On Saturday, my family’s coming over with my aunt and cousin (the ones from Hong Kong) so they could see the house and stuff. Lots of things going on. Hopefully we can keep Jordan on a somewhat normal schedule so he’s not overly tired (it takes him a couple of days to recover from that).

Another week has flown by! Aunt Diane got some quality time with the Monkey Man this week. We had a blast having her around, and Jordan loves her to death. Uncle John also came up over the weekend to visit. It was a fun time. Aunt Diane is already looking forward to the next time she gets to come spend time with the Monkey.

Jordan started sitting up a lot more…he can also stand a little bit with a little tip-over assistance. It’s pretty crazy. Here he is sitting on the couch:

We also discovered that he’s quite the morning baby. He’s just smiling and happy after his morning feeding. He loves to play in his playard with his animals. It’s really cute and makes it a lot harder for me to leave to go to work. We actually managed to capture him smiling on camera:

Last but not least, here’s the 2-month video of him playing in his playard…you can even catch him smiling at the 2:11 mark of the video. Check it out:

Watch me smile at 2:11! from Christine Stange on Vimeo.

Greg will be home with Jordan next week. He also gets to go for his 2-month check-up on Monday morning. We can’t wait to see how much bigger he has gotten. My aunt and cousin are also coming in from Hong Kong to see the Monkey. It’ll be great fun.

My how time flies…

The big news for Week 6 is that I went back to work last Thursday. It was pretty crazy, but was a welcomed change. There were at least 2,000 emails (no, not kidding) waiting for me. It took a little bit to figure out how to schedule all the pumping during the day. I ended up getting some spare parts for the pump so I don’t have to stand in the kitchen for 10 minutes washing stuff every time.

What else…Greg’s nephew Tony and his wife Kristan came up to visit with us when Tony was home from Iraq. We had a blast. Jordan really liked them. :o) Hopefully they can come visit more when Tony comes home for good (in January).

Jordan has been way alert lately. It’s hard to get him to take a nap during the day, unless we go somewhere and he falls asleep in the car, or if we take a walk and he falls asleep in the stroller. He’s been on the go. It’s okay though, ‘cuz he sleep better at night this way. Just takes a lot of energy entertaining him during the day.

Speaking of…we got this fancy blanket called the Miracle Blanket last week. It’s pretty amazing. Jordan was waking up every 3 hours to eat…and sometimes it’s really hard to get him to go back to bed. With this blanket, he only woke up at 5.5-hour intervals at night. More sleep for Mommy! Highly recommended.

Last weekend, Luci, Austin, Chris, and Christine came over to see Jordan and to celebrate Chris and my birthdays. We had a great time!

Right now we’re waiting for Aunt Diane to arrive. She’ll have some solo time with the Monkey this week when we both have to work. Wheee!

Time for another update! Jordan went in for his 1-month check-up today. As predicted, he has gained quite a bit of weight since the last time. He is now at 9 lbs 13 oz (eeeeek!) and 22.5 inches long. Craziness. So for those of you planning on buying him clothes for any occasion, stay away from the 0 to 6 month variety ‘cuz he’ll likely grow out of those in a month (if even that).

He has been doing great. He’s now basically eating on a 3-hour schedule. He has been a lot more awake and alert these past couple of weeks, and has really started to notice things around him. It has really been fun. Check out this video…he’s batting at the giraffe that’s hanging in his playard…

Jordan batting at a giraffe in his playard from Christine Stange on Vimeo.

Here are some new pics…

Speaking of being alert…he just watched me type this entire post. He’s gonna have mad computer skillz.

Been a busy 3 weeks! The little Monkey Man is doing very well. He’s eating like a champ and growing like one too. He’s up to 8 lbs 2 oz and 21 3/4 inches as of yesterday. Definitely getting big.

The first few days were a bit rough as we all tried to figure out what he needs when. I think we’ve got it down though. He’s getting into a 3-hour feeding schedule now…which means more sleep for me. His jaundice is going away, thank goodness.

My Mom was around the first 2 weeks…Greg went back to work last week. So this week is the first week that I’ve been alone with the Monkey Man during the day. It’s been fun. He has been more alert and awake this week. Yesterday he barely slept during the day. It’s a little more stressful for me when I had to entertain him the whole day. We ended up just taking a nap together on the couch. :o)

Here are some new pics of the little man…