6.5 month stats

Due to our travel schedules and our pediatrician's vacation, we didn't make it to our 6 month appt until July 23rd so he was a bit over 6 months old for his weigh-in and measurements.

The perfect sized box for a little boy

Jerex's 'stats' for his 6 month check-in were:

Height: 28.5 inches (95%)

Weight: 20 lbs, 14 oz (95%)

Head circ: 17.75 cm (75%)

The doctor was most impressed with Jerex's clapping on demand. This is his new cool trick that he loves to do! She told us that usually babies are 9 months old before they start clapping. Everything else went well at the doctor visit, he had to get more vaccinations (I will be so glad when those are finally over) and he didn't even cry when she gave him the first shot. The second shot was a different story though.

Here are some action photos of the clapping baby:

Dad showing him how it's done

Yayyyyyyyyy!!!!

It is so cute watching him clap, he always usually has a big smile when he's clapping and there are a few songs that I sing to him that he knows he's supposed to clap (so sometimes he does!)  Between that and starting to say 'mama', we've had a busy past week!! I'm starting to do sign language with him, just a few signs to start. We'll see if he starts picking up on that in the next few months.

We have had issues with his eye since he was born and so the doctor recommended we go see an Ophthalmologist to see what can be done about his clogged tear duct. So later in August is when we'll go in for that appointment.

He speaks!

This week, Jerex started doing something that surprised everyone... Talking!!

Watch the below video to discover what his first words were:

(I couldn't have been more flattered, really!)

Such a big guy!

Sweet Home Chicago

We went to Chicago for our summer vacation this year, we hadn't been back since Sept 2010 so this trip was long overdue! Our friends Ashley and Jason were getting married on July 14th so we went a week early so we could experience the city during the best time of year (summer) and see family and friends. We stayed with Jensen in Bucktown and he was a very gracious host to us, considering we completely overtook his bachelor pad with a ton of baby stuff for an entire week! (We owe him)

Our first day there, Jesse insisted on taking Jerex to Wrigley Field so he could show him the stadium and take his picture.We forgot to put Jerex in his Cubs shirt, for some unknown reason.

Future Cubs Fan

Mom gets a picture too even though baseball bores her!

 Renae worked out of the PatientKeeper downtown office for 2 days, and Jerex came in to visit coworkers and experience The Loop, which upon experiencing, decided that the Loop is not really a good place for babies to hang out. Too many busy businessmen scurrying around and loud noises everywhere! He preferred Bucktown. The rest of the week we hung out, shopped, ate at some of our favorite places, and caught up with some friends. Renae's good friend and Jerex's "Fraunty" (friend/aunt) Rachel came to Chicago the entire week to hang out with us from North Carolina, and Jerex decided she was cool:

Rachel and Jerex

Thursday, Friday and Saturday Grandma and Grandpa Jones came to Chicago to help babysit while we were at the rehearsal dinner on Friday and wedding on Saturday. Jerex also got to hang out with cousin Drake a lot during the week, and we even went swimming in a big pool for the first time!

Grandpa Jay and the boys

Grandma Cathy and JEREX in his new shirt

We like shirts with our names on them here in the Jones family!! Uncle Jensen showing Jerex how to wear it!

We got all dressed up for the wedding and took a few pictures looking better-than-usual!

Jensen's instagram of the wedding

The wedding was beautiful, we had a wonderful time celebrating Ashley and Jason's wedding, and got to see a lot of old friends from Northwest and Chicago. Jesse was a groomsman in the wedding and looked very dapper in his bow tie!

Overall, it was a great trip and was nice to be back in Chicago to visit! But we were happy to be back home in Boulder after 8 days in the big city.

Before you came into my life I missed you SO BAD!

Finally - I got a great tooth picture! This is one of my favorite pictures of ALL TIME of Mr. Jerex, his smile is the sweetest thing and I just go crazy with happiness every time I see this picture!

6 months old

Yes, I am a smitten momma. He.is.so.sweet!! I can't believe he is 6 months old, and how fast the time has flown since he was born. I get misty eyed looking through his 'baby' pictures - I feel that somehow I woke up one morning and he has turned into a little boy and isn't really a baby anymore! I can't imagine our life without this guy, he really does bring the most joy to my life - more than I ever thought possible!! We are getting his 'official' 6 month photos taken this weekend, but here are a few from this month that I really liked:

Happy baby & Momma

Swimming in the baby pool w/ dad

Checking to make sure momma sees him sitting up on his own!

Excited drooly baby

Big boy

Jerex is sitting up on his own pretty well, and he seems to be getting stronger by the day and closer and closer to crawling. I am OK if he waits a while to crawl, I think that is going to be a whole other phase that I'm not quite ready to face! Enjoying his immobility for the time being!

Oh, and I'm going to have to change the name of this blog. After 7 years, we got rid of our best friend and feline friend Ned the cat. Things weren't working out well with him, and he was jealous of Jerex and felt 'nedglected' so we gave him up for adoption. We found a great home for him and he is adjusting ok. We miss him, but know that it was for the best, we couldn't give Ned the love and attention he so deserved. We love you, Ned!

Jerex meets Morley

While in MO, Jerex met a very special friend - Miss Morley! Morley & Jerex are exactly 3 months apart in age and Renae was very anxious to get to finally meet her too! The babies got to hang out for a while before we had to fly back to Colorado, and Jerex wasted no time trying to win Morley's affections:

Trying to hold hands

Dana, Morley, Jerex & Renae

It was wonderful to see the Christie family and we had a great time!

Jerex in Missouri

After visiting LaHarpe, since we were in the neighborhood (OK 4 hours away!) we decided to spend a few days in Allendale to see the Miller family. Jerex also got to meet his cousaunt Alissa! Jerex got to farm with Grandpa Burton and was quite interested in the big loud tractor.

Cousant Alissa

Grandpa Burton took Jerex on a nice tractor ride

Little boy and big fish

Great Gma Goubie watching Jerex play

Cousin Brock trying to pass the ball to Jerex

Jerex in LaHarpe, IL

Jerex made it to LaHarpe for a surprise retirement party for Grandma Cathy and to meet the Great-Grandparents. We arrived on a Wednesday and the surprise party was on Friday night, and she was surprised! Cousin Drake came from Chicago so it was a fun weekend with everyone together. Jerex also got to meet his Great Grandpa Duane and Great Grandma Willa! He was very happy to be around so many loved ones:

While in LaHarpe Jerex got to ride on golf carts, play with Cousin Drake in the baby pool, and battle a balloon.

Great Gma Willa feeding a hungry boy

Grandpa Jay showing him how to eat

Proud Grandparents at the Surprise party

Cheesy parents holding sleepy baby

Splash party

Grandparents and their grandsons!

Happy Father's Day!

Jesse's first Father's Day!

Jerex got to play with exotic toys like a Dollar General helium balloon which was his favorite thing he's ever seen. The below video speaks for itself:

Air Miles

On Wednesday June 13th our family embarked on a trip to Illinois to visit the Jones family for a surprise retirement/birthday party for Grandma Cathy. We flew into Bloomington, IL which was 2 or so hours from Jesse's hometown of LaHarpe. It was a long day of travel but Jerex is a fearless flyer. This was his 3rd time flying and he seems to be a natural traveler (moreso than daddy who always seems to get frisked by TSA and gets in trouble for flying with full size tubes of toothpaste).

At DEN airport security, Jesse snapped this picture of us - yes we took up the ENTIRE ROW of the x-ray belt!! We were those annoying people with kids that in my past life of business traveler, I would scan for and avoid getting in line behind! There were many an impatient foot-tapping business man waiting in line behind us, checking their watches and giving us the stink eye:

Babies don't travel light...

Being in an airport with a baby is an interesting experience, and since both Jesse and I have traveled so much on our own for work and for fun it is definitely a different type of stress that is experienced when babies are on board. Take for instance, timing out feedings and diaper changes. We got the airport in plenty of time and made our way to our gate. The Denver airport bathrooms have those extremely noisy air hand dryers and well that set Jerex off! He screamed and cried and fussed the whole time in the bathroom b/c of the roaring hand dryers and I can't say I blame him - I hate them too! Then, we were waiting at the gate for our flight (in my head, I'm congratulating myself b/c we are 15 minutes early - so not too early - his diaper is changed and we're ready to board and my master plan is WORKING! YAH!) I had timed out his feedings so that he would need to eat again right upon takeoff, which is of course the recommended time to feed a baby so that they are swallowing and ears popping while climbing in elevation.

Of course our flight was 15 minutes delayed and so my master plan didn't exactly work out, but isn't that what always happens?! Jerex needed to eat before boarding, poor starving baby:

Can't you tell by his chubby cheeks that he's regularly deprived of food? Yes, all that stuff is ours. Except the McDonald's sack.

On the actual plane Jerex did great, he does this thing where he sticks out his tongue and makes the "bbbthhhh" sound and sprays spit everywhere and that was what he did most of the flight, luckily only Jesse and I were in our row of seats so were were the only inhabitants of "The Spray Zone". Grandpa Jay and Grandma Cathy picked us up and we enjoyed 4 fun days in LaHarpe which I'll post more on later!

Achoo! Chomp!

Saturday June 2nd started off like any normal weekend day usually does. Coffee, breakfast, relaxing and trying to decide what to do with ourselves the rest of the weekend, didn't have any plans. We decided to go to the Taste of Louisville b/c we had never been to Louisville, and we had some friends there that we wanted to see, so we headed that way after Jerex's nap.

Jerex had been feeling a little under the weather - he had contracted his first little cold, sneezing and coughing and snotty nose - poor fella!  He had been fussy since Thursday May 31, that is when the cold really started to set in, despite April and my best efforts for germ control after Brock touched things! (Brock also had this cold which Jesse named the Missouri Typhoid - we all ended up getting it!).  I'd noticed that Jerex had been sneezing a lot and drooling a lot, I thought that the drool was probably b/c he was stuffy in the nose and couldn't breathe as good out of his nose so his mouth was open more than usual.

After we got home from Louisville, I was playing with Jerex and noticed that low and behold, he had a tooth poking through his bottom gums!! Not one but TWO!! Both bottom ones! Without warning there they were! He HAD been drooling quite a bit more than usual but that was our only real sign. We had been more concerned about monitoring his cold that the tooth totally snuck in on us! I haven't been able to successfully get a picture of the teeth but they were quite a surprise when we saw them. He loves chewing on things now more than ever.

Working on that tooth!

I've got a secret and it can bite you!

The drool is the only warning we had!

Some of the fussiness from what I thought was Jerex being sick with the cold could have been attributed to the tooth, I realize now in hindsight. Plus with the busy Memorial Day weekend, we were in and out and on the go and so if his gums were swollen we totally didn't see it.

I also realized during this whole experience that there are few things worse than having a sick baby. The feeling of helplessness is terrible and I would MUCH rather be sick than see my little baby suffer! We went to the doctor the following week since the cold hadn't cleared up and since he had a fever off and on, and she gave us some medicine for him, which since starting that he has been much better. The only thing right now that is still bothering him is the pesky cough!

At the doctor's office we got his 5 month stats - for his weight at least!

18 pounds, 8 oz!

Jerex 5 months

Bolder Boulder, a Tiger, and Matching Plaid Shirts

Memorial Day weekend brought visitors to CO, my sister April, nephew Brock and brother-in-law Chris! School is out in Grant City and so the clan made the journey west.  Brock is 13 months old and it was an interesting preview of what life will be like with a mobile toddler! (I think I'm tired now... just wait until I'm chasing a little ornery boy who can walk and needs me to procure healthy meals 3 times a day...)

The boys were curious about each other, they couldn't play together just yet but we had fun trying to pose them together for pictures. And protecting Jerex from Brock's lovingly aggressive "pats" on the head. April and I would position the boys, then proceed to make a loud annoying attention-getting ruckus in order to get them to look at the camera and smile. Believe it or not, this is a difficult thing to achieve! Who would have guessed that?! Out of approximately 100 - 120 photos, here are the ones that I was happy with. As you can see, my photos are not going to win any photography awards even though the subjects themselves couldn't be cuter! (pure bias = yes.)

Matching shirts - will they ever forgive us for this?!

Finally - a smile!

Why is Aunt April / Mom acting so crazy? We're concerned so we'll hold hands.

The pouf was to sit on, but Brock wants to clap and run around.

So you see, we got a few keepers out of the photo shoot. I think once they are BOTH mobile our % of "good" photos will likely go down even more!

The "main event" of the weekend was the Bolder Boulder 10K race that I signed April and myself up for in the spirit of getting back into shape after baby. Having a goal to work towards was something that I thought would motivate me into becoming a distance runner, even though previous attempts at becoming a distance runner ended with me accepting that God just doesn't want me to ever run over a mile. It hurts and my "fast twitch muscles" were preventing me from running farther and the muscles that I need for distance running - well - I just wasn't born with them!  In high school and college I was lucky enough to be fast and never had to run a race over 400 meters, so the mental aspect of running way farther than that seemed overwhelming and impossible!

Let me say that the whole experience of LABOR for 18.5 hours is a real wake-up call to understand what the human body can endure, and what pain REALLY is. A little minor discomfort from running more than 20 minutes is now something I can have a little perspective on (I scoff at Past Renae for being such a wimp)! So, I started some training when I felt felt ready enough in late March / early April and worked my way up to be able to run 4.5 miles prior to the race. Granted, they were slow miles, but I did them! April and I had neither one ever ran a road race of any sort, much less a 10K (yes we could have / should have started with a 5K perhaps!) The last time her and I were in some sort of race event together, we were 18 and 16 years old at the state track meet in Jefferson City MO winning the team state track championship for 1A girls! So this was a fun little 11-years-later glimpse into what is left of our athletic abilities, after having children, and in a totally non-competitive road race at 5300 feet above sea level after minimal training.

The Bolder Boulder has been voted America's "All-time" best 10K by Runner's magazine, and 50,000 people run this race annually, it is the biggest weekend in Boulder of the year and so there was a ton of people in each heat, of all ages and all ability levels. We were put in a "slow" heat since we'd never ran any races that qualified us for starting in the faster heats. We arrived kind of late to the starting line - mostly because Jesse dressed Jerex in a Tiger costume and we paused to take pictures of his cuteness before we left:

Rawr! Run fast momma!

She's pulling my tail

 So we arrived at the starting line somewhat feeling rushed, and jostled our way to the "MJ" group which was our heat. It was perfect race weather - 70 and sunny and not a cloud in the sky! A fellow runner took this picture of us at the starting line:

Hopped up on energy Gu's.

We took off, and immediately realized that we were going at a faster pace than most the people in our heat, so we proceeded to weave in and out and pass people the whole way. Of course, we were also getting passed by little old ladies, and 8 year old girls, and one fat guy running barefoot, but we analyzed it and we feel confident that most of the time, we were doing more passing than Being Passed! The first 3 miles were really smooth, the race course itself was pretty flat considering we are in Boulder. We didn't walk except when we grabbed some water, walked to drink it then continued running. I hit the wall at mile 5, and thanks to April's encouragement ("4 months ago you were in labor! C'mon this is nothing!!") we finished with an average mile pace of about 10:40 - which isn't something to brag about by any means, but we were shooting for 11:30 given that I'd just had a baby and April lives in the flatlands of MO - so we were pleased with our time! I think April was in better shape than me and could have gone faster, but since she is such a kind and loving sisser, she stuck with me and went slower than she wanted to.

Throughout the race course, I wish I could have taken pictures b/c there are a ton of bands along the way (my favorite was an Elvis impersonator and a rapping Marine), lots of people having parties that live along the route, and enticing offers of Marsh mellows, cupcakes, Doritos, keg stands and slip n slides if you want to do a little detour! We did not partake in any of the things that would slow us down, our husbands had predicted we would finish at 1 hr 15 minutes or 1 hr 10 minutes and so we wanted to beat their predictions and come in faster.

1 hour and 6 minutes after starting, we crossed the finish line at Folsom Field in front of roaring crowds and adoring fans (minus our husbands and babies, who were still pushing the strollers through CU campus crowds when we finished! But they were there in spirit.)

Victory

I'm really happy that April and I did this race together and I'm hoping it becomes a yearly tradition for our family to do this race :) The rest of the weekend we rested, ate ice cream and watched Game of Thrones marathons! Was a great weekend overall (minus the Missouri Typhoid Fever which will be covered in a later post.)