August photo recap - 7 months

August recap - BUSY BUSY month! It was a crazy end to the summer but what a fun month. Jerex learning to crawl was a major highlight, along with our trip to Missouri for the rodeo (4th roundtrip flight for the little traveler!), and we capped the month off with a week long visit from Jerex's Illinois grandparents. The last week of the month, Jesse did a trip to Miami and I did a trip to Boston for work so by Labor Day we were ready for a slow weekend of relaxing!

Here are some pics of Jerex from his 7th month of life - they say pictures are worth a thousand words:

Loves swinging!

Jerex at the bike race, unimpressed.

USA Pro Cycling race came through Boulder

Blue Steel gazing

I love this ornery, plotting face

Little boys and big boys both need their light sabers.

Excited clapping!!

 We had a great month as you can tell and Jerex officially can't fit into his 9 month clothes anymore. 12 month clothes from now on!

Inchworm!

Over the past month Jerex has progressed from thinking about crawling, to moving a few inches here and there inconsistently, to being a full fledged inchworm! He can make his way anywhere crawling now, and faster each day. We are entering a new realm. Jerex grunts and always finds the most dangerous or off-limits thing to play with that isn't a baby toy (for ex: electric cords, cell phones, remotes). The best part is his sound effects! It is unbelievable that he is learning so much so fast!

This video is actually from August 25th weekend and today - September 4th - he can pretty much crawl up on all 4's already. It makes my head spin with how fast he is learning and progressing. It seems like we are in a warp speed mode.

Jerex working hard in the office.

Dad posing with the able crawler

Yep they're building a house across the street

Jerex and Bearex

In the past week since getting back from Missouri, we've gotten into what I think is a perfect, reliable daily schedule for Jerex - traveling does mess things up a bit so I am happy that we are back to a more normal schedule. Also, his sleep patterns are starting to get more and more predictable and he's been sleeping through the night consistently since getting back! Which makes us all very happy. He is taking 2 naps a day - morning and afternoon, and waking up in the morning around 6:30 - 7:30 AM and going to bed about 7 - 7:30 PM.

Jerex and Bearex, the teddy bear

He is eating solid foods 3 times a day - 8a, noon, and 6p. He is always a ravenous beast when there is food involved, he still is enjoying eating a variety of foods and not extremely picky. Which is good! I experimented with making my own baby food puree's which aren't as smooth as store bought ones, and he ate it but a little more dubiously... he was weirded out by the texture of the green beans I think. They were chunky and stringy and he shuddered sometimes and made weird faces but eventually finished them off! (He especially ate them well when I tricked him by hiding the green beans in with another store bought puree that I knew he liked! It worked - but I wonder how much longer I will be able to get away with tricks like that!)

We go to the eye doctor this week about his clogged tear duct, so hopefully will get that taken care of then. Also, the Illinois grandparents are coming for a visit for a week starting on Wednesday! Jesse is going to Miami later this week for work, Renae to Boston early next week for 2 days of meetings, so we will be busy and glad to have Jay and Cathy here the whole time while we are both traveling to help out since we have back to back trips. I'm still majorly sad leaving Jerex overnight but I know he will be in good hands while I'm gone and will just be a short 48 hour trip for this bi-yearly meeting. It will be harder on me than him!

Little boys being boys

Jerex is still several months away from being able to keep up with Cousin Brock... Until that point, he'll just have to be content with sitting and watching Brock run around and have all the fun!

Brock thinking "but it's my car!"

Push me!! Faster!

Jerex wants to get his hands on Brock

Brock not so sure he wants that! Thinking "EEK HELP!!"

Hee hee, that cousin is funny

Where did he go!? Come back and play, Brock! I won't bite!

It won't be long before they are  busy wrestling each other and getting into all sorts of trouble!

First Rodeo

Last weekend Jerex and I went to Missouri for a long weekend while Jesse went backcountry camping with his brother in Silverthorne, CO. Since Jerex and I were not up for the 6 mile uphill hike - we opted to hop on a plane to see family and check out the Allendale Rodeo!

On the airplane, Jerex was a lot more rambunctious than past flights. He wanted to jump, wiggle, spin, and repeat for about an hour, then thankfully wore himself out and slept the final 30 minutes of the flight. We are just lucky it is a short flight! I have a feeling that he is only going to get more and more active on planes from now on... Yikes.

Not only did Jerex get to see his Missouri grandparents, but also got to see his Illinois grandparents! Jay and Cathy made the drive over to see Jerex and he was a happy baby with all those grandparents to play with. The entire weekend he was on the receiving end of lots of attention and love. We also had family from Omaha in town, so it was great to see Missy, Brian and the kids too!

Here are some pics we took of the boys in their cowboy attire. Jerex wasn't a big fan of wearing the hat, he would rather chew on it!

Yee haw! Brock not so sure about the cowboy getup

With cousins Brady and Kendall

Little Cowboy getting ready to go to the rodeo

Where's grandma Brenda's hat?!

Two tough cowboys

It wasn't easy to get the hats to stay on!

Whoops!! Where's Jerex?!

 We had a fun time at the photo shoot and the boys were pretty cute in their hats! Loved how some of these turned out. The weather in MO was really nice and not as hot as it had been, so we played outside as much as we could.

Giddyup

I want to pinch this cowboy's chubby cheeks.

The Allendale Rodeo is a 2 night affair, and we went both nights. On night #2, Jerex was just plain worn out and slept through all the loud music and noise in Aunt Sherry's lap:

Tired cowboy

Overall it was a great trip! More pictures will be posted later since this is a long post!

Great article...

My friend posted this article on Facebook today and it really hit home w/ me and so I wanted to share.

Hands Free Mama

It is really true that kids pick up on phone usage. Jerex already wants to play with my iPhone and I am guilty of being on my phone around him and thinking he won't notice.. I am definitely going to try to do better from now on because I know that he'll only get more perceptive the older he gets. I don't want his first memory being of me talking on my phone or staring at a screen.

Summer Fun

July has been a busy and fun month, it really seems like since Jerex hit the 6 month mark he has changed so much almost daily. Mom and Dad having a hard time keeping up with this guy!!

This past weekend we went down to Golden to visit the Long family and their new little man Miller who was born on July 4th. He is a cutie with a lot of hair and Jerex wanted to wrestle but there will be plenty of time for that later! We were happy to get to see Carlie and Adam too!

Jerex meeting his buddy Miller Long!

Jerex's favorite book

Hi guy

Some funny jokes mom

Lounging inside in the cool air on a hot day

Far off stares

Wait! Don't take the picture yet!

Excuse me waitress? I'd like to order some milk!

No milk? Fine, I'll just gnaw on this Vitamin Water.

We think he is teething this month because his cheeks have been red and he's definitely always wanting to chew on things, drooling, and all the typical signs. Certain times of day he gets a little fussy and it could be the teething. No fun!

Also the clock is ticking for crawling.... He is thinking about it awfully hard! We are noticing him rocking back and forth a lot on all 4's, and he can mosey about his crib and around in a circle but hasn't yet taken off going forward full speed ahead. I have a feeling it will happen any day now..

Food-wise, Jerex has a lot of favorites! He is not a very picky eater, so far the only things he hasn't liked are bananas and avocados. All the baby food purees that we give him he usually chows right down, and tonight we did some yogurt which he was just "meh" about.. Didn't love it but ate most of it. We just started going with 3 meals a day and his appetite is huge, he always seems so hungry and excited when food comes into the picture.