One of our craziest weeks yet!

We just survived a super crazy week!

Sunday, July 25th: happy with our nice gifts from the Christmas in July party the night before, we headed back to Maryland after spending the weekend with Steve's parents. No one checked the weather, and we were on the edge of a terrible thunderstorm all of the way home. It was really windy, and the clouds looked so menacing, I kept checking the sky for tornadoes. We were in some severe quick downpours, which Jared really didn't enjoy. We weren't even on our way home - we were on the way to look at 3 more houses in Severna Park. Luckily, the first house had a (tiny) garage, so we were able to get out of the downpour, but we weren't sure that we could open our car doors! The house looked nice, but the upstairs was very dark, since it was a vacant house, and they didn't leave any lamps in the bedrooms.
The second house was a throwaway.
The third house we had been to back in April, but it was out of our price range. It had since dropped into our price range, so we thought that we should look at it again. It was as nice, if not nicer than we remembered. (hint: this is going to be our house)
We finally got home only to find out that the power was off in our apartment. Luckily, it had only gotten up into the 80s that day, so the temperature in the apartment wasn't too terrible.

Monday: Went grocery shopping to buy Jared some food, since I couldn't make him any food without electricity. I bought him some jarred baby food, only to find out that he doesn't like jarred baby food. We hung out with Karin and Ella for a couple hours in the afternoon to play and cool down. Jared finally ate a little bit at dinner since he was getting pretty hungry at that point. After a very long day, we all went over to the Perry's for dinner and to enjoy their A/C (they had just gotten power back on at 4:30 PM Monday.) After dinner and playtime, we were about to put Jared to bed when Steve said that he would call the house one more time (if the answering machine picks up, we have power.) And lo and behold, we got our power back at 8:00, so we were able to go home, where Jared slept much better in his crib than he ever would in the pack and play.

Tuesday: We went to go see the first house that we had seen on Sunday again, this time in the daylight and in dry conditions. I still really liked the house, but the backyard was awful.

Wednesday: We put in a contract for the third house (627 Park Rd.). They countered, which was not a big surprise.

Thursday: We countered their counter offer, and we all agreed (yeah!)

Friday: Cleaned the apartment, since disaster zone does not even begin to describe the mess.

Saturday: Steve's parents woke up super early and drove down from Philly to spend the morning with Jared while we went to the home inspection. The inspection went well, with only a few minor fixes. (the house looks in good shape, so we weren't surprised.) Steve's parents went home, and we went over to my former boss's house for the annual NASA group picnic. It was so great to see everyone and tell them about the house. Against our better judgment, we even took Jared out on the boat ride. He liked walking around the boat and the breeze in his hair, but he HATED the life preserver. It was a little too tall for him, and it kept cutting into his neck and chin, and looked uncomfortable.

Sunday: a day of rest, and we started arranging house buying stuff. (financing, inspections, etc.)

There are new pictures up in Jared's 12-15 month folder, as well as a link to pictures that I took of the new house. There are actually 4 bedrooms upstairs, but I forgot to take a picture of one of them.

Now that the home inspection is over, I am starting to get really excited. However, I also woke up at 5:15 this morning in a cold sweat thinking about all the work that it's going to take to move all of our stuff to the new house. We are closing on August 31st, and will probably vacate the apartment in the middle of September. Since it's a local move, ideally we would like to move the small stuff ourselves and just hire movers for the big stuff.

In other Jared news, he zerburted (sp?) my leg repeatedly last night, which was just too funny. He would stop and laugh at himself, which made me laugh even more.
He also took his first bubble bath the other day. He liked when his hand was covered in bubbles, but then he tried to eat them. As I was rinsing out the tub, he tried to pull the bubbles back towards him so he could keep playing with them - too cute.

12 month Dr. visit

Jared went to the Doctor today, and he weighs 20 pounds (25th percentile) and is 30 inches tall (50th percentile.) He's still "lean and toned." :)
He got 3 shots today, and took it pretty well.

Last night, Steve and I cut Jared's bangs. Needless to say, it was pretty difficult with a squirmy kid that is trying to see what you're doing. The haircut isn't terrible, but not great either - okay for a first effort. We shortened his hair and didn't injure him in the process, so our two primary goals were met. ;)

Enjoy the new pictures posted under the 9-12 month link. Jared's 52 week picture is above - pretty good, considering it was taken with the camera timer.

Happy Birthday - Jared is ONE!

One year ago, Jared was just born. He could barely see, was learning how to nurse, and had no control of his limbs. Today, Jared gets into everything, eats like a horse, and is starting to walk pretty fast. This year was amazing!

Jared is getting very good at walking, and is getting better at walking in shoes. He likes walking around the playgrounds, but is easily distracted by trying to get the mulch and leaves into his mouth!

Last week, he decided that he would only take one nap during the day. He is running on fumes by the end of the day, but he now sleeps in until sometime between 6:00-7:30 AM. Before he was getting up between 5:00-6:00 AM, so this new later wake-up time makes Mom a lot happier.

Last Wednesday, Jared scraped his chin when he fell down onto a plastic water pitcher that we use to rinse him off during baths. He loved carrying it around and pretending to drink out of it, but now we only use it for bath time.

Last week, Jared also took a couple bites out of a foam soccer ball. I got some of it out of his mouth, but some made it through his system. I think I saw it in his dirty diaper the next day.

This past Friday, Steve and I were awakened to a 3.6 magnitude earthquake - how weird! Jared slept right through it. He also slept through the very bad thunderstorm that we had last night. I was happy I didn't have to try to calm him down in the middle of the storm last night.

We had Jared's Philly birthday party at Steve's parents' house this past weekend. Thanks to Stan and Beth for having the party at their house. Thanks to Uncle Mark and Aunt Cathy, the Deeney family, Paul and Karen, and Walt and Debbie for stopping by. (We missed you Freney family and Ortiz family!)
Jared had a little incident at the party, and got a small scrape below his eye. He didn't seem to mind through. I see a lot more scrapes in his future.

I'll try to post the new pics soon.

WALKING!!

The biggest news is that Jared is now walking! He doesn't crawl anymore, except to play with his favorite toy car, and even that is getting less frequent. Instead of crawling and putting something in his mouth, he now realizes that he can carry a toy in each hand AND one in his mouth while he is walking!

But let me back up, and catch you all up...
Jared started taking some tiny steps on June 16th. It was usually just between the coffee table and the couch. Then on June 23rd, he walked about 4 steps to me (I was holding Cheerios as motivation. ;) He would "walk" around the apartment if you were holding his hands, but he didn't really seem that interested in walking on his own. When we were up in Kersey for the 4th of July weekend, we walked him around a lot. He hated the feel of grass so much, that he picked one foot up off the ground, as if to say "I want to touch this stuff as little as possible!" (My Mom was holding onto his hands.) By the end of the holiday weekend, he would walk through the grass to people, which was a huge improvement. He always stops walking a few steps short, and lunges/falls into you laughing at the end. This was fine until we got home, and he misjudged the distance to the ottoman. He missed the cushion on top, and did a header into the wooden side. He had a scrape that bruised a little above his eyebrow, but 2 days later you can barely see it. Steve and I are just happy that we switched out our wooden coffee table for the ottoman. He likes to hold your hand if we are walking around the apartment - it is so cute!

Jared started clapping around June 18th. It is the cutest thing to see a baby clap! Jared knows that we like to see him clap, so he does it often. He's also figured out that it's a good way to tell us that he likes something (usually food.) He also claps his toys together, usually balls. And he is getting good at rolling a ball back and forth with someone.

Jared also sticks out his tongue now. It makes me laugh every time he does it. He thinks that it's pretty funny too.

Jared still loves flipping through books. Although he has also been known to eat board books if left alone with them long enough.

Jared's hair is getting long, so we'll probably have to trim it soon. We'll wait until after his birthday though - we don't want him to get his picture taken with a bad haircut if we mess up!

Grammy and Pappy got Jared a new Lovey for his birthday, since his is so well-loved. ;) We ordered it off of ebay, and we even matched the part number and everything. We opened the package, and we got the exact same lovey, except it was twice as big. The blanket part is so big that he trips over it when he's holding it! I call it Super Lovey! :) We'll have to put it away until he gets bigger, or he can only have it in the crib.

Jared loves to help with the laundry. The other day, I was emptying out the dryer, and Jared was helping as usual. Then he removed the lint trap (it's inside of our dryer), and held it like he didn't know what to do with it. So he put it back into the main part of the dryer with the clothes! :)

We went up to my parents' house in Kersey for the long holiday weekend. We had a great time - Steve's parents and Aunt Bernie, Aunt Cathy, Uncle Mark, Chris, Aunt Rain, Uncle Paul, and doggie Sage made it up too! (we missed you Aunt Peg and Bloomfield Kambics!) It was definitely cooler up in Northern PA than it was in MD - whew! Jared loved watching the traffic that goes by my parents' house. They live on a fairly busy street, so Jared watched the big semi trucks, logging trucks, tractors pulling trailers full of hay, big dump trucks, etc.
He also like splashing around in his little baby pool. The first day, he just crawled right in and started playing. No one had their cameras ready, since we couldn't believe that he would just crawl right in!
Thankfully, Jared slept through the fireworks that we were setting off in the yard and driveway, about 20 feet from his bedroom window. Maybe next year he can stay up to enjoy the fireworks.
My Mom made Jared two birthday cakes (yum!), and Jared loved getting Happy Birthday sung to him multiple times! He's such a ham! Later, we were watching videos, and Jared was standing in front of the TV, watching himself. :) Jared took some icing off of the cake, but didn't seem to know what to do with it. He eventually put some into his mouth, but he didn't seem to like it too much. I guess that's good - I'm sure he'll love sugary things later in life.
We also went to the super Kersey playground, where Jared got to swing. The adults had a lot of fun too, as Steve documented with the videocamera. :)
On the way home, we stopped buy State College, and saw Lily, Max, Mike, Amy, and Meghan. It was a short trip, but it was great to see everyone and meet Lily. I couldn't believe how small Lily was at 3 weeks! I can't remember Jared being that small, and it was less than a year ago! I guess the sleep deprivation erases memories like that.
Luckily for us, Jared was very good travelling in the car, only getting fussy at the end. That's quite an accomplishment, since the trip took about 6 1/2 hours! I think he will enjoy car trips even more when we can turn his carseat frontways (1 year and 20 pounds), so he can see us. We'll get him a new carseat soon that can face front.

After we got home, we took an adventurous walk with Karin and Ella. We went around the pond near our apartment, then took a rough trail off of that. It got so bad, we eventually had to turn around. That was after we had gone around the downed tree. Good thing Steve was also there to help with the strollers.

Enjoy all of the new pictures that are up. We've had a crazy month, and I'm sure this next one will be the same. I will try to post more often, so you won't get a book next time. And I'm sure that I've forgotten things to mention, so I'll have to add some updates. We hope everyone is having a happy and fun summer! :)

New pictures are up!!

I can't believe that it's been so long since I've posted. It's not for lack of activities, actually we've been too busy to blog! I figured that people want to see pictures more than read the blog, so I posted the pictures now, and (hopefully) a super-sized blog entry will be coming shortly.

Jared has personality

Boy, does Jared have personality! He is getting quite expressive, and lets you know if he doesn't like something. This is usually in the form of a temper tantrum! :( I thought this acting out would start when he was older.

Jared is still a wonderful eater. He really liked the turkey meatballs that Steve made last week. Steve made them for us, so they were spiced well, and Jared seemed to love them! I guess we'll have to start introducing more adult food to his palette. He wasn't quite sure what to make of watermelon at first - it's juicy, but also fibrous. It took him about a day to get to like watermelon. He has also started sharing his food with whoever is feeding him - he thinks this is hilarious!

He is very good at walking all around the apartment now when you are holding his hands as support.

Jared now officially says "Mama" and "Mom." Although, I think he still uses Dada as a catch-all for either me or Steve.

Yesterday was very exciting, since the newest Zuckett made her grand entrance into the world - welcome Lily! :) Lily decided to hang out inside Amy for an extra 5 days, since it was so comfy. She looks like a beautiful and healthy baby girl, and it looks like her parents and big brother Max couldn't be prouder!

Happy Birthday to my Mom and Steve's Aunt Joyce! I guess this is a popular day for a birthday.
New pictures are posted.

Jared Adventures

We had a couple of fun weekends lately...
Last weekend we went up to central PA to visit with family and friends. We also had important cargo to deliver (banana cheesecake to a very preggo Amy who had a bad craving!) Friday night was fun catching up with Meghan and the Zucketts.
Saturday, we took Jared to the cabin for the first time. Grammy and Pappy, Nana Jean and Rolla, Liz and Gretchen, Great Uncle Rick, Great Uncle Alex, Jim Mikk, and Lucas (Jared's furry dog friend) were all there. Great times were had, especially all of the hippo pushing. And Jared loved all of the attention.
Sunday we visited with Mike, Amy, and Max, and wished them well for their upcoming arrival. Max was patient with Jared, and was good about sharing his toys. He will make a wonderful big brother!
I also heard a lot this weekend of people reading the blog - it was good to hear from you! Sometimes, I don't know if anyone else reads this other than the grandparents. :)

Memorial Day weekend was great, mainly because Steve was home for 4 whole days - what a treat! On Friday, we looked at two houses in Severna Park. They were both nice, but expensive. Saturday, Grandma and Grandpa B. came down for the day, and we went to Centennial Park for a picnic and walk around the lake. It looked very gloomy and rained in the morning, but the afternoon had beautiful weather. We brought out Jared's Bumbo chair (he still fit into it), so that he could sit on the picnic table while we ate. After lunch, we put him onto a blanket on the grass. Like before, Jared didn't mind picking at the grass or trying to eat it, but if he accidentally placed his whole hand on the grass, he would recoil like it was scalding hot! :) It was really funny to watch. Then we took a nice walk around the lake.

Jared is getting very good at standing now. He used to stand unsupported accidentally. For example, he would be holding onto a toy with one hand, then let go of his supporting hand, so he could hold the toy with both hands. Now, he uses his hands to pull himself up to standing, then lets go with no problem, and can stand for quite a while (maybe a minute), before using a hand to steady himself. He has made no moves to walk yet, but is still crawling and cruising like crazy!

Jared is still teething on the bottom, so he's sometimes cranky, but I think the worst of this bout of teething is complete now that the top ones are in. He is starting to really look like a little boy now, and less like a baby. It might be the teeth, or the longer hair, or the leaner body, but he's not my little baby anymore! Everyday I marvel at his rapid developments, and it hasn't even been a whole year yet!
I'm glad that I'm able to share my wonderful son with all of you caring people. :) Check out the new photos of Jared under the 9-12 month link.