Happy New Year!

First piano lesson with uncle Brent

(looks like he's enjoying it more than most kids) :)

Hello, I know, I know, it has been way too long and our viewers have been anxiously awaiting our next post. Let's see, where to begin... Well, last time we were about to have the four month well baby check-up and shots.

So, all went well with the check-up and I was about exactly right with my guesses for weight and length. At the time he was 15 lbs. 15 oz. and a smidgeon over 28 inches long. He's a tall drink of water and is still off the charts for height, and has gone down a bit on the charts for weight, to the 80th percentile. Oh well, they weren't worried and neither am I. They said he's not overweight or underweight, and looks great. He had his shots of course too, and they are not fun, but he again did just fine and they didn't seem to bother him too much. He continues to grow and gain weight because he keeps growing out of clothes, everything is too short! But when he's in the next size, things are baggy around the waist especially. Yesterday when I went to get him from a nap, he had wriggled enough to get his socks and his pants off! I couldn't see the pants for a minute because they were folded into the blanket, so I was seriously wondering if I had been that out of it and not put them back on after a diaper change or something. I am used to the sock thing though, he can get them off in about 30 seconds after I put them on. Probably pretty typical. I can also tell he's growing because I had to put his ExerSaucer up one level already.

At the end of that week, we went to help our friends Noah and Sarah move. They're the ones who were married in October, (see older posts) and they moved into a new apartment closer to the city (Portland) where they both work. We stayed with them and had a good time. Jeff does well in his Pack-n-Play, and had fun hanging out with Noah's mom, Deb, while the rest of us moved stuff in. One thing though was that Jeff began his waking up during the night for no apparent reason phase. He has been sleeping through the night for a couple months now, at first I would still get him up to feed him around 10:30pm, and then we dropped that feeding too, and he would go to bed at 8 or 8:30pm and sleep until about 6:30 or 7am. So it was weird for him to be waking up. I would give him his pacifier and he would go right back to sleep. More on this later.

That next week we just prepared to leave for SD, it was a week full of buying presents and packing, but also of meeting friends for coffee or lunch or dinner before the holidays. Jeff was a trooper going shopping, hanging out in his stroller or a cart while his mommy was stacking presents high around him. I think he whines less than his daddy does while shopping. :)

Termesphere Gallery

Jeff was very interested!

www.termespheres.com if you want to check them out.

Dick Termes is our best friend Lang's dad,

and he is an amazing artist who invented this style of art.

Then we had a very early morning on the 22nd, and flew from Eugene to San Francisco to Denver to Rapid City with a wonderful welcome from my family, and Jeff got to meet his Swisher aunts and uncles and see Gramma Mimi and Grampa Paul and also his Great-Gramma and Grampa Swisher. It only took a few minutes for people to start fighting over who got to hold him next. He was an angel on the flights thankfully, and so it was a pretty good day of travel. We almost missed our last flight because our flight from San Fran to Denver had a seat belt malfunction, so we took off 50 minutes late and we arrived with only about 5 minutes until our next flight was supposed to take off, and we were 50 gates away. Kirby sprinted ahead to try and catch it. The flight ended up being 20 minutes delayed, so thankfully we made it!

Grabbing Grampa Paul's moustache

Snuggling with Gramma Mimi

Standing tall with Uncle Jonathan

Taking it all in with Aunt Kaija
Posing for the camera with Uncle Brent

Getting cuddly with Aunt Audri

We had a wonderful time in South Dakota. So many members of the extended family and many friends got to see Jeff, and he was a good baby, giving lots of smiles and going to anyone. He kept up on his waking up during the night which wasn't all that fun, especially since we stayed up late (not Jeff of course) and we didn't rest during the day because we just wanted to spend as much time as we could with people. Christmas was so fun having Jeff. Of course he doesn't understand yet, but it was fun seeing his little face lit up by the candles at the Christmas Eve service while he slept, and it was so cool having him look around and try to grab things while we opened presents and ate lots of yummy food. Way too much yummy food. Eek. :) I think everyone really enjoyed meeting him and snuggling with him.

Smiling for the camera with Gramma and Grampa Sand

Trying out the little rocking chair with Gramma Coral

Getting a hug from Aunt Jenny

Santa is sleeping

We returned home a week later, and it was nice to be home, but it seemed too short a visit. I always wish I had more time to sit down and chat with everyone, one on one, but it never seems to happen. It was a very fun time though, so we are thankful to have had the opportunity to come back and see everyone. I know people who haven't seen their own parents in years, so for us to get back as often as we do, though it seems like forever in between visits, is really great.

A couple days later we had a New Year's Eve party and there were probably around 15 guests throughout the night. Mike and Staci with little Nick, Emily and Mike, Noah and Sarah, JB and Sarah, Wiatt and Margo, Conrad and Meghan, Bel, Yoshi, and hopefully I didn't forget anyone. It was a fun night of merriment: playing games, eating and drinking, laughing, chatting, eating some more....it was a lot of fun. Conrad and Meghan and Noah and Sarah stayed the night so we could hang out the next day as well.

Well, I think that will be all for now. I will post more on Jeff sitting up and eating cereal, and our fun trip to visit the Landons. You can check their much better updated blog to find out about it if you want landontastic.blogspot.com Enjoy the pictures and I promise it won't be long until the next post! Oh, I forgot I was supposed to mention the waking up at night thing. Long story short: we took away his pacifier at night and the first night he woke up and I just calmed him down and held him for a while, and the next night he slept through the night again and has ever since. :) Should have figured it out a bit sooner, oh well.

Playing with new toy from Aunt Jenny

Yum!

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