a happy boy in the bath

Here are a couple short clips of Jack in the bath.

"ma-ma"

No, Jack isn't talking yet. But, I did have a dream that he was. :) Last night, I dreamt that Jack said "ma-ma"--and it was his first word. It was so gratifying. The reason this dream was particularly noteworthy is that Shannon did not say "ma-ma" until he was 20 or 22 months old. I was "pa-pa," along with Sean, for about 10-12 months. We would say to Shannon, "Can you say ma-ma?" And Shannon would say, "pa-pa!" with excitement and certainty. (Now, he regularly just calls me "mom," and he sounds so adolescent when he says it too.)

So, perhaps my dream will come true. We shall see.

jackie boy

Moments after we determined his name was Jack, I started calling him "Jackie boy." This nickname was inspired by one of my favorite childhood movies -- The Newsies. Shannon has recently taken to this nickname and now regularly refers to Jack as "Jackie boy." Here are a few photos of Jackie boy:

yes, we're sure they're brothers

Since Jack was born, Sean and I (and other members of our family) have marveled at how much Jack and Shannon DON'T look alike. So, I decided to find a picture of Shannon at about this age (4months) to compare. Here are the results. Shannon is the top photo; Jack is the bottom photo. Would you ever guess they're brothers?

And, here they were at birth. Of each set, Shannon is the top photo, and Jack is the bottom photo.

first post

So, we decided to join the community of bloggers. The blog will "feature" stories of the boys and other happenings in our family.


We'll start with a little story about Jack. While Shannon was a confirmed pacifier lover, Jack appears to be a thumb-sucker. He has been trying for awhile now. Every time we would give him the pacifier, his hands would fly to his mouth. He would struggle around attempting to replace it with his thumb, pull the pacifier out, and then get frustrated that he was no longer sucking on something. Well, over the last couple of days, he has been growing increasingly successful at getting his thumb in his mouth--but still with both hands up at his face.


This past Wednesday, I had myself a small celebration. I was picking out my clothes for work the next day, and decided to try on a pair of my pre-Jack pants. I actually hadn't worn them since before Shannon was born for two reasons 1) the lining needed to be fixed so my mom had them for awhile and 2) they needed to be dry-cleaned. Even though I knew I was at my pre-Jack weight, I was hesitant to try them on again since my mom had done such an awesome job finishing the lining. However, Wednesday night, I thought I'd give it a try. Woohoo!! They slipped right on with no problem and looked great too!

For some people, this would be a small thing--the people who snap back to their pre-pregnancy figure upon standing up after delivering a baby. But, this was a big deal for me. Jack is only three and half months old! I didn't lose Shannon's baby weight until 15 months after he was born (of course, I wasn't really trying either). This time, I used weight watchers' online program. I would highly recommend it for breastfeeding moms. They adjust your points for breastfeeding. While you have to watch what you eat, you still get to eat a lot--and you get to take advantage of your body's increased efficiency due to breastmilk production. So, I've lost 17 pounds since the beginning of July! I'm still hoping to lose a bit more--maybe even get to when-I-got-married thin--but I'm guessing it will take longer.