The Cubby Chronicles XLVI

Not long after we brought Jake home from the hospital, one of Kristin's co-workers made gave her the following piece of advice: "In parenthood, the days are long but the years go by fast." At the time I took that attitude of 'okay, he's got grown kids so he must know something but we'll see..." (How very Gen-X of me). After logging into the blog to (finally) post an update & seeing that the last CC was back in February (!), he might be on to something.

Ever since Jake's primary residence has been here in Raleigh instead of Duke hospital, our days are basically chock-full of Cubby. This is great, of course, but all of you who are parents know that babies are a handful & there's not a lot of free time. Thus, in the past several months there's been no posting from me & few from K & all I can say is it was much easier to find time to post about the little guy when I wasn't able to be around him all the time.

Anyway, this is all a round-about way of coming to an apology as we know that we have tons of loyal family & friends who rely on this site to get an update or a picture of how the little guy was doing (and plenty of you had let me know). So, here's a sampling of some recent pics:



Jake has become an 'excellent' eater & is tackling solid foods with aplomb. As a carnivore 'm proud to say he's started eating chicken but don't worry vegetarians, veggie patties are next.


Since the weather's been so nice (& we finally had some landscaping done) Jake's been enjoying the yard. He's still a little leery of grass (the texture is a lot stimulation) but it's growing on him.


Jake loves to be thrown (& caught, of course) up in the air & spun side to side. He really enjoys the sense of weightlessness & the wind in his face but it gets tiring for the parents.


The Cubby is crawling all around the house & loves to stand up & 'cruise' on the walls & furniture. He can even pull himself up without handholds, Peter Parker would be proud. Walking isn't too far away.....


Jake also loves interacting with the dogs, though they aren't so sure about being on the receiving end of his 'love.' He tends to grab their fur & pounce on them (probably some foreshadowing of rough & tumble antics to come) which Ben tolerates better than Chloe but even he avoids playtime when possible.

11 Months, Crawling, and a Walk

Jake turned 11 months almost 2 weeks ago, which means that he's very close to the big first birthday! Jeff and I both think he's looking more and more like a little boy and less like a baby. The above picture indicates that somewhat. He's started inchworming/crawling his way around. So far cellphones and remote controls seem to be his biggest motivators. He also likes to pull up on your hands and stand and take a few tentative steps, although his developmental therapist is lukewarm on that - seems that gravity usually wins when 11 month olds try to walk.

We had another busy month - my mom came out to help for a week while Jeff was out of town - a big thank you to her. Jeff's parents came for Easter and we had a great brunch at Cousin Todd and Aunt Suse's. (complete with new nicknames :-))



Jeff's best friend Ben and his wife Amanda came up for a weekend - making it just under the "one year since we'd seen them" mark. Jake seems to have adapted quite well to all this company, although he definitely clings to mom and dad a little at first.



Tomorrow is the March for Babies. Thanks to everyone who's donated. If you haven't yet, it's not too late! And check back for pictures! We've got some really cute Team Cubby t-shirts for the walk thanks to our good friends Carmen and Jeff at Koalatee.

10 Months!

So we meet again Bernard...

I'm gaining on you...

10 months old, and what a busy month it's been! Jake's had visits from the Michigan grandparents, Aunt Kathryn, Uncle Michael and Cousin Hannah, Aunt Jen, and my soul sista Jenny. The month in pictures...

Kickin' it with Grandma Jan (aka Michigan Grandma)

Good times with Aunt Kathryn!

Cousin Hannah actually got to hold Jake this time and not just look through the glass

Aunt Jen picture coming soon to a blog near you

Happy and squinty with Jenny

The Happy Family (minus Chloe)

March for Babies

You may notice the new widget on the left - we're shamelessly soliciting money for the March of Dimes. On May 2, Jeff, Jake, and I will do a 3.1 mile walk newly renamed the March for Babies. The March of Dimes does so much good work for premature babies. If you can afford it, we would really appreciate your sponsorship - even just $1 would help!

My sister started a tradition last year of doing a charity walk with her daughter every year around my niece's birthday, and I think we're going to steal that idea, so look for this to become a family tradition (and a yearly solicitation). Back when we were in the hospital, so many people did wonderful things for us and offered to do more, often asking what we needed. People still ask, and I can honestly say that we are doing quite well, but we know that other families are not so lucky and every day more babies are born far too early. Some things you could do to help -

• Donate blood, particularly if you're O-. Babies in the NICU receive universal donor blood (O-) to minimize any chance of a bad reaction. Most babies in the NICU will have a few blood transfusions (Jake had 3) before they go home because they simply cannot make enough new blood to keep up with all the blood that is taken for tests.
• Volunteer for the Ronald McDonald House. We never stayed there but we frequently went to the Ronald McDonald room within Duke Hospital. Volunteers staff the rooms and houses, as well as donate books and other items. We also frequently enjoyed homemade baked goods that people would drop off.
  
• Volunteer at your local NICU. Jeff and I were very lucky because we were able to spend 12 or more hours a day at the NICU with Jake. Many other families cannot do this - they live too far away, they have other children to care for, they have jobs that aren't flexible. Wonderful volunteers come in to hold those babies who didn't have such frequent visitors.

Spring is just around the corner. It's truly March in North Carolina, with more snow at the beginning of the month, 80s last weekend, and cold rain in the 40s this weekend. We walked to the park one night after work last week and Jake experienced the swings (with lots of holding on by mom and dad). He seems to be a fan!

9 Months!

Here's Jake decked out in his Pooh Bear outfit. There's a baby rule that anything with ears is adorable, and when your nickname is "cubby," you've just got to have some Pooh Bear wear. This outfit was the first thing we bought for the cubby - back when I was just 9 or 10 weeks pregnant. We didn't know yet if he was a boy or a girl, but the outfit seemed gender neutral enough. Plus, it was a great buy at Costco - so what's not to love?

The Cubby Chronicles XLV

As the first official Cubby Chronicle post of 2009 (& just a bit overdue) it's safe to say January has been a busy month here in Raleigh. Between the craziness of the holidays winding down, the new nanny starting, & slow but steady progress on the knee front we've been pretty busy.

I'd like to blame a freak snowstorm that dropped 6 inches of powder on Raleigh as well (see below) but that would really only buy me a couple of days.

We're delighted to say that Jake is doing very well & is now up over 14 & a half pounds. He's had a recent slate of doctors appointments for simple check-ups & shots & he's really handled them like a trooper.

One thing that's been so nice (knock on any available surface) is that Jake hasn't been sick so far this winter. This can probably be attributed to a few key factors including having a nanny (vs. daycare), us being fascist with the hand sanitizer, & limiting exposure to other people.

The rule for our local buddies is 'if you even think you might not be 100% healthy, you're not allowed any contact with Jake.' Thankfully we have conscious & understanding friends & we're slowly getting bolder about inviting larger groups of people over to our place & taking him *gasp* to other people's homes.

Kristin & I are fairly social people & one of the lingering facets of Jake being born early that is we aren't able go out & do many of the things we'd like to. Like all premature babies, Jake's immune system isn't as strong as what a full term infant's would be & thus we have to take special care to keep him as safe & healthy as possible.

This is especially true during the winter where germs get passed around more in enclosed spaces. Given that a simple bout of the flu could send him back to the hospital for weeks, we've been extra cautious since he's arrived home. That means that unlike parents of 'normal' babies; we can't do simple things like go out to eat at restaurants with Jake or even take him along with us to the store.

While this scenario won't last forever (he should be as strong as any other kid by the time he's two) and keeping him healthy is by far our biggest priority, I can't say I'm not envious when I see families sitting down with their babies enjoying a leisurely meal while I'm running in & out to bring a take-out order home. That's all right though, as long as I get to eat my food with the Cubs I don't care where I am.

On another note, Kristin & I often discuss what the blog could use more of (no, really, we do) and the clear consensus (yes, besides more numerous & timely posts) is more video clips. We've done this kind of thing before which resulted in some amusement so when we came across another piece of unintentional comedy we thought it was only fair to share....

Taking matters into my own hands

Jeff has been working on Christmas posts and snow posts and blooper video posts, but he is not so good about actually posting his posts. In an effort to get caught up, I'm posting a 3-for-1 special of Jake monthly shots. Starting with February, maybe I'll actually post these within a few days of when we take them. Amazingly enough, we do manage to take the pictures on the actual day. (And yes, Dad, the bear is still winning...for now...)



Benny wants to wish you all a happy 2009. He's hopeful that once Jake gets old enough to refuse to pose in our dumb pictures, he will help him out as well.