5 Months

Here's a rambling update and lots of pictures of Baby Jack at 5 months old.

Baby Jack is getting so big and chunky that his legs keep getting stuck in the Bumbo chair. I'm not sure how much he weighs now, but it's definitely more than he did a month ago.

He drools and likes to have something to chew on all the time. His hands are preferred, but he will sometimes chew on his toys if he can get them into his mouth.

We spend our afternoons studying Thai with Jay. She loves Jack and Jack seems to like her quite a bit, too. The rest of the day is spent playing and occasionally making the journey to pick up Asher from school. Wednesday's have become our special play date day with Baby Daniel. Jack and Daniel love to look at each other and giggle.

This month we started using cloth diapers at night. I didn't think they could last the whole night, but they actually do better than the disposables. During the day I try to use the cloth as much as I can. I think I need a few more diapers so that I can not run out of clean diapers while washing the dirty ones.

Jack can roll over when he really wants to get something and he is getting closer to being able to sit up on his own. He is pushing up higher and higher when he's on his belly and he tries to grab and bat at everything near him.

Still no teeth and no solid food, but I'm really not in a hurry for either. I'm pretty satisfied with Jack staying little and low maintenance for a while longer.

He is sleeping better than he was a few weeks ago. At night he always sleeps good and he usually will take at least one long nap and a few shorter naps each day. I keep trying to get him on a schedule, but things are always changing and it's been hard to be consistent with his nap times. I did try to take him out of the swaddle blanket recently. After a few nights of him waking up a lot we decided he wasn't quite ready to sleep with his arms free.

Jack's favorite things are getting tickled by Daddy and being near Asher. He is always giggling when he is around those two.

Because we're brothers. And we sorta like each other.

It's fun to watch Asher and Jack start to act more like brothers. Jack smiles and giggles every time he sees Asher. Asher must know where Jack is and what he is doing every second of the day. Of course, the other side of being brothers is the fighting over toys. Anytime Jack can get close enough he grabs whatever Asher is playing with and sticks it in his mouth. This, of course, irritates Asher to no end.

I guess Asher finally got tired of Jack taking cars from him and decided that Jack just needed to start playing. He asked me to put Jack on the bed and he went and got two trucks and started telling Jack exactly what to do.

Asher drive big truck and Baby Gack drive dis truck.

No Gack, no drive dat way. Drive dis way.

Jack already thinks Asher is the greatest thing ever. Asher also thinks Asher is the greatest thing ever.

The other night we stuck Jack in bed with Asher after bath time. Asher was afraid Jack was going to snatch his blanket and dog. He had good reason to be worried, Jack grabs that stuff anytime it's near him.

Little Brother

It seems like the Little Brother is starting to get a little bigger.

January

May

Fun at a Park and Other News

Last Saturday night we went to a new park on the other side of the city. After a train ride and a long, hot walk we finally found it. Jack rode in the baby carrier and Asher rode in the stroller. When we got to the park I took Jack out of the carrier and had to walk around with a sweaty imprint of him on my shirt. If you look carefully you can see it in the picture.

The reason we went all the way to this park was to rent a bicycle. Roger and Asher got a bike and had a blast riding around. I think in the picture Asher was yelling "Go Daddy go!" in a not so patient voice.

While they were enjoying their bike ride Jack and I strolled around, ate some fruit and sat on a bench by the pond.

In other news, school starts next week. Asher finished up his summer school term and has been enjoying a nice break at home with me and Baby Gack. Asher loves his school, loves his teacher and loves eating.

We now have Asher's uniforms (with his name sewn on the front) and we have his black school shoes, still need to get white shoes for sports day and socks. Next Wednesday Asher will join millions of other Thai school children on the first day of Term 1, Year 2554 (Thailand even has it's own years).

In even more news, Asher is potty trained. He's such a perfectionist. He refused and refused and refused the past few months and then all the sudden he was like, okay, got it. And that was that. It was very typically Asher.

And in Jack news, well, nothing new to report. He's still chunky and sweet and he has really big eyes.

Easter Pictures

Easter pictures! And only a week late!

Asher and Jack before church in their Easter outfits. Thanks Mimi!

The annual family Easter picture. This year's actually turned out pretty good compared to some from the past (see 2010, 2009, 2008).

Later that afternoon the boys all sat down together for a picture. Thanks to Photoshop I was able to put together two different pictures so it appears that Asher and Roger were both smiling at the same time. Baby Jack was just in his own little world.

Asher was being sweet to Baby Jack.

We finally got Jack to look at the camera. Actually, I think I finally moved the camera to where Jack was looking.

Daddy and Asher after a rather intense round of Run and Kick the Ball.

Soft & Sweet

This week's photo challenge at I Heart Faces is Soft & Sweet. Of course, I thought of this picture of Baby Jack when he was just a few hours old.

I think the most amazing thing about this picture is that it required no editing. Roger took some amazing shots of Jack over the first few days, but I think this is one of my favorites.

Baby Jack's Hospital Adventure

Jack and I had a crazy 24 hours earlier this week.

It all started after a late afternoon nap. Jack woke up and I put him down to play while I finished up dinner. I heard him start making some sad little moans and when I went to check on him he was super hot. We took his temperature and it had gone from normal to almost 103 in about ten minutes. Little guy looked awful and felt awful, he wouldn't even eat.

After a quick call to the doctor we headed to the hospital to get Jack checked out. Of course, this was rush hour in Bangkok and it was just about to rain. I grabbed Jack and a bag (remembered the Kindle, forgot the diapers) and ran to try and get a taxi before the rain started. I found a taxi, but he didn't want to take me all the way to our hospital because of the traffic. I held up the sick Baby Jack and he quickly changed his mind.

The monsoon came almost as soon as we were in the taxi. I was glad I didn't try to get to the train. During the hour (HOUR!) it took us to get to the hospital Jack just moaned and lay in my arms. We had one of Bangkok's most talkative taxi drivers. He told me all about his family and his village. At one point he even pulled out a Buddhism brochure and gave me a lecture on something about good karma and his new taxi car. I really need to study more Thai. Finally he got us close to the hospital and told me I was better off walking in the rain than waiting for the taxi to make it. So, off across six lanes of stopped traffic I went with a burning hot infant. I splashed through some puddles and made it to the children's clinic.

Our doctor had already left, but the doctor on call checked Jack out (high fever, dehydrated), asked how traffic was (awful) and decided that it would be best if we just spent the night at the hospital to make sure Jack didn't have any of those weird mosquito/tropical illnesses. I absolutely love our hospital. As soon as the doctor said we were staying 4 nurses and a customer service lady popped in the room. They gave Jack a sponge bath, some more tylenol and had him admitted before I had time to dig my phone out of my bag and call Roger. Ten minutes later we were up in our room with an IV started and blood drawn.

Jack perked back up after about an hour of fluids and finally started eating again. The test results came back a little later and showed that Jack had some kind of infection, so they started some antibiotics. After a long night of watching his fever go down I woke up to see my happy Baby Jack looking a little more lively. The doctor came by and said he thought he would be just fine, but he wanted us to stay the rest of the day so Jack could get another dose of his antibiotics. Jack slept almost all day and by the time the doctor came by to discharge us he was pretty much back to normal.

Here are some pictures of my sweet boy that I took while we were hanging out at the hospital.

Awake one minute.

Asleep the next.

4 Months

Daddy and Baby Jack had a little time alone one morning while Asher and I went to the grocery store. After they finished smiling and giggling at each other they decided to get the camera out and make sure Jack had a picture at 4 months old.

Jack weighs 14 lbs. 2 oz. (6.4 kg) and is 25 inches long (63.5 cm). He loves to smile and giggle, especially if he sees Asher. He has rolled from his belly to his back two times, both times it was to see Asher. He's so close to being able to roll over from his back to his belly, but he hasn't quite made it yet.

Baby Jack is still sleeping great at night. He goes to bed right after Asher, around 7:30 pm, I feed him when I go to bed and sleeps until 7 am the next morning. We are making progress with his naps, the hardest part is just not always being at home for him to sleep. His first morning nap is always good and lately he's taken a good afternoon nap as well. Usually we are gone during his second morning nap, but he will usually sleep in the carrier for a little while. The biggest change in the past month (actually the past week) is the discovery of Baby Jack's blanket.

It's just like Asher's blanket, just a different color. I gave it to Jack one day while he was laying on his play mat and I was studying Thai. I looked over a few minutes later and Jack had snuggled up to the blanket and gone to sleep. Since then he has taken some wonderfully long naps holding on to his blanket.

Jack has gotten pretty good at putting his hands and toys into his mouth. He loves to suck and chew on his fingers, his blanket and any toy that he can get close to his mouth. The Bumbo chair is getting a lot more use these days, Jack sits in it while we eat or play outside.

Baby Jack is still the most laid back baby and he almost always smiles at everyone we pass. When we stroll around I always hear people saying the Thai word for "doll" as they come over and squeeze his fat little cheeks.

Friends From All Over

Almost five years ago Roger and I went off to Virginia for a few months of training before moving overseas. While we were in Virginia we lived in a dorm, stayed up late playing cards and made some great friends. At the end of our training time we all said good-bye with plans to meet up later on the other side of the world.

Well, five years later several of us ended up in Bangkok and decided to get together to catch up and eat pizza. And let all of our kids run wild.

Five years ago none of us had children. Now there are five little ones that were born in three different countries. What a difference a few years makes.

(All of the little girls were going crazy with all of our cars and trucks. Asher and Jack seemed to be very unimpressed with everything and everyone).

Daddy Time

Here are the boys watching Toy Story 2.

Asher wore his Cowboy pajamas (thanks Granny!) while watching the Cowboy movie. He thought that was amazing. We think it is amazing that Asher has now discovered a new movie he likes and we can quit watching Cars.

These two look alike, don't you think?

And Roger's other look alike, Asher Boy.

Ayutthaya

We made a day trip to Ayutthaya earlier this week to check out the old temples and have some out-of-the-city fun. Here are a few of my favorite pictures.

Roger pushing over an old chedi. He's so strong!

Asher exploring some really old stuff.

Jack also joined us. He looked cute and was generally adorable and easy going, even when an old Thai grandma got a hold of those big cheeks while we were eating lunch.

There were lots of headless Buddhas. It is impolite and against the rules to stick your baby behind them for a funny picture.

The old stuff we went to see.

There has been much debate as to whether Asher is screaming in this picture because he is happy or if he is screaming because he is 2. I think the consensus is that he was currently enjoying himself.

Jack's First Flight

Jack took his first airplane trip a few weeks ago when we went to Chiang Mai.

We took the new airport link train. Love it. Definitely recommend it if you are traveling in and out of Bangkok.

Baby Jack hanging out in the stroller waiting to board the plane. Of course, he was wearing The Hampton Family First Flight shirt.

Asher was soooo excited about the airplanes. He still talks about them, "Asher Boy ride airplane, take off, up sky, go Chiang Mai, go Krungthep (Thai name for Bangkok). See CLOUDS!"

Jack slept and ate and then slept some more. Easy.