Lots to Catch Up On

Wow. Long time, no update.

Well, since the last entry here, Scott's celebrated his first birthday. He's turned into a very fun kid, pretty much making up for the first 6 months or so when he nearly drove us nuts with whining and crying. He's very steady on his feet, running just about everywhere and climbing on the furniture. He also has a sixth sense for trouble, always managing to find the most potentially dangerous (or breakable) object in any room and heading straight for it. He doesn't have the balance issues that plagued Jason early on and he generally has a terrific understanding of the physical world and his place in it. Except, that is, for having a serious misunderstanding of his size. We're always finding him trying to squeeze into some space or other he's too big for.

We estimate Scott knows about 50 words now. During the holidays, he'd point at the Christmas tree whenever the lights came on and say what sounded like "vhree!", which we took to mean "tree" until he used the same word for flowers and one of the neighborhood moms. Then we decided he was saying, "pretty." His currently vocabulary includes "shoes, bye-bye, Momma, Daddy, Jason, eat" and the all-purpose "see!!!" (which means, "let me touch that interesting-looking thing over there"). Last night he amazed me when I read a line from Dr Seuss to him: "I am a Yop, I like to hop, from fingertop to fingertop." When I said it, he held up his hands and stared at them. So we started quizzing him and he was able to point out his nose, his teeth and his hair, which Laura says is advanced for his age.

Scott also shows signs of learning his numbers and letters, though he's nowhere near as obsessive about it as his big brother. When the Alphabet Song starts to play, he cries out "ABC's!" and in a few cases he can fill in missing letters when we recite the alphabet to him. He also knows that "3" follows "2," which makes it fun when we're trying to discipline Jason (DADDY: "Jason, you've got until I count to three to stop that whining...one...two..." SCOTT: "Three!")

Not to be outdone, Jason's also growing like mad. At a recent doctor visit, he measured in with a height of 40 inches tall and a weight of 36 pounds. He continues to enjoy school days with his friends and teachers and he's showing some talent as an artist. The teacher says he's one of the most unusual two-year-olds she's ever taught, as he can and does read everything in sight. One day last week she brought him inside for a potty break in the middle of recess and she was worried they wouldn't make it back outside before playtime was over, as he insisted on stopping at every sign and poster in the building to read it out loud.

As ever, Jason loves listening to music, especially "This Old Man," which he'll sing anytime for anyone (you can hear it here). One CD of children's songs he enjoys starts off with the song, "Rock-A-My-Soul," which he likes to listen to while rocking on the wooden horse on loan from Uncle Tommy. At least once a day, he pipes up with the request: "I want to rock-a my soul!" Among his other passtimes, Jason loves to watch "Between the Lions" on PBS and make sculptures with his Play-Doh and he's getting a lot better at throwing a ball (sometimes in the house, which isn't so good). His favorite foods lately are sweet potatoes ("sweet pah-tay-yahs"), yogurt, hot dogs and pepperoni.

During the holidays, Scott joined Jason for their first visit to Santa, and when asked when he'd like for Christmas, Jason told St Nick, "Presents!" We'll see if remains that easy to please as he gets older! The mild winter here in Virginia has allowed for lots of fun trips to the park and rides in the wagon, and we're all looking forward to more adventures now that Spring is here.

Time Flies

Things continue to move along at a pretty quick pace in the Morefield household (hence the infrequent updates to this journal!).

In October we took the boys up to Ohio to visit Grandma and the cousins and had a great time. Back at home, Jason enjoyed his first try at Halloween trick-or-treating, dressed as a puppy. Mommy took him around the neighborhood in a stroller and a number of other parents reported he had a huge grin on his face as he clutched his plastic pumpkin full of goodies. As the rules were still a bit new to him, Jason only delivered the "Trick or Treat" greeting at about half the doors he visited...at the rest he simply held his pumpkin out and said, "Please!" At this writing, Jason's still finishing the last of his Smarties, "Holly-Pops" and Skittles, so it was a pretty respectable haul. Meanwhile Scotty, dressed as a pumpkin, stayed behind to help Daddy pass out goodies to the other kids. For a while it was fun, but after an hour of the doorbell constantly ringing and odd-looking characters crowding our porch yelling for treats, Scott's nerves were a bit frazzled.

After about three weeks of tears, cheers, screams and pouting, Jason appears to be pretty much potty trained. He's now able to take care of the whole affair on his own, except for getting his pants back on, so we're pretty proud of him.

We had a bit of a mishap a few weeks ago when Jason sent Scott to the ER. Jason knows he's not allowed to push Scott away from his toys, so he's adopted the tactic of "blocking" the toys like a basketball player blocking a shot. Whenever Scott crawls near, Jason stands and puts himself between Scott and the toys, bobbing and weaving to match all of Scott's moves. One day he ended up putting his knee in Scott's eye, cutting his eyelid. Scott got away without a stitch but will probably have a scar (luckily not noticeable unless he closes his eye). Probably only the first injury of many to come in the lives of two rowdy brothers, but the first one's always tough for the parents.

Otherwise, Scott's doing very well and in most things physical is ahead of where Jason was at the same age. He's cruising the furniture, making his first tentative stabs at standing unaided and climbing the stairs to the second floor. As of today he has eight teeth.

Another big milestone came a week or so ago when we moved Scott's crib out of our room into Jason's. I was convinced it would be a disaster and no one in the house would sleep again, but to my surprise the boys have done very well. Usually they spend 15 or 20 minutes amusing each other with talk, songs or giggly antics and then they're down for the count. I think it's gone a long way to bond them as brothers.

At this point we're looking forward to Christmas and with Jason old enough to appreciate the experience we hope to start up some fun family traditions. All in all it's been a great year for us. As Jason likes to say when we gather around the dinner table, "Daddy, Scott, Mommy, Jason...FAMILY!"

More Hi-Jinks

Well, the good news is that at the tender age of two, Jason can already read and write a good many words, including the names for all the colors in his crayon box. The bad news is he did exactly that on the living room wall. He got a dressing-down for that little act of creativity, and now whenever he passes the wall, he shakes his head and says, "very, very bad..." Consensus from friends and family is that rather than paint over it we should just put a frame around it and call it art. And indeed with every day that passes I can tell Laura's going to have a harder time finally covering it up.

Scott is coming along very well. He can turn himself 360 degrees on his hands and knees and has started pulling himself forward across the floor in a manuever that's just a week or so away from real crawling. He's also figured out the way to make Jason laugh is to scream at him, so the challenge now is getting through a meal time with these two facing each other; Scott screaming and Jason guffawing. But then I guess there are worse problems than having your two kids enjoy each other too much.

Next week Jason starts going to his pre-school twice a week. More adventures ahead, no doubt.

Summer Fun

The boys are enjoying the summer so far, even though it's been too hot to go out a lot. Cousin Skylar came to visit over Independence Day weekend with his mommy Cousin Toni, and all the boys had a good time. At a local celebration on the 4th, they got to enjoy some music, games and a look at a hot-air balloon.

Jason went to pre-school for a week at a local church, where he got to learn about bugs and plants, play on swings and a slide, practice on his tambourine and do some fun crafts. It was a bit rough on him plunging head first into four straight days away from Mommy and Scott, but he enjoyed making new friends and now he's looking forward to going back in the fall on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Scott is getting stronger all the time and likes to stand up with our help. We got the Johnny-Jump-Up back from Grandma and Scott leaps away in it fast and furious. He especially likes to jump in time to Daddy's whistling...Daddy can't think of too many songs that move so fast, though, so usually the tune of choice is "Dixie," which should make Scott's great-grandaddy pretty happy.

Next month we're all looking forward to a visit from Aunt Heidi. It will be her first time meeting Scott. With any luck it'll cool off a few degrees and we can do something fun.

Life With The Boys

Scott's coming up on four months old now, and is doing very well. He's able to roll from front to back and once or twice has gone the other way, too. He can hold his head way up while he's on his stomach and is developing some balance while he's upright. The latter is a handy skill as we've started putting him in Jason's old "saucer" seat where he can bat at a few toys. Without something interesting to look at or do he gets bored quickly and lets us know it. His hand-eye coordination is also improving; he's able to reach out and grab all kinds of things.

Scott's generally in a good mood during the day and is at that point now where things start getting fun...lots of smiles and giggling. But at night he hates going to sleep even more than Jason did, screaming at the top of his lungs until he finally drops off. In the last couple of weeks he's at least sleeping through the night about half the time, which is a relief to Laura.

Easily Scott's favorite person on Earth is his big brother Jason, who he loves to watch do just about anything. Every glimpse of Jason gets a wide grin from Scott; even in the middle of a howling fit, he'll stop immediately and start giggling if Jason comes close.

Jason's been a great help around the house and is a lot of fun to play with. A few day ago he was working his way through the alphabet as Laura came into the room. "L is for Love," he said, "M is for Mommy..." Laura interrupted with, "Awww...you love Mommy? How sweet!" Jason looked up and answered, "N is for Nuts!"

We expect to get the all-clear to start Scott on solid foods soon, so it's past time to move Jason out of the booster chair. We've set him up at his own table in the kitchen, and after an excited first meal there it sank in that he's going to have to feed himself from now on, so he's not so happy about it anymore.

For the last week and a half, off and on, we've had the house exterior and kitchen interior painted by a contracting team, which gave Jason plenty of entertainment. The lady who headed up the paint crew was very impressed with Jason's ability to count and spell and threatened to get him booked on the "Today Show." On the subject of spelling, Jason's new favorite words are "Treasure" (as in Marshmallow Treasures, Mommy's cereal) and "Firefighter" (he has a new shirt with a fire department helicopter and the legend...which he loves to run around shouting..."Firefighter to the rescue!!!"

We're all looking forward to a long weekend together over Memorial Day.

Happy Birthday, Jason!

Jason celebrates his second birthday today, April 15, and he's thrilled about it. In the weeks leading up to this, we've asked him how old he is: "One!" And how old he's going to be: "Two!" Today any time anyone says, "Happy Birthday," he answers, "TWOOOO!"

We think he's doing very well for his age; at last count he could spell around 75 words we know of and he recognizes or can say (after a fashion) probably closer to 300 or 400 of them. He's getting skilled at writing most letters of the alphabet and is making a few tentative stabs at forming sentences ("Jason is happy," "Shut the door," "Scott is crying, Mommy feed!"). Looking back we realize we've been really lucky with all the traditional "headaches" of the baby/toddler years: Jason learned to feed himself without making much of a mess, went from crib to "big boy bed" without complaint and welcomed his little brother with open arms. The next big, ongoing milestone is potty training and time will tell how that pans out (ahem).

Right now we're getting some work done on the house and Jason has been thrilled to meet all the contractors who've come by to give estimates; they all have neat gear like tape measures to play with. One guy shared his Palm Pilot with Jason...not a risk I'd have been willing to take...and darned if the kid didn't take to it right away, moving pictures around on the screen with the stylus, minimizing and maximizing images, clearing the screen. It was scary. As it turned out, the guy we chose is doing all the work today, so Jason figures it's all part of the Birthday celebrations...he's loving it.

Scott is sleeping a bit longer at night, but it may be some time yet before he becomes a primarily nighttime sleeper. He's generally in a good mood, giving us broad, open-mouth smiles and even giggling at times, but when he's unhappy he sure lets you know about it. He adores Jason and no doubt they'll be the most devoted of playmates in just a few more months when Scott's ready to crawl around.

Time sure does fly when you're having fun. Luckily we're taking lots of pictures so we can remember it when these guys have grown up and left us behind. But for now, Happy 2nd Birthday, Jason!

Growing Boys

Things are still hopping at the Morefield residence. Scott did well at his one-month checkup and is putting on weight...he's nearly up to 11 pounds now. He's still a little mixed up with his days and nights, though, so Mommy's not getting a lot of sleep. Last Thursday he smiled at us in response to our cues, so that's going in the baby book. The most dependable source of smiles is his big brother, Jason. Whenever he comes around, Scott goes from a limp noodle to a wiggle worm; sometimes it seems he'd like to leap out of my arms and launch himself at Jason.

For his part, Jason is totally besotted with his little brother and loves to snuggle and kiss him. Sometimes he's a bit miffed at us for spending so much time with the baby, but he doesn't hold it against Scott.

Jason's coming along with writing letters and numbers and yesterday, to my surprise, he wrote out "ELMO" as clear as you please. Not too shabby for a kid still shy of his 2nd birthday. We're looking forward to getting him to sign cards for folks, but he's got to work on his name a bit, yet. Too bad it's not "Elmo." (If he could change it, he would!)

Scott William

Scott William Morefield arrived on Thursday, January 25, 2005 at 12:57 PM. He weighed in at 7 lbs, 13 oz and 20 and 1/2 inches long.

We were pleased to get the same Labor and Delivery nurse we had for Jason's birth two years ago. Martha is a real wonder and definitely knows her stuff. The labor went very well with only about 12 minutes of pushing. Scott did drag us out of bed earlier than Jason...we were at the hospital by 3:30 am...but it was all over in time for a late lunch. His APGAR scores were even better than Jason's at 9/9, primarily because, unlike his stoic older brother, Scott screamed loud enough to peel the paint off the walls upon arrival. He's still got some powerful lungs on him; the nurses were up front with Laura and told her he'd always be the first to leave the nursery, because he's the loudest!

Though we once again avoided learning the sex of the baby, a lot of signs and plain old intuition led us to believe it would be a girl. Even Jason said so! But we're just as delighted to have a second son, and he's cute as can be. Happily, he's avoided the jaundice problems Jason had and is in terrific health. At his one-week checkup, the pediatrician told us to skip the next visit and just come back in a month, since all they would've done at two weeks is check for weight gain, and since he's already put on a quarter of a pound in one week, that's unnecessary!

Jason is adjusting well to being a big brother. He does tend to get jealous when Daddy spends time with the baby (not so bad with Mommy) but he loves to look at, stroke and kiss his brother and has quickly learned how to say, "Scott!"

In short, we've gone now from a Titanic Trio to the Fantastic Four, and we're loving it. Thanks to everyone for the prayers and good wishes. Stay tuned for updates when we can steal a few moments...

Letters and Numbers

Thought I'd write some of this down before I forget, or it gets too old to be relevant. For a while now, Jason's had fun with letters and numbers. He recognizes all the letters of the alphabet on sight, upper and lower case, knows the sounds they make (T says "Tuh...") and in many cases, words they begin ("T is for Truck"). He's also noticed the similarities among some of the characters and likes to twist them around to see what happens...an inverted M becomes a W and vice-versa, a 7 turned 180 degrees is an L, a backwards and upside down 2 is a 5 (sort of) and so on.

Field trips to the store or the doctors office, etc are always fun because of all the new signs. Exit and Stop signs are special favorites, as are the big numbers on the check-out lines at Target. (He also enjoys helping us drive by spotting the traffic lights and reporting them...green is go, red is stop, yellow is "Watch out!" How did we ever get anywhere without him? Daddy can relax now, since these back-seat instructions cover the only details Mommy doesn't include in the pointers she offers from the passenger seat).

Last Thursday Laura showed Jason his name on a banner in his room, as she's done many times before, but this time it "clicked" for him and he realized letters make words. J-A-S-O-N is his name ("Mame!") and he delights in pointing it out wherever he finds it. He also knows the words "Free," "Zoo" and "Stop" and even tries to spell them out of the magnetic letters on the fridge (he usually gets the right set of letters, but seldom in the correct sequence).

In the last few days he's gone from counting to 5 to counting to 10, and now he's up to 13. We showed him how to assemble a 12 and 13 out of the numbers from a wooden puzzle and when I asked him what a sixteen would look like, or an 18 or 19, he caught on that adding a 1 in front makes it a teen (not sure if he'd get 15, though...it doesn't sound right).

I never know how to record these milestones because I always swore I wouldn't be the kind of parent who brags. I'm not sure it's bragging, though...it's more a case of being fascinated by how his mind works, and watching the lights come on in his little head. I also have to confess to worrying what conclusions people will draw when they hear this talk...will they imagine us to be the kind of parents who spend hours drilling their toddler with flash cards? Because we're not. Jason is excited about each new thing he learns and more often than not he moves ahead before we're ready. What we teach him is a response to his demonstrated interest.

There's also the very real possibility Jason will regress when the baby arrives...it happens a lot. He may see the attention his more dependent sibling gets and decide to act like an infant himself to compete. If so, I want to record his progress now so I don't forget later.

More than anything, I guess I find it fascinating to speculate on what's behind Jason's progress. How much of what a toddler does or does not comprehend has to do with natural-born intelligence and how much is the result of encouragement and a supportive environment? Is it normal for a kid of 21 months to know the things he does and if not, does that really mean he's "special" or does it just mean that many parents either aren't interested in working with their kids, or just assume their efforts would be wasted on one so young (I know I read Jason his alphabet books a million times on demand, always thinking I was wasting my time, til the day he pointed to some of the letters and told me what they were)? It almost seems like self-fulfilling prophecy to some extent...you assume a kid can't comprehend something, so you don't present it to him, and sure enough he ends up not knowing it!

I think if we're doing anything right, it's not letting Jason watch TV. He has an even temper, a long enough attention span to focus on one task for 20 minutes or so, and a keen interest in books. I have to wonder how many kids prone to tantrums, bad behavior and the like are ones who had a TV for a "babysitter" for hours on end. Certainly I think the increase in cases of "ADD" (don't even get me started on that pseudo-science claptrap!) are often the end result of staring at TV shows and video games for too long. And like so many things in this country, we'd rather medicate it than fix the root problems. Turn off the TV? Take away the Playstation? You must be joking! Just give me the Ritalin and everything will be okay.

But that's another rant. Still counting down to baby. Laura goes in today for another update from the doctor. We thought it was on the way Thursday when she had regular contractions 5 minutes apart, but then they became erratic and finally tapered off. Just a scary reminder to get our house in order ASAP...it won't be long now.

More Milestones

Daddy's back at work now after a great two weeks at home with Jason. For the second of those two weeks, it was just us guys as Laura pitched in to cover for vacationing staff at her old office. It's hard to say who's missing who more at the moment.

Over the break, Jason crossed a few more milestones. He's gone from showers to baths now and after some initial concern at being set down in a tub of warm water he quickly learned the pleasures of splashing around. He can also walk down the stairs standing up now, with one hand on the railing and the other holding on to Mommy or Daddy. This past Sunday we took down the crib and moved it into our room to await the new baby, so Jason's moved up to a "big boy bed," another transition he's taken in stride much to our relief and delight. And though he's known the numbers 1 through 10 on sight for months now, he's just figured out how to put 1 through 5 in sequence, which he does with great glee for anyone who asks ("Wun...Too...Tee...Door...BIBE!!").

We got through the holidays without having the baby, but it seems increasingly unlikely we'll make it all the way to the Feb 8 due date...this kid is just too darn big to stay in much longer! We saw a lot of folks over the holidays and their reaction on seeing Laura was always the same..."Are you sure it's not twins?"

I don't know how much Jason understands about what's coming up. We've told him there's a baby coming and he'll point to Mommy's belly and say "baby." He took an acute interest in the baby Jesus in our nativity set and he carries around his stuffed Spider-Man like it's an infant. But I doubt he understands how much his world will soon change, and that he'll be having to share us with another little person. For that reason, I tried extra hard to make our holiday time together extra special...it'll be his last Christmas as an "only child." But having said that, I think I probably got more out of our time together than he did. He's a great kid.

Holidays 2004

Jason's hit the 20-month mark now and we're all looking forward to the arrival of his little brother or sister. Jason loves looking at baby pictures in ads and magazines, and usually kisses them, so we're hoping that translates to a warm welcome for the real thing.

We spent Thanksgiving with my (Daddy's) extended family and Jason had fun seeing everyone, especially cousins Ella and Hope. That morning, he and I were caught in a sudden rainstorm during our usual wagon ride around the neighborhood and got thoroughly soaked. Luckily Laura saw the rain coming down and came to our rescue in the car; before that, it was a miserable experience for Jason riding in what quickly became a metal bathtub on wheels. Meanwhile I was quite nervous at the sight of lightning in the distance, considering I was pulling around a big piece of metal with a toddler in it, making me in essence a 6-foot lightning rod on the open street.

A few days later, I was looking out the back door with Jason at another rainstorm and reminiscing over our earlier experience. "It's much better to be inside when it's raining like this, isn't it?" I said. A few minutes after that, he and Laura waved goodbye to me as I went off to work. An hour or so later, Laura found herself at the same spot with Jason. "Boy, it's really raining hard, isn't it?" she asked. Suddenly Jason stood bolt upright and got a worried look on his face. "Dah!" he yelled, (his name for me) and he raced for the front door. I can only guess he was thinking, "It's raining and we left Daddy outside!"

Grandma Patricia is coming for a pre-Holiday visit on December 17 and staying the weekend. I know Jason will be excited to see her (and vice-versa). Meanwhile he's having fun looking at the Christmas tree, especially when it's set to flash red-yellow-blue-green in sequence ("Red! 'Low! Due! Nee-Nee!"). We hope to take him out soon one evening for a look at the neighborhood decorations and maybe a living nativity at the church up the street. Christmas is definitely more fun with a kid in the house, even if he doesn't know exactly what's going on.

If anybody's actually reading all this, I hope the holidays find you and yours happy and well. I promise to keep you posted with the latest on Jason as time allows, and with details about Baby No. 2. Due date is Feb 8 but there's no way it's waiting that long. At this point we're just hoping to make it through the holidays.

Dedicated Wheel Watcher

Past the 18-month mark now and Jason is doing very well. He can recognize all the letters of the alphabet and numbers 1 through 10 and has found the perfect TV show for his interests...Wheel of Fortune! People yell out letters, letters pop up on the screen, numbers spin by. There's lights, colors, applause...what more could you ask for? If he had any say over the Emmies, Pat and Vannah would sweep all the categories.

Other than that, TV holds little interest, thankfully. Among Jason's more popular passtimes are riding on his new trike from Aunt Amy, climbing on top of the ottoman and announcing, "I TALL!", rolling around in piles of clean laundry while Daddy tries to fold ("CLOTHES!!") and riding around the neighborhood in his wagon. The latter of which is made all the more interesting whenever he decides to pull off his shoes and toss them onto of one of the neighboring streets. On a really good day, Daddy doesn't even notice til he gets back to the house!

Aunt Heidi's wedding was fun and very pretty. Jason did pretty well, but suffered some separation anxiety since Mommy and Daddy were both in the service. The trip up and down weren't too bad, though. About 2 1/2 hours in to the trip up, we stopped at a rest area and Jason was delighted. Who knew a couple of picnic tables, a flower bed and a water fountain could be so much fun? (And to think some people spend big money on theme parks!). We can only guess he thought that was our final destination. Anyway he wasn't very happy when we bundled him up and put him in the car seat again for the next leg of the trip.

Baby brother or sister is coming along nicely, and still on track for a February birth. (But big! Everyone at Cousin Holly's wedding asked Mommy how many kids were in there.) We don't know how much Jason understands about what's happening, but he loves to look through Mommy's book of illustrations showing the fetus in each stage of development. He's fascinated with infants, but that may or may not hold true once one comes to share his room!

Boy Wonder

At 16 months old, Jason continues to be a source of joy and endless amusement. Of course I'm biased, but I think the kid's pretty brilliant. He already knows some of his letters (M, E, D, J, O, A, S and T) and numbers (2, 3, 6, 9 and 10) and probably understands a lot more than he can verbalize. He has a big book which in turn is filled with lots of little books covering the whole alphabet. The other day they were all over the floor and when I told him to put them away, I noticed he returned them in the right order. Each book has letters on the cover -- for example S and T on one book -- and each has a corresponding "parking space" also marked with those letters. Once or twice he started to put a book in, noticed the letters didn't match up, found the right place and put it there.

When we read him familiar stories, we sometimes pause and give him a chance to finish sentences, which he usually does (though I grant you not everyone would understand his pronunciations). I don't know, I never had a kid before so maybe all that is normal, but somehow it doesn't seem like it. Anyway it makes it worthwhile having read those books to him so many times...turns out he was actually learning something.

There's lots of other stuff that's just fun. When the phone rings he cups one hand up to his ear as if to say, "That's the phone, Dad. Hadn't you better answer it?" When we're out, it's always a crowd pleaser to ask him, "Are you a good boy?" because he always shakes his head "no." If you ask him whether he wants to take a shower, he'll squeal with joy, run around in circles and shoot up the stairs to the bathroom.

Next week it's up to Ohio for Aunt Heidi's wedding. Everyone's looking forward to seeing Jason after 6 months...hope they still recognize him!

15 months: Big Brother Time

Wow, long time no update. Jason is now 15 months old and doing very well. At his check-up he registered in the 95th percentile for height, weight and head size, weighing in at 29lbs 1 oz and 33 inches tall. He's walking and running all over the place, climbing up and down the stairs and has a vocabulary of about 50 words (many of them animal sounds, which substitute for their names. A cat is a "meow" and a duck is a "Quack-Quack" for instance).

Jason loves music and has a fascination with clocks and trains, possibly inheriting both interests from his great-granddaddy on Daddy's side. He also continues to enjoy being read to and is always lugging books around.

Grandaddy and Granny are still baby-sitting a couple times a week and Jason loves having them over. A wagon ride around the neighborhood is always a highlight of the day; lots of chances to see joggers, cars, squirrels, birds and the occasional suprise or two.

The big news is that Jason will soon be a big brother! Mommy is expecting a second baby in February. We hope Jason will take well to sharing us with a sibling, and from what we've seen so far he should do fine. He loves other kids and is fascinated with babies. Plus after months of ignoring his stuffed Spider-Man doll, he's suddenly taken to carrying it under his arm wherever he goes. Maybe practicing for next year?

Traveling Time

Jason took his second plane trip last week...to Minnesota again to see Mommy's relatives. He had a fun stay with his Great Uncle Nick and Great Aunt Bernie and got to play with Cousin Ben. Then it was down to the farm with Great-Grandma for more adventures, and briefly up to the Twin Cities before heading back home.

Staying entertained on the long plane rides was a bit challenging, but overall Jason did very well, and charmed everyone. His new trick involves holding his hand way up over his head when asked how big he is. To the follow-up question "How did you get so big?" he answers, "Grow, grow, grow!" (Which makes "grow" one of four words in his vocabulary, the others being "Momma," "Dadda" and, for some reason, "truck"!)

For now, Jason is glad to be back home in familiar surroundings and with his favorite toys. Mommy asked him to make his toy train go "Toot, toot" but he pressed the wrong button and got a different sound out of it. So when it finished, he said, "Toot, toot!" himself, just to make Mommy happy.

And so it did.

Happy Birthday!

Incredible as it seems, Jason is now one year old. But while it's hard to believe it's been a whole 12 months since he was born, it's equally hard to imagine life without him around. What did we do with all that free time?

At his one-year checkup with the doctor, Jason came in at just over 25 pounds, so he's slowing down with the weight gain. Similarly, his statistics are settling down into the 75%-80% range as far as height and head size. And luckily he just had one shot -- a Chicken Pox vaccination -- which is a lot less than expected.

After a good start at walking, Jason had a setback for a couple of weeks when he contracted an ear infection. It threw him off-balance and scared him away from standing up for a while. But with the example set by some neighbor boys -- and the motivation of untold wonders forever on the other side of the room -- he's back on track and beginning to toddle around with the best of 'em.

11 Months and Cousin Alex!

Jason is doing great at 11 months. He's working up to walking by standing unaided and walking/launching himself towards people and furniture. He likes to wave "hello" and "bye-bye", says "Mama" and "Dada" and understands a lot more words than he can speak.

On March 15, Jason reached the 11-month mark and got a new cousin, Alexander Joseph. We all came up to Ohio to be here for the birth and Alex is definitely worth it...a real cutie. Jason is fascinated by him, and was very worried whenever Alex cried, adding his own whimpers and reaching out to Alex to "help." He's looking forward to lots of future visits when they can play together.

Jason's also enjoying time with his Grandma and his Uncle Tommy. He did great on the trip up, especially given that it's a whopping nine hours by car. We continue to be impressed with how well-behaved and sweet-natured he is.

Nine Months

Well, Jason hit the nine-month mark on Thursday, January 15, and went in for his checkup the next day. The best news was no shots (!), and he got a clean bill of health all the way around.

For those of you keeping stats, Jason's now 29 1/2 inches tall (placing him in the 90th percentile), and -- surprisingly to us -- "just" 24 lbs, 3 oz (95th percentile). He's making good use of his six teeth and has moved on to some finger foods like cookies, bread, cheerios, pear slices and bits of chicken.

He can pull himself up to his feet now while holding onto the coffee table, the couch or Mom and Dad, and when he decided he was really against taking a nap, he pulled himself up using the bars on his crib. He also likes letting go to stand on his own, but he gets so excited by this that he tries to jump up and down and lands on his bottom.

All I Want For Christmas...

Jason enjoyed his first Christmas, even though he didn't quite know what to make of it all. The big hits, as expected, were the lights on the tree and all the wrapping paper. Some mornings he'd stare at the tree expectantly until we plugged it in, at which point he'd say, "Ahhh..."

There were some fun new toys, cool blocks and clothes to enjoy. Jason also got some neat new books that he loves us to sit down and read to him. Another hit was a teddy bear from Grandma that recites "The night before Christmas." After a couple hundred repetitions, its safe to say Jason's the only one in the house who isn't sick of that poem by now. Though he's bound to miss the bear after the holidays, it's definitely going in a box with the Christmas decorations.

Like the old song, Jason got his two front teeth for Christmas, or near enough, with a couple more thrown in for good measure. Now he has his incisors plus one more on top and a single tooth in the bottom front.

Daddy had two weeks off and spent a lot of time babysitting. Now that he's back at work everyone is having to adjust a bit. The next big event (scheduled, anyway) will be a nine-month check-up at the doctors'.

Holidays, Grandmas and Earthquakes

Jason enjoyed his first Thanksgiving with daddy's extended family this year, then had a blast visiting with Grandma Patricia and Great-Grandma Marie for a fun five days at the start of December. We fit in a "four-generation" portrait while they were down, since it doesn't happen every day.

Having survived Hurricane Isabel, Jason seems destined to try out all the other natural disasters, too. Tuesday, Dec. 9 we had an earthquake here that measured 4.5 on the Richter Scale. Small potatoes to our friends out west, but unheard of here since way back in 1897! Daddy was at work...in a basement...when it hit, and Mommy had some anxious moments at home. But Jason slept through it all, as he did the worst of the Hurricane. Nerves of steel, that kid.

We're all looking forward to spending some time together over the Christmas break. Jason is enjoying the lights on the tree and his teddy bear that recites "The Night Before Christmas." Otherwise all this hub-bub is going right over his head. But next year should be a big deal for sure.

Six Months (!)

Incredible as it seems, Jason is now six months old. Last week we took him in for his check-up and it's official...he's big.

The scores went like this: height = 90th percentile, weight = 97th percentile, head circumference = 97th percentile. The 97s were only because the doctor doesn't believe in giving 100s. We also found out that the strangely low figures from last time (see entry: "Four Months") were because the doctor looked at the chart wrong. She used the 6-month markers, meaning that at 4 months, Jason was racking up "average" scores for a 6-month old.

A few days earlier, Jason attended his first group play date at a neighbor's house and had a lot of fun seeing and interacting with the other kids. One little girl put a ball in front of him and to our surprise he immediately figured out how to roll it back and forth to her (he'd never seen a ball before). So we went out and got him a ball of his own, a "basketball" about half official size, and he loves to lay on his back and transfer it from his hands to between his feet, let go with his hands, lower his feet with the ball between them and raise it back up again to his hands. In short, he seems to have some chimpanzee blood in him. Maybe we have a future soccer player on our hands.

Front Porch Adventures

Dorothy found that everything she ever really needed was in her back yard all the time. In Jason's case, it's the front yard.

A few days before the hurricane, we lost power when a "waterproof" seal on our electric lines took in water and exploded. The guys from the power company dug it up and replaced it, which made for an entertaining show for Jason. A bit later, Daddy cut the grass, which was also good for a laugh, and last week the neighbors across the street had a crane brought in to lift trees off the back of their house, over the roof and down into the front yard to be sawed up and chipped. Another great show. A couple days later came the lawn care guy to do a core aeration.

When all else fails, it's always fun to watch the cars go by. Jason's gotten so he can hear them even before we do, and he'll follow them with his eyes til they're out of sight.

Who needs cable when you've got a front porch?

Hurricane Izzy

Well, we survived Hurricane Isabel with no injuries or property damage, though it did get a little scary for a while. Some neighbors lost trees (and one might lose his house due to a fallen tree), but we just lost power. Then again, "just" may not be the right word, considering how difficult life can be without electricity.

Jason took it all like a trooper, and if nothing else we have a story to tell him when he gets older. We went ahead with our trip to Duck, NC as planned, and found everything there okay, though it was Thursday before we were allowed to venture into Nags Head and take a look around. We had a great time at the beach and Jason enjoyed being spoiled by all his adoring relatives.

Four Months

Hard to believe it's been four months since Jason was born. In some ways, it seems like just yesterday, but at the same time it's hard to remember what life was like before him.

On the 15th, Jason had his four-month check-up and got a clean bill of health. He weighed in at 18 lbs, 9.5 oz, with a height of 26 inches. Surprisingly, this only puts him in the 75th and 58th percentiles, respectively (or thereabouts), which I guess means there's a lot of big kids out there these days! Everyone who sees him guesses he's more like 6-8 months.

Jason's vocalizing a lot more, now. It started with squeals and it's turning into mutterings and "sighs." Words are still a long way off, but it's fun to hear his voice anyway. We had fun recently when I sang him a Beatle song and he squealed through it like a teeny-bopper at Shea Stadium (his uncle suggested maybe this wasn't adoration but an attempt to scream, "STOP IT!")

Also he loves to stand up and even puts one foot in front of the other to move himself closer to things that interest him (like his reflection), but so far he doesn't show any interest in crawling and in fact really dislikes being on his stomach. Hand-eye coordination is getting better, and now that he's discovered he's got two hands, he's just as content pulling his own fingers as playing with toys.

Following up on the previous entry, the trip to Minnesota went very well...Jason slept for the two flights up and almost all the way back, which made the plane rides a lot less miserable than we'd expected. The weather was great and we got to see lots of family.

There have been a few sleep-impaired nights lately as Jason experiments with tantrums. He dislikes being put down alone and would prefer to be held all night...wouldn't we all?

Update on Jason

Jason continues to do very well. We estimate his weight at somewhere between 15 and 16 pounds, which means he's double his birth weight here at the 11 week mark. The best part is he's smiling a lot, and even giggling with a little encouragement, which usually comes in the form of his "Lion King" mobile, Daddy's faces or Mommy's renditions of Patsy Cline hits.

Jason enjoys kicking the set of chimes we bought to hang from his little pop-up gym, and his legs are strong enough that he can support his own weight for quite a while, provided we hold him steady (he still has no sense of balance).

On April 15, Jason was baptized by his grandfather and Rev. Lynch and got a warm welcome from the folks at Woods UMC.

This Thursday, it's off to Minnesota for the Palzer family reunion. It'll be Jason's first trip by plane, obviously, but also the furthest he's been from home since we brought him back from the hospital. We're a little nervous about being "those people" on the flight...the ones who bring an infant along. I wonder if I'll see the other passengers thinking the same thing I always used to ("I hope they're not sitting next to me!").

Doing Fine

Wow, long time no update.

Well, Jason is doing fine now. Once he got his bilirubin levels under control, he went from 7lbs 10 oz to 9 lbs 13 oz in the space of 16 days, so we know he's eating well!

A couple of weeks ago he got to visit with his grandmother Patricia from Ohio and he still misses the extra attention. Work on the nursery is coming along nicely and with any luck it should all come together by the time Jason enters Middle School.

The best part is we're getting a lot of smiles now as Jason recognizes us and just generally seems to be having a grand time.

Glow Little Glow-worm

By the first Friday morning at home Jason was showing definite signs of jaundice, so we quickly made an appointment with the pediatrician and had him checked out. The doc said Jason’s bilirubin levels were elevated, meaning I gather that excess red blood cells were breaking down in numbers too large for his system to flush out without help. We were issued a device called a “Wallaby” light therapy machine, more or less a projector that shines light through a hose down to a paddle-shaped panel. The panel goes directly against Jason's bare back and provides the same beneficial effects he'd get from natural sunlight (except he won’t get a tan and there’s no heat).

After a few days on the machine, we got his levels back to where he could manage them without help. Still, it tugged at the heart to see him tethered to this contraption, with a one-inch hose sticking out from his blankets and a colorful glow shining through (we took to calling him our “little glow-worm”).

Apparently jaundice is a common problem for infants, one that used to be cleared up before they ever left the hospital, back in the days when mom and baby were kept there for a week or so. These days kids are sent home much earlier, and so it’s up to these medical supply companies to come door-to-door and hook them up to a machine at a cost of more than $100 a day. Another shining example of how America’s insurance industry is making the medical system more "efficient."

Baby Jason Is Here!

Laura and I got quite a surprise on April 15 when baby decided to show up three weeks early! After a quick trip to the hospital, we were blessed with a relatively short labor, about 10 hours), a great doctor and nurse, a minimum of pain (according to Laura!) and most of all, a beautiful and healthy baby boy.

Our son was born at 3:33 pm, which together with being three weeks early to the day seems a sure tip-off to what his lucky number will be. We’d decided early on to let ourselves be surprised by the sex of the baby, and although we’d long since settled on a girl’s name, we were still debating a boy’s name until literally the last minute. As an exercise to keep Laura’s mind off her aches, we made one last run through the alphabet, trying to come up with a good boy’s name for each letter. We’d only got about halfway through when the pushing started, and as soon as Laura saw the baby’s face, she decided he looked like a Jason (one of our favorite names for months, anyway).

Years ago we decided to give our first son the middle name “Peter,” in honor of Laura’s much-loved late grandfather. So the baby’s full name is Jason Peter Morefield. The day after he was born, the hospital photographer took an official photo for announcements, shown here.

Jason scored very well on the APGAR tests (8 and 9) and got a clean bill of health, so we headed home two days later and set about getting him settled in.

Baby Face

Yesterday Laura and I went in for another ultra-sound (number eight!) and this time you could see a lot more. Not too surprising I guess, with only six weeks to go.

Anyway I keep finding myself saying stupid things like, "it's got a little nose!" And of course, one would hope it did, along with, for instance, little eyes and a little mouth and various other little parts. But hearing such mindless pronouncements come out of my mouth, it's beginning to sink in that I'm probably going to be one of those parents, forever prattling on about the kid and whatever adventures it's gotten into, boring people with photos and stories that could only possibly interest myself and Laura. As if ours is the first kid to walk, talk, or make a funny face.

But it will be the first kid of ours to do it, and I suppose in the end that's enough.

Baby's Coming

Last week Laura and I took a tour of the Labor and Delivery area at the hospital. It's starting to sink in that we'll actually be having a kid in a little more than a month. Meanwhile what was our guest room is filling up with a crib, bouncy chair and other baby regalia, while the back seat of the Buick already has a car seat in place. Strange to think how much stuff this kid has and it isn't even here yet.

I put together a page for Laura's mom where I could post photos and other goodies related to baby, and then I decided to pretty it up a bit so anyone interested could poke around.

UltraSound: 18 weeks

On Dec. 10, Laura and I went in for an ultrasound and got a peek at our first child, now 18 weeks along. The little rascal was very active, covering its face, kicking and wiggling, but eventually they got a couple of clear shots.

Ultra-sounds look like black and white negatives in motion, but below, I've reversed the black and white areas to give a clearer idea of what's going on. The image at left is face on, with the baby's mouth open in a yawn and the left hand held up at head level. This angle gives what the technician calls the standard "Alien shot." On the right is a profile of the baby looking up and to the right, with a clear outline of the nose and forehead. Here it's much more clearly a human baby and not an ET. In fact the kid looks more "human" at this point than some ultra-sounds we've seen of babies even further along. Which is good news, as far as we're concerned...if we're going to be bragging about how cute this kid is, looking human is kind of a prerequisite.