Hidden Gems

I found these pics on Jack's phone. ...

Maternity Leave Wrap Up

I am starting back at work tomorrow and I feel like the past 4.5 months have just flown by. Although, since I really don't remember what it is that I did for a living...I guess it has been a while.

Knowing that this was going to be my last maternity leave...I went into it with a few goals that I was hoping to accomplish. Here's how I did:

1. Easy Delivery - Not so much.

2. Get Baby Jack to sleep thru the night before going back to work - Check!

3. Learn how to put two kids to bed on my own - have done this a few times...still fine tuning.

4. Do double work-outs most days - I actually did do this a lot. Usually cursing my genetic misfortune the entire way.

5. Lose all my baby weight - ha ha ha ha. Despite doing Jenny Craig (fyi - don't call when you are 10 days postpartum - they won't send you the food even if you ask nicely) for 2 months until I could no longer afford it on FMLA pay, doing Baby Bootcamp and Adventure Bootcamp...I am sadly not back where I started. But I do fit into some of my suits...progress!

6. Change my last name. That's right people - I am Mrs. D'Angelo.

7. Order our wedding album - it's here on my table in all it's glory. It only took 6 years!

8. Join Facebook. Thank God I did this on my last day of leave or else the other 7 items would have never gotten done!

Here's hoping I don't forget my laptop tomorrow and that I don't spend the entire day deleting emails from March. I wonder if the BART ticket I have had in my wallet for 5 months still works?

Yum - Rice Cereal

Here is Brooke at her very first feeing. How time flies!

Baby Jack eyes Brooke's dinner....a good sign that he is ready for some food.

Jack decided to use some cool effect on our camera that added a blue tint to some of these photos. I think this effect is making Baby Jack's hair look like Mr. T's. And it really highlights my watch tan-line.

I wasn't actually putting it in his nose.

The lean.

What? You want some of this? We got a problem?

Bless You My Child. Ok, this was just so he would stop bending down to eat his hands!

Jack & Brooke do their best "broccoli faces" for the camera. Whatever it takes to get the veggies in!

Stats

I took Baby Jack in for his 4 month appointment today. He weighs 16lbs!! Which is right on track, since they like to see babies double their birth weight by this age. He also grew 3 inches since his 8 week appointment! So he has moved up from the 50th percentile in both height and weight into the 75th percentile. BIG BOY!

Happy 4 Months!

Baby Jack is officially 4 months old today!

The time has flown by and I am a week and a half away from returning to work -eeek! Here's a little snap shot of Baby Jack:

1. He is a cuddler! Baby Jack is happiest when he is getting face time with whoever is holding him.

2. He likes to bounce. And bounce. And bounce. I have a love/hate relationship with the ball. I love that it always works like a charm to get him to be calm or just pass out...but I am tired of bouncing. Seriously.

3. He likes the Ergo. Thank God because it has allowed me to drag him all over the place when I have his big sister in tow. He usually falls asleep if I am moving and it's so nice to be hands free.

4. He loves to watch Brooke. Shocker.

5. He freaks out when you walk downstairs if he is facing forward. I mean, freaks out.

6. No matter what time of night (or early morning), when he sees my head peak in over his crib...he puts on a HUGE grin and I melt.

7. He giggles when you scare him.

8. He also giggles when I change his diaper.

9. Somehow, he sits still with his Dad to watch sports, they have watched almost a full baseball game, some world cup games and golf so far.

Lil Kickers

On Saturday Brooke had her very first soccer lesson! We signed her up to play at Bladium in Alameda - the place is HUGE and has tons of indoor soccer fields, a climbing wall, basketball, inline hockey, a fitness center, a bouncy house in the childcare area and a full sports BAR!

Brooke was so excited to play and suited up right away - first uniform!

All these pictures are blurry since they were taken with my iphone...as I was running with her! I signed up her up for the parent interactive team for this first go around...but I think she will be fine without me going forward. SHE LOVED it!

At the end they got into a huttle with Coach and put their hands in and said "Go Team Blue" and let me just tell you - we have been doing that cheer ever since. This morning before we left the house, Jack, Baby Jack, Brooke and I all had our hands in.

It's a 50 minute class and its a lot of running...this Lil Kicker was tired!

Most improved

I said I would go public with my before and after stats from my bootcamp. Yesterday was the 4 week mark and we did the same set of fitness tests to see if the torture we have gone thru for the past month helped us to improve.

Push-ups in a minute: 42 - booya!

Sit-ups in a minute: 47 - I actually won a t-shirt for this because I had the highest improvement in situps from a month ago. HA! Considering I had a baby 16 weeks ago, I suppose this could only go up.

Timed mile run: 8:42 - 10 seconds slower than last time which is BS! My shoe lace came undone - fooey!

For the record..only myself and one other girl won anything. This did not surprise Jack in the least as I am a classic over-achiever. But really - winning something based on my abs right now is almost as good as the time Jack won a bronze medal for competing in a race in which only 2 other contestants ran in his category. Do the math.

Sarah is starting bootcamp with me next week! AWESOME!