Easter

For Easter, we joined Erin and Bean for brunch at their neighbor's house in SE (near our old, now rental, place). A lovely time was had by all, but most importantly, TJ had an excuse to dress up fancy and wow the crowd.

TJ spiffed up for Easter Brunch in some sweet Country-Club-style argyle.



TJ clearly upstages JT in the world of Easter fashion.



Baby and Mimosa = happy Mother

After brunch, we retired to Erin and Bean's for a private family photo shoot in their recently remodeled den. TJ was not happy with the direction we were getting from the photographer, so we had to work through a process to achieve the final result.

TJ was very unhappy with the art direction of this photo shoot.
Since he wasn't going to smile, we decided to join the dominant mood.



Family displeasure continues.



Let's practice some self-soothing.
(Of course, TJ stops just as the shot is taken, making us look like the babies.)



Easter joy (or at least contentment) achieved!

Bellingham and Babysitting (Weeks 9 and 10)

Ra and TJ took a trip to Bellingham for Grandpa Migo's traditional birthday. (He's more excited about celebrating his "new heart re-birthday" in September.) TJ got a lot of quality time with Aunt Wendy and Cousins Chelsea and Julia. We are certain that they will be great babysitters very soon.


Julia and Chelsea practicing their ace babysitting skills with TJ.


The other thing we've been getting a lot in recent weeks is a really happy dawn baby. He's active, alert and very happy in the dim light of the early morning. Ra has been telling me about it for a while, but since I'm usually off to work before it happens, I haven't enjoyed the pleasure until Easter weekend. The big payoff came Saturday morning when TJ and I had our first "conversation". Sure, it was all jibberish, but he really enjoyed the back and forth of him making noises and me repeating what he "said". Lots of smiles are on their way, and I'm excited about the increase in interaction.


I am thinking about smiling, but I'm not giving up the goods yet.


Okay, fine. I'm happy. I know it and now you do too.


After a long weekend in Bellingham, Mociute Vince came down to Portland to babysit on Thursday and Friday while Ra was in class for work. This was the first extended time with TJ and Ra separated, and everything went really well. Bottle feeding went fine, and Vince got some practice with pacifiers, bjorn and stroller.


TJ joins us at the table for our fancy grown-up solid-food dinner.


JT and TJ practice making faces and smiling at the goofiness of it all.


Coming next: Easter Sunday brunch was a great excuse to get pictures of TJ in his fancy tennis and yachting argyle outfit. We also captured a series of family photos that are sure to be instant classics.

Catchup

A bit after posting last time, I realized that we neglected to share some fun milestones. Around week 8, TJ had a few upgrades. He went from size 1 to size 2 diapers. We removed the newborn insert from his car seat and moved the shoulder straps up one notch. On the downside, he has outgrown some of his (our) favorite clothes including the cold weather brown reindeer outfit (which has now been replaced by a white bear suit that's pretty much just as fun... pictured below). Our little guy is growing, and his 14 pound weigh-in at the doctor today confirmed that he's heading in the right direction.

That's all cool stuff, but we're really excited about the first video clip collection that we've put together. These are a few highlights from TJ's first week home back in January. Enjoy!