Jack Kaden

I’ve been walking around in a haze for days now. My new job is kicking my ass. I am out of the house by 7:30 and sometimes not home until 9 or 10 at night. I don’t get to see the boy that much, which sucks.

When I do see him, it’s like he’s stuck to me. He’ll crawl over and wrap his arms around my legs, when I put him down at night he clings to my neck like a monkey.

Last night was one of those nights where I got home at 7pm, just 30 minutes before his bedtime, and we played with his new blocks and read a little story before going to bed. He went to sleep without incident (well, for Jack anyway), and all was quiet…until 4am.

At around 4:05 I got up to see what all the racket was. As I stumbled out of bed, realizing that I had a breakfast meeting in approximately 3 hours, I started tuning into what the kid was saying.

“Mama.” Clang, Clang, Clang (the sound of a crib rattling)

silence for about 10 seconds

“Mama” - said with a little more urgency and then Clang, Clang, Clang again.

My cloudy brain was pretty sure there was no way the kid knew what he was saying. But hey, it worked, it got me up, so maybe I should go check on him.

I walked into his room and he took one look at me and said “Mama” again, giggling and sort of boucing on his toes.

So. With that experience I am calling the official first word.

Sorry Arch. You lost.

I suspect that this is only going to lead to trouble….

No synagis. That’s right. We don’t qualify. What we do qualify for, apparently, is another winter of being holed up at home. No subway, no airplane, no sick kids, and no sick adults. Oh and we’re breaking out the Purell. Again.

I swear to god when he turns 2 I am going to light a flaming mound of Purell on fire in celebration.

What’s so strange about having a “preemie” is that you become obsessed, truly obsessed, with milestones. I am sure that we are not the only set of parents whose heart swells with pride, love, amazement when their baby does something totally and completely normal…but we’re going to brag again anyway.

Last year, this is where we were. Today, I cried because Jack pulled himself up to a standing position while watching the US Open.

I am dork. A dork with a huge sense of history.

Ok, this is a quicktine VR movie of the house in Jackson. You can drag your mouse around inside the video and move around. Neat-o!