Cakes and Solids

We love summer at our house, despite not having air conditioning and having to content ourselves with the swamp cooler and ceiling fan.

At 4 1/2 months, Jack weighed in at 13.7 lbs and 25 inches. He is healthy and active and fit, and not too heavy :) Doctor gave us the go-ahead for solid foods, so we've been having a blast getting squashes and cereals and peas all over the place. Jack enjoys baby food but enjoys grabbing the spoon and stuffing the bib in his mouth more.

I entered my first-ever cake decorating contest and took first place in the beginner division. It was actually a lot of fun and I'm planning to keep going with this cake stuff. Maybe I could make a business out of it once I get a little better.






We have passes to Seven Peaks waterpark and go once a week or so. It's quite a lot of fun, and Jack even seems to enjoy it. We got him a tube with a baby seat in it so that he can float around in the pool and around the lazy river with us, submerged to his shoulders. He doesn't seem to love it, but he doesn't mind it either. He also likes going down the little toddler water slides on our laps. However, he absolutely LOVES bath time. He'll lay in the tub in an inch or two of water and splash for 20 minutes. I think if Seven Peaks had hot water in all the pools he would probably love them more.

We went on a quick trip to Idaho with my mom this past weekend and enjoyed attending Jared's mission farewell and seeing all my family. Highlights included lunching at Olive Garden, watching our first ever "Jack Ryan" movie, "fixing" Dean's sprinklers, and watching Jack play with an orange Solo cup with more fascination than any of his other toys.



We also enjoy playing intramural sports with our ward every summer, and the long-awaited summer term coed softball team is 2-0 for the season :) Ryan's hit a couple of triples and I've only struck out once - success! Jack just loves watching Mommy and Daddy play softball, he was very excited when Ryan hit the triple and the whole team was screaming in excitement as the runners all crossed the plate.

We also went on an overnight trip to Midway with Ryan's work (Squire) and got to stay at the Zermatt resort. We also got a half day pass to the Alpine Slide and coaster at Park City mountain resort, which was so much fun!

 

Ryan and Jack enjoying the hotel TV together

This kid does nothing but smile (most of the time :)

Jack at 5 months

My Canada Day/Fourth of July cake 

Summertime with Jack

Jack at four months:

• Wearing size 2 diapers comfortably (we think he's around 14 lbs but we're not sure. And according to my measurements, he's about 24 inches long.)
• Possibly teething (lots of drool, whining, mouth-grabbing, chewing, and a bit of runny nose. But he could be just being a baby, too).
• Sleeping through the night still - and napping quite well also.
• Rolling over ALL the time, attempting to army crawl (he can make it a couple of inches over 5-10 minutes but that's all.)
• "Talking" all the time!

Loves: Taking baths, swimming, having his neck kissed, rolling over, putting things in his mouth, being bounced around, whacking things with his fists, grabbing hair.

Dislikes: Being put in the car seat when he's already tired, having his nose cleaned... that's about it. He's a happy kid!

We just love having Jack in our family - we think he's the greatest. Right after school got out, we took a week to go to Denver and Houston for a Sommerfeldt reunion. We got to go to the ocean, take Jack swimming for the first time, do some shopping and roller skating and park-playing. And Jack got lots and lots of love from his 11 other cousins! We were worried about the 8 hour drive to Denver and the 2 hour flight to Houston, but he did great, with lots of sleeping and minimal crying, and he was a good sport the whole trip. We learned that he is much more flexible than we first thought :)

We also celebrated my birthday with ice skating, hiking the Y, and a wonderful surprise party with good friends and family. Then we went to Seven Peaks water park on Memorial Day and spent the whole afternoon taking turns on the slides and splashing with Jack. He will love swimming and water if we have anything to say about it!

Lots of cousin time!

 

At Galveston beach in Texas

This is how Jack hikes the Y

Four months

Jack loved the waterslide!

Long Past Due...

Welcome to life with a baby! Things like blogging and journal-writing and couponing and emailing and anything else that requires two hands and a computer don't happen as easily as they once did :) We have been up to lots of adventures lately - mostly the baby-related kind.

JACK

• At two months old, we think Jack is about 10.5 lbs (we'll find out tomorrow).
• He sleeps through the night, from about 10:30 to 7:00. Sometimes he wakes up at 6:00 and cries a few minutes. If it doesn't last long, I stay in bed and he falls asleep again. We know we're super blessed that he's sleeping through the night. We pray multiple times a day that he'll keep doing it. Being up so much in the night was messing with my sanity. For the sake of everyone around, we're very grateful Jack decided to sleep well. 
• Naps are a work in progress. We're working establishing a flexible routine for the day, so that maybe he'll start getting sleepy around the same times each day and nap better. But I won't complain, because of that nighttime sleep!
• He smiles ALL the time! Mainly when you stick out your tongue and go "la la la la la" at him. He loves it. 
• He just loves his play mat. He will stare at the toys hanging from it, and has lately begun batting at them with his hands, which often makes him smile. 
• He turns over front to back about half the time. Often he puts his arms down by his sides and then tries to roll, resulting in his arm being awkwardly in the way, which makes him mad and he cries because he can't figure out what to do with his arm. It's cute :)
• He doesn't spit up much, maybe a little drooling after eating, and diapers are mostly okay, though we've started having these awesome blow-out-the-top-back of the diapers, which makes lots of laundry for Mommy...
• He still loves bath time and even doesn't mind getting lotion on, as long as we dry him well and wrap him in a warm blanket for a minute first. 
• He loves his swing. Naps happen in it pretty frequently. 
• He gets excited when Daddy comes in the room and starts talking, he'll stop eating or turn his head and look for him. 

We have been amazed in a happy way at how Jack arrived and turned our lives upside down and took it over completely. We're now one of those couples that will talk your ears off about our baby for far longer than you want us to, and we enjoy playing with him and just sitting and watching him. 

As far as what's going on with US - Ryan is about to finish the junior core with accounting. Just a couple weeks more. We recently decided to pursue a PhD in accounting, so that means Ryan will graduate with the master's degree in April 2016 and then be off (somewhere) to PhD school for 4-5 more years. Hooray!

I am just working from home still, hanging out with Jack, and hanging out with Jack more. Ryan and I were just released from our callings as Relief Society president and bishopric counselor, and neither of us have new callings, so I feel a little lost sometimes - but I've gotten into indexing. It's more fun than I expected. 

Ryan was able to bless Jack in church yesterday (for which Jack was happy and cooperative - yay!). We had a party afterward to celebrate. 

And here are pictures!

Ryan and Jack with matching polar bear pajamas

Two months!

Blessing day: I made the bow tie and pants, bought the shirt, and the shoes are from Aunt Darece

 

With Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Brockbank

Four generations - sort of (Grandpa Brockbank is Lisa's dad, not Scott's)

 

Aunt McKenzi and Uncle John

Welcoming Little Sommerfeldt

Presenting:

Jack Ryan Sommerfeldt

January 29, 2014

Jen & Jack two nights before delivery

Contractions started Tuesday the 28th, but weren't painful or productive until about 10:30 p.m. We checked into the hospital at 1:00 a.m. on Wednesday the 29th - six hours before I was scheduled to be induced. I got an epidural, which felt heavenly, and they added a little pitocin and broke my water in the early morning to help get things going.

Post-epidural happiness. We even got some sleep. 

Around 9:00 a.m. I was dilated to a 9 and my epidural was failing. This started six hours of seeing the anesthesiologist almost as often as the nurses - I got re-dosed more times than I counted, and still could feel tons of pressure. About 11:45 we started pushing, but shortly realized that Jack was transverse (sideways) and we had to wait for an obstetrician to arrive with forceps to try and turn him. He didn't get there until about 2:30 and was straightforward about the fact that if turning him didn't work, we were looking at a c-section. However, we were able to finally push him out, and he arrived at 3:01 p.m. with quite a "cone head" to show for his 4 hours in the birth canal. Overall, active labor was about 16 1/2 hours long, with 11 hours of pre-labor contractions preceding it. 

Welcome Jack! We love having you in our family :)

More pictures and adventures

Hanging out with Byron and Alfred on our front porch

Pumpkin carving adventures

Watching BYU football from the upper corners of outer darkness in the stadium :)

Our Halloween costume - matching Santa hats for the whole family :) 

Decorating for Christmas! Only 48 days left!

It will be Ryan's and my first actual Christmas here, together, married. Our first Christmas sort of blended into our honeymoon, and our second Christmas we were in Spain - it was definitely a different sort of Christmas! But this year we'll be here the whole time, with the whole season to enjoy together and with family - and we're excited about it!

It's Autumntime, it's autumntime!

Does anyone else remember that Primary song? Here is a refresher in case you've forgotten:

It's Autumntime Primary Song

And it is absolutely beautiful. I wish I had some good pictures of the beautiful red and orange and yellow trees all around our apartment. We had a few weeks where a family of blue jays took up residence in the trees by our parking lot - but it seems to have gotten too cold for them and they've flown south. We still have our little flock of quail, though - now probably 30 or more in number. I think my favorite part about this apartment is the huge mass of trees, bushes, and ivy right outside our window, and the constant sound of birds. And it's beautiful in the fall with the ivy leaves turning red and brown.

Of late: Ryan is marching steadily onward through the first semester of the accounting junior core and doing a great job of it. We've finally found a sort of balance - most days we have enough time to eat dinner together and do something short, even if it's later at night. He interviewed for two internships for this summer and was offered one at Squire, just right up the road in Orem. It's an advisory internship, which is what he thinks he wants to go into, so we're excited for the experience he'll get. It will probably be May - August, too, which will be great, and we won't have to move with a 4-month old (yay!).

They also offered him a part-time job in the interim - which he accepted this morning for just 5-10 hours a week, so that will also be great experience. In his "free" time, he's been busy putting in new blinds, helping me move furniture around, finishing up lawns for the summer, and driving me to Smith's at 10:30 at night to buy "real" chocolate.

I am still working from home about 18 hours a week as a project manager for a translation company in Salt Lake. I enjoy the job, it's picked up a little in the past week so it's not quite as boring :) Plus it's flexible, and most of the time "work" means watching my email, taking care of things as they come in or are assigned, and washing dishes or cleaning the floor in the meantime. It's nice to be able to stay caught up around the house while still working. While not working, I've been organizing the apartment, trying to get the second bedroom baby-ready, working on craft projects, cleaning, doing Relief Society stuff, and visiting with friends. It's still weird not working/studying full-time, but as I've started needing a nap more and more each day, I am a little bit grateful for how things are.

Watching BYU football

Ryan playing intramural tennis

Our beautiful, massive tomato plant that never produced a single tomato

Ryan fixing the baby's dresser that we got off KSL for only $20!

Our Christmas stockings - I taught myself free-motion quilting so I could embroider the names

Helping Lisa paint her kitchen by climbing around like a 6-months pregnant monkey.

Our ghost family - made from a plastic tablecloth, paper towels, and pipe cleaners.