Thanks, Hyland!

Jack is cutting 5 teeth right now--and this is, by far, what I would consider one of the more difficult parenting times of the past year. My happy, giggly, low-maintenance, super-sleeper baby has been replaced by a whiny, clingy, awake-every-hour, emotionally unstable nightmare. Even when I am holding him, he is constantly emitting a low-frequency whine, which is worse than fingernails on chalkboard. We can't set him down or walk away (even within his visual field) without him being reduced to a puddle of tears. He can seriously go from happy and engaged in an activity to a complete mess in a matter of seconds lest we even appear to be paying attention to anything but him. We have tried everything--Tylenol, infant Motrin, Orajel, teethers, teething cookies, fingers (ouch--I've been bitten HARD a couple of times!), etc., etc. Yesterday afternoon, on my whit's end, Jack and I took a trip to Albertson's and picked up some Hyland's Teething Tablets. I wasn't convinced these would do anything--they don't have any numbing agents and it isn't entirely clear how they work. But, they do. Within about 15 minutes of taking the tablets, our boy was back again. We got the first several hour stretches of sleep we've had in a while. So, thanks, Hyland's. You've made this mama happy.

Bumbo Baby

Jack's been getting bored always being on his back and loves being propped in a sitting position between our legs. So, we decided it was time to try him out in the Bumbo seat. He loves it! He does pretty well sitting up in it; still a little wobbly and he gets tired pretty fast, but he loves being able to reach for his toys and play with them.

My college roommate was in town for a visit last night--we got to spend the evening catching up and reminiscing about our college days (for the record, my husband thinks we were big dorks--I guess it's good that he met me in my "cooler days" post-college?!?!). She brought Jack the toy he's playing with in the picture. It's the first toy he can actually get to play music and light up on his own--oh, and it doesn't have an "off" button. Thanks, B., for bringing the "counting" song into our lives. I'm sure we will be humming it at work for months to come. :-)

We received these Trumpette socks as a baby gift and I didn't think much of them. Jared put them on Jack a couple of weeks ago and I LOVE them. He gets compliments on them whenever we are out and about.
I couldn't help myself, I added to the repertoire and got him this cowboy boot version: