Lauren B. Lentini

Jordan has been around for more than half a year now, and some recent conversations have had me thinking back to his early days. It’s unbelievable how fast time flies. It feels like he’s been part of our life forever, and yet he wasn’t even around seven months ago. While I’m over here feeling sentimental, let’s do a photo dump, shall we? I didn’t think you’d complain.

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My boy knows how to make an entrance. If you look closely, you can see the laceration by his ear where they nicked him with the scalpel. No one was wasting time on caution.

These are my favorite pics from the hospital. According to the timestamp, it’s 6:54 am on August 6, and that was my view. I had a feeling like all was right with the world. I was mildly annoyed that my baby wasn’t close enough that I could touch him, but not enough to wake Jerald or call the nurse.

I took pictures of him through the bedrail instead.

There are so many delightful photos of Jerald from the hospital. He’s just glowing with pride. I love this one, though, where Jordan is looking up at him.

He was so tiny! He has his parents’ head, though, and this precious hat didn’t fit him for long.

The lighting on this photo is terrible, and I have to crop out the spot on my shirt, but I still think it’s my favorite photo from his first month. Little star.

We made it through the first month! Jordan wore pants for the first time for these photos, and he didn’t seem impressed.

Murphy isn’t usually very snuggly with Jordan, but he does seem to consider himself the protector. He’d sit at the bottom of the bed and watch him in the crib while he slept. This time, he was making sure Jordan didn’t fall off the couch while Dad played video games.

Month 2 is when we introduced the Soothie, and we all discovered a new source of entertainment.

Jordan and I had to go to Jerald’s office one day, and we took a whole series of “Jordan at work” photos that my phone decided not to save. I got this one, though, so it wasn’t a total loss.

Two months! He looks like such a tough guy in this photo, and I don’t think it’s the shoes. This was his first real pair of shoes, and he didn’t appreciate having them put on him.

Jordan met his uncle! He also spent some time at the brewery, something that we do fairly often and he tolerates really well.

Jordan goes apple-picking, and Daddy tries out baby-wearing. He wasn’t the biggest fan of the Baby Bjorn, and I always felt like I was smothering him, so we didn’t use it much.

Jordan’s first Halloween, in which his Jean-Luc Picard onesie is too big and, after a last-minute alteration, I have trouble getting the insignia and all three pips into the same photo.

Three months!

Jordan, Smoosie, and I all went to vote. It was raining, and I decided not to take the car seat inside the polling place with me, so he wore his rain coat and I held him tight to my chest. A lady with an umbrella escorted me inside, and another lady was waiting for me when I came back out. It was very sweet of them.

Tummy time on the Boppy before…

…and after. This is one of the few times he ever smiled during tummy time at first. While an incredibly pleasant and mellow guy 99.9% of the time, he screamed his way through tummy time for months. Sometimes I could distract him with “sensory development” YouTube videos, but that was it. (Fun side note: The three toys in these photos, and only those three, have since been eaten by Molly. Smoosie was replaced, like, immediately.)

On Jordan’s first Thanksgiving, we woke up in a freezing house because the propane guys couldn’t get to us before we were empty (because of the holiday). We went over to Julia and Heather’s in our pajamas to shower and get ready, and they offered to let us stay the night, but we decided to brave the cold. We had space heaters and he was bundled up tight, but he was still chilly and we eventually (very carefully) brought him into bed with us.

We put up the Christmas tree while GranDee was still visiting, and he was fascinated by the lights. After Thanksgiving, I went back to work and Jordan stayed with GranDee before starting daycare in December.

GranDee packed her 2017 Christmas present, and it fit him! He looks impressed with himself for being such a good Christmas present.

Four months! He finally cracked a smile for one of these photos!

Jordan loves daycare, and he immediately got a reputation for always being happy (and spitting up a lot). I spent hours ironing labels on clothes and crib sheets and blankets, only to have them come off in the wash. This is his first of many times in the froggy chair.

It took a lot of outtakes to get this photo, but it was worth it. I set him up on the ottoman with the Boppy covered in a quilt. The too-large 80’s sweater cracks me up every time I look at it.

This is how the pros do it. He loved it when the photographer was taking pictures of him, but he got cranky as soon as we tried to get shots of all three of us. Molly came along with us to the photo shoot, but all the shots with her landed on the cutting room floor. We almost picked the one where she looked like she was about to eat the baby, but decided against it.

Our normally chill baby spent a good chunk of his first Christmas crying. So much so that we don’t have a good shot of him in his “My First Christmas” outfit with the amazing pants and the matching hat. At least he waited until after I was done with all the cooking and prep work to lose it. (We hosted, as you know, loyal reader.)

Five months and loving it! We didn’t choose this as his “official” picture, because he’s covering up the sign. But he’s just so exuberant, I adore it.

Talk about a bundle of joy! By this point, he’s smiling and laughing and grabbing onto things and splashing in the tub, and it’s all wonderful. He doesn’t mind tummy time so much anymore. He also had a couple of really bad colds and a double ear infection, but we all got through them mostly unscathed.

He’s also starting to sit up! (With help.) He takes much better photos like this, instead of The Sprawl, or The Prop. (I love this sleeper. We called it the bear-plane. It just got retired this week.)

Soothies are still around, but now they’re like a pacifier, teether, and toy all in one. He grabs them, chews on the edges, sucks on them backwards, whatever. If it falls out of his mouth and he can see it’s in reach, he’ll dive for it mouth-first. Endless entertainment.

Six months! I brought out the hipster shirt with the built-in jersey bowtie and the glasses pattern, but he was so not in the mood for photos. Maybe because we waited until bedtime to take them, oops.

This month begins the solid food journey, which he’s been skeptical about from the start. He loves rice cereal, but so far he’s rejected avocado, sweet potatoes, and carrots. He immediately figured out that spoons go in his mouth, though, and he’d rather do it himself.

I saw an article that said six months is peak cuteness, and I believe it. Look at that face! He’s struggling with eczema, though, so we’re treating him and counting the seconds until winter ends.

He’s also rolling over now, and I frequently find him on his stomach in the crib. (This is my new favorite sleeper, now that bear-plane is dead. Space shuttles!) He’s also learning to scoot, and made it halfway under the couch the other day. I can’t wait to see where he’ll go next!