Trekkin' Around

Well, where to start! It's been a pretty full month and as usual I haven't been able to blog enough to keep up! I believe I need to rewind to the beginning of September when our little family got to celebrate with those lovely Moe ladies on their 1st birthday. We had a fun time playing with Taylor, Hayden, and Miss Catherine Drain.

Sarah and I literally had our hands full with those cute babies! While the boys found some time to discuss politics (yes, politics at a 1st birthday party) and have a few beers. We ended up staying all day and had a great time.

Since summer was coming to a close, we decided we needed to catch one more music in the park with Uncle Steve. It was short (since Jack's bedtime is earlier now) but fun!

Yet another open weekend and Pete and I were looking for something fun to do that was baby friendly. We quickly found the local Greek festival. We had a great time sampling Greek food and beverages, watching the dancers, listening to music, and even checkin' out the food roasting on a spit! We had a really nice time while broadening the wee Jack's cultural horizons! Opa!

Our little guy has become super social and gives us big laughs and smiles often. He seems to be so interested in everything around him that we can't help trekking out to find more stuff for him to see! During our down time Jack has gotten really strong and has started using his arms to hold his head and shoulders up. Here's a pretty classic picture that I got just as the drool dropped! (Did I mention that he's a big drooler lately?)

We also found time to have a little fun in Lafayette at our favorite art and wine festival. We packed up the stroller and met up with Mr. Matt Malone (Not pictured unfortunately...Mr. Malone is a wily one and always seems to escape my attempts to photograph him in his natural habitat!) and our friend Todd. We had a blast strolling around and sampling beverages while listening to music and checking out the booths. It was a great day finished with classical pops in the park while we had dinner at EJ Phair (the local pub).

What a month! I know I've missed some things, but I think this post is big enough for now! :)

4 months

Our little monkey turned 4 months old this month! Jack is now 26 inches long/tall weighing 15 1/2 lbs. He's babbling and screeching (just for fun) a lot lately. He is MUCH more alert and seems to be taking everything in where ever we go. He's also found his feet, so much of his time is spent bent in half like a contortionist while he plays. He's able to grasp toys and responds to mommy's voice. How time flies! Mom is lagging a little with the pictures, but here are a few of the highlights.

As you can probably tell, Jack's pretty sleepy in these pictures (these were right before nap time)!

Our cat Dave wanted in on some of the attention so he jumped into Jack's spotlight! :)

Jack just chillin'.

Just Hangin' Out...

Over Labor Day weekend we Hoversen's hopped in the car and headed up to Redding! We got to celebrate Grandpa Jones' 68th birthday by spending time with them and lucky for Jack, there was a Bears game on. :)

Here's the wee one tuckered out on the drive home (I'm told that's exactly how Pete used to suck on his fingers) .




Jack's getting so big so quickly and with solid foods right around the corner, we decided to get a jump on setting up the highchair. Here's Jack giving it a test drive (Mom thought that the ears sticking out were too cute to fix--he just looks like such a little boy)!




Times are good around our house. I love staying at home most of the week with Jack and have started working every Friday job-share teaching kindergarten in San Ramon. So far it's been great and Jack has liked playing with his Grandma and Grandpa Hoversen during that time.

The following is just a shameless display of the never-ending-cuteness that is Jack Hoversen! He's started really laughing and it keeps us pretty amused! :)

Professional Documentation

Last Saturday was our first experience with a 'professional' photographer and our first family portrait. After jumping around trying to entertain Jack to get a great smile they threw us in the picture and caught a family shot. Pete says that they would make a killing if they could somehow offer cocktails too! We were pretty pleased with the result but are glad we're not doing this every month!

3 Month Old Jack

Our wee Hovertot is growing by leaps and bounds! He's 3 months old now and weighing in at 14lbs! He's been doing lots of babbling/talking and has been practicing holding his head up for longer amounts of time. He's also starting to try to bat at objects and loves holding onto mommy during feedings. I think it may be time for his first professional pictures (because if there's anything we need, it's more pictures), so be on the lookout for those!

Even though he loves playing with all his lady friends, he spent some time with the boys this past month. First he had fun with his friend Aiden who is 6 months his senior! Jess and Christy had a good walk while the little boys snoozed.

Then it was time to play with Miss Catherine and the brand new wee James Dixon. Despite his cries toward the end, Jack had a great time with the other members of the Class of 2008! It was fun to see the Dixons and get to hold such a tiny baby again.

HE DID IT!!!

It's been a busy month so far, but this announcement deserves an article of it's own. Yes folks, Mr. Jack Hoversen slept through the night! After months of late night/early morning feedings with seemingly no end in sight, Jack gave his parents the best gift ever! The first night was on August 9th from 9-3:15 (sleeping through the night in the technical sense, but in no way the type of schedule we'd like to keep). The second was on the 11th when he went from 8pm to 7am!!! His parents couldn't be prouder and are LOVING catching some z's like the rest of the population!

Baby On Tour

Wow, how the time flies! The last few weeks have been pretty eventful for our little family, so I figure it's time to do a little catching up!

First, We got to celebrate with Miss Catherine Drain at her baptism. We had a great time celebrating with her once she woke up! :) It was fun to visit with the Drains, the Moes, Mr. Malone, and the rest of Catherine's family!

One Thursday evening we decided to try and take Jack out to a concert at Todos Santos Plaza. We had a nutritious dinner of kettle corn (when packing up a baby, who can remember to pack a picnic) and enjoyed the great weather and fun music. We also got to meet up with Aaron and Micaela that night for a little bit and introduce them to our little guy.

Then it was on to Pete's company picnic. It was a hot afternoon, but we made the best of it in the shade with a few chilled beverages. Jack got to meet lots of his dad's coworkers and did a lot talking about the future of third party money management! ;)

After that we Hoversens decided to brave a trip to the Oakland Zoo! (Which at Jack's age, was really for mom and dad!) We packed him up and had a great time wandering around looking at the animals and relaxing in the shade. Can't wait to take him when he can actually realize what he's looking at!

Gotta admit...those elephants can be mighty smelly!

The tigers were sleeping, but we got a few snuggles in the shade!

A's representing at the Lion's den!

And finally we got a quick visit from Phil from New York over at Casa de Moe. As an added bonus we got to play with those super cute Moe girls!

After all of that, we ended July with a cold! (Jack's first one, poor thing!) All three of us came down with a pretty nasty bug and spent some time on the couch trying to recuperate. Luckily, we've pretty much kicked it and now we're ready for some more summer fun!