First solids

Last night we gave Jackson his first solid food - delicious, yummy, mouth watering, gourmet Rice Cereal. I think he would have eaten the entire box if we let him! Needless to say, he slept through the night. Success on all fronts in my book.

Virginia Vacation

Last Tuesday we left home for almost a week in Virginia. Here are the highlights of our HOT trip!

Chincoteague Island

We spent 3 nights on this island which is known for its wild ponies. We went for a hike through the National Wildlife Refuge and saw ponies, took a bus tour and saw ponies and then took a pontoon ride and saw ponies. Lots of ponies! We also saw tons of different birds, fox squirrels, deer, and a snake. There is a beautiful beach on the island that we took Jackson to in the evening so he could dip his toes in the ocean for the first time. The boat ride was also his first - he didn't seem to mind the breeze through his hair and eventually fell asleep. Our ride was cut short by a pretty spectacular lightning show.

Virginia Beach

After crossing a 20 mile bridge that made my toes curl, we spent a few hours checking out Virginia Beach. We didn't have high expectations, but it was actually pretty nice. We walked the boardwalk, had lunch and then jumped back in the car.

Williamsburg
We spent 2 nights here and boy was it hot. On Saturday, the high was 105. We went to historic Williamsburg in the morning before it got too hot. We spent about 4 hours taking in the village and seeing historical characters portray life back in the good old days.

Jamestown

We stopped here on Sunday on our way to Richmond. The heat kept us from seeing everything, but it was such a fascinating stop, especially because it is an active archeological site. Hard to imagine what life was like back in 1607!

Richmond

Our last stop was Richmond to see our friends Lauren and Roger. We had dinner with them and unfortunately I didn't take a single picture. Boo!

More pictures here!

Sleeping on the job

Jackson has been spending more time in his "office" lately and apparently whatever deadline he is working on was just a bit too much to handle.

Toe sucker

In addition to sucking every finger and anything else you put in front of his face, Jackson has now moved on to toes as well. Guess this comes with the territory of learning to sit up on your own. Aunty JoJo was the first to enable him.

Father's Day recap

4 am: Jackson wakes up and starts cooing/crying. This is the first night of the planned "Let Him Cry It Out" project. 15 minutes later, he's asleep.

5:45 am: Jackson wakes up, eats, and then goes back to sleep until 9:15 am.

10 am: Time for a walk and our first attempt at geocaching. Don't know what geocaching is? It's where you pretend you're a pirate and hunt for buried treasure. Or something like that. Adam got a new geocaching GPS from work and we thought we would give it a shot. It was actually pretty fun, but then again we are over 30 with a baby. Fun is a relative term these days.

11:30 am: Mommy makes daddy breakfast and he opens his presents. This year he received a customized card, a book called "Sh*t My Dad Says" and a personalized photo book with pictures of daddy and Jackson.

12:30 pm: Talk to Grandma and Grandpa Porter on the webcam.

1:30 pm: Go to the Blue Rocks game. Fall asleep.

5:00 pm: Our first paid babysitter arrives. I found her through a babysitting agency that my neighbor recommended. She's a grandmother and nice as can be. Adam and I go to Domaine Hudson for Brazilian night and to celebrate Father's Day and our Anniversary.

8:00 pm: Return home to find Jackson sleeping on the babysitter's chest on the lounge chair in the backyard. I can't even get him to sleep on my chest anymore, so this was clearly a success!

Bar crawl

We took Jackson on his first bar crawl on Saturday. Yes, you read that right. It wasn't planned. Really. Our kickball team does a bar crawl every year and it kicks off at a girl's house down the street from us. We thought we would just meet the team there to have a beer and see them off. As the team was getting ready to go the first bar at 8 pm we realized it was a pretty baby friendly spot since it's a restaurant as well. So, we went to the first bar. And then at 9 when it was time to change bars, we realized that was also a restaurant as well. So, to the second bar we went. The whole time Jack was either being really well behaved or was sleeping. Until about 9:30 when he realized he was hungry and tired and well, we couldn't argue with him. So, home we went with his first bar crawl under his diaper.

And this recap from our kickball captain: "Guys,First off, thanks to everyone for coming out to Ms. Fields bday bar crawl. I think the highlight of the night was seeing Adam and Nicole push Jackson in his stroller to the first two bars. Clearly the kid will make a great Sofa King someday."

And this is why we call him Crab Cakes

Am I happy? Am I sad? Maybe I'm just craaaaazy!

Going to the Cheasapeake with our very own Crab Cakes

On Sunday, we headed down to the eastern shore of MD for a couple of nights as as Adam had a leadership conference on Monday. We had a nice little trip.....ate lunch at Perry's Cabin (where they shot Wedding Crashers), went swimming in the pool a couple of times and tried to sleep off the colds that Jackson and I both have while daddy was at his meetings, and bought an end table at an antique store. We did realize that eating out with him is no longer as easy as it use to be so I think that the restaurants of America will be seeing the Hardt family a little less frequently going forward.

Throwback Thursday

Hiccup....hiccup.....hiccup

June 10

Yesterday was a momumental day in the Hardt family.....

-Jackson turned 4 months old

-Mommy and daddy got their first king bed

-It marked the 3 year anniversary of Adam proposing to me. Don't we look so.....young? And non-sleep deprived?

Maybe I will be a football player

Ray Rice vs. Jackson Hardt

4 month update

Weight: 19 lbs 10 oz

Length: 26 inches. He doesn't seem to be getting a lot taller! Wish the weight would start to level off!

Visitors: Kate Dall, Ann Elliott, Nick Halstead

Sleeping patterns: Over the past month have been waking up once during the night to eat, but am now going back to sleeping through the night. The other night I slept for 9 hour straight!

My Likes: Tummy time - who woulda thought? Rolling over, all the time and therefore almost exclusively sleeping on my belly. Putting anything and everything in my mouth. Drooling on everything. Sucking my thumb. Kicking my legs so much that mommy can barely change my diaper. My ducky paci now that I can hold it myself.

My Dislikes: When my "guys" on my exercauser don't go in my mouth the right way I get very upset.

Other milestones: I can roll over from my back to my tummy, but only going to the right. I went in the swimming pool for the first time. I've discovered my feet and my hands and love to watch them.

Trips: We went back to Mora, MN for Great Grandpa Barker's funeral on June 5th.

Looking forward to in the next month: Going to my "school" so my mommy can stop being a slacker and go back to work. Taking a couple of trips - one to MD and one to VA.

Throwback Thursday

To celebrate Jackson being 4 months old today, have posted a video of us getting ready to go home! I don't realize Adam is recording and think he is trying to take a picture.

Darling Ducklings

Jackson will be a Darling Duckling on July 1 when he starts going to "school." We went there today to meet his teachers (Emma and Amy) and the other babies that are in the room. We liked both of the teachers, although Amy is just a temporary and due to have a baby in Sept.

There are currently 6 other babies in the room, including one other Jackson! However, they are all almost 1 year old so will soon be moving to a new room which is probably a good thing since they are all very mobile and were pretty much ready to have their way with Jack. There are two other babies starting in July (Otto and Gianna) and the teachers said they are happy to have little babies again. I'm sure it won't stay this way for long, but two teachers for three babies is great!

We laid Jackson on the floor and he did well. He played with some toys, looked at himself in the mirror and minded his own business like usual. The other babies (one in particular) were far more interested in him. There was a chorus of "Be gentle with the baby" while we were there.

Now I just need to get some "school" supplies, shed a few tears, and we'll be off and running!

I swim, therefore I am

This weekend while we were back in MN, we took booser baby swimming for the first time. He was in the pool for 30 minutes and did really well! No crying even though the pool was a bit cold. I see infant swimming for him and daddy when he turns 6 months old!

So long

We're all sad today because Great Grandpa Barker passed away yesterday. We feel so fortunate that we were able to introduce him to Jackson about a month ago when we were back in the Midwest. Below is one of my favorite photos from our entire trip. We miss and love you Grandpa!

I love tummy time when I do it myself

Let me show you how it's done

Jackson's first ad

A friend of ours was recently at J Crew and came across this flyer. Looks like Little Nest is pimping Jackson (and us) to get new clients! :-)