Jesse goes to the beach

Jesse visits Natural Bridges State Park with his aunt

One of the day's rare peaceful moments

If you've read the first post about our Santa Cruz day over at my own blog, then you know Jesse didn't have an especially fun day with us on Monday. But he did have some quiet happy moments sitting in my lap at the beach, as these pictures show.

He drank six or seven ounces of formula, he watched his cousins dig in the sand, he looked at the water, and he had a good long nap in the baby carrier.

And he screamed a lot, too, but between the wind and the waves, it didn't seem so bad.

Day 8

We took Jesse on a big outing today: we started at a breakfast joint, then hit the Roaring Camp Railroad, then took a mile-long hike through the redwoods. (If you're reading this post, you probably already saw the photos over at my blog.)

But Jesse's favorite part? Sitting in the grass.

I didn't even know he knew how to sit! But when I laid him on his back in the grass, I could see him using his stomach muscles trying to sit up, and it seemed like he might have the core strength to sit upright. So I set him there, and he only lasted 10 or 15 seconds, but that is longer than my daughter did on her first try, which was when she was six months old.

Speaking of my daughter, in this video that's her orange sandal you see appear from nowhere and bump Jesse in the leg. He was surprised by it, but not upset.

Days 6 and 7

Oh, a two-week blogging gap! Sorry! If you visit my own blog, you may have read my excuses over there. But now we're carrying on...

We baby-sat Jesse on Friday, July 27 and Monday, July 30, both times with the welcome company and assistance of my parents. They have been baby-sitting him with regularity this summer while Jesse's dad is out of town, so they are very experienced! In fact, Jesse is now old enough that he has developed preferences and expectations, so it's good for me to have an familiar baby-sitter on hand. He has grown particular about how he wants to be fed (warm bottle, please), rocked to sleep, driven in the car (music, please), and so forth. It makes sense, but I can see a real difference from how he was at the start of this summer, when he was relatively un-formed and flexible. I guess my baby nephew is growing up!

Anyway, he and I still get along well. I took him to his first yard sale on Friday right after I picked him up from Erica's house, but there wasn't anything good. Then later that day we had a park playdate with the kids' second cousin Jett, son of my cousin (and Erica's cousin too) Kim. We took a picnic lunch to Scott Park in Watsonville, which had a fun play structure for the big kids. Jesse enjoyed being outside, but he isn't much of one for playgrounds yet. He hasn't been in a swing yet, and I was tempted to let him try it out, but then I thought maybe Erica would like to be there for his inaugural swing!

Cousins and second cousins, L-R: Laurel, Jett, Jesse, and Isaac

Then on Saturday we had a family outing to Gilroy Gardens amusement park, and Erica got to join us! It was a nice experience for me, and probably for Erica as well, because usually when I take Jesse somewhere I have to take care of him! This time she was on the hook.

Erica holds a wide-eyed Jesse on the "bumper boat" ride at Gilroy Gardens

Erica and Jesse on the merry-go-round, with both my kids in the background

Then our next baby-sitting day was on Monday, and it seemed very low-key after the weekend's excursion. Jesse did get to experience his first piano moving, although he didn't seem to appreciate the work that goes into moving a baby grand.

Just two more baby-sitting days left before the end of the summer! We'll be sure to do something fun with Days 8 and 9.

Picking oranges

Yesterday was a baby-siting day for us! As we did last time, we just hung around my parents' house. Next Friday we'll have to get out and do something.

We did take a walk down the hill to my parents' orange grove, where we picked several dozen oranges. Jesse loves being outside and going for a walk in the baby carrier, although he invariably falls asleep. Also, as he seems to be teething, he spent the entire time chewing on the strap of the baby carrier!

Oranges? I'd rather eat this strap, thanks

Self-portrait with oranges

A week without Jesse

As it had become evident that baby-sitting and swimming lessons weren't compatible to our schedule, last week we didn't get to see Jesse. We will be doing it this week, however, on Friday! So stay tuned.

In the meantime, here are some photos taken during our Independence Day visit to my parents' house.

Jesse and his mother visit the pond at his Opa & Oma's house

Oma, Jesse, and Erica stay shaded from the sun

Cousin Isaac gets to hold Jesse's bottle (with Aunt Nicole's help)

Bird calls

Here Jesse enjoys Aunt Nicole's attempts at bird calls, and even joins in a bit!

Day Four

How did Jesse like his baby-sitting day with me on Friday? He thought it was pretty fun, I think. He actually saw a lot of my family over the course of three days, as we stayed with my parents for a few days for the Fourth of July.  Erica came with him to my parents' house on the Fourth of July, my mom baby-sat him the next day, and I baby-sat him yesterday. So he is growing very familiar with our faces! In fact, when I went to pick him up at Erica's house on Friday morning, he grinned broadly when he saw me, and (maybe) even stretched out his arms to me.

Jesse's grin is a wonderful thing

We hung around my folks' house all three days, unlike our last two baby-sitting days when we went out and had adventures. In some ways it is easier to take care of a baby at home instead of out at a park or store, but really the big difference was the number of adults around: between me, my parents, and my husband Craig, there was never the need for any of us to juggle three kids at once. And watching just one kid at a time seems pretty easy! (Assuming you're not completely sleep-deprived, that is.)

My parents live in a beautiful rural setting, so Jesse had his first campfire cook-out by the pond, and we went for several walks in the woods.

Aunt Nicole and Jesse in the redwoods

And when it was time for the second nap of the day, what could be nicer than Oma's lap?

They both had a nap, actually

We'll be taking next week off from baby-sitting (swimming lessons get in the way, unfortunately) but we'll be back the following week on Friday, July 20. I wonder if Jesse will forget us by then.

Playing with cousins

Isaac has decided Jesse can play two different games: Marching Band and Uh-Oh.

Marching Band involves Jesse jerking his legs in a marching movement (while reclining) and rattling a toy:

Jesse plays "Marching Band" with Laurel and Isaac

Uh-Oh involves Jesse repeatedly dropping a toy in order for someone else to pick it up:

Laurel picks up a toy that used to be hers

Actually, Jesse isn't quite old enough to play the Uh-Oh game purposefully; he can barely hold the toy as it is, so when he drops it I suspect it is by accident. However, Laurel played this game, and Isaac remembers it vividly.

And when games with your cousins grow tiring, you can always gaze out the window at the breeze blowing the leaves:

Gazing out the window

Daddy's boy

Here's a short movie of Jesse with his mother, enjoying his first fireworks experience!

Fireworks

Frequently on my own blog I remark that temperament is everything; it seems that no amount of parenting (whether arguing, pleading, or trickery) can change someone's fundamental personality traits.

This was proven to us yesterday as we set off fireworks ("safe and sane," of course!) at my parents' house. Erica was there with Jesse, as were my two kids, and the three cousins showed different reactions to the fireworks.

Some of my readers might know Gary, Jesse's father, and his enthusiasm for fireworks. For many years he has brought "unsafe and insane" fireworks to our Independence Day celebrations, and although he couldn't be with us last night, he did contribute a brick of my mother's favorite firework, ground flowers.

Erica was eager to show Jesse his first fireworks. When she handed me her phone and asked me to take a short video of Jesse watching them, none of us were sure how the four-month-old would react to the lights, noise, and smoke. We hoped to catch some kind of fleeting positive reaction on his face, but I ended up easily taking four or five videos, because it turned out that Jesse loved the ground flowers. He watched them raptly, and every time one ended he got a huge smile on his face.

Meanwhile my own children were cowering in the house, daring only to watch the fireworks from the safety of a window.

Isaac has a near-phobia of fire, but Laurel was only frightened because of Isaac's extreme anxiety; she doesn't like loud noises, but usually she doesn't mind stuff like fireworks. And after my kids observed from a distance for a while, they both got comfortable with the situation and came out to join in the fun, which is completely typical for Isaac's temperament. They both waved sparklers, watched ground flowers and fountains, and didn't want it to end.

Day Three

Today real life interfered somewhat with our relaxing baby-sitting plans, and on the flip side, baby-sitting interfered somewhat with our real life plans!

Summer swimming lessons for my kids were scheduled to begin later this afternoon back in the Bay Area, but it wasn't until last night that I realized that I didn't have the right kind of reusable cloth swim diaper for three-year-old Laurel. So I thought we'd begin our day with Jesse with a quick visit to Babies R Us in Santa Cruz, where I assumed a swim diaper would be easy to find. We arrived at the store before they opened, so we hung around outside while Jesse enjoyed a two-ounce bottle of formula in his stroller and my kids played a sort-of-dangerous game utilizing (1) the bike racks, (2) a deflated bicycle inner tube, and (3) a long stick. 

The store, however, didn't have the diapers in the right size.  All the kids enjoyed shopping, though, and after we visited the restroom and bought a few things, I gave Jesse another bottle of formula outside the store while my kids resumed their bike-tube game.  After just one ounce, however, Jesse in his stroller looked like this:

He looks like a little Amish man with his washcloth beard

But thank goodness for smart phones!  I looked up a number of nearby shops, both swimwear and children's clothing, called five or six of them, and finally located one single swim diaper in the right size. The shop was only ten minutes away, although it took us 30 minutes to get there. It turned out there was a wrecked cement mixer on the local freeway which snarled traffic on the side streets for the remainder of our day in Santa Cruz. What is it about truck accidents and baby-sitting days?

Jesse's nap only lasted 35 minutes, unfortunately, because he woke up when we arrived at the shop. But we did get the diaper, which by its styling (ruffled pastel paisley!) seems to date to 1986, and then because it was already 11:30 we decided to head to the nearby Santa Cruz yacht harbor for a picnic lunch. Because of the traffic it took us a long time to get there, but the kids were good sports. Isaac, especially, crooned sweet songs to Jesse whenever he groused a little (which wasn't often), and even serenaded him with his harmonica, which he had packed for that very reason.

We arrived at the yacht harbor in time for lunch. We picked out our favorite boats, and the kids were especially pleased when a dog suddenly appeared on the deck of one of their favorites and laid down in the sun. The older picnickers ate bread and cheese and fruit, and Jesse enjoyed six ounces of formula sitting in my lap. Not only did he wear his own sunhat, but I leaned over him so the brim of my sunhat shaded him!

Isaac and Laurel enjoy their bread and cheese

Picnicking cousins

After lunch we returned to Scotts Valley because I wanted to give the kids a chance to run around at the playground they had enjoyed so much the previous Monday. I felt bad that so much of our day had been occupied by errands and traffic; when I planned this summer of baby-sitting, I had intended for my kids to have really fun experiences in Santa Cruz, not shopping trips to big-box retailers.

But speaking of traffic, it was still in effect, so we didn't get to the playground until 2:00, giving us only half an hour to play before it was time to get back to Erica's workplace and switch the carseats. But the kids had a good time, although Jesse missed a lot of the fun because he was completing his second 35-minute nap of the day:

Jesse naps at the playground

Then we went to Erica's work, where my kids had a snack and Jesse hung out watching us from the stroller while I reconfigured the carseat arrangement.  (I remove Isaac's booster and Jesse's infant carseat base, and put back in Isaac's five-point harness carseat.)

Then we hit the road promptly at 3:10, because the kids' swimming lessons started at 4:30! And the drive is supposed to take an hour and 20 minutes! But instead it took an hour and 40 minutes! So we missed swimming almost completely! I guess we didn't need that swim diaper after all!

Yes, I know it was a crazy plan. Never say I am not an optimist.

Isaac was okay with missing swimming, but Laurel was disappointed and confused. Luckily swimming lessons will be every day this week, so she'll have another chance tomorrow.

Sunburn

I wasn't the only one who got sunburned yesterday!

Jesse gazes accusingly at his aunt

Despite his floppy hat and the hood of my Ergo baby carrier, a bit of sun snuck in there, especially on the right side of his face. Darn it! I thought I was being careful to stand with his face angled out of the direct sun, but clearly I was wrong.

Oh, I feel terrible. I was standing in the sun so I could supervise my own kids on the playground, but maybe next time I should just have a seat on the shady grass.

Photo session at the park

I didn't get that much fun playtime with Jesse yesterday, since he was mostly asleep (or ready to fall asleep and complaining about it) while I was holding him, but we did find time to take this series of photos at the park:

Jesse and his aunt smile for the camera

We used the self-portrait feature of my iPhone's camera and he seemed to enjoy looking at himself on the screen.  Maybe his parents use it too?

- - - - -

It reminded me of how much I enjoyed taking pictures of my kids when they were babies.  There's something about taking photographs that helps me get perspective on a situation, providing a kind of distance and mindfulness that was helpful when I was feeling overwhelmed by early parenthood.  On the other side of the lens I could step back from the intense and sometimes unpleasant feelings children can cause (irritation, worry, and boredom among them!) and simply appreciate my children for what they were: absolutely adorable. 

That feeling of stepping back can be a disadvantage of photography, too; one doesn't want to remain at a distance, or only experience important events from behind the camera.

Day Two

Jesse had a good day today!  We met his mother Erica outside her office promptly as scheduled, but she seemed understandably reluctant to leave him.  Then Jesse joined his cousins in the cozy back seat of my car.  He enjoyed riding with them, and Isaac enjoyed it as well.

Jesse is ready to roll with Isaac and Laurel

After we left Erica at 9:00 a.m., we went to a small playground near her work. It was fenced, it had a bathroom and a drinking fountain, and the play structures were fun. We stayed until noon because my kids were having a terrific time playing with a large group of well-mannered kids. We were there so long that I got sunburned.

I wore Jesse in the Ergo baby carrier nearly the entire time, and he was thrilled when I remained standing, but he shrieked relentlessly when I had to bend over slightly to change Laurel's diaper in the back section of the station wagon.  But then he fell asleep about 20 seconds later!

Actually, he slept a lot of the time.  He slept for nearly 45 minutes, then woke up but was clearly still sleepy, and so I bounced him for ten minutes until he fell back to sleep.  This nap lasted an additional 45 minutes!  Finally he woke up hungry, so we spread a blanket on the grass under a shady tree and he had three ounces of formula.

Then we had to hurry, because we were running late to meet the kids' Oma at 12:30 for lunch in Santa Cruz.  Jesse was happy in the car, but he cried furiously after we arrived and I put him back into the Ergo.  After we walked a block listening to him shriek he fell asleep again, which lasted about 25 minutes -- until I sat down to eat lunch, naturally.  But then my mom volunteered to hold him, and in fact she didn't give him back until it was time for us to leave! 

Lunch with Oma

After lunch we visited the bookstore, where Jesse got to sit with Oma in the rocking chair while I read a few books to my kids.  He had a bit more formula, maybe another three ounces, and a diaper change in the convenient restroom.  Then he started getting fussy around 2:30, and Oma had to keep taking him outside to distract him.  He was probably expecting something more to eat, but we decided to save his appetite for his mother. 

Rocking at the bookstore with Oma

Auntie Nicole reads to Jesse's cousins Laurel and Isaac at the bookstore

Somehow books and multiple trips to the bathroom (Laurel is learning to use the toilet) brought us to 3:00 p.m. and all too soon it was time to return Jesse to his mother. The day went by very quickly, and my kids loved the bookstore.  But we ended up spending $45 on books, so I don't think we'll make the bookstore a regular part of our baby-sitting routine!

Travel time

Travel time to get to Jesse this morning: one hour and 15 minutes on the freeway.

Travel time to get back home this afternoon: two hours and 30 minutes.

Aggravatingly, it was just the last five miles of our freeway travel that took all that extra time.  The last five miles!  It should have taken us 15 minutes to drive that distance, but there was an overturned big rig on the freeway right by our exit, and the resulting traffic doubled the duration of our drive.  Next time I'm checking the traffic reports prior to choosing my route.

But both my kids were good sports and remained cheerful throughout the ordeal -- although I did have to pull off the freeway at one point so Isaac could pee behind a tree.  (He'd had a lot of juice.)  Laurel wanted to join him, but I pointed out she was wearing a diaper.

They are good travelers and I was very proud of them.

Predict-a-Trip

I'm getting ready for our first real baby-sitting day tomorrow!  Sure, we officially started last week, but since I was still recovering from a cold, and since we were all at my parents' house, I didn't have any real responsibility for watching Jesse.

Tomorrow is the real deal!  In the morning we'll meet my sister in the parking lot outside her office, receive baby and diaper bag, and be on our merry way.  Until 3:00 p.m. we will be the daycare providers.  Time to party!  We're going to meet my mom at the library at 12:30 p.m. and get some lunch together!  Wild times!

Back in the cold light of reality, today my sister sent me a text message asking if I was prepared to meet her at 8:45 a.m. tomorrow.  I had already warned the kids that we were going to get off to an early start tomorrow, and I tried to get the kids to bed early tonight, and we baked blueberry muffins today so we could eat breakfast in the car, so I guess I'm prepared. 

I thought I would make one last preparation tonight: find out exactly how long it is going to take to get there.  It's 73 freeway miles, and Google maps predicts one hour and 23 minutes for travel time, but since we'll be part of the morning commute heading through San Jose I expected quite a bit of congestion.  And I don't want to leave my sister waiting for us in the parking lot wondering if she is going to have to take Jesse to work! 

Anyway, in the Bay Area you can use the "Predict-a-Trip" feature at 511.org to find out historic freeway travel times for certain routes at specific times of day.  So I ran the numbers for tomorrow's trip and found that if we leave at 7:00 a.m. the freeway travel should take one hour and 22 minutes.  This surprised me quite a bit, since it is one minute shorter than the travel time given by Google maps, which doesn't provide any variation by time of day!  (But then Google doesn't expect you to speed, either...)   Also surprisingly, 511.org says that the 7:00 a.m. travel time is only ten minutes longer than the "typical" non-congested travel time.

Adding in 15 minutes for the non-freeway travel, we're looking at an hour and 37 minutes total travel time.  So if we depart at 7:00 a.m. we should arrive a bit before my sister's appointed meeting time of 8:45 a.m.  Maybe in future weeks we can arrange to meet up at 8:55 a.m. instead, and enjoy an extra ten minutes of sleep!  Oh, I'm kidding, Erica, don't worry. 

Plus Predict-a-Trip doesn't ask whether the car is allowed to use the HOV lane, and since we can I'm hoping that will speed things up even more.  I guess we'll find out tomorrow.

Carseat update

No doubt most readers of this blog already saw it over at my own blog, but we are in business for baby-sitting!  According to the nice officer at the California Highway Patrol, my nephew Jesse and my own children Isaac and Laurel can ride safely in their three carseats in the rear seat of my station wagon -- at least through the next few months.

But soon Jesse will get too tall for his infant car seat (it can hold kids up to 30 inches long, and he's already at 26 inches), and as I noted on my own blog, Isaac and Laurel are both facing carseat challenges of their own.  So pretty soon the entire configuration will need to change.

Well, unfortunately baby-sitting is only a summer gig for us anyway.  In the fall Isaac will be in first grade (!) five days a week, and Laurel will be back in preschool two days a week, and we will no longer be able to make the weekly trip to see cousin Jesse. 

But at least we can have fun for now.

Carseats

I have an appointment tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. to have my three-carseat setup inspected by the California Highway Patrol.

It's a bit of a puzzle to fit three child carseats in the back seat of my 2005 Mazda 6 station wagon.  We thought we had a solution if we bought a different seat for Isaac, who is almost seven years old and can use the regular car seatbelt with the help of a booster.  It seemed like it worked when we tried it out in the parking lot of Babies R Us, anyway.

The setup is as follows:

• Jesse in a 2012 Graco Snugride infant seat (behind the driver's seat)
• Isaac in a 2012 Graco no-back Turbo booster seat (in the center)
• Laurel in a 2005 Britax Boulevard convertible seat (forward-facing) (behind the passenger seat)

But when we tried it again on Thursday, the lower part of Isaac's seatbelt fit so tightly against Laurel's carseat that the belt can't move.  The upper part of the seatbelt fits him fine, and it is still mobile and locks into place when force is applied against it, but I'm not sure that the lapbelt portion should be binding up.  (His seatbelt buckle is also unreachable without partially uninstalling Laurel's carseat every time, which would be a drag!)

Now that I think about it, I wonder what would happen if I reversed the positions of Jesse and Laurel's seats.  The buckle for the center seatbelt is on the right-hand side, so maybe having the infant seat on that side would make a difference.  I'll try it tomorrow.

Anyway, I fear the Highway Patrol is going to say that any interference between neighboring seats is a safety problem.  If they don't approve the proposed setup, we have one last hope: get a narrower carseat for Laurel, who currently rides in a very wide Britax Boulevard, and maybe the difference of an inch or two will let Isaac's seatbelt move freely.

Otherwise we won't be able to pull off this Monday baby-sitting plan at all!

Day One

After Day One of baby-sitting Jesse, what's the verdict from the caregivers?

• Oma: exhausting
• Opa: time-consuming
• Me: frustrating (because I couldn't do much of anything for fear of spreading germs to the baby)
• Cousins: entertaining

But we all survived, including Jesse, even though in the eight hours he was here with us at his grandparents' house, he only napped 63 minutes and drank five ounces of formula.  I think this is short on both counts.  Hopefully he'll get used to us (and vice versa!) and settle into his regular schedule. 

(Although most Mondays when I have him, we won't be at a house at all -- we'll be out and about doing fun stuff.  So I hope to turn him into a good stroller-napper!)

Thoughtful

Hanging out with Opa is always a thought-provoking experience, Jesse finds.

Oma feeds Jesse

After a 30-minute post-nap bout of crying, Jesse smiles and has a snack!

45 minutes

Day one of baby-sitting! And I've been reminded of one of the frustrations of babyhood ... the 45-minute nap.

Actually, as I have a slight cold, I am not actually caring for Jesse. Phooey!

So the kids and I are at my parents' house with Jesse, and my mother is the one directly suffering the frustrations of the short nap!

Joel meets Jesse

Jesse met his Uncle Joel for the first time!

Joel is my little brother (and the little brother of Jesse's mother, Erica) and he lives in Boston with his wife Ashley.  About three weeks ago he came to California to play some shows with his band(s), and of course he took the opportunity to hold his cute new nephew.

My family was camping in Yosemite when this historic meeting took place, but Erica sent me this photo via text.

Welcome

We're starting a new blog here, one about Jesse Dean!

This coming summer I will be baby-sitting my nephew Jesse every Monday, and my two kids are coming along for the ride.  For the past six years I have written a blog detailing my experiences with Isaac and Laurel, so in the interest of keeping things tidy, I decided to launch a blog just for Jesse.  If his parents or other caregivers want to join in, they will be able to write posts and add photos as well.

I'm hoping for a summer of fun!  Or at least a summer of successful naps, which is pretty important as I recall from having a three-month-old.