Moo Baa La La La: Part 2

As I mentioned earlier, Jesse LOVES the book "Moo Baa La La La". Well, the morning after I wrote the last post about this book, I put Jesse on his tummy and put the book out in front of him, and before I knew it he grinned at the book and effortlessly rolled over onto his back. He had been working on rolling over for a while, and I have to say it was a little anti-climatic when it happened, because he did it so quickly and without any struggle.

Anyway, all of that is to say that he really still loves this book. It apparently inspires him to do new things (like roll over) and it can even reverse a bad mood. He was getting a little fussy this past Saturday afternoon, but it continually calmed him down. Here's a little video to prove this. You should feel very privileged (please note my sarcasm here) that I am sharing this video with you. I usually detest showing up in videos, especially ones that involve me making animal noises, but you can just ignore me and focus on Jesse. :)

Ticklish Feet

Either James' beard tickles Jesse's feet or it just really makes him laugh...

The Great Outdoors

I've almost always liked being outdoors, but I think I enjoy it way more now that we have Jesse. Going on a hike is great fun for the whole family and usually means that Jesse is a pretty content little dude. Today we decided to pack a lunch and take a day trip out to Devil's Den, one of our favorite spots around here. After incredible amounts of rain lately, it was wonderful to have some warm, sunny weather today.

We arrived at the park around 11:00 this morning and hiked the Devil's Den Trail before we ate lunch. Jesse enjoyed the new sights and sounds and seemed to really enjoy being in the Baby Bjorn.


We called Jesse "our little forest ranger" today. He was also "our little bug catcher". If you look up close on his shirt in some of the pictures, you can see that he is an official member of the bug catcher's club. ;)


We enjoyed seeing lots of beautiful waterfalls, thanks to the amazing amounts of rain we've experienced this spring. Jesse didn't even mind getting some cold water dribbled on his head; it probably felt really good in the hot, muggy weather.

Just to prove I was on the trip, too, here are a few pictures of me and Jesse. After lunch was the only point when he got really fussy, and it was right before he fell asleep. This was one of those times where he was obviously just extremely exhausted. He had a full belly, a clean diaper, and singing to him didn't help...he just needed sleep and he needed it bad. I will admit, though, that I think his crying face is pretty cute. It's hard to get annoyed.



After lunch we took a short hike alongside Lee Creek before heading back. The plan was to time it so that Jesse could take a good nap on the ride back home, but as you can see, he had different plans.

Not surprisingly, we also stumbled upon some pretty extensive flood damage along Lee Creek.

It was a great day, and I'm looking forward to more beautiful days like this!

Bilabial Trills

Recently Jesse has begun making lots of bilabial trills (basically a vibrating 'b' sound). It's not unusual for me to lay him down for a nap, only to hear him wake up 5 minutes later working on this sound. It must be really fascinating for him. And sometimes it takes lots of spit to make this sound, as you can see from the video. Can you tell he's the son of a linguist?

Moo Baa La La La!

How do you convince your baby who hates tummy time to stay content on his tummy just a little bit longer? You bribe him with his favorite book. You put it in front of his face and read it over and over and over again until he loses interest and realizes that he still doesn't like to be on his tummy.


Jesse has recently really taken a liking to the book "Moo Baa La La La". It's hilarious because he almost always smiles as soon as we open up the book to the title page before we even begin reading. Something about that title page really makes him happy; it seems like a boring page compared to the actual pages of the book, but maybe it's all the anticipation of what is to come. :) He also very predictably smiles when it says "some other dogs go bow wow wow and cats and kittens say meow". He might occasionally smile at other books, but this one always gets huge grins. He absolutely LOVES it!

Here are some other pictures from today. I did a little photo shoot with him because I realized I've been a slacker and haven't taken enough pictures lately. He was happy for the entire time I was taking pictures (probably liked all the attention), but wouldn't give me good smiles when I had the camera up to my face. Oh well.


Today he stayed in his seat longer than usual, but after a couple minutes he gets pretty wobbly and upset.

Hangin' out on the couch after dinner:

Chicago, Here We Come!

Well, it's finally official! In September we will be packing up once again, and this time we will be heading north to Chicago! (This time we hope to stay in the same place for at least two years, and there is the good possibility that we could be there for many more if James goes on to get his Ph.D in Chicago, too).

After months of waiting, James has decided to attend the University of Chicago in the fall, where he will be working towards an MA in Religion in their Divinity School. This was his "dream school", and I'm so glad that he was offered additional funding to make this possible! Our trip up there in April to visit both schools (Wheaton and U of C) really confirmed that U of C's program would be best for his long-term career goals, but it didn't look possible from a financial standpoint until last week. It was truly an answer to prayer, as James was going to have to decline U of C's offer since we just didn't feel right about taking on that much debt.

While James is getting excited about classes and books and new professors, I'm really looking forward to the big move and the opportunity to live in a really neat place. I've always dreamed of living in a big city, and even though both Sofia and Dallas would be classified as large cities, we lived in the suburbs of Dallas and the outskirts of Sofia, so we didn't really live "in" the city.

Hyde Park is the part of Chicago we'll be living in, and it is just 7 miles south (10-15 minute drive) of downtown Chicago on Lakeshore Drive. Hyde Park is in south Chicago, which is a pretty bad place in terms of crime rates, but most of Hyde Park and the area right around the university is considered safe. When we visited we stayed with a family in Hyde Park, and it was encouraging to see that the city really can be kid-friendly. They have three kids and there are all kinds of things for them to do, many within walking distance of their home...parks, the lake, museums, the zoo, and on and on. I think it's going to be a lot of fun raising Jesse in the city. It will be a totally different experience than either one of us had growing up, but an adventure nonetheless!

Some cool things about Hyde Park:

• It is within walking distance of Lake Michigan.
• It is home to the Museum of Science and Industry, the largest science museum in the Western Hemisphere.
• President Obama's home is here.
• It's just a 15-minute drive from other great Chicago attractions, like the Shedd Aquarium, Field Museum and Navy Pier.

Here's a picture of the University of Chicago in relation to the lake and the rest of the city. It's a beautiful campus, full of Gothic architecture...we felt more like we were in England than in Illinois.