Month 1 (weeks 1-4)

We were so excited (and slightly nervous) to bring Jake home. Poor kid had to suffer through his parents trying to figure out how to strap him in the car seat and then we got lost (twice) on our way home, by the way we live maybe 5 minutes from the hospital.



When we did get home Grandpa Jerry was there waiting for us, Zayde (Stan) and Grandma Dorry (Dorothy) soon followed and finally after a delayed flight (of course) Grammy (Carole) arrived too. I can’t remember too much about his first night at home except that I was very glad to have my own mommy there with me and that within the span of that first night I broke the only rule I had set for myself – that the baby would not sleep in our bed. The week that followed was full of family: Auntie Rachel (and Uncle Warren Diller), Uncle Philip, Great Grandma Ruthe, Great Aunt Judy, and all the way from England Great Aunt Helen and Great Uncle Albert.

Of course there were lots of firsts: first walk outside, first trip for coffee, first appointment at the pediatrician, first bath, etc. We didn't necessarily expect for him to have his first Thanksgiving in 2007 but Jake joined us for a very traditional Thanksgiving ala Chicken Out!

The Grandparents threw Jake his first party – his Bris (poor kid). It was wonderful to see so many of our friends and family in one place. Jake did great and the Moyle did good work! Alex and my dad had a front row seat to the whole thing and I happily hung in the back with my mom and sister. During the whole thing I just kept thinking about one of my mom's quotes, “It will be fine and it will be over”.

As wonderful as it was to have the family all with us, we were pretty happy to finally have a chance to just be our new little family. We celebrated our first Hanukkah and made the poor baby pose with the menorah and a giant dreidel (relative to his size!) almost every night.



We also learned to love his spiky, rocker hair! Well, some of us loved it, Alex kept trying to make it lay flat!



Our pediatrician loved his punk hair and tells Jake all the time she's going to make sure that we get him a leather jacket and a guitar. We actually spent a good amount of time at Children's Medical Associates working to get Jake's weight up. When he left the hospital he lost over a pound. We love our provider, Melissa, so much. She's awesome and she loves Jake. I swear we have a family crush on her!

We also decided to try and capture Jake's growth month by month. Here is Jake at 1 month!