Week 6

As of this coming Saturday, Jake has successfully completed 6 weeks of life outside the womb.

He had a wonderful time at Kayla's first birthday party and he even got to meet Uncle Andrew and Aunt Jodi. As much as he enjoyed the two of them, he's even MORE excited to meet their son who is due to experience "life outside the womb" in early November.

And here is Jake doing two impressions. The first one is of Austin Powers. The second one is of Dr. Perry Cox from Scrubs. Even though we named him JD, he's got a little bit of Coxy in him.

And not to be left out, here's Luther taking a break from playing with all Jake's toys.

Hitting Our Stride

We're all starting to get used to each other here in the Vileation Nation. Luther has stopped howling when Jake cries, Amy has stopped crying when Jake cries, and Kevin has stopped wiping Amy and Jake's tears every two hours. We're calling that progress.

Jake is a superstar. He can lift his neck, he can roll over from his tummy, he can make eye contact, and he is always guessed to be a boy by people when we're out in public. As a nod to the Olympics, there are only two events left in which our JD needs to achieve gold. Those events are sleeping through the night and smiling at his parents. We'll let you know when those hurdles are overcome (ha ha, another Olympic reference).

It should also be noted that Jacob made a trip to Pennsylvania to meet Great Nana and the extended Bowser family. We had a great time and he's already begging to go back! Check out the four generations in the first picture below. The second picture is Grandma and Grandpa entertaining Jake (and Luther). The third picture is 4 Bowser siblings! Uncle Rod, Aunt Helen, Aunt Mary and Great Nana! And finally, the last picture is Jake meeting Great Nana for the first time. Such a wonderful occasion!

Tomorrow Jake is attending the birthday party of his soon-to-be-friend, Kayla. She's turning one and we hope that she'll coach Jake on those events of sleeping and smiling. Stay tuned!

A Visit from Our Attorney and Pediatrician

Dog and Jim came to visit!!! Not only are Dog and Jim super fun to be around, but they are constantly helping us in the legal and medical realms. Not that we're in constant legal trouble, but we just like to be up to speed on whether Kevin has to pay an $.80 toll from Illinois (from 2006) that is now somehow $46.23.

Anyway. Not only did Dog and Jim come to visit, but they brought Jake some cool outfits, too! Check it out! Grove City girls, I do hope you've noticed the "Four Square Rocks" onesie!!!

During Dog and Jim's visit, we took a quick trip up to Gettysburg. Dog navigated us around town and we saw pretty much every inch of the place with the exception of some memorial to North Carolina. I was okay with missing the memorial to North Carolina because on the way to Gettysburg, I was able to locate a Dairy Queen. I really cannot stress the importance of this. It even has a drive-thru. Jacob is good at "driving thru."

Then on Saturday, after Dog and Jim met up with their other friends (or their excuse to get away from us), Kevin and I headed up to Langhorne for Kristin's bridal shower. Of course I forgot my camera in the car, so I have no photographic evidence of this event. But suffice it to say that Kristin is such a gorgeous bride-to-be and such a gracious showeree. It was a wonderful day and it was great to meet Kristin's sister, Stefanie, too!

We had another banner weekend and now we're looking forward to a visit from Jake's Cleveland Grandma this evening. Jake is currently squawking with delight! (Or maybe squawking with the need for a diaper change...I'm still trying to figure that out.)

Week in Review

Jake had such a great week. He had a bath, he filled his diaper genie, he logged some hours in his swing, and he had visitors! This week's visitors were Jason, the Slifkey family and Grandmom and Pop Pop. Thank you guys for stopping over, it was WONDERFUL to spend time with each of you!!! And congratulations to the Slifkeys as they are expecting a brother or sister for little Cyprian in January!

Sleep...

Here's something we used to enjoy...sleeping. Actually, we're pretty fortunate because Jake seems to enjoy it as well...just for much shorter intervals than we're used to. He appears to try to stave of sleep with everything he's got (even when tightly swaddled) as evidenced in the short video below. Truth be told, he could be waking up here, rather than falling asleep, but mainly we just wanted to share how cute his little facial expressions can be.

He'll probably sleep pretty well today since he endured the awful "heel stick" business at the pediatrician's. But Dr. Pete said that little JD is looking good and can continue to live with us rather than go to a foster home. So all in all, a good day.

Jake's fan club and paparazzi

Well, Jake has quite a fan club. To be fair, the main contributors to his fan club are his parents and grandparents, but we are really big fans.

Here are a few shots from Jake's first week home (he'll be a week old tonight).

Luther standing guard

Mom and Jake


Dad and Jake

Grandpa and Jake


Grandma and Jake


Jake's first walk (don't worry, we'll strap him in!)


The Whitmans and Jake (thanks so much for stopping by and for the sweet gifts, guys!)

Introducing Jacob Douglas!

Jacob Douglas has arrived!!! Although we don't have all of our pictures up yet, we're hoping to finish them tomorrow. His story is below...as documented by his father.

Amy woke up at around 5am on Saturday morning with some minor contractions...fortunately she didn't wake Kevin up until 8am.

Amy did a great job focusing on her breathing and reducing the pain while Kevin wrote down the time she was having her contractions. Amy's biggest concern was that these were 'fake' contractions and that if we went to the hospital she would be sent home :(

Here is Amy before we went to the hospital. Obviously this picture was taken in between contractions.

We arrived at the hospital around 12:30pm on Saturday afternoon and were admitted pretty quickly. The room was very spacious and comfortable. Amy did a great job in handling the contractions until 3:30pm when they just were out of control. Kevin was told to 'keep his distance' and was smart enough to stay out of her reach. His jokes were met with sharp dagger eyes and he was amazed at how his wife had transformed into some jungle beast. For the sake of humanity (and Kevin's fear for his own life) there are no pictures recalling this horrible, horrible time...

Fortunately, there is such a thing called an epidural. Amy took the epidural at 3:30'ish and quickly turned back into the wonderful woman Kevin married. Magic! Seriously, over and over Amy commented on how great it was and was very thankful it existed. Below is a picture of Amy after she got the wonderful needle o' fun!
Shortly after that, Grandmom and Grandpop arrived from Langhorne Manor (go Eagles!) despite the treacherous and construction-ridden I-95. We were very excited to see them as it really was good to have their support! Thanks Mom and Dad!

At 7:30pm more wonderful family support arrived, only this time it was our Ohio family, Grandma and Grandpa from Mentor (go Browns!). They were able to stop and let Luther out on their way! Thanks! Even if there were no baby to be born, one thing was for sure - the grandparents were going to have a great time anyway!

Now that everyone had arrived, it was time to get the show on the road! At 9:45pm Amy started to push. While we watched King Kong on TV.
1 and 1/2 hours later, at 11:13pm, a beautiful baby boy was born!!!

We had originally agreed that if we had a boy we would name him 'Jacob Douglas.' We like the name Jacob and stole the Douglas from Kevin's brother Brian's middle name. If Jacob had come out as a girl, we weren't sure if we were going to make the poor girl suffer through life being called 'Jacob' or go with something else (Jillian, Jenna, Grace, Megan, etc.).

Sunday started with a great time because the grandparents were all there to see their beautiful grandson!And much to our surprise, the fun was just beginning! Jim and Lorraine (let's go Penn State!) stopped by to see Jake and brought wonderful gifts for him, too! In fact, we were most excited to have some 'boy' clothes for the baby (in addition to all of the green stuff we have)! Thanks Jim and Lorraine!

Next we were surprised by a visit from Glen, who was generous in giving Jake his first Teddy Bear in real life! Thanks Glen! The night of visitors rounded out with a dinner from Noodles with Grandma and Grandpa McHenry (Grandom and Pop Pop Vile had already returned to Philly). Amy and Kevin both stayed at the hospital and were able to spend time with wonderful Jacob on several occassions (11pm, 2am, 5am, 8am) - we were thrilled to see our little JD each time! And when we say we both stayed...we mean that Kevin even had his own bed...seriously!!! The next day Jacob was ready to leave the self-contained baby community known as Howard County General Hospital and get ready to venture into the real world, where he hopes to see ALL OF YOU SOON!

Pictures from Jake's transition into life at home coming soon...whenever we can get him to stop crying for a minute or two...!