Fall is here

It's hard to believe that we are already in November! I am trying to decide where my September and October went. Jens has been very busy. He walks, he talks, he is opinionated and a royal pain in the rear J For anyone who knows our drama, Jens is still not a good sleeper.his average wake time 5 am if we are having a good night, the bad nights are awake for 2 hours or more starting around 2-3 am. I signed up for a baby, but at 2 am when all my friends with babies are sleeping this is what I know I didn't sign up for! But as my newest parenting slogan goes "it is what it is"

Despite that Jens is charming, oh the charm! The cute is the only thing that saves him most days. He say "hi" hi-ya" "hey there" and several other words, his favorite is "kitty cat" Jens has been feeding himself and is very insistent on eating all by himself and let me just tell you it's a mess! I spend more time soaking, bleaching, and praying the stains come out – but he's a happy child.

Grandma Betty came to town and we had a nice visit to the "Pumpkin Patch" really we walked down to the local nursery and took photos. We went to a pumpkin patch the weekend before, but Jens melted down before we could get any photos with pumpkins, but there are nice photos with sunflowers.

Enjoy the fall! The Oregon rains started this weekend at cyclocross, I will post some mud photos!

Visit to Arkansas

Well we had quite the adventure to go visit Robyn's parents in Arkansas in early August. Robyn discovered the joy of 6 hours of flying with an almost 1 year old all by her self - lucky, lucky, mommy! Not really - sweet Jens picked flight day as his day to skip all his naps, we flew stand-by on Northwest airlines and there was only one seat left on the plane out of Portland so Robyn and Jens went and Jason tried 2 more flights and finally got out the second day. We had a great time visiting.

Jens got to see his grandparents, his Uncle CJ, and his great grandmother! Jens had about 3 baths every day, by the time he was done feeding himself in the high chair, crawling in all the dirt outside, and be viciously licked by puppy dogs! He also the cats were great, especially the yellow and white cat Merlin, who is in the photo. Jens was very busy discovering his new territory at the Robyn's parents and even found that he could perfectly fit in the dog's water dish (oh that was real exciting). Also the great joy in Jens' eyes when he found the over sized frying pan and how well he could fit into it, the week was a lot of fun at laughing with Jens as he discovered new things to do with his time

Birthday Party!

Can you believe it - Jens is already one! So we celebrated with a small party in his honor - he was only there an hour before nap time, but none the less we had a great time. Jens got to have some actually birthday cake - yes just a small bite - mom let him smear frosting all over his face that was his favorite part. Jens had a party on Saturday and on his actual birthday - cousin Kaleigh and Aunt Janice came over with another cupcake for him and to sing to him.

Swimming lessons

Jens has been doing daily "swimming lessons" with mommy at the local pool. We are officially an "angelfish" and Jens is doing really well - he is getting used to the water and will kick around a little bit and float on his tummy. Most of the time he just really enjoys watching all the big kids goes down the slide, but he does love floating around and splashing. Daddy even got to take Jens out for some pool time too.

Fourth of July Fun

Oh My Gosh! It is July 18th and I haven’t done a teampfeifer update in forever! I have been updating the photos on Flicker, but not adding them into the main body of the blog. Well the whole family has been busy trying to survive summer. I think it is the usual problem we all face – how to fit everything into a 24 hour day. Well let me just say – Jens manages to fit it all into a 24 hour day, usually by waking at 3:30 am every morning – yes people my child still wakes up way to freaking early! I haven’t even bothered to take a photo of it, because there is no sense in pretending to be happy at 4 am in the morning!

But anyways, onto the Fourth of July – since Jason had the day off of work, we went to the swimming pool with Kaleigh and Janice – as you can see by the picture – Jens loved the pool. We have been taking lessons for the last 3 weeks. Really we just pay some sweet college girl to sit in the pool and look bored while we “work on our skills” - but it is just about having fun and getting Jens used to the water.

Also if you look at the photos –you can see Jason’s farmer’s tan on his arm from his entire bicycle riding J

After going to the pool, we went to a Fourth of July party at some friends house – Jens wanted to play in the pool, so Jason helped him out with some dunking, which Jens thought was hilarious! Also Jens got to try and hit the piñata that they have for the kids every year.

Trip to Minnesota

We took a trip to Minnesota to visit the family in the middle of June and spent a week having fun. The entire family rode around Lake Calhoun with the cousins in the Burley trailer. Lily did a great job putting up with Jens who thought it would be fun to stick his fingers in her face.

Jens also had a fun time using Lily’s walker around the back porch.

We also had a great party at Grandma Betty’s for what would have been Grandpa Hearn’s 100th birthday – and a chance for dinner with Grandpa Pfeifer and Grandma Ci at their house

Monday Night Short Track Mtn bike racing

Time for Monday night Short track racing at PIR.I took 19th out of 38 in the 40+ sport class. Holly crap I'm old and slow!

Creative Bath Time

Jens has been busy with standing and he has carried that to the bathtub which was making things very dangerous when he tried to stand in the slippery tub, so Nini (Sue) came to the rescue. She took our outdoor steal beverage tub and made it into a bathtub for Jens- It was perfect! The tub is the perfect size for Jens and he can stand up in it and grab the sides to get up and down a not loose his gripping. So of course the whole thing was so cute I took the opportunity to get a naked baby bath tub picture! This of course will be held against Jens later in life, or at least to embarrass him when he is 16.ught was hilarious! Also Jens got to try and hit the piñata that they have f

Standing & All Smiles

Well it has been a while since I have updated the blog with new pictures of Jens- we have been busy. The end of the school year with the music Studio has kept me very busy and Jens has kept me even busier! He is standing up and cruising around on the furniture and is absolutely curious about everything. This cute picture was Jens in one of his clingy mommy moments where he wouldn't let go of me while I was trying to fix dinner, so I turned it into a game of peak a boo.

Spring Bunnies arrive in Portland

Ahh - we take a break from the smiles of Mr. Jens to bring you bunnies in Portland. Every May Robyn's mother comes to see the spring recital for the music Studio. For the last 7 years Sue has brought bunnies for the students which she finds at the local hobby shop in Arkansas. Well each year it has become harder and harder to find these little bunnies at the store. It takes my mom like a month to go to three different stores and gather all these little trinkets, because she likes to get enough that all the students and their siblings can have one, which means we need about 160 bunnies! So this year well sorting out the pile of bunnies I snapped a few shots for the family blog.

I love My Burley

Jens went for a ride in his new Burley trailer (that was Dad's 40th Birthday present). It was a beautiful day and we went for a short ride to see cousin Kaleigh's soccer game. By the time we were done with our morning nap, nursing, and eating we actually missed the game but had a nice time riding out to the park. Jens seemed to enjoy the ride and mom and dad were delighted to be on their bikes!

Pulling up all day long

Jens is very very busy now. He is pulling up on everything in the house and starting to walk along holding things for support. Once he pulls himself up he tries to crawl over the object

Exersaucer Returns

Now that Jens is a little older- daddy taught him the joy of crawling in the exersaucer instead of just sitting in it. Now he can crawl in and out the bottom of the exersaucer and he pleases!

Bunny Suite

Yes people I had my very own bunny suite for Easter -love Jen

Easter at the Pfeifers

It's hard to believe that Easter has come and gone I haven'ttouched the blog in a while. We have been very busy here at the Pfeifer household. We had a great Easter and Jens really enjoyed his Easter bucket and ears from grandma Betty.

Jens is 6 months old & eating food!

Well Jens finally turned 6 month on January 27th and he is still keeping me very very very busy! It has taken me 3 weeks to have a moment to myself to edit the video for the blog. Jens tried his first solid food, sweet potatoes. He was very curious, but wasn't overly wild about the experience. And for all of you that wondered if some real food in my kids stomach would make him sleep longer stretches at night - nope, nice try though. But all in all we are starting to have a really fun time and he is getting bigger and more interactive every day.

Johnny Jump-a-roo gets modern

Today's mail had our Baby Bungee Bouncer! This is the modern version of the Johny Jump-a-roo the doorway jumper if you haven't seen it watch this video. Jens loved it! I mean loved it! He just kept jumping and going in a circle, he was in absolute bliss. It is so delightful because there are so few things that Jens loves that doesn't involve mommy holding him 24/7. Notice there is nothing but baby accessories in the background...my house is freaking littered in garbage to keep my kid happy.