Back from our fantastic trip to Boston and I think all parties involved not only survived, but had a great time!  Bjorn has been sleeping great since we flew in late Sunday night (last night he fell asleep at 9am and slept until about 5am straight.  It was amazing!).  I have to think he was just anxious about meeting his good buddy Gracie who we have been telling him about but he had never seen in the flesh.  Turns out they are two peas on a pod. See for yourself.

REI should really be paying us royalties for these boy & girl snowsuits.

We had the best chips and salsa we have had (possibly outside of San Diego) in Cambridge and the little peanuts were kind enough to sleep through the entire lunch.  They obviously know how much both of their parents appreciate some good chips and salsa.

Walking around Cambridge & Boston was so much fun–our little Graco Stroller was just as good of a trooper with the cobblestone and brick streets/sidewalks.  We took Bjorn to Harvard where he will go only if he gets a scholarship (and he really wants to)….that might be too far away from Grace, though, who is apparently going to Berkeley.   Planning babies collegiate futures is fun!

Grace was kind enough to let Bjorn eat most of her toys (hungy hungry hippo baby) and we did try to get a good posed photo with them sitting together.  They probably thought we were all crazy with all our hand waving and funny noises to make them laugh.  Pretty sure this is the best picture we got….maybe Kate & Steve have a better photo (that we will claim as our own) to share.

cutie patooties

Our buddies Ginny & K-Rex came up from Rhode Island, too! All we were missing was Emma and Erika

Bjorn is pounding on the keyboard now so I should really end this post and wrap it up later. Apologies for the nonsensical nature of my writing.  Its kind of like James Joyce Stream of Consciousness, except much more ridiculous.

Its hard for Lars and I to imagine life without Bjorn.  He’s added so many complexities to our life, but in the same sense, he’s made it crystal clear where our priorities are in this crazy world.  And tomorrow he’s six months old–we’ve all made it to the six months mark for better or for worse (mostly better), and this kid just continues to amaze, humble and endear us.  Its impossible not to love him with everything we’ve got.  We give in, Bjorn.  You’ve got us wrapped around your chubby little pinky finger.

Here are a few recent photos to celebrate his half birthday.

Bjorn showing mom how all toys should first be tasted before use. This toy is thanks to his friend Gracie

Bjorn and his favorite dad.

Flashback: Bjorn in August 2009

Bjorn and entertains the idea of becoming a zookeeper. Too bad he appears to have killed the penguin and he mainly just eats the elephant. Also, that donkey looks like its got a drug problem.

Making sure he knows how to appreciate the finer things in life. Like chips and salsa (not pictured). We realized not to long after taking this photo that he is a grabber and we put him right next to the knives. Cheers to making it through the next six months!

Tomorrow we celebrate his half birthday by flying to Boston to meet Gracie!  So excited to see everyone on this trip, which also includes a sojourn from Ginny & Co.  Woohoohoo!   After this trip, Bjorn will have been to all the four corners of the United States.  We are kind of fudging it on “the south”…Arkansas counts as the SE, right?

So, Bjorn has taken to giving us besos, lately.  Open-mouthed besos.  Not really sure if he’s trying give us some love or trying to eat our face.   The noises he’s making would appear that he’s channeling a velociraptor…so, really its a toin coss.  Giving us love or eating us alive.

He also seems to like when I lyp sync to Lada Gaga.  I wonder if its my facial expressions or if he really just likes Lady Gaga that much.  I should do a test and have Lars lyp sync to “Bad Romance” and see his reaction…what a little diva-in-training he’s turning out to be.

Next weekend we’re off to Boston to visit Gracie (and Kate & Steve).  We are glad they are still friends with us after we may have inadvertently gotten them banned for life from Yosemite thanks to a master internet detective. Hopefully the trip to Boston is epic enough to get them banned from there, as well.

And because what’s an update without recent, photos, here are some photos of Bjorn at his recent Baby Club meeting and just being adorable in general.

Charlie & Bjorn Rockin' and Rollin'. Okay, mainly just rolling.

Isabella, Trixie, Lars, Bjorn, Charlie. The Line-Up.

Farmer Bjorn in the Dell (...or on our bed)

And one more little treat for good measure.  Bjorn is walking!  Not really but we are forcing him to move his little legs.

Walkie Walkie from Megan Jensen on Vimeo.

You know how you clean up a ridiculously messy house and also motivate yourself to take down the Christmas decorations?  Decide to host an event!  This morning, Bjorn and I hosted our mom’s group and the two nights before were a marathon of cleaning up; taking down the tree; putting everything back in its place.  It worked and, truly, there is nothing better than waking up to a clean house with everything ready to go…coffee in the coffee maker, scones and croissants plated and ready to be served. It was a great morning to hang out with Bjorny’s friends.

Baby Lars, Bjorn, Isabella and Drew...all leaning a little to the left.

Lars, Bjorn & Isabella. Triple Trouble.

Baby Lars and Bjorn. This photo kills me. What on earth are both of them thinking?

The (Mostly) Whole Gang. We are missing Elliott, Charlie and Natalie.

After mom’s group, Lars and I went walking downtown with Bjorn.  Bjorn seemed to be in a pretty pleasant (re: tired) mood after an exhausting morning playing with his buddies, so we decided to brave an actual restaurant.  It was off-peak lunch hours and cold outside.  We went into Grizzly Peak and poor little Bjorny came out of his carrier.  We laid him on the table while we adjusted our coats and positioning and the little guy just fell asleep.  Right there. On top of the table.  In his little snowsuit.  So cute.  As much as we would have liked to just keep him there and comment to each other how fricking adorable he is every five minutes, we decided it would probably be better to put him on the booth bench where he slept for our entire meal.  We then walked around downtown, went to the library and picked up a book, and eventually back to the car for a ride home, but not before we went to get the car washed.  Super productive day and feeling like its been one of our better Saturdays/weekends in a long long while.

Its totally kosher if I post a photo of Bjorn’s bum here, right?

If you won’t tell, I won’t tell.

So, there is a common stereotype about Scandinavians that essentially involves the fact that they don’t talk a lot and show minimal emotion.  Bjorn, despite his obvious Scandinavian name, is bucking the trend and is embracing his passionate (ie, vocal) Italian heritage.

Squawk! Bjorn Finds His Voice…Yikes. from Megan Jensen on Vimeo.

This has been a recuperating weekend as we got back from San Diego on Thursday at night and we’re all still trying to shift to East Coast Time.  Tomorrow should be interesting since we’ve all had trouble waking up before 9am these past couple of days–but we HAVE to be up tomorrow both for work AND daycare.  That’s right, its Bjorn’s first day.  We have an outfit all picked out and his “backpack” ready to go.  Binky, bottles, and snowsuit are labeled. We are ready!  I just know he will have a good time.

In other news, due to our lack of schedule, we haven’t really been very good about giving Bjorn his solid food and I know he needs to really ‘be on it” by six months.  We think having a high chair will help us so we went ahead and ordered one last night on Amazon.  Its called the Mutsy Easy Grow high chair.  Unsurprisingly, the debate about what high chair to buy was a long and arduous one that dated back to pre-Bjorn-outside-the-womb.   Back and forth, back and forth….I had finally conceded not getting a (ridiculously expensive?) Svan or Stokke Tripp Trapp and said that Lars could get the high chair that he had his eye on at IKEA.  My walk of defeat ended up being a lose-lose for both of us, because when we went to IKEA yesterday to make the compromised purchase, Lars discovered that the chair he wanted had been taken off the shelf indefinitely due to a recall.  Apparently, the part that held the “seat” portion of the chair in place would often break and then the chair would just fall down into itself.  Good times.  I like to think that my stubbornness in holding out for the more expensive high chair saved Bjorny from amputee status. The Mutsy high chair ended up being a last minute decision—we had never really looked at it before but found ourselves back at square one and we NEEDED to get one.  After some fast and furious research, we both decided that the price/look/reviews were right on this one and we would just give it a try.

Here is what it looks like.

Mutsy Easy Grow High Chair

It comes on January 5th and, upon its arrival, we will be fully armed to tackle the dangerous world of solid foods.

The best thing about New Years isn’t all the resolutions or new beginnings or the parties on New Year’s Eve. No, the best thing about New Year’s is football. You can always expect football on New Year’s day and just sit back and enjoy it, even if your New Year’s resolution was to “get out more”. Just seems like a nice way to usher in the New Year to me…staying low-key, eating a hearty warm meal with family, and pretty much staying in your pajamas all day while big burly men clobber each other.

We spent our New Year’s Eve flying back from San Diego to Ann Arbor (which, thank goodness, went relatively uneventful). Lars’ mom picked us up from the airport and was kind enough to get us a loaf of cheese/pepper bread from Whole Foods so we rang in the New Year by splitting a can of Progresso Minestrone and having some slices of cheese bread. We have a really nice bottle of champagne in the fridge that I had planned on opening–but, you know, it just felt a little contrived…so maybe we’ll wait to celebrate with good friends (who we know will finish the bottle with us) before we go that route. Ever the pragmatists.

2009, as with many friends and family, was a banner year for us mainly due to the birth of Bjorn back in July. He’s just the love of both of our lives. There have certainly been hard times and “WTF” times and even a couple “bang head here” times…but mostly its been just glorious being parents. The responsibility is enjoyable and thinking towards the future brings me such a sense of joy at knowing we’ll be helping Bjorn experience so many wonderful things in this world. Soccer, crayons, writing your name, music, traveling, reading, climbing trees, losing a tooth, scooting/crawling/walking/general mobility, and everything in between, before and after.

…and in keeping with our infatuation with our little Bjorn, here are some recent photos that Lars has posted.

This reminds me of a Godzilla movie. Except Bjorn is Godzilla and Tokyo is gingerbread houses. You know?

We’re all a little under the weather today so we’re making Miracle Chicken Tortilla Soup tonight to try and right ourselves before the big work week begins on Monday and Bjorny starts daycare!

This city is the stuff of legends and its no doubt been a great place to spend Bjorn’s first Christmas.  Only in San Diego can you spend your first Christmas and go to the beach three times and have your parents recklessly put your feet in the Pacific Ocean two of those times.  Yes, I too was surprised and Bjorn’s cajones…he didn’t flinch and he seemed to really love the sand beneath his toes.  All good signs of things to come when we go to the beach “for real” in the summertime.

Curious steps at Swami's

Good thing Bjorn started eating like his life depended on it because his chunky little thighs now give him insulation in the cold ocean water.

Thunder Thighs and his father, Jack Spratt

Good thing we got a hat to keep the heat in on one end of his body from his genderless friend (for now) Hubaker.

Today is our last day in town and we don’t really know how we’re going to spend it, although another walk on the beach might be in the cards.  Its just been beautiful sunny days that hover around 60 degrees.  We drove up to see our friends Leslie, Taylor and Calvin the other day and it was ridiculously clear out to sea that you could see the sun setting over Catalina Island to the west and the snow-covered San Bernardino Mountains to the East.  So beautiful.

Bjorn’s first “playdate” with Calvin was a success.  Since they were only 3 weeks apart, I used this opportunity to peer pressure Bjorn into doing all the things that Calvin has discovered, like ab crunches and a ridiculous dance move that involves throwing both of his hands down and stomping (love this).  Calvin has a giant (!!!) dog named Hobbes that is also very intriguing.  I’ll bet if he walks that dog down to the schoolyard no one will mess with him.  However, what those kids don’t know is that they’d be worse off in a room with a one-eyed chihuahua.  Hobbes is truly just a sweet gentle giant.

So, that’s my stream of consciousness San Diego visit.  Sorry if this entry makes no sense at all.  That’s what I get for having tons to update and not really doing it consistently.  I realize I haven’t even touched on Christmas or family-get-togethers, yet….and maybe I’ll get to that when we’re back in the frozen tundra of Ann Arbor.  But for now, this is what I’ve got and I’m sticking to it.

I turned 30 on Saturday.

I got my first period in over a year on Saturday.

Some presents you wish you could exchange for something else but this didn’t come with a receipt. On the bright side…I can’t really think of how to end this sentence on a positive note.

I have been failing so much at keeping this blog lively the past couple of weeks.  Part of me thinks that things I used to think were novelties are now mundane in the sense that I still love when Bjorn smiles but I don’t need to share it every time he gives me a cheshire grin.

Here are a couple sweet photos over the past couple of weeks.  He’s getting so big!  No, really…for those of you who have been following my nursing/formula saga, you’ll see he has essentially doubled in size because I’ve caved and started feeding him mostly formula as he just never really took to nursing.  If we lived in a time without formula–this kid would be S.O.L.  But, giving into the feeding has been probably one of my better decisions as a parent.  He’s happy–oh so happy–and I think he may just have been very very hungry the first three months of his life.  Oh, Bjorn…I”m so sorry.

Anyway–here’s my little plumpy.

Bjorn embracing his exhibitionist tendencies and streaking in front of the Christmas Tree.

Bjorn liked this hat so much that his cousin Geddy let him borrow in Denver that he "accidentally" brought it back to Ann Arbor with him.

Paternity test not necessary. Loves me my Jensen Boys.

I’ll probably get in trouble for “launching” these without prior approval from Lars, but I really felt like we hadn’t shared photos in such a long while that I’m risking it all.

In other news, my mom is currently in town and we’re eating like kings and definitely enjoying the benefits of a third set of hands around the house to hold Bjorn.  She, along with Grandma Joan, have been lovely in taking care of Bjorn during my first couple of weeks back at work.  The transition has been a lot less painful than I thought.  My work schedule of three days a week is truly ideal at this time so I’m not complaining.  I’m getting adult conversation and responsibilities but I still get to spend the majority of my time with Dr. Poopsie (aka, Bjorn) and experience all the little things he learns how to do every single day.

We also have been spending time with his teachers at his daycare, Gretchen’s House.  We love love love it, which makes putting him in daycare not something to dread but something that we know Bjorn will enjoy.  His family group teacher is named Brittany and she’s sweet as can be and held Bjorn the entire time for our first visit there.  She must have drawn the short straw with regards to names of kids in her family group, though, because Bjorn’s “classmates” are Neva and Yasmen…a little on the unconventional side but at least they won’t be able to tease each other when they realize they can tease.  Sounds like trouble to me.

Onward to San Diego on Monday for Bjorny to meet his Laver relatives and to dip his feet in the Pacific Ocean (if only for a nanosecond).