One of Lars’ favorite desserts (okay, and mine) is blondies. I became obsessed with them when Kate generously brought them into the office in her cute little tupperware and set them on her desk for all to partake in. I usually partook. Twice. (or Thrice!). Well, since moving to Ann Arbor I have tried NUMEROUS times to recreate the magic blondie–not only with Kate’s undoubtedly superior recipe but also with the Joy of Cooking’s recipe; America’s Test Kitchen Recipe (which is way more complicated than its worth) and random blondie joe schmoe recipe off the interwebs. Fail. Always fail. Lars is kind and tells me they are usually just fine and he always eats the lumpy gooey non-bready mess regardless. (After all, even as a mess, its just butter, brown sugar and chocolate chips at its core!). Still–I wish I could bake. I don’t know what’s wrong–I try different baking pans; cooling racks; parchment paper v tin foil. It always ends up a mess! I’d like to blame my oven but its digital so I think its the right temperature. ARGH. We are destined to eat gooey masses and buy from Costco when bake sales are in effect. Sorry Bjorn & Lars–I have failed you as a mother and a wife, for I cannot bake, no matter how hard I try.

But let’s all take a moment to be nostalgic about Kate’s endless supply of baked goods on her desk at Calit2. It wasn’t just blondies, friends! Buttercream frosting cupcakes. Shortbread. Oh, memories.

Bjorn trades in his sweaters and hats for lighter weight sweaters and hats.

More photos here.

Does this kid have white boy rhythm or what?  I think Lars is secretly giving him dance lessons when I’m not looking.

Yeah Yeah Yeah from Megan Jensen on Vimeo.

Also, seeing the Humphrey’s line-up makes me miss San Diego something awful.  Especially since I could hypothetically go to all these concerts for free by mooching off my parents boat-slip which is adjacent to the concert venue.  A little dinghy, a little music (or Bill Maher or Joel McHale–WANT WANT WANT).  Perfect.

Yes, I had to look-up how to correctly spell dinghy–in case anyone was wondering.

The past couple of weeks (ever since the weather turned) Bjorn and I have been walking with our friends Amanda and her daughter Beatrix and Laurie and her son Charlie every Tuesday and Thursday morning.  I have to say, its one of my most looked-forward-to parts of the week.  We initially started our journey at Caribou Coffee where we caffeinated our sleep-deprived bodies with a concoction of choice and walked all around the neighborhood.  A parade of mother’s and babies, if you will.

We’ve gotten a bit more adventurous in the past week or so–testing the waters of the newly opened Roos’ Roast which is located in an office suite not too far away from our walking path.  We actually couldn’t find the front door its in such a non-commercial location that we inadvertently tried to break into the back door. Only to have the one and only John Roos stick his head out and thoroughly encourage us to come in the front door.  He was very excited to have his first baby customers.

On Thursday we attempted to get coffee at the local wine store which conveniently opens for coffee at 9am and is, in some respects, inconveniently located mere steps from where I live.  Sitting in a wine store, sipping very strong Americanos, with our babies, at 9am.  The perfect way to end a nice long walk around the neighborhood.  Let’s get these kids hooked on our vices and then some!

Bjorn has such a good set of friends here in Ann Arbor.  Some are staying and some are going but they are all so very special to us.

We’re off for a walk tomorrow morning and hopefully the weather will continue to hold so that we can keep it up–the green is timidly poking out of the trees and the daffodils are blooming.  Oh, spring!

The weather has been so warm we’ve had to put Bjorn in some rompers that accentuate his thunder thighs and give him some breathing room.  I daresay, we may need to buy him more clothes (that scream you just heard was Lars, btw)…he needs shorts, though!

Onward to the Bjornucopia of photos!

Lars & Bjorn intensely watching a hockey game.

Lording over his fiefdom. I guess that makes him a feudal lord. Sounds about right.

Who dat!?

Bringing the romper back and making it look good.

Nom nom nom.

What is this strange device in my mouth. I believe you refer to it as "tongue".

In reference to the above photo–Bjorn has his first tooth!  It was a long and arduous process getting here which involved a pretty tiring weekend for all parties involved but the tooth has entered the building (or mouth, as it were).  With the appearance of the tooth, Bjorn has discovered his tongue…which in turn has helped him to discover his “l” sound.. which in turn has made him into a champion yodeler when you get him going.  He is gifted, truly.

So excited for Nonni and Nonno’s visit next week!  It will motivate Lars and I to clean the condo and Bjorn is in such a sweet spot right now–it will be good for him to get some quality grandparent time in.  Also, I won’t lie, Lars and I are going to try and get away for a night or two.  I’m both super excited about this AND super nervous.  However, I think it will be good, in the long run, for all parties involved.

….and I’ve stayed up way later than anticipated writing this post.  I would say something self-deprecating about how it wasn’t really worth it but even if you ignore all the verbage and nonsense and just look at the photos…oh, it was worth it.  My heart melts!  How do we freeze him and keep him like this forever.  Lars?

We’re anxious to try it.
That extra bit mooooooooooooooooore. That’s all that we live for.

How To Break Your Child’s Trust at 8 Months Old from Megan Jensen on Vimeo.

Or not.

Actually–he is frigging loving the squash, hating on the apples and indecisive about pears.  I tried giving him cut up strawberries yesterday and he made faces and spit them all out.  He’s very fickle about solid food and still loves his bottle.  Its cool–he’s obviously not malnourished so we’ll just keep plugging at it. 

PS–If you weren’t a music theater junkie like I was (geek alert) at the young age of six and up, the topic and first three lines of this post will mean nothing to you.  Know that you are missing out on a fantastic song from Oliver! and that it is currently stuck in my head.

This is how we wake up here in the Jensen family.  By “we” I mean Bjorn.  Because “waking up” would imply that we (Lars & I) slept in the first place.  He’s so cute it makes up for it.

1)  Step 1:  Scratch your belly-button–make sure everything is still in tact.  Yup, you still have a belly-button, Bjorn.

2)  Also check your feet/toes.  Rub it in to your dad who can’t even sit “Indian-Style” that you are super flexible.

3)  Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig stretch.  Or practicing for your later day plans to maul mommy and daddy’s face with your razor-sharp claws and increasingly quick hand movements.

4) Yup, your feet are still there.

5)  Top it off with a big yawn.  Some day, coffee will be part of your routine.  Not now, though–it will stunt your growth.  Just look at mommy ( 5′4″ coffee drinker) and daddy ( 6′4″ non-coffee drinker).  Okay, genetics may be at play here, too.

We’ve fallen off the blogging wagon this past week–this is mostly due to the fact that Bjorn has been so ridiculously on and off with his good and bad moods which, in turn, is due to the fact that he’s no longer the one hundred percent healthy boy of those pre-daycare days.   I dunno, he’s drooling up a storm and still no teeth but we’ve been saying “oh, he must be teething” since the four month mark.   We’ve read that babies get their teeth on average between four and seven months and Bjorn is going on month eight and is still Gummy McGee.

In between the bouts of sickness and coughing and occasional tears and red-faces, we get pretty sweet moments of working on talking and babbling.  Case in point:

Bah Bah Bah from Megan Jensen on Vimeo.

Bjorn’s other favorite babble is “g-doot, g-doot, g-doot”.  It really just depends on the day of the week.  Somedays “B” somedays the more esoteric “g-doot”.   He is a man of few words, just like his daddy.  He has started to enjoy books a lot more–including the perennial favorite “The Monster At the End Of This Book”.  He doesn’t even eat the book so much as listen to Lars make funny noises while reading it.  This is a pretty big achievement for an almost eight month old.

In non-baby news….oh, let’s be honest there is no non-baby news.  Bjorn’s got a boatload of cousins who are having birthdays this month.  Big birthday wishes for Anikka (1), Ryder (2), and Mats (3).  Bjorn just missed the March-boat…but that would also mean I would have been a plumpy 5 months pregnant at our wedding so probably a good thing.

A couple of Bjorn Photos from the past couple of weeks.

Click Click

Bjorn has been quite the social butterfly lately. He has been hanging out with his buddies at daycare, taking his swim lessons at the YMCA (he’s a kipper/shrimp) and going on lunch dates and walk dates and hanging out at Arbor Fit Club like the gym rat he is. We are loving swim class and will hopefully have some photos to post soon (that underwater camera case we bought for our honeymoon in Hawaii is going to come in handy for more fabulous things now that swimming is in the works!). I think his favorite part of the class is that the pool is in a giant indoor room and the ceiling has big fans—so not sure if we have a master swimmer or just a kid who is easily distracted. We are taking the swim class with a couple of friend’s from mom’s group and, by chance, a buddy of his from daycare as well. Oh Ann Arbor, you small little town.

I’ve been very impressed at how well Bjorn handles going out to restaurants. I’m not sure if this is because he’s immobile or not (although I’m leaning towards ‘yes’ because once mobility comes into play, its a whole new ballgame). We recently went out to lunch with his buddy Julie at Jerusalem Garden for some much needed lentil soup and fried pita (Bjorn just had formula, thank you very much). Its nice that I can still keep a pretty decent pace with him and keep somewhat of a social life.

Speaking of keeping up with a social life, I have also been able to start up a pretty decent routine at the gym. Thanks to Steph for encouraging me to join this place and make use of its fabulous daycare. Bjorn has a standing date with Liz & Katrina on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. I can usually see him from the exercise equipment and he is always happy as a clam just bouncing away in the exersaucer. Its especially funny to see how endeared the older kids in the class are towards him. He doesn’t get to be around toddlers at daycare because they keep them separate (ie–in the basement)…but at the gym daycare kids are just running all around him and he appears to love it.

And I would be remiss to write a post and not include photographs. These are totally not related to anything in this post other than they are of Bjorn and they absolutely melt me. Watching Lars interact with Bjorn and how much Bjorn just lights up when Lars enters a room makes me pretty in love with both of them.

The Classic Into-The-Shoulder-Kinda-Tired-Cuddle

Love! Melt! Cuddle!

Little Kipper

This week we just made plans for Nonni AND Nonno to come out from San Diego in mid-April!   Here’s to hoping we can get some more of this fabulous weather we’ve been having in March in April so they can see Michigan at the beginning of spring when its abundant with daffodils and tulips.  And the Dairy Queen is open.  I mean, let’s get our priorities straight here.

Two faculty members in the Health Behavior & Health Education department lost children this week in totally inexplicable and heartbreaking circumstances. Both were daughters. Both instances were unexpected. One was a doctoral student in the Health Management and Policy program and in her early 30s; the other was a nineteen year old nursing student. They both passed away in their sleep.

I do not know these professors well; but I am consumed with grief for them. To lose a child must be the absolute worst experience to ever be put through–no matter what the age. This compounded by the sadness I feel for the King Family in San Diego for the brutal murder of their daughter, Chelsea, has made it a week for reflection on how impossibly attached and in love I am with my son and how I couldn’t and don’t want to ever imagine life without him. I can’t begin to put myself in the heads of those parents who have lost their babies (be they seven months or thirty years); its too painful to try. My heart is just breaking for these families.