Jacob has not been sleeping well lately. And therefore, none of us have been sleeping well. For weeks he has been congested, and wakes himself up coughing. He's also been clingy — he wants to sleep on us, rather than in his crib. Last night, it took me two hours to get him to fall asleep, singing and rocking him, and then he awoke again as soon as we got in bed. 4:30 A.M. was the first time we were all asleep at once. This photo was taken in the dark with a long 3-second exposure.
Today we celebrated Jacob's first Thanksgiving with the Karamanski family, including Genevieve (age 3) and Theresa (15 months). At seven months old, Jacob is nearly as tall as Theresa.
Jacob's grandma Irene is here for a week to visit. And yes, there were more cameras than kids in the room.
The ferocious Jacob beast plays in the jungle (on his great-grandmother's couch).
Jacob and Kanzhe share space on Amy's lap. One of Jacob's favorite new activities at 6 and 1/2 months old is pulling Kanzhe's ears, which the cat tolerates in order to get some attention himself.
Jacob, one of many new voters today, helped vote in his first general election. His help included stomping on the ballot and trying to chew on the marking pen. Note to electoral photographers: I recommend that you avoid trying to simultaneously hold a baby, vote, and photograph the process, unless you happen to have three hands.
Jacob ate carrots for the first time today, at 27 weeks old. Unlike avocado, which he also tried this week, Jacob enthusiastically smeared the rice cereal-carrot goop all over his face, including some that made it in his mouth.
A very, very happy birthday to you, Amy!
(Since we are about to move, I didn't want to give Amy anything hard to carry. So this blog is Amy's birthday gift: for the next year, I will add one (or more) new photos of Jacob each week.) We all love you, Amy. Many happy returns of the day!
love, Mike
Note: this blog was started in October 2006. All previous entries are backdated to the day they were shot.
Jacob shows off his fabulous hand-knit roll-neck sweater, made by his aunt Sarah using wool from organically-fed hand-sheared sheep raised on the coast of Maine. Not yet 26 weeks old, and already the boy dresses to drool. If only his parents dressed so fashionably...
During a day hike on Governor’s Island, Jacob and Amy watch the sunset over Lake Mendota.
One afternoon after work, while Amy was in class, Jacob and I took self-portraits together in my office studio. (Unfortunately, Jacob would only look at the camera when someone stood behind it and made peculiar noises!)
Since an early age, this boy has shown an interest in other people's mouths; is there dentistry in his future or is it just a passing oral fixation?
Jacob meets baby goats on Kate Barnes' farm in West Sidney, Maine. He also enjoyed the chickens, cows, cats, dogs and sunflowers.
Jacob covets his mother’s bowl of cereal during breakfast in Vassalboro. At almost seventeen weeks old, Jacob has yet to try solid food, but he certainly pays attention to it when we eat!
Our family is in Maine to be with my ailing father-in-law John during the final days of his life. Yesterday, Jacob expressed how we are all feeling at the moment. Tonight I am sitting up with John, doing the 11 to 3 am vigil as he sleeps.
Jacob sits in his swing and plays with a bandana. He is 12 weeks old now and he has gotten good at grasping on to things. Does he have any idea what he is doing? Possibly.
Jacob lays in his crib and stares up at his new mobile. At eleven weeks old, he seems fascinated by how it starts and stops. He has started spending as long as 45 minutes every morning after he wakes up, happily babbling to himself and watching the mobile.
We had a family picnic dinner beside Lake Monona in Yahara Place Park. Jacob is almost 11 weeks old and likes to stare up at the trees.
Jacob and Mike celebrated their first Father's Day together with a feast at Bluephies and some mutual admiration.
At seven weeks old, Jacob enjoys his new playmat, a gift from Mike’s office. In the past week, he has started to be much more aware of his surroundings. He has started watching and batting at toys as they hang above him.
As guest of honor, Jacob surveys his party from the middle of the conference table as University Communications holds a lunch party for him and his parents when he is almost 7 weeks old.
At the end of May, we took a family trip to Maine, so Jacob could meet his grandparents John and Irene Forster for the first time. During this trip five-week-old Jacob has also had his first bath, his first bottle and his first babysitters (when we his parents slipped out for a paddle in the kayaks without him).
Jacob poses (or more accurately, gets posed) for portraits at 26 days old. The bandana started as a burp cloth, but once I tied it over his little head, he looked like a miniature rebelious teenager, and I had to get my camera. Jacob's facial expressions are so animated, it's hard to remember they don't actually mean anything half the time.
We celebrated our first Mother's Day as a family, when Jacob was just 3 weeks old. First Mike served breakfast in bed, then Mike and Jacob went out to Quaker Meeting and gift shopping, leaving Amy some quiet time at home (which she promptly filled with grading exams).
Jacob was smaller than the breakfast in bed.
Amy breastfeeds 3-week-old Jacob, while Mike reads an article in the New York Times Science Times section about how mothers are not maternal. The article tells macabre stories about "mothers that zestily eat their young." But don't you worry, Jacob is not for dinner.
Here is another photo from yesterday. I love the fact that Jacob is small enough to lay in my forearm.
At 18 days old, Jacob is 20 inches long and weighs 7 pounds — the same size (but lighter than) the Sunday New York Times.
Jacob takes his first trip to Olbrich Botanical Gardens at two weeks old, during which he has his first "picnic," (AKA Amy's first public breast feeding). 
As you can see, he's still a little bruised from birth, but his head has returned to a normal shape after the Big Squeeze.
Jacob is now two weeks old. He tends to scream in protest when his diaper is being changed, and only calms down after he gets swaddled. It is amazing how quickly he quiets. I guess it reminds him of his old womb.
Jacob is thirteen days old. Amy has already fallen in love with him. Of course, who wouldn't?
Would you trust these men with your baby? We did, and all survived. Once Jacob can understand what they are saying, however, we may have to be more cautious. Uncle Davy tried to tell Jacob all about the world, while Uncle Peter tried to understand what Jacob was saying.
Jacob is four days old. He is busy sleeping and accepting visitors now that we've come home from the hospital.
Here is Jacob Benjamin Forster Rothbart at one day (33 hours) old, in our recovery room of the St. Mary's hospital maternity ward. We're all very tired and this breast feeding routine is hard to get used to – right now it takes all three of us to make it work – but otherwise we are well.
Five minutes old
Jacob Benjamin Forster Rothbart spent the first 40 minutes of his life laying on Amy's chest while the doctors cleaned up. What a tiny precious gasping little bundle he is!
Twenty minutes old
Twenty-five minutes old
Forty minutes old
Fifty minutes old
One hour old
Jacob was born April 20, 2006 at 12:03 a.m.
Here are his stats:
