Sig Ep Spikes

He's channeling his dad's hair, circa 2002.

7 Months

Another month has passed- wow.

So what's new?  Here's the lowdown of life from mid-January to mid-February:

- J is rolling, rolling, rolling everywhere.  It's his main mode of transportation.  (And the pet hair that's impossible to keep up with doesn't bother him.  Ick.)  He's still working on the crawling, but he can spin in circles on his tummy like a record. 

- The boy is resourceful- if he can't reach a toy, he'll pull the blanket closer to himself so he can grab it. 

- He's huge...growing out of his nine months clothing, easily fits in 12 months clothes.  I mentioned how much he weighs to two friends with babies a whole year older than J- both of their boys only have about four pounds on him.   

- At 19.9 lbs., he's about 2 pounds shy of needing an upgraded carseat.  I'd love to brag about my ripped arms from carrying his seat around; however, I can only complain about my achy back. 

- He's a pretty awesome sleeper.  Down by 6:30 or so (we'd LOVE to keep him up later, but he turns into a hot mess when we attempt it.  It ain't pretty), up by 6-ish with the occasional 3am feeding.  This is huge improvement, people!  And his naps are improving, too...they've gone from about 30 minutes closer to an hour. 

- He's an eater.  Sweet potatoes, bananas, winter squash, butternut squash, carrots, apples, oatmeal.  He's still not sure about Puffs (especially the banana ones), but he'll eat them if we put them directly in his mouth.  If he's hungry, he gets mad if we eat in front of him. 

- The separation anxiety continues- I'm constantly singing or playing peek-a-boo so he knows I'm near-by. 

- He's no longer just interested in Tar and Amelia- he squeals, giggles, and reaches out for them when he sees them.

- He's discovered some new faces (not all of which we've been able to catch on camera, unfortunately).  There's the side-ways tilt (to the left and right):

(Usually this face is accompanied by a smile.  He wasn't impressed with the camera in his face during breakfast.)

...the scrunchy-smily- "aren't I cute" face, and the "peering around the corner" face.

- He still makes baby Darth Vader breathing noises.  We imitate him and it cracks him up. 

- he's making up for lost time with poo- (I know, gross. Who wants to read about baby poo? Me. Some day I'll want to look back at what I've written and I'll probably be nostalgic about my boy's poo.) He went from going every five or six days (which apparently can be normal for babes on the boob) to going at least twice a day blow-outs.  Lots more laundry.  Lots more ordering of diapers on Amazon.

-  Several people lately have told him he looks like the Gerber baby.  (Okay, I get it.  I'm sure every mom and her baby hear this from strangers.)


- His hair continues to lighten up and is getting longer- we could probably give him a pretty rad comb-over if we tried; I prefer the front curl instead, as evidenced below:



- He's "talking" tons.  Lots of "aahhs," "ooohs," "arrrrrs," raspberries, zerberts, and spit bubbles.  No "mama" or "dada" yet, but we're positive we heard a "what" come out of his mouth. '

- He experienced his first snow day/week.     He didn't like the windy snow in his face, but who would?  (I got a whole unexpected four days off of work!  Don't be too jealous- it just means I get a shorter summer.)

-  He's starting to give kisses.  Big, open-mouthed ones.  Dad was the first recipient one morning before he left for work. 

-  This month marked me going back to work full-time.  Luckily I don't worry about him since he's with Gramma, but I do miss him just about every second of the day. 

- He also had his first trip to doctor, emergency-wise.  Wanna know the quickest way to get a mama home from work...just say the words, "honey, I don't want to alarm you but [the boy] isn't moving his left arm at all."  Long story short, he wasn't moving him arm.  Doctor ran some blood tests to check for an infection- everything came back normal (except that he's like his mama and is slightly anemic).  They also took x-rays.  Those came back normal, too.  By the afternoon, he was moving it and playing with it like nothing had happenend.  We think he was testing whether or not he could get us to leave work and hang out on a weekday morning. 

-  He's just the best.  Mellow unless he's hungry or tired, easy-going, content.  We love every inch of him. 

Mama's too funny

Nothing like a baby's laugh to make your day...

 

Six Months

Dear JW,

Six months old?  How can it be?  (And for over a week now...if I don't get this letter done tonight, you're going to hurry up and turn seven months old on me.)

It seems like yesterday I was googling "how to take a shower while caring for a newborn." Now we're about to set up baby gates and child-proof the house.  Here are some of the happenings in our world over the past month:


- You had quite the growth spurt since your last check-up.  You're 17 pounds, 12 ounces (50th percentile) and 28.25 inches long (95th percentile).  You've grown 8 inches in 6 months- good God, child!   I think you're taking after your Poppy.

- You're sitting up all by yourself.  We still don't trust ourselves to go very far because sometimes you reach for something a little too far away and topple over.

(You could do this even if you weren't in the chair.)

- You can roll back to tummy now.

- It seems like you're thinking about crawling- we like to taunt you by placing your toys out of your reach to see what you'll do.  Mostly you get frustrated, but sometimes you move your chunky legs around like you're trying to get them to do something.  The other day you did the worm when you were trying to reach an empty Starbucks cup (AKA, one of your favorite toys). 

- You are laughing, like, really laughing out loud.  We don't always know what it will take to get you to do so- usually an exaggerated nibble on your neck or your toes or your thighs will work- other times it's a visit from your good pal Mike.  (See video from the other day...)  A few days ago it was my hair (See video that will be posted shortly after this...).

- Separation anxiety has set in a bit, so we play peek-a-boo to let you know we're not gone for good.

- You eat oatmeal for breakfast and love every bite.  You'd probably eat three times as much as we give you if we tried. 

- You make a noise that's a cross between shock, excitement, and choking.  It stops me in my tracks and I hate it!

- You continue to be fascinated with Amelia and Tar.  You're a little hesitant to pet them, but you love watching their every move. 

- As much as I dreaded sleep training, (thinking you would cry for hours and hours and vomit and hate me forever) rocking and nursing you to sleep for no less than an hour each night, then attempting ninja-like moves to get you into your crib without waking you was becoming an impossible task.  You took it like a champ- hardly any crying at all- and we're all sleeping a little bit sounder. 

-  We celebrated our first Christmas as a family of three.  Nearly every present under the tree was for you and you could have cared less.  "Give me wrapping paper or nothing at all!"

(You were not a fan of the owl hat...)

Jack Wyatt/ Little Man/ Bud/ Little Boy/ Buddy/ Baby Boy/ Sweet Boy/ My Sunshine/ Baby Love/ Snuggle Muffin/ Son/"The Boy"...we simply couldn't love you more.  You are everything we ever dreamed of when we imagined having a baby, and then some.  You have brought more love and joy to our lives in these last six months than I ever thought possible.  You make us laugh, you make us smile, and there's nothing we wouldn't do for you.  We can't wait to see what the next six months bring...

 

Love,

Your Mama

Hiccups, Shrieks, and Giggles

I caught someone at a very good moment this morning...

I wish I could have recorded him watching himself, too.  Even cuter. 

Christmas with J and L

Baby J and Baby L's First Christmas

(outfits sponsored by Gramma/ Great-Aunt Toni) 

Baby J and Baby L are second cousins and were born within three hours of one another.  Hooray for birthday twins!  Therefore, they will be subjected to years of wearing coordinating outfits and taking pictures in the same chair. 

J and L: "Okay, let's get this over with."

L: "I'm ready for my close up."

J: "Wait, what are we doing?"

L: "Cheese!"
J: "I didn't sign up for this."

L: "Come on, J, just go with it. And look to the right this time."

J: "Fine.  But this is the best I've got."

L: "Are we taking another one?"

J: "Are we done?"

L: "Hold up! What's this?"

J: "Who is she again?"

L: "OMG-You have pants with built-in shoes?"
J: "Can somebody get me out of here?"

L: "These are SO cute."

J: "How much longer do I have to scowl before someone will take me away?"

L: "And your Brian Boitano vest is so classy."

J: "She's getting closer..."

L: "Oh, did you need us for another one?"

J: "What am I still doing here?"

L: "Um, I think J might lose it".

J: "I'm thisclose to losing it..."

L: "Soooo, this is awkward."

J: "WAAAAH"

L: "What did I do?"
J: "Look what you've done!"

L: "What's up with this kid?"
J: "Oh, the horror!"

L: "Dude, just chill."
J: "I don't wanna."

L: "Let me have a look at those pant-shoes again."
J: "If you must."


Until next Christmas, or perhaps their double-birthday party?

The First Supper

Baby J has been fascinated with our food lately, so we decided to give him something besides the boob.  I went all hippy mom and actually cooked and pureed a sweet potato (and even froze the leftovers in ice cube trays so I wasn't wasteful- who am I?!).  Like with everything new with J, I was nervous.  I don't know what I thought would happen, but D was after me for days to let him try some real food.  I finally agreed.  But then we couldn't agree on what he should wear.  I said, "let's strip him."  D said, "how bad can it get.  He'll be fine with just a bib."  I won.  We compromised with socks.   

(Don't judge the horribly grown out highlights.  I've since gotten my hair did, I promise...)

I showed him the food...

...and that's all it took.  

"What is this stuff?"

"Hmm, not bad..."

"You've been keeping this from me?"

Apparently I thought my five month old could handle heaping spoonfuls...

He didn't like my approach, so he decided to do it himself:

"Nom, nom, nom."

"Delish!"

"Is that all that's left?"

"You're serious?"

"Let me just check the outside to make sure..."

"I wonder if anyone would notice if I licked the extra off my leg. Too much?"

"Until next time, sweet potatoes."

Our boy is an eater!