Lilypie First Birthday tickers

Lilypie First Birthday tickers

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Ten Months!


Where did the last five months go?

Wasn't I going to be that awesome mom that updates this monthly with new accomplishments, milestones, and funny stories?

That was the plan.

Yeah.

5 months later, here we are.

I mean...

5 months later, here we are!!

(Note to future writer JJ, your choice in punctuation changes everything!)

So, as JJ turns over the ten month mark tomorrow, I am proud to write not of a little baby, but of a little boy. JJ's personality is indescribable. Spend five minutes with the kid and you will know what I mean. We often comment that JJ truly is one-of-a-kind and there will never be another like him.

For one, JJ smiles, laughs, giggles, and doubles over laughing pretty much constantly. The world is his comedy club and there is no greater comedian than Daddy. Turbo comes in at a pretty close second. Things he finds hilarious: sneezing (both other people's and his own -- he will sneeze and then laugh like it is the funniest thing he ever thought of doing), peekaboo (with a door, a towel, his hands, my hair... pretty much anything he can put over his or our eyes), tickles, the vacuum cleaner accessories, the iPad, the puppy mirror on the headrest in front of him in the Element, tearing off produce bags at the grocery store, and on and on and on. I love looking at the world through his bright blue eyes, everything is much simpler and amusing than you can possibly imagine.

In addition to being hilarious, JJ is also now MOBILE. Holy cow, I have a baby who can get around on his own. Chris and I marvel at this daily -- how was he just in my belly ten months ago? He is able to crawl like a champ, although he will really only do it if he's mad or if he sees one of us nearby. He will crawl to us, and then climb up on us to get us to walk him around. He, literally, does not stay still for more than a few seconds unless he is sleeping. For being an absolutely awesome little guy, he's a bit high maintenance in this department. Snuggles and sit-and-play time are few and far between. The norm is walking around exploring. Constantly.

Crawling is not his favorite mode of transportation. The kid wants to walk. And will, undoubtedly, very shortly. In one week (last week), he learned to crawl, pull himself up on furniture, stand up in his crib, stand alone for a few seconds, and take his first steps between us. Just this week he has started to let go of our hands, stand alone for a few seconds, and attempt to take steps toward objects that he wants. He even started squatting down to pick something up and standing back up without any help or balance support. Watching him learn these new skills is absolutely amazing and the highlight of my life.

Another unique and pretty fantastic aspect of JJ's personality is that he does not do anything -- and I mean ANYTHING -- the easy way. In fact, I'm going to be shocked if JJ's first time walking (he can take steps now, but really really walking) is not going to be walking at all -- it will most likely be running. JJ has shocked many a visitor by showing off his desire to climb the stairs like an adult. He doesn't crawl up the stairs. He doesn't put two feet on one step. He wants to hold your hands and walk up, one step, one foot at a time. The last few days he has even learned to try to SKIP a step! Oh, and that squatting down to pick items up thing? Yeah, not on carpet or a normal surface... he's doing it on the uneven woodchips at the park. The sippy cup? Eh, it's okay, but drinking out of an adult-sized GLASS? Much more fun.

Did I mention this kid can eat? He eats anything and everything (although I gave him a little bit of ice cream last night and he wasn't a fan). JJ likes pancakes, spaghetti, chicken, beef, raviolis, toast, bagels, muffins, pizza, scrambled eggs, and especially Grandma's pumpkin cookies! His favorite food, that we've found so far, is peaches. He LOVES peaches and would eat them constantly if we let him. He loves going out to eat with us and getting whatever we are eating. Despite his extreme love of eating, he's still a skinny boy -- currently weighing in around 21 pounds (which would be pretty normal if he was anywhere near a typical height for ten months). He's built just like his Daddy -- all legs, and I think that's pretty awesome.

JJ has recently (knock on wood!) started to sleep pretty well, which means we have been hesitant to change anything in his bedtime routine. This means he is now getting nightly baths (instead of every other night like before), and usually he gets a pre or post dinner bike ride to the swings. He loves his bike rides and walks and would rather be outside more than anywhere else (remind you of anyone? Ahem, Christopher?). JJ currently goes to bed around 6:30 or 7:00 and he wakes up around 4ish to tank up on some milk and Mommy snuggles, and then sleeps again until 6 or 6:30. Although I'm bracing for this fabulous routine to come to a screeching halt (it usually does when we get used to something), I'm trying to enjoy it while it lasts.

Another fun development is JJ's verbal skills. He is jabbering away like never before. He is starting to make new word-like sounds and string them together in what he seems to think are sentences. He is attaching meaning to words, which is super fun and adorable. He says "Da" or "dada" when he wants to go see Chris. When Chris isn't here, JJ will insist on walking around to every room saying "Da? Da?" It is soooooo cute. He also recently started saying "Mama" which, of course, makes my heart melt. I'm not sure he's totally connected it to me yet, but I try to convince myself that he does! JJ will say "ba-ba" when waving bye-bye when he's feeling bold. Chris has also been starting to teach him "na-na" when he says night-night to him before bed. He likes to wave and has started to blow kisses to daddy. He still has no interest in clapping, although he'll give high-fives.

That's all I can think about to brag on for now. I am making it a personal goal to keep this blog up -- let's see if I can make that happen now that school is out for the summer and a certain you-know-who finally takes n-a-p-s (shhh, don't tell him that we know...).

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Five Months!!


This little boy continues to amaze me and make me so proud to be his mommy. I can't believe how much he has experienced, changed, and learned over the past month.

Even though Christmas was technically "sooooo last month", it's my blog and I can put it here if I want! JJ got to see lots of family over the lovely Christmas break. JJ got to spend a few days with Grandmama Judy and Aunt Jessie from St. Louis and he even got to meet his Grandpa Todd and Uncle Nick from Dallas for the first time!
Hanging at the BRC with Daddy, Grandpa, and Uncle Nick

JJ liked seeing Aunt Jessie again!

Christmas morning!

The whole gang at family Christmas! It was a big one this year!

Christmas was a lot of fun! JJ got spoiled rotten and looked super cute in the process!

Opening "Perfect Piggies" from Grandmama

JJ discovered his toes this month! He went from being able to find his toes, to trying to eat his knees, to finally sticking his feet in his mouth. Now changing his diaper is a constant struggle over trying to get his feet out of his mouth long enough to put the diaper on!

JJ got his "Exersaucer Mega" from his Aunt Betsy, Uncle Scott, Aunt Jenn, and Uncle Jim for Christmas. He loves it! In the last few days, he has actually started to stand flat footed on the bottom and stand up in the seat rather than slumping forward. He has also somehow managed to figure out how to get each toy in his mouth.
After the New Year, JJ got to come to school with me for a few hours on one of my work days. He got a belated baby shower and hung out seeing what a Kindergarten classroom is all about.
JJ spent his week days alternating between having a blast with Grandma and Grandpa and hanging out with Daddy.
JJ is determined to keep Grandpa and Grandma in shape. He suckers Grandpa into walking him around the house all day...

and is so super cute that they want to walk him around the neighborhood and show him off!
We always enjoy sleeping in and having a fun breakfast or coffee outing with Daddy on the weekend -- of course when we can trap him in the house instead of letting him go out and climb something.

JJ practiced using a spoon by eating a Milkarita on January 15th! Frozen then blended breast milk made for a tasty treat that felt good on his little teething gums! He wasn't so sure what to think...

After practicing for months, JJ finally rolled over all by himself on January 16th! He rolled from back to tummy a few times (with both Mommy and Daddy watching!). He has done it a few times since, but basically gets to his side, realizes he hates being on his stomach, and rolls back. At least he proved to us that he can do it (although he refused to do it once the camera came out so no pictures -- boo)!


The day JJ turned five months old was a big day in this little guy's life. While I was at work, I got an email from Grandma that said: "p.. 76/%.8loopp[ploo. Translation... I popped a tooth! Love, JJ" Yay JJ! Apparently he was fussy and then suddenly got happy, Grandma and Grandpa felt around and there was a lower tooth! That night we found that, in fact, it was TWO lower teeth!!
That night, he also tried his first taste of "food"! We started him on baby oatmeal (looked more tasty to me than rice cereal). He's not so sure about it even here after a few days, but I'm sure he'll like it once he gets actual tasty food in a few weeks.
It was a wonderful month for JJ! He accomplished so many things and was a trooper through all of the development. Chris and I remarked on more than one occasion about the amazing gathering of motor skills going on on a daily basis around here!

Friday, December 24, 2010

Four Months

JJ has been growing like crazy and experiencing lots of new firsts (including napping somewhere other than on me, allowing me to FINALLY make a post here!)!

Just in the last few days, JJ has learned that he has a LOUD voice in addition to his normal jabbering. He has been experimenting with different sounds and even accidentally said a very clear "da da da" the other day. He particularly likes to talk, yell, and tell stories while he's getting his diaper changed.

This month has been especially fun on the giggle and laugh front. JJ will belly laugh when Daddy makes funny noises or dances to the Baby Einstein flashing star with him. He is proving to take after Mommy in the ticklish-neck-department and has just started to show that he's ticklish on his feet too! Recently, the "ride the bicycle" game (me moving his legs in a pedaling motion) is a sure-fire way to make him laugh and smile.
















Just before Thanksgiving, I went back to work full-time and JJ has been splitting his days between hanging with Grandma and Grandpa at their house and hanging with Daddy here when he doesn't have a sub job. JJ loves playing with Grandma and Grandpa and gets to see Uncle Scott most days at lunch time. Uncle Scott has been having a great time playing with his "day-time-baby" and claims that JJ has great taste in comedians (him!) and enjoys watching Sports Center. Apparently JJ is into Nascar. We need to fix that.

He has been doing a good job taking a bottle during the day from whoever is watching him and I have been happy that my milk supply has stayed strong. I pump three times a day at work, and while I miss having any free time during the day to get stuff done around my classroom, I am more than happy to get JJ the nutrition he needs (and it's free!).























JJ's three month grow spurt was pretty brutal -- and correlated directly with me returning to work. He quickly went from a sleeping-through-the-night-for-10-hours kind of kid to waking up every two to eat. Luckily that only lasted about two weeks, and while he's back to regularly waking up around 3 am for another fill-up, I am more than happy to sneak in a little bit of extra snuggle time since being back to work.

JJ continues to LOVE bath time, which we do every other night. He is getting a little too big for his baby tub, so we're hoping to find a more convenient solution for fun bath time over Christmas.
















Turbo and JJ are good buddies and they like to play with toys together and practice tummy time each evening.

















Books are one of JJ's favorite things -- definitely melting his Kindegarten teacher mommy's heart! He loves Sandra Boynton books (especially "Barnyard Dance") and he likes this Bob the Builder book that his cousin Trevor passed down to him.
















He also loves taking walks with the family! We have seen some amazing sunrises and sunsets with this little man!
















The drooling is out of control!























Just the last week, JJ has been getting really good at grabbing objects and putting them in his mouth.
















Someone is working REALLY hard on learning to roll over, and he's *this* close to being able to do it!
















The bumbo is a semi-hit so far... we're working on learning to like it.
















JJ went with us to get our Christmas tree. While we knew the complication of having one seat down for the carseat would throw us a bit of a challenge, I couldn't stand the thought of not having us with him to do one of my favorite activities. Somehow Daddy got us all safely shoved in the E with the big tree. Gotta love this car!























He also helped us decorate the tree with his awesome new "baby's first Christmas" ornaments (although the chalkboard pictured is from my first Christmas). I love decorating the tree with so many memorable ornaments.
















JJ also loves the colorful lights!
















Today is Christmas Eve and we are really excited to have JJ with us this Christmas. At this time last year, I was debating whether or not to take a pregnancy test on Christmas morning, fearing the inevitable negative would make for a bad day. Luckily that wasn't the case, and Christmas morning was one of the best mornings of my life. I look forward to waking up in the morning to my little giggle-monster this year.