some new developments

So I think Jack is beginning to develop object permanence. Tonight when he tried to grab his Cheerios, and then disappeared into his fist, he opened his hand back up to find them again. That plus his new habit of looking for things when they fall... no more "out of sight, out of mind" for this boy! Its exciting, but also a bit daunting that it'll be that much harder to fool him from now on.

The past few days Jack has been in love with our arms. He grabs our forearms when we have him on the changing table and hugs them and buries his face in them. It is very cute. Almost snuggly...

Also, in his bath tonight, Jack was interested in his bath toys for the first time, and turned himself around in the tub trying to get to the little green frog. He also enjoyed being squirted in the belly with the little squeezy whale.

And, he really got into playing patty cake tonight, grabbing my hands and laughing when I started clapping. He is beginning to be ticklish! He likes the part of patty cake where I tickle his belly on the word "oven".

The kid is really pretty darn cute. Melissa brought her 9 week old baby in to work today and she was so amazingly small and floppy... it was crazy to think that Jack was ever that little, that he was ever other than the big, sturdy baby he is today. I really like him at this age. Still little and squishy and all baby, all gerber baby in his porportions, but becoming an interesting person at the same time. I wish we could slow this time down. Or, perhaps I would wish that if he were sleeping through the night. (Sleep update-- we are still up 2-4x a night starting at midnight, but he is back to going to bed well. After 5 nights of screaming at bedtime, last Thursday) we tried the "pick-up, put-down" method recommended by Annie and after picking him up and putting him down 8 times he settled down, held onto my arm for a minute, then let me leave-- and since then he's been a calm happy boy at bedtime again. Its wild when something works that well....)

7 months old!

Unbelievable that the little guy will be 7 months tomorrow!! In anticipation, here is an update on his development at the moment:

It feels like we haven't hit any really big milestones for a while. He's been perfecting his independent sitting-- as Nat says, he treats it like his job.
He is starting to wave and to clap. He is really cute when he tries to wave-- first he watches us waving very carefully, then with great intent he puts up his own hand and opens and closes it, as if to say, OK, they are doing this, so I'll try too... but I am not sure why!
He is eating Cheerios and really enjoys them. Takes chewing them very seriously. We just gave him his first real "table food"-- home fries at the Coventry Inn!
He is starting to like fruits and vegetables more-- he'll now eat sweet potatoes, carrots, and pears "straight up" and in fact seems to prefer them without the cereal mixed in.
He has rolled from his back to his belly about 4 times now. :)
He is very interested in the world around him. He can findt he tag on any toy, and also makes a beeline for paper and plastic bags. He likes to drop things and look for where they fell.
He is starting to play peek-a-boo-- the other night he "hid" behind his pants (he likes to hold them while they're off for diaper changes) and then pulled them off his face with a big grin.
He is a bit more whiny than he used to be-- he uses it to communicate when he wants to be in a new place, or be held. Overall his communication seems more clear and intentional these days.
He is babbling a lot more. His favorites are strings of ba and bwah sounds, though we have gotten a few ma and da's, and yesterday he said something that sounded a lot like "up" a few times.
He's really stinking heavy to carry in his car seat. It's about time to bite the bullet and switch over to all big boy carseats, I think. We are so close to spring! We are really trying to go for his whole first winter without a winter coat (thanks, Bundleme!)

Little wild man

Jack was quite the wild man this evening. While "moving all over the place" would be a tremendous overstatement, I will say he was a very active little guy. He's taken to rolling onto his side and doing his pelvic thrust thing while on his changing table, which is making it more fun to change his dipe. He is also starting to bounce around when we are carring him; he is more in charge of his body and his balance and so in that way he is easier to hold, but now I have to keep an extra hand on him to keep him from wiggling out of my arms.
For our Wednesday evening activity together, Jack and I went to the pet store to get dingo food. He really liked the birds, staring at them with rapt fascination while chewing furiously on my purse strap.

Easter

Jack's first Easter was a busy day! We started the day by tackling the challenge of getting everyone to church. With picking Bill up from Eliza Jennings and helping my mom get out of the house with her broken leg, it was quite the operation. Took 3 cars to do it but we managed to all get there and enjoyed a nice service. Jack was a dream baby through church, just looking around and smiling at the other parishoners.

silly roller....

At breastfeeding group on Thursday Jack showed off his new skill of rolling from his back to his tummy. What made this more funny is that he did not want to be on his tummy, not at all. Each time he rolled over and found himself on his tummy he would get progressively more upset. Of course the silly guy won't roll from his tummy to his back so he needed me to help him... and the minute I got him rolled onto his side..bloop! Back over he went to his tummy, looking around as if to say "who put me here??" Finally he went into a mini tantrum, stretching his arms out flat and throwing his face to the ground in between them, crying... does it make me a horrible mother that I laughed at him for just a second before I rolled him off his tummy again?

The little guy is being very engaging these days. He is starting to look for things when they drop or disappear. It is super cute when we are holding him on our lap, and he drops a toy-- he leans forward and looks down to the floor for it, craning his little neck and looking like a cross between a turtle and a vulture. He also looks for us when we hide, ready to play peek. He is getting to be so much more fun, and so very lovable. Little munchkin-butt.

Today we dyed eggs in preparation for Easter. It is crazy that Easter is tomorrow. We got about 5 inches of snow last night. Again. The winter that never ends... It just doesn't feel very "eastery" out. But we'll do our best! We have Easter baskets ready to take to Lakewood. Jack's plastic eggs are filled with Gerber "puffs" instead of jelly beans. :)

Time flies....

So much to catch up on! Our big trip out west has come and gone already. Jack, as it turns out, is a great plane traveler. He slept through takeoff on our way out, then spent the rest of the flight smiling at other passengers and playing with the lifesavers bag, our sandwich wrappers, our cups... ( He seems to be in a "paper phase" right now, obsessed with anything made from paper or plastic. Straws are a big favorite. ) It was a late night by the time we got to Cheyenne. We decided just to crash and bring Jack to bed with us, and not bother to set up the pack and play. We were promptly reminded of why we don't co-sleep anymore. Little fidget-butt ended up spending most of the night in his carseat, when he wasn't awake and fussing. I really love the idea of co-sleeping, snuggling in with the little one, bonding. But Jack is not a particularly snuggly guy when he is sleeping. He kicks a bit too much.

In Guernsey, most of our time was spent watching Jack as he got to know his Grandfather Jon and grandma Ana in person. All that skyping paid off as he was quite relaxed and friendly with them. He really enjoyed sitting on the breakfast bar counter to eat and for face time with his grandparents. He also developed quiet an affinity for chewing on pens. On Sunday we spent some time in Denver and he charmed Leigh and Blaine, too. We spent some time in the 65 degree, sunny weather, eating Thai food in Washington park. Is it any wonder we love denver more each time we visit??? I am not sure why we as parents do this, but I caught myself almost trying to talk Leigh into trying parenthood herself, when she commented on what a good baby he was, making her think that it would be a good idea.... misery loves company, I guess! As is his pattern, he was an angel baby during the days and a shrieking non-sleeper by night. You'd think we would be used to this by now. Sigh. It was a good trip, but we arrived back home more tired than when we left and Jack is still not back to his new, improved "normal" sleep. Between jet lag and teething, he does have some excuse, but it is sad that our little boy who used to go to bed like a dream, leaning toward his crib and putting himself to sleep easily, is now crying for 40 minutes when we put him down for the night. :(

Speaking of teething, his second tooth has come through! This evening as we were hanging out together, he grabbed my thumb and stuck it in his mouth and there was a second little tooth, right next to his first one, a crooked line of edges emerging in his soft mouth...come to think of it, he was pretty endearing all evening today, lots of crinkly eyed, dimple-showing smiles.

Unbelievably, Jack is 29 weeks old. Here are some of his recent "highlights":
* Jack is learning to clap! He did it several times while we were in Wyoming.
* He is also starting to wave back when we wave "hi" to him. Too cute!
* Jack likes sweet potatoes! Its the first food other than cereal that he'll eat a whole spoonful of without schrinching his face up. We've made our first homemade baby food, baking up 3 big potatoes for him last night.

snow!!!

We have gotten about 18 inches in the past 24 hours. It is pretty amazing outside of our house, really beautiful. The world is soft and rounded and white. And, a nice upshot is that not too many people are venturing out today, so that our street is much more quiet than normal. We attempted to venture out, bundled and loaded up the baby; Nat spent 30 minutes re-shoveling the driveway (after having done it a few hours earlier); we got out of the driveway and as far as the Starbucks on Lee and Mayfield before we turned around and slunk-- well, more like slipped and slid-- home with our tails between our legs. It takes quite a snowstorm to send us running home like chickens. And this one did it.

Not to be denied our snowy fun, we did take the pre-bundled baby out into the backyard, where he was snowed upon and plunked into snowdrifts for photos.

So, the kiddo is 27 weeks old. Where does time to go... (to snow days, that's where)... His new modus operandi is to launch himself at the world mouth first. He has become especially fond of our comforter. We sit him down on the bed, he opens his mouth, and dives down to plant his face in the flannel. Bobs up for air and then back down he goes. He does this with great vigor. Its a riot. He is also trying this trick with the dog, his toys, the computer keyboard, our faces.

He is starting to roll more. Not roll "over" per se, but at least side to side, with intention. He is also chewing on his toes more often. And, this morning, he said "mama". Or at least, strung together 2 of his "ma" syllables in a row. Accidental, but still endearing. Today we also gave him green beans for the first time. They make him gag. But then, so did applesauce at first. Jack seems to need time to get used to new flavors...

poor little puker

Poor baby Jack had his first real puke last night. He had been a bit whiny all day... teething, we thought. Then, we he got up from his nap-- puke city. You know me and how well (read, NOT well) I deal with puke. I was not thrilled. And, I was home alone with babe and not quite sure how to help him... he ended up throwing up 4 times in a half hour, but never seemed too concerned by it, never ran a temperature, and went back to playing by 6 pm. We played it safe, not sure if he had a stomach bug or what. Poor little guy, I kept him from nursing more than a couple of minutes at a time the rest of the night. Nithing like putting my crying baby back in his crib knowing he wanted to nurse more... :( But we wanted to take it easy on his little tummy. As it turns out, he's fine today. Not sure what caused the reverse peristalsis, but I am very GLAD he is better today. Perhaps it was the jar of bananas we tried yesterday. We originally ruled out food reactions as he hadn't eaten anything new yesterday. But his prior banana experiences were from freshly mashed bananas. And, he didn't particularly like the jarred bananas. So, they've been pitched and I'll be avoiding buying jarred food with absorbic acid from now on. I really should get on the ball and start making some of my own baby food. I keep thinking, we have all these jars we've been given, and he's eating so little right now... but maybe this weekend I'll make up a few veggies for him.
In other exciting news I bought a whole lot of Flor carpet tiles on sale at Target tonight. Jack and I also had a fun time at breastfeeding support group. Only 3 mommies there but it is always good to talk "baby" and "booby" with ladies who really get it! The little guy is currently working on hour 2 of sleeping in his carseat, and I am watching TV with a laptop on my lap. All told, a very nice evening!

fun with phones...

As we sit here hanging out on the living room rug, in our "half-hour til bedtime" laid back playtime, Jack has discovered that it is really, really fun to shake his little toy phone. He is also amused by my saying "hello? who's there? You want to talk to Jack??" and handing the phone to him. Silly baby. Oh, and he is starting to really cling to me, like a little monkey, when I get him out of the crib....

What a lovely Sunday...

It was blue-skied beautiful today and we had a really nice Sunday together. Jack slept til 7:45 and woke up happy -- I went to peek in on him and there were his legs, straight up in the air as he laid there, watching his feet. (at least he was still facing the usual way in his crib, unlike Saturday when he rotated 180 degrees at some point in the night...) We had french toast and Jack had a little bit of oatmeal and banana --he was lukewarm about it-- and then went down for a nice 2 hour nap. Nat and I went down to the basement and moved Nat's workshop over and organized it, which is a preparatory step for creating the basement lounge (which, in turn, is a preparatory step towards clearing the Florida room and creating a playroom....) It was good to get some real work done on a project we've been putting off.

Then we headed over to Melinda and Will's to see their newly green living room, and from there to Aurora Farms for some aimless shopping. It was a perfect day to be out wandering at the outlet mall. I think we spent more time loitering outside the stores, soaking up the mild temperatures and the sunshine, than we did inside. Jack was a perfect baby, relaxing in his stroller the whole time, looking around, chewing like crazy on his silky blanket. Both he and the stroller recieved many, many compliments. I think it must've been a prearranged "baby's day out" at Aurora farms, judging by the insane number of strollers there... but we were the only bugaboo! Jack refused to nap the whole time, despite much stroller jiggling. He was just too interested in looking around, and in smiling at Will, who was his favorite person for the day.

We went out to supper at the Winking Lizard when we got home and Jack was really quite a riot at dinner. He ate some oatmeal like a little champ (showing off!) and then sat on my lap where he proceeded to shake, crinkle, fold up and chew on my placement, suck on my napkin, and bang his toys around untill dinner arrived. At that point he immediately wanted to nurse. :)

We paid for the long and undernapped day last night, as little guy was up at 11, 2, 4:30 and 5:30.... sigh. But it WAS a good day. And he IS a good baby.