Happy Memorial Day

Two teeth!!!

We are just finishing up a wonderful long weekend. We ran errands on Saturday, getting ready to leave for Boston on Wednesday. Then Brian was on duty on Sunday and JJ and I ran some more errands. On Sunday evening, we got to Skype with my parents and while we were doing this, JJ decided to practice his "trust fall." He did this without consulting me first, but luckily I was ready! He was just standing at the couch, then would fall back into my arms. I guess I should feel good that he trusts me that much to just let himself go, but hopefully he doesn't trust his toys or the cats that much too!

Today was the best part of the weekend. We drove up to Laguna Beach and met Krista and Tristan for an afternoon in the sunshine (don't be fooled by JJ's long sleeves, it was warm, but JJ's fair skin needs the protection!). We had lunch, then ice cream, then enjoyed some time on the beach. It was really fun and JJ lasted a pretty long time before eating the rocks! The boys celebrated Memorial Day by playing with Army men! Tristan brought some along and JJ, of course, just had to chew on one. Tristan asked very politely a few times for JJ to stop, saying, "I don't want JJ to chew on my Army man anymore." I'm sure Tristan is really looking forward to JJ's teething period to be over! It was a great weekend, and as you can see by the last picture, it wiped JJ out! He fell asleep on the way home before the engine was even on and didn't wake up until we parked at home. I hope everyone had a good weekend too!

Sick update. . .

Blueberries. . . jury is still out, going to try again tomorrow

We had our first trip to the pediatrician yesterday due to a sick baby. I'm incredibly grateful that it didn't come until he is 9 months old, but it was still really hard. He had still been running a low grade fever that just wasn't breaking, so we called the nurse yesterday and she said to bring him in. He has a cold which progressed into a double ear infection and 2 "goopy" eyes (no, that wasn't the doctor's term, but I don't remember what she called all of it!). I knew it was bad when the doctor came in, took all of our family current sickness history, and them promptly left and came back wearing a mask and gloves! I'm not joking, she really did!!! So, he's on antibiotics, which he doesn't mind, and ear drops, which he hates. Today, he pretty much just cried and fussed all day. Luckily Brian had the day off, so he was able to comfort him all day long. I'm starting to get better, but my cold progressed into a sinus infection and I think it's going to linger a little longer. Hopefully we'll be better by Monday and be able to enjoy at least one day of the long weekend : )

PS - I really don't know how Michael and Krista deal with Tristan being sick as much as he is. They are truly saints. Brian and I were crying our eyes out the last few days and JJ just has a small cold!

Oh, wait, I almost forgot, JJ did probably my favorite advancement today! As were walking into the house, I was carrying him. We got to the door and I said, "JJ, please shut the garage door." He then leaned in and pushed the button, then looked over to make sure it closed!!! Really, he did! He is getting to be so useful now, and yes, that is the reason why I had a child, for the help!

Sick . . .

Sick baby : (

Happy baby yesterday!

Yummy teething biscuit!

When Brian came home last week, he was getting over a cold/sinus infection. So since he loves us sooo much, he decided to share it with his loving family! I have been sick since Sunday and JJ is currently going "under the weather." While I've been sick, all I wanted was for JJ to just lay with me and be calm, but during that time, he was still a VERY active infant. Today, however, he is the calm baby that I was hoping for, however, now I don't want him to be like this! He has had a low grade fever for the last few days and another tooth is starting to show next to his bottom one. Today, he started to have a runny nose and has been pretty lethargic all day. He is currently taking a very uncharacteristic evening nap. I know that you always want what you don't have and I see that now when all I want is a crazy/active baby back : ( To make it a little worse, Brian has been gone all week. Due to the family illness, JJ has been coming to bed with me at about 10 PM every night this week. It's hard to "fight" with a crying and screaming baby in the middle of the night when you both don't feel good. It's made for some fun 2 AM coughing fits for me because then JJ thinks it's time to get up and play! Oh, well, enough of the complaining. I just hope we're all back to "normal" soon. Brian comes back tomorrow, so maybe we'll just give this sickness right back to him!

Sleeping vs Eating. . .

Why do we even buy toys!

So Krista has a theory that babies/kids are either eaters or sleepers. Based on JJ's schedule today, I'll let you decide which you think he is. . .

Sleeping -

7:30 PM - bedtime last night

11 PM - awake, crying and screaming

11:30 PM - after not calming down, JJ "wins" and I bring him into bed with me and he falls right back to sleep, at which point Brian goes and sleeps on the couch since JJ is even a crazy wiggle worm while sleeping

5:30 AM - awake, crying and screaming

6:40 AM - finally back to sleep

7:20 AM - awake for the day

9:30 AM - 10 AM - morning nap, he wakes up crying with a dirty diaper

10:30 AM - 11:15 AM - finally falls asleep again on his daycare lady after crying and screaming

2:30 PM - 3 PM - afternoon nap

7:30 PM - bedtime

Eating -

Breakfast - 8 oz bottle, 1/2 cup of apples, 1 yogurt

Lunch - 1/2 cup peas, 1/2 cup butternut squash, 6 tablespoons of rice cereal, 1 banana

Afternoon snack - 6 oz bottle

Dinner - 1/4 cup peas, 6 tablespoons of rice cereal, 1/3 of an avocado, 1/2 of a banana

Evening snack - 8 oz bottle

That was today. We'll see what tomorrow brings!

Daddy's Home!

Dana and JJ are both excited to have Brian come home!

Waiting for Daddy. . .

Is that a tooth I feel?!?

We wrapped up a really fun weekend with Dana and Jon on Monday with the icing on the cake, Brian finally came home! He had been gone for three weeks, which is the longest he'd been gone since JJ was born. He came home to JJ having a new tooth, feeding himself finger foods, being very fast at crawling, and Brian now gets to "enjoy" the wiggle worm diaper change! Even though Brian had been gone for so long, my mom was right. . . JJ doesn't have a sense of time. He was laughing and happy to see him and not tentative at all to go to Brian. It was great to see. Only one person cried. . . Brian! We'll get to enjoy the next few months together as a family before Brian leaves on deployment for 8 months. There are some bets going on whether Brian will leave before or after JJ walks, so we'll see what happens. At this rate, I think he'll be flying soon! (quick side note, as I was writing this we had another small (5.1, but short) earthquake. I'm really tired of the shaking!)

Happy Saturday. . .

Here's just a random video of busy little JJ. He seems to really enjoy the door stopper for some reason, at least it keeps him entertained for awhile!

Dana and Jon (Brian's sister and brother-in-law) are in town this weekend and I want them to come back every weekend! Not only is it great to see them and be able to spend time together, but JJ really likes having them here. Last night, Jon was playing with JJ and seemed to tired him out pretty good since he actually slept in this morning until 7:45! It was the greatest Saturday morning in 8 months!!! JJ woke up at 2:30 and came in to bed with me, and again at 5:45, but was persuaded to go back to sleep. If he could only do that every Saturday, I would be very happy! We went for a walk this morning around Mission Bay and he officially won't nap in his stroller anymore. I put the back down and he then cried and sat himself back up and held on to the front of the stroller to keep himself sitting up for the rest of the walk. He fell asleep on the way home, but then woke up when we got home, he had lunch, and has now been sleeping for over 2 hours! What a great Saturday : )

No fear. . .

This is a video of JJ being himself, no fear! There really isn't a situation he doesn't get himself out of these days, he'll just throw his body in whatever direction he wants to go and see what happens. There have been many bumps on the head lately : (

As a new parent I'm always learning new things that surprise me. Recently, I've learned that the most annoying thing is to change the diaper of a wiggle worm! The minute JJ sees the changing table he starts fussing and whining. He really hates being on his back to be changed. Once I lay him down, he just flips himself over which makes me then fuss and whine! I find myself saying things like, "JJ, that's not cute" and "don't do that, please." For some reason, I don't think he's getting it! Tonight was a classic time of him not wanting to lay there to get his diaper changed before bed. Finally after I got the clean one on, I let him flail himself around and I ended up putting him in PJ's while he was on his stomach, with his head off the table, dangling there and playing with the knobs on the dresser drawer. This was apparently his idea of a great position to get dressed in! If you don't believe me about how rough it is to change his diaper lately, then please come over and do it for me!!!

Catching up. . .

Ok, so since I'm just now starting this, here are some pictures to get you up to date. The first is 3 days before JJ entered the world and the last is on his 8 month birthday. If you want more from this time frame, just ask to look at my mom's refrigerator or in her purse. I think she has hundreds in these two places!

As you can see by the pictures, he is growing like a weed! He currently weighs about 20 pounds and is approximately 29 inches. He has been in the 97% for height and about 85% for weight, and his head is in the 90%! Hopefully there's a big brain in there : )

Some quick facts about him to date -

He started smiling at 6 weeks (to Brian, of course)

He started eating solids at 5 months because he wants to keep growing and was obviously starving!

He started sitting up on his own at about 5 1/2 months

He started rolling over, back to front, on Valentine's Day. He still won't roll front to back though which is apparently the easier direction!

April was busy -

He started pulling himself up during the first week, and "cruising" shortly thereafter

He started scooting during the second week, and climbing the stairs!

He started crawling on April 22!

Since then, he has been on the move every second he is awake! He is getting faster at crawling, so he can be exhausting for me and the cats!

This last week. . . his first tooth. After months of teething symptoms, one finally popped through!

So I think that about gets everyone up to speed with his "big" accomplishments : ) I'll continue to post updates, pictures, and videos. Enjoy!