Sooo big. . .

He is the same size as this little boy who is 17 months!

JJ has officially out grown the last "baby holder. " I now have nowhere to stick him while I shower! I guess I can start putting the pack-n-play on top of him. Just kidding : ) He has now out grown the swing, the bouncer, the jumper, and the exersaucer. He is just way too tall for all of these now. Sad : ( Yesterday, Brian thought maybe he could just let him play around in the bathroom while he showered and JJ could entertain himself. After about 3 minutes of JJ opening and closing the shower door, it was evident that this was not going to work and JJ ended up in the shower with him! I guess on the weekends now, during his total of two hours of napping, I will need to shower, do laundry, make his food, clean the house, eat, and blog. That's going to be a little tight!

Yesterday we went to a friend's daughter's 3rd birthday party. They have a big yard, so it was really fun watching JJ crawl around in the grass and watch the older kids. He apparently doesn't like the feel of grass on his knees though, since he was crawling on all fours, not on his knees. I did read this is a sign of learning to walk, so we'll see! They had a play table that had water in it that he played at for a long time. Other kids would come and go, but I think he played there for about 30 minutes straight, which in his timeframe, is FOREVER!!! Since he started moving, I don't think I've ever seen him stay in one spot that long. Maybe we'll have to get one and put it out on our balcony.

Today has been pretty low key so far. Brian is on duty, so JJ and I just hung out at home this morning, then went to the grocery store. My mom should be here in about an hour, so JJ's really looking forward to her being here. So much so, that he's currently still playing and not taking an afternoon nap! Maybe I should try and go put him down now. Hopefully he won't scream at me again like he did this morning.

It's a mystery. . .

Cheese!

Oh no, I haven't baby proofed the 3rd shelf yet!

My mom has always said, "wouldn't it be nice if babies came with buttons that would light up when there was a problem (ie - hungry, tired, bored, mad, just being a baby, etc)." Somedays I really wish this were true more than others. Today is one of those days where I need the button. I just don't understand how a sweet, cute, loving child can go to sleep nice and quiet one night, then scream and cry their head off the next night as if they are being water boarded (actually, I'm not sure if you scream while being water boarded, I guess you wouldn't since technically you're being drowned and can't breath)! Nothing I did seemed to help unless I was willing to just lie down and sleep in the crib with him, which I'm not. I'm waaaayy too big for that now. He is finally asleep after lots of singing, rocking, and crying (by both of us) and I hope he sleeps longer tonight than he has been.

Every night, at some point, he ends up coming to bed with us. When Brian's gone, JJ comes to bed a little earlier : ) It's anywhere between 11 pm and 5 am. Last night, though, JJ thought it would be "fun" to play games with me! Four times throughout the night, he woke up crying. I let him cry a little, then would get up and go upstairs, but by the time I would get there, he would be back soundly sleeping! Finally, at 4 am, on my way up the stairs, I decided that even if he was asleep by the time I got to his room, he was coming into bed with me! Luckily for him, he was still crying when I got there and when I went in, he looked up from his crib and said in the sweetest/saddest voice "mama." I know it was just a fluke, but it melted my heart : )

Another current mystery. . . what's with eating paper?!? Last week, we were at Old Navy and I was letting him play with a hat while we were shopping. Soon enough, I heard him coughing. I looked down and he had eaten the whole price tag! He hadn't just chewed on it, but had eaten it! I pulled some of it out of his mouth, but he probably ate about half of it. This morning, while I was getting ready, he unrolled half the roll of toilet paper and then started eating it, after he had already gotten in trouble earlier this morning for eating Kleenex! I really hope he grows out of this and doesn't have papereatingitis.

Home again. . .

Oh, the Washington rain . . .

So we've finally made it home again. It was a great weekend up in Washington, but it's sooo nice to be home. Katie and Luke's wedding was beautiful and it was definitely a very busy weekend. So busy, that I only took four pictures, so I had to supplement this post with some pictures from today : )

JJ and I flew up to Washington late Wednesday night and he did pretty well on the plane. Some playing and some sleeping. The funniest part was probably when he dropped his pacifier right into the jacket pocket of the woman sleeping next to us! Luckily she woke up as I was getting it out of her pocket! Then on Thursday, we went down with my mom to see my grandma in Vancouver. It was a very quick trip since I needed to get back for Katie's last dress fitting with her, but we got to enjoy about an hour and a half visit. JJ seemed to like being in a new house where he was free to crawl all around and it only took him about 10 minutes to find the dog's water and food bowls and get himself into "trouble"! It was really great to see Nana and I think both she and JJ enjoyed the visit. Friday and Saturday were filled with lots of wedding events and Brian flew in late Friday night. I didn't really spend much time with JJ since I was involved with all the fun wedding events, but he seemed to love spending time with all his grandparents, aunts, and uncles. The wedding was very nice and JJ made it almost all the way through with only a little "talking." Since there was no time change involved, like the wedding in Boston, JJ didn't get to go to all the late night fun, but had to go back the hotel early for bed, but he didn't seem to mind : )

Yesterday, we got to spend the morning with my parents and help celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary! I've only been around for about half of those years, but the ones I've witnessed have been amazing and loving : ) Brian and JJ enjoyed their first Father's Day together and we got to go to lunch with all of Brian's family. It was really good to see everyone.

I really loved being with our family all weekend and every once in awhile get the urge to move back to Washington, but. . . what's with all the rain?!!?!? It pretty much rained all weekend! Today I got to wear flip flops and a short sleeve t-shirt again and JJ was in a sleeveless onsie outfit again! Finally, sunshine! Sorry family, no move for us in the near future. Plus, I could never leave Michael, Krista, and Tristan alone in SoCal : )

Even though it was great to be in Washington, I'm glad that we don't have any more big trips planned for the next few months. Our next trip up there will probably be in the fall to see my friend Tifani and Brian's sister Dana's new babies! I can't wait to see the beautiful boys (due in September and October) and have JJ literally walk all over them : )

Brian left this morning and will be gone all week, so it's just me, JJ, and the cats left to recuperate. After a weekend of much excitement, not surprisingly, it was really hard for JJ to go to bed tonight. He didn't really nap very well today, or "on schedule." When I tried to put him down tonight, he just kept crying and crying. He has a little bit of a stuffy nose, plus he seems to be teething his top teeth, so the cry was very sad : ( I tried many "book methods," rubbing his back, singing, letting him cry, but eventually, I just picked him up and rocked him. I know that some people think it's "bad" but I just wanted him to sleep! One exhausted parent, plus one exhausted child equals doing what works!

No Sitting. . .

Cute bathtub that he grew out of already : (

I think JJ has decided he doesn't like sitting very much. Either that, or he just really likes to be standing! He is always pulling himself up onto everything. He will pull himself up onto everything from the sliding glass door, to the refrigerator, to the security gates, my legs, the toilet, and the bathtub! Some of the stuff he "pulls" himself up to, there isn't anything to pull on, but he still ends up standing. Today, for the first time, he had pulled himself up onto a toy and was standing there playing, he lifted both hands up, stood for a second, then put both hands back down. It was very calm and collected. I'm afraid the walking may come sooner than later!

Today, I unfortunately lost my phone. Well, I didn't really lose it, I know where it is supposed to be. I left it sitting on a shelf at American Eagle and about 20 minutes later when I realized it, it was already gone and no one turned it in. I was really upset this afternoon, mainly because there are lots of picture of JJ on the phone that I never downloaded to the computer. I was laying on the couch pouting when JJ pulled himself up to the couch. He then squatted back down to pick up a snack that he had dropped on the carpet earlier today and stood back up to eat it. Then, he laid back down on the ground and started looking under the couch for more snacks! It made me laugh and feel much better : ) What a funny little kid we have.

Another quick side note - we had another earthquake (4.8) while I was writing this! Maybe the earth is telling me to stop blogging!!!!!!

Food update. . .

Snack Trap!

Chicken!

I think JJ's current favorite activity is feeding himself! After he's almost finished with dinner, I've been cutting up banana and letting him feed it to himself. As you can see by the video, he loves it! I also bought him a "Snack Trap" that if we let him, I think he would eat snacks out of it all day long. He definitely enjoys eating. Tonight was his first experience with eating meat. I used a recipe from a book that Krista let me borrow for blender baby food. It was chicken, avocado, and lime juice blended together and he ate about half a bowl of it. I don't know if he hated it, but he surely didn't love it. He started putting his fingers in his mouth, then rubbing it all over his head! We're going to try again tomorrow and see how it goes. Brian actually tried it and said it wasn't bad, but the texture was not good! I'm just scared that since he has loved fruits and vegetables for 9 months that I've created the worst thing. . . a vegetarian! That would be very disappointing!

My dad was in town yesterday and JJ loved having him here. They got to play together and JJ loved crawling all over him : ) Next week we head up to Washington for Katie's wedding, which will be lots of fun, especially so that all the other grandparents will get to see JJ too.

We're home. . .

Ready to get on the plane

First subway ride

The Freedom Trail

We got back from Boston Sunday night after a wonderful long weekend there and out at Cape Cod. The wedding was beautiful, and as I suspected, JJ was a big hit with the ladies (actually, everyone seemed to love him). He did really well on the flight there, he slept the whole way. The weekend was a very eventful one for him, with lots of first. His first time "driving" a car (he learned to adjust the mirrors before going), first time on a subway (he fell asleep for 5 minutes of the ride), first time in the Atlantic Ocean (warmer than the Pacific right now, I think), first time in the swimming pool (he seemed nervous at first, but then really started to enjoy it), first time wearing suspenders (Brian picked out his outfit for the wedding), and first time "talking" during a wedding and wedding reception (after the parents were seated, the chapel was silent so JJ decided to say "mwbaba mwaba" then during the Maid of Honor's toast he was eating his dinner and being very vocal about enjoying it)! We didn't really transition him into Eastern time, so he was able to enjoy all the fun late night events with us. Brian was amazing though, and brought him back to the hotel to put him to bed so I could have more time with my girlfriends. JJ got to go out to dinner one night, then to the rehearsal dinner the second night, and the wedding and reception the third night. At the wedding reception, people kept commenting on how happy he is and he's such a good baby. I have to agree : )

The flight back was interesting. The plane was delayed for about an hour due to a sudden rain and wind storm and tornado warning. JJ was very patient waiting to board and we let him crawl around awhile to get some energy out. Once we boarded, we were all sitting nicely in our seats when The Jerk came to sit next to us. Right when he saw JJ, he said, "oh, great" while slamming his bag into the overhead bin. My response, "sorry, is there a problem?" His response, "we'll see." Who does that?!? Then about 10 minutes into the flight, he asked Brian if we were going home to San Diego and Brian actually answered him politely with, "yes, we were at Cape Cod for a wedding." I then hit Brian and gave him "the look." How could they make small talk with my blood still boiling?!? That was the end of that conversation and the last words exchanged for the next 6 hours between us and him. JJ did very well on the flight, he slept for the first hour, then played for about 3, then slept for the last 2 hours. Part of me wanted JJ to cry and scream the whole time just to torture the guy, but I guess it's better that he proved him wrong and didn't cry or scream at all. Maybe he'll be nicer to the next person he sits by with a baby.

I've been thinking about stopping making his baby food. It's pretty time consuming and I've been feeling lazy lately. Before the trip, I went and bought baby food since it was going to be a lot easier to travel with. In the span of four days, he ate 35 jars of baby food!!! He did!!! At almost $1 per jar, it looks like I will still be making his baby food, unless we can take out a small loan just to pay for his food!

Yesterday was his 9 month check-up with the doctor. The doctor said his cold is completely cleared up his ears look good. He passed all the "tests" and is officially a "well baby" except for his skin. He still has spots of eczema that haven't cleared up on the back of his knees, his elbows, and his chest. The doctor gave him a prescription for a medicated ointment that should hopefully help. He also gave us the ok to start feeding him meat. Brian is gone this week, so I'm going to wait until he gets home on Friday and then JJ gets chicken! He's very excited : )

Current stats -

Weight - 20 pounds, 39th percentile

Length - 30 inches, 93rd percentile

Head - 47 cm, 90th percentile

Basically, he's a tall, skinny, bobble head!

9 Months (yesterday). . .

Here we are at 9 months already. I know it's cliche, but the time really does fly! I remember like it was many sleepless nights ago that I put JJ next to his first "month sign." He just laid there staring at me. Now, it's hard to get him to stay still long enough to get a photo and even harder to get him to stop playing with the sign!

We're currently getting ready to leave on the red eye flight to Boston. We're going to my friend, Caroline's, wedding at Cape Cod. JJ is really excited to meet my college friends! He does love the ladies : ) Hopefully he sleeps the whole flight, but we'll see. Brian is afraid that he's going to drop him, so we're trying to think of some sort of contraption to strap him to his body so they both can sleep (I will be sleeping, of course!). Maybe the flight attendants will enjoy holding a cute baby?!? Luckily the doctor gave us ear drops for him, so we're hoping at least his ears won't hurt very much. Depending on how he does, we may be buying wine for everyone sitting around us, including me!