It's official: I have no more babies!

I was just singing a "little baby, little tiny baby" song to Evie (that she has loved for a loooong time now) and she gave me kind of a dirty look. 

So I apologized and said "Should I stop calling you a baby? Are you ready to be a toddler?"

And she said, clear as day and looking straight into my eyes, "YES."

 

I don't think she could have made it any clearer -- my baby girl is in fact a toddler!

Miss Baby is growing up!

Pay attention, folks! Evie has officially learned how to crawl FORWARD. Hide your valuables!

Evie eats!

Evie has been very excited to start eating foods. She is eating pureed veggies and fruits, teething biscuits, and various incarnations of rice cereal.

I just got her some small rice puffs, which proved to be VERY difficult for her. She had to do a lot of whacking and punching while trying to get her hands to cooperate!

She snagged one!

Here it is trying to jump back out of her mouth, but....

She finally gobbled it!!

I let her hunt a few until she got frustrated, and then I picked them up and fed them to her. She's on her way to grown up things, but she still has a little way to go!

teething baby

Evie has two teeth and is hard at work on more. Today she got her first teething biscuit! (Incidentally, what ever happened to Zwieback? I can't find them anywhere!)

the amazing pre-crawling baby!

First things first: I've lost the camera again.

So of COURSE this is the week where Evie has learned how to roll over from tummy to back (she already had back to tummy mastered), to turn in circles on her tummy, and even to manage a bit of frontward and backward scooting. Mostly backward. :D

I'm scouring the house for the camera and will get some video posted just as soon as I find it! I just can't believe that my lil'-tiny baby is sooo close to yet another phase of development. She's getting to be such a big girl!

Holding the baby!

Evie has finally gotten big enough that Jack can hold her all by himself! He is wild with excitement over this development. It's all he wants to do, at this point. :P

I love how they're heading inexorably sideways and Jack is just as determined to hang on!

8/365: Swimming

We've started going on family swimming trips in the evening. The family pool at the Aquatic Center is a very friendly 5 feet deep at its deepest point, and we've found out it's tons of fun to bring all three of us there at once. (As opposed to mildly frazzling at best when it's one parent and one toddler!)

With two parents there, we managed to finally convince Jack that it's okay to wear a floatie, and two visits later he is swimming on his own! He can now float and kick on his own and go eeeeever so slowly from one parent to the other. :)

school for Jack!

While I worked part-time at Delphian recently, Jack got to go to "school" in the nursery for staff/faculty kids. Well, my gig ended, so I had to take him out of that group. However, he had been having such a good time doing mornings at school, and learning SO much (he can count to six! sometimes all the way to ten!).... we decided we had to find another daycare for him to play at.

Enter Little Learners, a totally cute preschool facility about 10 minutes away from us. When we went for a visit, he jumped right into "Circle Time," which is when they sit in a group and read books, talk about toys, and other stuff like that. He didn't even care whether I was in the room!

Yesterday was his first day. They did a ton of activities, and (no surprise, considering how busy he had been) he fell right asleep at nap time. He had such a good time that on the way home he told me, "had fun. Had fun! Had fun," for almost five straight minutes!

So, with Jack in school three mornings per week, I am going to be working part-time (to pay for the daycare, essentially) at TTR with Alex! This is definitely a new phase of life for us all. It's proving to be very hectic, but very rewarding!

Scotty's -- a very cool place

There is a really fun indoor playplace here in town where kids can come and play for free. It's run by a church and it is just GREAT for children! It has a giant structure of tubes and various rooms, with some big slides and stuff. There is also an area off to the side for smaller kids to play in little Fisher Price houses.

I thought it was worth mentioning because I have been taking Jack there off and on for a while now and he has FINALLY gotten the hang of it!

By this I mean, he is willing to leave my side and run around with the other kids. This is kind of a huge deal. I've been kept on a 5-foot leash for weeks now, so it was a huge relief to see him running around and only circling back every so often to check in with me with a HUGE grin! Maybe now I can join the other moms who get to sit at the side of the room and knit. :)

the boy counts!

It goes a little something like this:
Wah!
Doo!
Eee!

time marches on

All day there has been a thought nagging at the back of my mind: This morning was probably the last time Jack nursed.

When he was born, I never really intended a strict timetable for weaning. I knew that 6 months of nursing has many health benefits for mother and baby, so I decided we would go "at least that long." Well, 6 months came and went. The next milestone was 10 months, where both my sister's babies self-weaned. They just weren't interested any longer. I wondered whether Jack would do the same. Then 10 months drifted past, and then the big 1-year mark. Jack obviously got more and more interested in solid foods, but was still nursing steadily. In fact, he could be downright demanding!

However, the frequency was winding down, as is normal as a child grows. About a month ago, we cut out daytime nursing entirely. Jack does just fine with a snack and a snuggle instead, and it was darned inconvenient to try to keep up nursing when we were frequently out and about. (He was never good at nursing in public settings when there is so much else to do.)

Well, apparently my body took that as the cue that the nursing phase is over. My milk supply has been rapidly dwindling, and last week I found Jack waking me up every 45 minutes throughout several nights. He kept trying and trying to nurse, and just wasn't able to get a bellyfull to go to sleep properly on. We were both waking up tired and grumpy after our long nights. This wasn't working!

To make a long story short(er), we decided to work on weaning fully. He didn't much like the plan, but I didn't know what else to do. We have just been substituting milk or water, snacks, and plenty of love and cuddles. Well, last night he went to bed with a bottle of milk, and had more for a quick drink when he woke up at 3:00 a.m. He nursed just a little this morning (I was bursting at the seams) but was much more interested in eating an entire bowl of oatmeal.

All of a sudden he is totally on board with the plan!

Needless to say, it has been an uncomfortable day (and night) with an overabundant milk supply. However, I am determined that while Jack is in agreement, we really do need to get him weaned fully, or we are going to have a very upset and confused child on our hands. This is no time to be wishy-washy, especially when dwindling milk supply is already deciding the issue for us.

So I find myself finishing up this day wondering if I have said my final "goodbye" to his baby time. Oh, I know he is still in diapers, but that can last well into the toddler years. This is the last milestone of my 10-lb little baby boy, added to the growing proof of the young man he is growing up to be. I know we will have many more ways to be close with each other (right now snuggling with a constant stream of kisses all over his head is a big hit!) but I will miss the special bond that nursing brings.

"Oh Gosh"

Jack has been working hard on his vocabulary recently. He loves to point at something and have me tell him what it's called.... twenty times in a row if he needs that many to really understand!

He also likes to try copying what I say. This has led to some really cute facts coming to light, like figuring out that he can't say "l" sounds, so he absolutely refuses to try saying "please". He knows he won't get it right! However, he will say "up," "mommy," or "help," so he at least has some alternates.

Right around Christmas time we were practicing the "s" sound. He figured out how to say "shhhh" for "s". Ridiculously cute, I hardly need say. :) Well, then he got a bus in the mail from his cousin. I told him what it was, and he spent 45 minutes straight playing with it! The whole time he was saying "busssshh," "busssssssh," and I could hear the "h" slowly disappearing. By the end of the night he could say "bus" just right!

Later that week we heard "Oh, gosh!" for the first time! And the other night it was "book," with the "k" suddenly making an appearance. I feel like I want to follow him around with the camera and record everything he says, but of course the moment I take it out, he is all quiet interest and stops talking!

excitement!

Holy smokes! Jack just jumped! Like, both feet in the air, at the same time, and ON PURPOSE! He is soooooooo exhilarated! He had to run ten laps up and down the apartment just to work off the initial surge of excitement :D

peanut butter and jelly

Jack just ate his first PB&J sandwich. He LOVED it! He had to run over and get a bite, and then scamper in a big circle laughing and chewing, and then return for another bite.... it took us about fifteen minutes just because it was so fun! :)

(And of course, it was on freshly homemade wheat bread that was deliciously nutty, so that just made it even better!)

Jack's Birthday!!

In the interest of documenting the all-important first birthday for our absent family members, we took about a million photos and I've been trying to get them edited and posted ever since. Time for a new strategy! I will post batches, and thus actually get some pictures out to be viewed. :)

The morning view:

We do have video of him coming out and seeing the presents, but I think the file is too big. I'll have to wait for Alex to do tech support on that one!

Of course, the balloon was the best present of all!

Throwing the balloon and watching it float away:

And then bringing it back!

And then carrying it over to Meaghan (our friend who stayed over to help me do all the party stuff) for her to admire!

Making sure the balloon was still over there.

Hey, a tricycle! OOH, curly ribbons!!

Trying to drag it around.

...and that concludes part 1 of who-knows-how-many! It's so much easier to face uploading the photos in little chunks.

he walks!

Jack started really trying to walk while he and I were staying at my parents' house, waiting for Alex to drive the car across the country. It really looked like he was going to do it, and then he just gave up! This happened right after I mentioned that his daddy was going to miss seeing Jack's first steps. Apparently this was not an okay plan!

The rest of the Quincy crew and I were watching Jack carefully and betting he would walk like a pro within about a week of getting to Oregon and finding his daddy.... Sure enough, here he goes! This is only day two of really trying to figure it out, too. Are we in trouble, or what? :)

PS -- I ADORE the happy little smile he's wearing. I can just watch this over and over to see him being so proud of his accomplishment. :)

ten months old

Jack is finally at the longer-out-than-in milestone. This is pretty important!

He weighs 20 pounds and is 2 1/2 feet tall. Wow! Right now he's occupying himself by "cooking" on the kitchen floor -- using a frying pan, a small pot with lid, a whisk and a potato masher. He's very diligent! One of these days I'm sure a custard or something will appear. :)

He now spends his days cooking, organizing (an activity in which many things find their way to the floor), investigating the many doors and making sure they open and close correctly, throwing and chasing his balls (the racquetball is his favorite) and taking at least one long walk per day. We frequently go to the library so he can charm the librarians!

He also likes to do chores, to feed snacks to me and Alex, and to brush my teeth at bedtime. He makes sure we're taken care of properly! He is also capable of giving me a really stern lecture, complete with arched back, furrowed brow, and gutteral, disapproving syllables, if I'm doing something wrong like making him wait until his daddy is awake before it's romp-on-Daddy time.

He can say da-da, kitty, doggy, and mommmm (with a growly bit at the end). And yesterday he revealed that he can say "go go go go go go go!" because I was taking too long getting ready for our shopping trip!

The point being, of course, that if all this has happened in ten months, we have a hell of a ride coming up! :D

oh my goodness, we're in trouble now!

I got up early this morning and was doing some cleaning and stuff while Jack and Alex were still asleep. Well, around 7:00 (Jack's usual wake-up time) I heard a little "mhhuuhh!" (his normal wake-up cry) and went into the bedroom expecting to find him sitting up, rubbing his eyes, and giving me a goofy, tired smile (his normal wake-up greeting).

WELL.

He was standing on the floor holding on to the edge of the bed. That's right, he climbed out of bed on his own!!! (His crib is pushed up against our bed with one side open, giving him the perfect escape route!) And he was surveying the room carefully, deciding where to go next.

I blame Alex, who decided this week to start teaching Jack about furniture dismounts. He was showing him "Okay, you put your feet over the edge, then turn on your tummy and your feet hit the floor first," while coaching him through the motions.

And of course, as I typed this he tried to dive head-first to dismount from the couch. What are we going to do with this boy??

"bye bye!"

Every time we leave a place, I wave Jack's hand and tell him to say "bye bye!"

Yesterday he actually waved at the librarian and said "biiiiiiiiieeeee!"

baby bear update

Jack is now saying "dada," "doggy," and "kitty". (Okay, so he says "gitty," but Ks are hard!) AND yesterday he figured out that he knows how to stand up on his own. He's been doing it for a while (3 weeks, at least) but he didn't know he could, and would fall over if he noticed he was unsupported. Go, baby, go! I feel like I'm almost not allowed to call him a baby any more!

PS -- I know I'm shamefully behind on posting. I am trying soo hard to motivate myself to catch up, and will be trying to post a couple of things per day for the next few weeks. (Literally, that's how much content I have to catch up on!)