Memorial Day

It seemed we all needed a day of rest.  Jonah took three looong naps, which is quite unusual. He had been such a good little sport as we toted him around NOLA, he deserved it!  We missed all the town festivities, but I don't think any of us minded to skip the parade.

Jooooonaaaaah!!!

By Sunday, we were all pretty exhausted.  Jonah fell asleep during Mass at the St. Louis cathedral, slept through a beignet brunch at Cafe Du Monde and took another nap with Grandpa while we ran out for lunch before heading for home.  I suppose he had enough excitement for a while, so sleep won out over seeing the sights!

We were settling into our seats on the return flight when we heard: "Jooooonaaaah!!!"  I looked up, expecting someone from the wedding, and saw Jonah's friends from the plane down to New Orleans!  What a pleasant thing for anyone travelling with an infant to have a baby fan club on board.  When Jonah got tired and cranky of sitting in our laps, we took a walk down the aisle and his friends kept Jonah entertained for a good while.  Thank you, kind strangers!

  

Alligator Nugget

We joined many of the wedding guests for swamp boat rides to meet the alligators and wildlife.  Daddy took off on an airboat tour with an old friend so they could wear goggles and go super fast.  Jonah and Mommy took the slow boat, which was just like the Disney jungle cruise ride without the track.  Terrible jokes included: 'See that alligator with the crooked tail?  We call that "reptile dysfunction"!'  It was very pleasant with a shade canopy and slight breeze.

 

Mommy did not appreciate that the guide kept referring to Jonah and Elena as nuggets for the gators!  Mommy was very cautious about avoiding a Michael Jackson moment, but we did get close to the railing.  Jonah gazed around the boat and canals with great interest.  Later, the guide brought out an alligator head and turtle shell that we could touch (and for Jonah, to taste & "try on") which were much more to his liking.  He makes a cute Ninja-Turtle, no?  Then out came a live gator for everyone to hold and pet!

At the end, we all cooled off in the hotel pool.  It looked like spring break out on the rooftop!

Mini-Groomsman

Jonah was an unofficial wedding attendant at his Aunt Ashley and Uncle Leon's wedding.  He was by far the cutest Groomsman, IMHO.   He dressed up in his little suit with a matching tie that Mommy had made from a tie clip and the back end of an adult tie.

All afternoon, he accompanied the wedding parties, first the men, then the ladies (after nap).  In the salon, we told the stylist he was going for the "Gerber" look - you know the one, with curls behind the ears and on the forehead.  :-)  He was also very helpful with moving the rolling dress rack around the room while the bridesmaids did our make-up and dressed.


Prior to the event, the wedding party did a picture tour around a few blocks of the French Quarter.  The first stops were nice, with everyone well-dressed and in good spirits.  All along the way Jonah was getting progressively more casual, first off with the jacket, then the tie & socks with sleeves rolled up.


By the time we reached Jackson Square, poor Jonah was so hot and flushed.  He very eagerly borrowed a sippy cup for his first gulp of water!  We had some time to cool before the ceremony and Jonah dozed through the vows from Daddy's arms.


At the reception Jonah ate like a king with
his first steak dinner.  My favorite Jonah moment was that as the bride and groom made a tour of the tables and came to us, Jonah improvised "clinking glasses" with his plastic link and a bread plate - and the bride and groom kissed for him!  ...not that he noticed the achieved result.

After dinner, Jonah napped in his carseat, but his cuteness worked against him.  Everyone kept coming over to gawk, flash cameras or poke at him.  Eventually, he and Daddy decided to leave early and go to bed for more peaceful rest while Mommy joined the super-fun second-line parade.

Off to New Orleans!

Jonah was quite the traveler! Terrified of getting "the look", I avoided making eye-contact with our fellow passengers as we boarded the plane.  Jonah, on the other hand, made friends with several middle-aged vacationers sitting a few rows up. They were enjoying a few too many cocktails and kept Jonah occupied with waving and peek-a-boo from behind the seats. It was great! We tried to feed Jonah during take-off and landing, but he was so pre-occupied with looking around the exciting new environment that he hardly drank between flashing the rest of the plane from under my cape. Nevertheless, the pressure, noise and movement didn't seem to bother him a bit. What was upsetting was that the little TVs wouldn't do anything when he touched them, like the iPad and soon 'broke' and stopped flashing pictures altogether!

Jonah did everything perfectly for the wedding rehearsal (his job is to be in Drew's arms).  Afterwards, we took a taxi to the rehearsal dinner at Mulates, but Jonah made it quite clear that he DID NOT want to be in the cab!  I felt so terrible for the family and friends that had shared the ride.  I was pretty sure Jonah was just exhausted, but as soon as we arrived, he stopped crying and perked right up.  He had a wonderful time eating table food (no, we didn't give him the frog or alligator) and dancing to the live music.

 

For more photos from our trip: 

8 months

So what is Jonah doing at 8 months?  A whole lot, and so proud of it!

Motor Skills:  Jonah claps, waves/high-fives socially, army crawls across the room, and has perfected his pincher-grasp.  His hand coordination is very deliberate in manipulating toys and food.

Social Skills:  Jonah is very friendly and will wave when someone smiles at him.  It's a cute wave with his fingers opening and closing, but in a wave progression, rather than all at once.  Then he buries his head in Mommy as if being shy.  He reaches up for Mommy or Daddy to pick him up.  He's very interested in other kids and babies and will watch or bat at them to play.

Sleep:  Still doing great (knock on wood!)  We had a short spell of midnight wakings (I think he was in a growth spurt), but that didn't last long.  Daddy's solution was to keep him up later, Mommy's was to feed him large quantities of Cheerios before bed.  Since we tried both, we may never know that it was really just something he had to work through while growing!  Now he's back to 8:00pm to 6:00am, give or take a half hour on each end.  Naps are still unpredictable, but usually about two for 30min each.  He's turned out to be a tummy sleeper and turns himself over as soon as he hits the mattress.

Food:  It wasn't long ago I was concerned that Jonah wasn't eating enough to provide him any nutrition.  Now, he will eat anything we put in front of him!  He loves table foods and feeding himself, so he tries almost anything we're having for dinner along with an ounce of pureed baby food and a couple handfuls of Cheerios or Puffs.  Plus 2oz of baby cereal in the morning and 5 7-8oz feedings a day.

Activities:  Jonah loves his bath all the more, now that he uses the big tub and can move around in it!  His favorite thing is to put his hands under the tap while the water is running.  Splashing himself and Mommy is a close second.  He seems to have grown out of Jumperoo, or at least lost interest in being stuck in one location when he could be patrolling.  He'd much rather check out new corners of the house and find trouble!  He loves standing whenever he can get someone to help him and is practicing moving his feet to walk where he wants to go.

Speech:  Jonah can make a variety of consonant sounds, but only when he wants to.  His vocabulary consists of: ba, da, ga, ma, pa, ah, and a very high-pitched squeak he is trying out for range.  Naturally, we assume any string of ma-ma-ma or da-da-da is meant for us.  ;-)

Happy Mother's Day!

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This post was composed by Jonah himself. It should be noted that during his writing, he figured out how to split the keyboard (I had no idea it could do that!), paste a hyperlink, and undo (I never noticed that button before!).

A Visit with Grandma Peggy, Grandpa, and the Puppies

16 Babies, 10 Moms, and a Dad

= Mila's 2-year old birthday party! Everyone from playgroup went (most Tues. playgroups are some subset of the list) plus a couple other friends. The kids were between newborn and about 3 yrs. Crazy.

Jonah really liked playing on Mila's toy piano. It was a little upright, sized perfectly for a baby to sit on the floor and bang the keys. He looked just like Schoeder from the Peanuts!

He composed rather interesting music too. It had all the marks of a symphony, with soft interludes between very powerful choruses. Arguably, it was better than a piece Daddy and I recently saw by Augusta Thomas, commissioned and performed by the BSO (the only time the orchestra had ever given us both a headache). Certainly, it was more enjoyable to my ears! And between his back-up band of a drum and guitar and kids screaming in the background, I may not have been the only observer to think it the nicest sound in the room!
 

Finger Food

We gave Jonah a few Cheerios on his tray to see what would happen. There was quite a learning curve on both ends:

Jonah: slapping your already messy-with-carrots hands at the Cheerios will make them stick!
(It turned into a game of seeing how many O's he could grab at the same time.)
Mommy: give Jonah only a couple O's at a time
(Once Jonah could get all the Cheerios from the tray into his fists, the next stage of his game was to put them in his mouth, like he would any new object.)
Jonah: getting O's from a tightly-clenched fist into my mouth is tough... Try a pincher technique
(The first couple successes were particularly interesting to watch. Jonah would gum them with an exaggerated open-mouthed chew and puzzled expression.)

Over the course of a week, Jonah went from playing with his O's to very deliberatly and reliably feeding himself a couple dozen O's, one at a time, with a perfected pincher-grasp.

Card Making

We have the double-whammy of Mothers Day and Teacher appreciation this week so Jonah and I set up shop for card making. I laid out newspaper on the kitchen floor (really, who even has newspapers lying atound? It was scraps of circulars) and set Jonah down with a bingo dobber.
It didn't take long to realize that this wan't going to yield anything on the cards, but maybe on his face and clothes. Clearly, he saves all his paintbrush holding skills and artistry for the cute projects his teachers send home from school. Eating the newspaper was far more fun. So we switched to making handprints, though I can't say Jonah enjoyed getting his hand painted, then awkwardly pressed against the paper on the floor.
So we went to plan C, where Mommy made some DIY finger paints, which I remembered seeing online. We sat Jonah in his high chair, dipped hs fingers in the tub of paint and let him slap his tray, as he likes to do. Finally, a result that was pure Jonah expression! And he didn't even try to eat the paint!

If You're Happy and You Know It: Clap your Hands!

At Mass yesterday, Father was making a point which involved teaching the congregation how people clap in Colombia. Jonah was watching as everyone started with one finger, then two, and eventually the noise grew as they clapped using the whole hand.  He must have picked up on how effective the clapping was as a noise-making devise, because later in the evening, he was clapping!  His teachers also reported today that Jonah clapped to get everyone's attention at school and smiled when everyone looked his way!

The Weight is Right

I went to a baby shower for a cousin (this time without Jonah) and of course, everyone wanted to know how big Jonah is now.  I offered a guess, but we hadn't done a weigh-in since his 6mo visit.  So when I returned home we did a weigh-in.  Daddy guessed 19lbs.  Grandmama 18lb. 2oz.  I guessed 18lb. 9oz.  Daddy thought this was a silly guess, since by Price is Right rules, either 19 1 or $1 would have been the best choices statistically.  Well, wouldn't you know: 18.6lb (our luggage scale only measures to the nearest 10th of a pound)!  I'm still waiting for my $100 bill from Bob for guessing on the nose.  Daddy's wallet didn't have anything over a $20.  Too bad I wasn't better at the shower game of identifying baby foods... we've been making our own, so honestly I don't even know which mix of flavors are available on the store shelves!

Crawling!

It was a big day for Jonah! He finally figured out how to move himself from point A to point B! He does a sort of army crawl, with his left elbow tucked under him, his right hand forward and his belly and legs dragging behind... not quite the "army crawl" one would learn in boot camp, more like a wounded soldier. It's rather slow and awkward, one pull at a time, but I'm sure he will master it and start chasing Starbuck around the house soon! He is so proud of himself! You can see the joy of his accomplishment and pride in his new-found independence. Time to step up the baby-proofing!

Midnight Snack

Jonah's been having a tough time sleeping through the night lately. He goes to bed after nursing around 7:30 and wakes between midnight and 1am for another snack. I keep hoping it's a growth spurt, but after almost two weeks, Daddy is ready to Ferberize him so his sleep isn't so rudely interrupted every night. I'm trying to keep a more grateful view - compared to most babies' sleep troubles, we still have it pretty good!