11 Month Update

Gross Motor:  Jonah is walking!  In just a week he has gone from being terrified of letting go to toddling a few steps on his own accord.  He still prefers to hold on, because it is easier than taking a few steps, falling on his bum, and crawling the rest of the way.  Fortunately he has stopped crying with every little fall and bump, and is more likely to try, try again.  He has also mastered climbing to the top of the playground (when there are steps) but he isn't so good about getting back down without help.

Growth:  Jonah is up to 7 teeth!  His top lateral incisors beat his bottoms (just cutting now), which isn't supposed to happen.

Fine Motor:  Jonah is decidedly right-handed.  While holding him on my left hip, he will pull his arm from behind me to grab something with his right hand, all the while his left is free.  He is very good at manipulating small things and can work many of the pop-ups in his "Wheels on the Bus" book (current favorite).

Communication:  Jonah makes all sorts of sounds and sometimes babbles happily to himself.  Mostly ba, da, ga, and ma sounds.  He has also mastered the use of three signs: more, all done, and hungry/thirsty.  None are quite textbook in form, but he communicates his point.  'More' is clapping, 'all done' is waving both hands in the air and 'hungry' is playing with his lips.  Jonah has also learned the power of pointing.

Food:  Jonah is starting to acquire some food aversions.  He has always hated lettuce, but now also vehemently refuses blueberries.  They get picked out of fruit salad and thrown or squished.  He is getting pretty good at using a spoon, if it come pre-loaded and directed towards his mouth.  He prefers to take over from there and has a pretty good success rate of getting the contents into his mouth.  He still needs a little help with the concept of tilting his cups up to get the water.  He likes drinking from any cup, water bottle or other device that Mommy is using.  This usually results in a very wet shirt, but some loud gulps lead me to believe that something is going in!  Jonah still enjoys breastfeeding, usually first thing in the morning, before bed and twice during the day (or 2 bottles at school).

Sleep:  Jonah loves to sleep.  He is often happy to see his crib at bedtime and sleeps through from 8pm to 6am.  It's a little harder to get him down for a nap, but he hasn't given up the second nap yet!

Fun:  Jonah loves to stand at his activity table and dance to the music.  He "dances" by holding out his index finger and waving his hand around.  Sometimes he bounces up and down with his legs, too.  He also loves to play at his water table.  This involves splashing the water everywhere by hitting it with his hands or with a toy.  He really gets into water play in the tub or pool by lying on his tummy and splashing with both arms and legs to create a giant wave pool.  He loves playing peek-a-boo with Mommy and Daddy - he probably thinks neither of us have figured out where he is hiding!

Old Home Day

Beatitudes, Baby Style

Today Jonah attended a funeral service for the husband of his first-cousin-twice-removed on his paternal-maternal side.  To most, "Al's grandson".  With an even more tenuous relationship, it was difficult to explain why I was there except to care for Jonah.

Everyone loved having a baby around, and we received many compliments "is he always this good?" and words of appreciation "just when I thought I wouldn't make it, I heard a little baby babble and got through it."  And so we discovered that in times of mourning, a baby is far more healing than flowers.

First Steps!

Every new Mom and Dad dream of this moment: baby bravely lets go of Daddy and proudly takes a few unsteady, but independent steps towards Mommy, who catches her smiling son in a big embrace.  Oh, and of course the film crew is there to professionally capture the moment.  Just like that.

Here's what really happened: we were waiting for supper.  Jonah was tired and cranky, so I distracted him by walking him around the house.  We picked up his popper along the way, so he was pushing that.  Usually, I hold one of his hands and hold the toy steady so that it offers him some additional support.  Tonight, I found that I could let go and he would hold the popper up and keep it going.  Wow!

Daddy crouched down right in Jonah's path.  A few steps back, I let Jonah go and he toddled/fell three steps into Daddy, popper and all!  Jonah was so mad at Mommy for letting go, like a kid who becomes terrified when he realizes his parent is no longer holding the bike.  We were so proud and gushing with praise, but Jonah didn't seem to realize his momentous accomplishment.  He was crying big, mad, tired tears.  He was so upset, in fact, that he hardly realized what he was doing when he later let go of Daddy to take a couple steps back over to Mommy!

The next try yielded a very memorable result.  Daddy let go and left Jonah standing in the middle of the room, with Mommy a couple steps ahead.  Jonah's eyes got huge and his lips pulled back in a classic, over-dramatized textbook expression of fear.  Adorable.

We Went to the Animal Fair!

Jonah and I spent the afternoon at an agricultural fair!  We did all sorts of thing:

  1.  Tried to watch a frisbee dog show, but the action was so far away, it didn't capture our attention.

2.  Found a spot right up at the fence for the monster truck show!  Jonah let out a terrified wail as soon as the rodeo clown started warming up the crowd with cheers.  We retreated to a distant hilltop, where we could watch from afar.  Jonah liked the part where the fire truck came out to water down the track with hoses.  When the monster trucks started rolling to the start line, he stared an pointed.  When they started revving their engines to do vertical jumps off old cars, he wailed.  Jonah didn't become hysterical, he just wanted to let Mommy know that he was nervous.

3.  Wandered around the petting zoo.  This was more Jonah's speed.  He stopped and stared, holding onto the fence at pen after pen.  He saw goats, bunnies, sheep, llamas, donkeys and a cow.  The cow was his favorite.  Most he just watched, but he reached up to pet the cow right on the nose!

4.  Climbed the giant sand pile (with Mommy's help) and sat at the top for 10 seconds before wanting to come down.  And up and down again.  And again.

5.  Sat in some trucks.  Jonah tried every knob, lever, wheel and button he could reach.  We did a front-loader (which some grandpa referred to a a steam shovel... tells his age, I suppose!)  and some tractors.

6.  Visited the livestock: sheep, goats, cows, and "rare species".  These were the ribbon-toting, agrarian type with warning signs that they might kick or head butt.  Jonah's favorite was a turkey.  He kept coming back to the cage over and over.  Occasionally, the turkey would spread its feathers and let out a loud call.  (Interestingly, when he did this his head would turn from blue to bright red.)  Jonah would startle (so cute!), but stare down the turkey with great interest.

7.  Watched a lumberjack show.  This was a good opportunity to rest, though Jonah refused to fall asleep.

8.  Danced and played tambourines along with children's performer Wayne from Maine.

9.  Ate BBQ (Jonah wasn't a huge fan of brisket).

10.  Napped all the way home!

Vomit: Silent Grossness

I slept in past 7am and casually wondered in to get Jonah for breakfast.  As usual, he was happily sitting and babbling in his crib... in a mess of regurgitated dinner!  My heart absolutely broke that he had been sleeping in his own vomit.  There were bits in the hair.  I hadn't even checked in on him before bed, as I usually do.  There was no telling how long the mess had been there, except it certainly was not "fresh".

Jonah, please cry and wake Mommy if you need me!!!

Jonah nursed for breakfast and, immediately after one side, all the milk came back out.  All over him.  All over Mommy.  And I didn't care.  In fact, I was glad that I was there to take care of him this time.  (And hoped that my nightgown was enough to absorb the milk that kept coming and coming...)  As we took a bath and cleaned up, Jonah was in a surprisingly normal, happy mood.  He was only upset later when I only allowed him a few sips of water or Cheerios at a time.

Giant Block Structures

This week, a new assemblage of giant cardboard blocks appears in our living room almost every day.  The first was a temple.  Then a giant skyscraper.  Next was a brick wall between the living and dining rooms, which Jonah flew through a-la superman (theme song and all).  He was a little scared when the blocks went boom!  Then followed a giant arch, which was perfectly sized for Jonah to walk through, but he was a little timid.  That's okay, because he wouldn't have been able to walk without Mommy right behind him.  And Mommy didn't fit so easily.  Then a ramp/jump for his big green ball, dominoes and a "sprawling" city.  Any nobody guessed it was Daddy's handiwork instead of Mommy's!

Book Idea: Where is Starbuck?

Jonah met his friend, and future ND roommate, Blake!  Blake is 2 months old and still very newborn.  Ahh.  The nostalgia.  Although, Daddy enjoys playing with his very active big boy.

Blake's mommy pointed out the ridiculousness of an old book of her childhood, "Where is Spot"?  In the book, mommy dog goes looking for Spot for dinner.  Along the way you lift the flaps to find a bear behind the door, a snake in the grandfather clock, hippo in the piano, lion under the stair, etc.   It did seem ludicrous.  Then I got home and it hit me.  It was just like our house!  I took stock:

• elephant on the hearth
• alligator in the bathtub
• lion under the desk
• bird under the armchair
• koala in the organ
• duck under the bed
• whale under my nightstand
• crab under a dining room chair
• dolphin on the porch
• chipmunk behind the file cabinet
• bear under the stair
• penguin behind the toilet
• clam under the couch
• hippo in the bookcase
• snake under the lampshade

Between Jonah and Starbuck, our house is littered with zoo animals!  And Starbuck has put most of them in her favorite hiding places.  So really, what was strange about the book was not the animals you find along the way, but that you are searching for a puppy instead of a ferret.

Hide and Seek!

Daddy and Jonah played hide and seek.  Jonah started it.

NB: Daddy thought I would do a better job writing the blog, so to encourage his contribution, I'm leaving it wide open for him to elaborate...

Pat-A-Cake

Jonah is going through a phase - I hope it is only a phase - in which he hates diaper changes. We go up the stairs and he fusses, into his room and he cries, get to the changing table and he arches his back and squirms so much that I can't put him down! Giving him something new to hold works maybe 10% of the time. Daddy can just muscle his way through, holding him down with one hand, but Mommy always loses that battle. Instead, I found my own trick!

When I sing Pat-A-Cake, Jonah will stop crying and clap his hands to the song! It takes so much baby concentration to clap along, he stops crying. By the time we've sung through three times (two cakes for Jonah and Mommy, one for Jonah and Daddy) he is smiling and we're done!