Side by Side

The title of this post is in reference to Jonah’s favorite book, Brown Bear, Brown Bear.  His favorite part is when I show him the back of the book and say, “Look Jonah.  There’s Brown Bear’s bottom!”  Really that’s my favorite part, but we won’t hold that against him.  Here he is at week 43… January 28th!

Well this is the worst it’s ever been (me being behind).  Sorry, folks!  I don’t know what it is… still trying to get back in gear after the holidays I guess.  Jonah was actually 42 weeks old on January 21st, so I have four posts to do to be caught up!  Here’s the first.  I’ll write more on the fourth, but Jonah is doing great!  I know this is cliché, but it’s totally true… they grow up WAY too quickly!  Anyway, here he is at 42 weeks… all decked out in his Hokie gear (for no reason other than the fact that the Hokies are the best and he knows it):

Greetings from cold and windy Christiansburg, VA!  Winter has finally arrived, and we celebrated by buying a load of firewood and having a fire last night.  Still no snow to speak of, but we’re being patient.  This week was a very busy week for us with things planned just about every evening and busy work schedules during the day.  But for Jonah, it seemed to be a pretty normal and routine week.  Again, not a bunch has changed, other than continuing to develop his appetite for solid food and looking more and more like he’ll be walking sooner rather than later.  At our church’s small group this Monday, Jonah was pulling up on a child-sized chair… he reached for the chair back, grabbed it, and promptly pulled himself up on top of the chair.  YIKES!  We have a climber.  Also, when he’s in his exersaucer, there’s this little mirror that he can look into… we noticed this week that when we ask him, “Where’s Jonah in the mirror?” he turns to the mirror and looks into it.  Pretty cool to know that he distinctly understands some words now.  Other than that, he’s just being his normal happy and increasingly rambunctious self!  Here’s the latest photo:

Ok, time for all the updates.  I wouldn’t say a lot has really changed since the last time I wrote, but Jonah is definitely improving in many of his abilities and is one crazy nine-month-old.  He continues to thoroughly enjoy standing up by himself.  He pulls up on anything he can and has started walking around tables and his crib more often, and he likes to hold on with one hand instead of two sometimes.  He’s also gotten very good at going from standing to sitting as well as crawling to sitting.  We’re wondering if he’ll be an early walker, as in before his first birthday… it seems that way right now.

The boy eats just about as much solid food as I do these days.  An example of a normal meal for him would be the following: half an avocado, half a banana, a handful of green beans, and maybe 1/4 cup of chili.  And we’ve started feeding him two meals a day pretty consistently.  His sitter says he’s drinking less milk during the day as well, but that hasn’t been the case at night when he’s home with us.

Jonah didn’t do so well as we were traveling over the holidays.  He had many nights where he just screamed and didn’t sleep well at all, and his moods were fairly cranky… he was pretty hard to please.  Earlier this week, he had a fever and seemed really uncomfortable, so we think he’s cutting more teeth (to add to his current count of eight).  All of that has subsided, however, and he’s been just peachy the last few days… in a great mood and sleeping well.  He had his nine-month appointment this week and, as always, passed with flying colors.  He weighed in at 22 pounds even and was 29 inches long, so he’s evened out a little… probably because he’s so much more active now.

I think that about does it.  I’ll try to get back in the groove and update you every week again.  Here’s the latest photo… crazy how Freddy keeps shrinking!!  Take a look at this photo compared to THIS ONE from Week 4!

FYI, this is the week Jonah was officially out longer than he was in!  He’s in his football garb in support of the Hokies in the Sugar Bowl (in case you were wondering, Danny Coale’s catch at the end WAS a touchdown, contrary to the incorrect opinion of the wonderful PAC 12 officiating crew).  And he even gave us a big ol’ “TOUCHDOWN” for the photo!

Finally catching up today, folks!  I’ll post photos from weeks 38 & 39 and then all the info in the week 40 post.  Here’s the little guy in his Christmas outfit.  Since his hands are covering it, the outfit says “Best Gift Ever!”  And he is.

Well, I’m starting to catch up.  Still behind on week 38, but I’ll post that and week 39 sometime this week.  It’s been CRAZY, folks!  Jonah is no longer the Jonah we once knew.  The Jonah who was laid back, predictable, a pure pleasure to parent… yep, he left.  New Jonah: not so much into sleeping, beginning to wreak havoc on the house, giving us major ‘tude on a daily basis, learning how to do things we never really wanted him to do… the list goes on.

Make no mistake, Jonah is still by far the cutest baby alive and wins our hearts every single day.  It’s just that… well, he has to work a little harder to win our hearts these days.  Things are definitely exciting, and it’s amazing to watch how quickly he’s developing.  On December 17th, we discovered that, all of a sudden, Jonah can pull himself up in the crib and walk around holding onto the rail.  It was a frightening revelation that definitely changed the game a bit.  Since then, if there’s something he can reach with which to pull himself up, he’ll head straight for it, pull himself up, and be just about the proudest person you’ve ever seen.  It’s cute.  The downside is, of course, that we can’t take our eye off him for more than 2 seconds, lest we develop a sudden desire to live in a house full of mangled mementos, torn-up treasures, and broken babies.

Jonah has continued to steadily improve with his eating.  Whereas before, much of his meal would end up in his chair or on the floor, these days he throws down the food with great fervor and surgical precision, leaving only a few wayward pieces here and there.  He’s still eating much of the same… sweet potatoes, green beans, bananas, carrots, etc.  New foods we’ve given him lately include eggs, salmon, chicken, and applesauce.  He seems to love it all!

Jonah now knows several “tricks.”  You know about the clapping and touchdown… he also waves and says “hi!”  Well, really it’s more of a “haaaaa!”  I think he likes being around a bunch of people because when he is, he gets very excited and often just starts clapping or doing touchdown.

Sleeping… hmm, sleeping has been interesting.  He’s very unpredictable.  He might have a great night where he just wakes up once and goes right back to sleep.  Or he might have a night where he wakes up 38 times and screams for 20 minutes before going back to sleep.  This is very un-Jonahly.  When he’s tired, he doesn’t really give us much warning or show signs of being so… unless you count the screaming.  There’s lots of that.

Anyway, that’s all for now.  To summarize, we were caught a little off-guard by this little “phase” Jonah is going through.  We know we’ve had it easy until now, and we’re starting to understand a little bit what it’s like to have less sleep than we’re used to.  But he’s still our amazing, smart, perfect little boy… as you can see here:

This post is what, three weeks late?  I guess it’s a combination of the busyness of this time of year and the fact that we have apparently traded our baby for another one who requires nearly all of our free time.  More on that in the next post.  Here’s his 36 week photo!

Greetings!  This one will be short (for real) because I’m so late and just need to get it posted.  So here are a few major things from this week.  Jonah is definitely scarfing down the food (real food, not milk).  As a result, his diaper Saturday morning was a REAL treat, let me tell you.  I still don’t know how the stuff got all the way up on his chest, but it did.  He’s started doing “touchdown” a whole lot, and he’s absolutely hilarious when he does it.  He puts his hands sort of up and forward, and then he cocks his head to the side and makes a funny face.  Very entertaining.  Overall, he’s been very happy and high-energy!  Here he is (this was actually taken on Sunday):

Happy eight-month birthday, Jonah!  Just 53 more eight-month birthdays until you head off to Virginia Tech for your freshman year.  Better start studying now!

So I feel like the theme of this week has been “Attitudes and Opinions: When you know you have them.”  Jonah seems to be testing out his newfound opinions about things, and I feel like he’s watching our reactions closely.  He’s definitely moved beyond just having basic physical needs… now he wants things (or doesn’t, as the case may be).  For example, he wants every electronic device that is within his field of view (that’s my boy!)… he wants attention at all times… he doesn’t want mommy to leave the room (ever)… he doesn’t want to be in the exersaucer sometimes (but then we distract him and he changes his mind)… he wants to move and squirm and go places all the time.  I hope we’re reacting to these wants correctly and not teaching him that as long as he throws a big enough fit, he’ll get whatever he’s wanting!  This is not to say that he’s constantly throwing fits (he’s not)… it’s just interesting to watch him express himself, then wait for a reaction from us, then keep expressing himself.

Jonah had a wonderful time in Charlottesville for Thanksgiving.  He was obviously loved on by everyone, he got to swing in a hammock, he didn’t really sleep at all, and he got his very own remote control!  He’s constantly trying to grab ours at home, so while we were at Great Aunt and Uncle Lescanec’s house for Thanksgiving, they gave him an old one that they weren’t using, and it instantly became his new favorite toy.  He likes to throw it, bang it on the floor, and eat it.  This is why he doesn’t touch ours.

When we got home from Charlottesville, we started decorating for Christmas.  The tree is up, and Jennifer has worked her magic throughout the rest of the house.  Jonah was fascinated by the icicle lights I was stringing on the banister.  He clapped and smiled and reached out wanting to grab them.  I let him touch them and watched his face change into one of complete awe and wonderment.  Then, when he tried putting them in his mouth, I said, “No no Jonah… that’s how we die.”  He looked confused, but he’ll thank me someday.

Other tidbits: his eating has definitely improved.  We’re finding (slightly) less food on the floor and other surrounding surfaces and more in his diaper a few days later, so that’s good.  OH!  He learned touchdown this week!  We’ve been doing it for a while (exclaiming “touchdown!” and putting our hands in the air like the refs do), and this past weekend he started mimicking us.  It was extremely exciting, and he’ll hopefully have MANY reasons to do it this Saturday while watching the ACC Championship Game (8:00pm on ESPN… don’t miss it).  GO HOKIES!  I’m sure there are things I’ve missed (there’s a lot going on these days!), but I gotta stop somewhere.  Here’s the photo!