New Tricks of the Trade

10 Months and MOVING.

Now that Jack is standing, he tends to want to attack the chalkboard or erase the chalkboard or kiss the chalkboard - more than he wants to hang out next to the chalkboard for a picture.  

Luckily, we have a new method of tracking that kid...a custom creation by Matt - (yes, he MADE it) our new gigantic ruler!  

On this eve (of sorts) to Jack's first Halloween, I must report out on the tricks of this past month....before we get to the treats of his first Halloween.

I know you all have kids* **

(*well, not ALL of you)

(**kids can mean dogs, too)

...but do you guys realize how fast they change, grow, move -- all right before your eyes!  I used to loathe would people would tell me to "enjoy it - it flies by" -- as if I needed to do something differently to ensure that I was soaking it all up.  But, you know what?  Those people are RIGHT.  I want it all to slow down...and I want JACK to slow down.

I want him to want to snuggle with me.  I secretly let him fall asleep in my arms sometimes just because I know he will....and he'll snuggle into me like he really likes me.  Yeah, I know you experts out there are shaking your head at me, but he's mine.  And, he sleeps through the night just fine...and if I want him to sleep in my arms for 10 minutes before he goes in his crib, then he will.

So, there.

However,

I don't remember approving him to be so independent!

I don't remember saying that it's ok for him to leap fearlessly of the edge of everything.
I don't remember agreeing to him pushing me away as he pulls up on anything and everything....and sometimes pulling things on top of himself!
I don't remember approving him being able to steal food off of my plate.  (but are we surprised really?)

I don't remember being ok that he could take off his clothes and toss them out of the crib.

Are you kidding me?!

He throws everything from food to his pacifiers to his socks.  His room is like a war zone in the mornings...riddled with baby paraphernalia scattered about.

It wasn't 2 months ago, I confessed that Jack was being carried around too much ...and that he may never learn to sit up, crawl, feed himself or be any sort of independent.

To say he proved me wrong is an understatement.

He crawls on all fours like a "normal" baby.  He army crawls like he's back in 'nam.

He even ropes me into pushing him on his BMW:

He cruises between the toys:

And, because of all of these new tricks...he feels like he needs to practice in the middle of the night!  With all that moving - you'd think he'd be tired!  Nope.  He needs to practice sitting up...and crawling from end of the crib to the next....and then pulling up on the side of the crib...  I mean, look how proud he is!

Hanging out in his crib at 2 am...pondering life.

And, when he's not motoring around, he's "playing ball":

We did manage to sneak in a whole bunch of fall fun with the fam:

  

Brunching

Hanging out on the front porch

Fall Festival Fun and supporting his favorite baseball team:

 

Playing with all of his toys:

Jack eyeballing Lucky's toy.

Jack DID finally find someone that he didn't care for though....the eye doctor.  That damn blocked tear duct...

Even with all of this moving around and new trickery....we did have some illnesses.  Matt got the flu, Jack had a fever -- and I'm pretty sure Lucky even participated by puking in the front room a few times.  You can imagine that this required me to stay home from work to take care of my menfolk.  Actually, it all happened at the most inconvenient time with work, which is about par for the course.  Jack decided that he'd only sleep if I held him and walked in a circle.  I couldn't even sit down in the rocking chair and you can FORGET about putting him in that crib when he doesn't feel good.  When I tell you that I walked in a circle holding him so that he'd sleep - I mean that I did this ALL NIGHT.

Even with all of that walking, Jack still ended up being the easiest patient.  I'm sure that comes as a big surprise.

It's been one helluva month, let's just get some sleep people.

Till next time....we'll be traveling to Pensacola for family/friend fun time, hunkering down for Hurricane Sandy, Halloweening (Jack is going to be a LumberJack!) and hopping on another plane to Springfield for Jack's first Turkey!

The Baby We Know vs The Baby We Don't Know

When we found out I was pregnant, we were surprised (already!?)....panicked...excited....afraid and full of questions.

How would we ever be capable of taking care of this little being?  

How would we know when to feed "it"?

What if "it" gets hurt?

How would we know why "it" was crying?

How would we know when to feed "it" solid food?

How would we keep "it" clean without drowning "it"?

What if he/she doesn't like us?

What if he/she gets sick?

What if he's not a Yankee fan?

...or, worse...what if he's not a Seminole fan?!

What if Lucky rolls on top of him/her?

What if we forget him at home one day?

What if we aren't good parents?

After Jack arrived, it took us only a few days to figure out that we had help.  We have parents, friends and siblings who have children.  We have a host of doctors and nurses that helped us.  And?  We have The Google.  There is NOTHING that you can not google and find information about.

But this post isn't about the google...it's about the progression of "comfort" -- and knowing that no matter what happens with this child, we will figure it out and he will thrive.  No matter what.

See?  

Not only have we NOT killed him....he smiles constantly.  Usually, I'm suspect of people that smile this much, but he's too damn cute to think anything other than he's just the happiest baby on the block!

When he's not smiling - he's giggling:

On "figuring it out" -- We've learned that we can formulate our own opinions about things like "acceptable care" and what is ok for us and what is NOT ok for us.  After he continued to be bitten at daycare, we let them know that there would be changes made or we would take Jack elsewhere.  There are too many options in childcare to continue to let this type of thing happen to your child.

And to be clear - if/when Jack starts to bite other children, we will work with his daycare and pediatrician to figure out why and address that.  There's no sense in simply NOT addressing it - which was the case for this particular family at daycare.

We've also figured out that he's going to fall down.  He's going to bump his head.  He's going to get stepped on by Lucky.  He's going to get tackled by his buddy, Liam.  As it turns out, he's also going to live.

How funny are these two?!

Luckily, Jack got to hang with Liam a few different times this month.  They hung out together at the aquarium:

Jack and Liam admiring the snake!

Jack is smiling at Liam standing next to him.  He thinks Liam is one cool  little dude!

They spent the afternoon together playing....and working on a lifelong friendship:

Best Friends!

Liam is using the "stare down" method on Jack while Jack's going with nothing but brute force.

They had dinner together and compared notes on their favorite foods and episodes of Sesame Street.

Just two men out having some dinner with family and friends.

There's comfort in knowing that he will be able to make friends.

There's comfort in knowing that he will walk someday soon, since I've assumed that I would carry him around for his entire life.  I had previously decided that I was ok with that.  Would it be weird to carry him to his college classes?  I plan to embarrass him WAY more than that....so, we'll see how it goes.

He's definitely mobile these days....he's recently turned into the best army crawler around.  It's just another thing we worried about unnecessarily - "what if he doesn't crawl" - Well, first off:  Who cares.  Not all babies crawl.  And, he's not great at it yet, but he moves to get what he wants....and he does it with his belly dragging.  

There's comfort in knowing that he will have a job one day. He's destined to be a politician or a salesman. With that smile, optimism and overall demeanor - how could he be anything else?

  

He also may be a chef with his immense love of food. He'll even eat it while sitting on the kitchen floor with his "drum set" (aka, the pan and the wooden spoon)

Although, if he's going to be a chef, he'll need some teeth to taste that food -- still no teeth yet for this fella, but damn - he sure does "teethe" a lot!!

He's told he likes FSU, but honestly?  How can you deny that he LOVES those Noles after pics like these??  He went to his first FSU game and loved it....all the way until the 4th quarter at 11:30 pm.

There's comfort in knowing that a) he's a Seminole and b) he will be juuuuuuust fine in college.

Party Animal.

Pre-Game with Meme!

My favorite person in my favorite place.

Partying all the way until the 4th - and then some!

We've even figured out that sand won't kill him....

Jack's Aunt Teen showed him how to enjoy the Jersey Shore

We've also figured out how to keep a hat on him....without pissing him off.

Crazy Hat Day at Daycare!

In fact, that's what I mean.  We know this baby...and there was A LOT of doubt (on our parts - and maybe yours) that we'd figure it out.  Don't get me wrong - there is MUCH to learn and experience, but I know now - We've got this.

We know how to calm him down.  We know how to get him to go to sleep.  We know which cry is "there's a doody in my pants" vs the grunt, grunt, grunt telling us "I'm hungry."  We know that he's going to get hurt - and hurt other children.  We know that if he wants water out of your water bottle or cup - he will take it.  We know that he lay in his crib and "play" until we come and get him in the morning.

Luckily, he knows us too.  He's figured out that he's #1, that he's in charge...and his every happiness is our priority.

This is good news/bad news.

He has no idea how I used to feel about being in control.  He has no idea that I'd like to run his life, schedule, needs, etc with a spreadsheet....like I did his diaper and nursing needs.  

There are no more spreadsheets, just two parents who are comfortable in their own shoes.

 Until next month,

Keep Calm and Smile On.

He's Less Interested.....Well, In Us.

He's cute.  He's crazy. He's squirmy.

He can't crawl, can't walk and has no teeth yet, but he thinks his SO BIG.  He rolls, squirms, pulls up, stands up while holding on to stuff....  I think he's doing things out of order, but it's his world - I just live in it.  And, so this month begins....

He has no interest in being held.  He lures you in with his sweet eyes, charming smile and endearing "da da da da" -- but all he wants is down....as in, "put me on the ground right now and let me figure it out from there" -- all the time.  He's become a big ole squirmball....to the point that Matt and I both have almost dropped him a couple of times!

Even when he's cruising in his stroller, he must sit up and see what is going on....and hit on all the cute chicks.  He smiles, giggles and squeals until the girls take notice.  

He's even started pulling up on everything he can get his chubby little hands on:

He's just not super excited about being pinned down .... unless, of course, it's time to eat.  Then?  He's in!  And, he's ready to eat exactly what Daddy is eating for breakfast:

Daddy's on the left, Baby Jack's on the right

"Wow, that looks like a lot of oatmeal!"

"I'm ready though - let's do this!"

"No, no, Grandma - you're doing it wrong"

"See? I'm good at this"

"and, I'm done and I'm cute."

 He also learned about brain freezes:

The daycare asks me about once a week to bring a bottle for Jack ("he's thirsty").  Even though I've tried to tell them 100 times that he has never taken a bottle, they just insist....  They finally got it when I showed them that - if he can't have THEIR glass of water - he will settle for his sippy cup, but never - and I repeat - NEVER a silly bottle.  He's clearly too mature for the bottle.  He's also a genius.  Did I mention that already?

Yep.  I take pictures of my kid drinking out of a sippy cup. 

In between meals, Jack continues his travels and social life.  He has a better social life than most adults I know.  He attended his first golf tournament this month (Jack is told that he likes golf) at Trump National:

"I help Daddy close the deals"

We learned the hard way that Jack isn't a 8 week old baby anymore that likes to sleep on planes.  And, I'm not complaining AT ALL -- but he didn't sleep.  He giggled and squirmed and laughed and flirted with all of the ladies around us.

And?

He pooped at all the most inconvenient times.  You know with all of that eating, this kid can poop like a champ.  Well, he did.  Right when the seat belt sign would come on.  You know air on planes is re-circulated, right?  Yeah.  We are lucky like that.

We traveled to Pensacola to see my parents and friends, the beach...and a pond?

Mean muggin' at P'cola Beach

....confirmed, NOT A FAN!

Granddaddy kisses

....until Jack heard food being made!

You need to watch this....then check out the photo below.  Awesome.

"a pond will be good for you" -- Thanks Meme!

Granddaddy B!

I can't tell if Jack likes Mac or not....

Jack is also more vocal than ever these days.  He recently started with his B and P sounds, but we are still enjoying his new found love for "da da."  As you can see in this video, he is very busy.  He hardly has time to entertain us.

We are enjoying watching him grow, but would prefer that he just slow down.  He has changed so much in the past few months....from being very focused on us - to being more and more interested in the world around him.  I thought he'd always want to be in my arms, but he has proven me wrong - for now, at least.  

WHAT?  You guys knew this was going to happen and you didn't warn me!

I just want to hold him and love him and snuggle him until he pops.  He, on the other hand?  ...would rather put Lucky's tennis ball in his mouth.  Or, he'd rather hurl himself out of the car seat before I can strap him down.  Or, he'd like to pull all of his books onto the floor and roll around in the middle of them.

Yep...he's a little person with a little to do list.

He's big.  He's busy.