Bye-Bye to the first 11 months

Jonathan waved bye-bye for the first time today - to one of his favorite daycare teachers, Miss Debra. :)

And as of yesterday, he is 11 months old. Here are some pics we took of him to commemorate this occasion. We have a silly, silly little goose on our hands.

Weekend Recap

I hate when Jeremy goes out of town.

I never sleep as well - every little creak of the house makes me jump out of my already light sleep. Add to that a wrong number call at 5:47am and Jeremy's alarm going off at 6:25am on Saturday, followed by Jonathan waking up crying at 5am this morning and we have a weekend of crappy sleep.

We had some fun times this weekend though.

Saturday I had a great time with Lani at The Sound of Music, which was my birthday present from Jer. Conveniently, his fantasy football drafts were scheduled for this weekend in Jacksonville, so he was, sadly, unable to go with me. That's ok, I would much rather go with Lani, who can appreciate a little "Doe a Deer."

Today was a little rougher. After a morning with no nap, not for lack of (me) trying, we went to the sprayground with Jodi and Noah (friends from my Mom and Me group). We had a great time - definitely the highlight of the day. But as the day wore on, he pretty much melted down at the drop of a hat from lack of sleep.

We are in an awkward phase right now where he is transitioning from two naps to one - thanks to daycare and their ridiculous one-nap policy. After today's battles, I am thinking it is time to give in to the inevitable and move him to one nap on the weekends too.

Jer's home now and I'm looking forward to a better night's sleep. Here's hoping...

Quick Photo Update

No time to blog much tonight, but suffice it to say that we had a GREAT weekend of Jack Johnson (thanks, Jennifer and Graham!!!), lunch with Jer's family, dinner with Jodi, Justin and Sydney (4.5 months) and lunch with Nancy, Mark and Sammy (15 months).

A couple of cute photos from this week -

Bitten!

Jonathan was bitten at daycare today.

They called me to let me know and sent him home with an incident report sheet detailing the procedures when a child is bitten/scratched/spat upon. Ah the things we can look forward to with toddlerhood.

Monkey man has two nasty little red marks on his arm. :(













Of course, it couldn't have left too much of an impression (well, other than the physical one) because he was in a great mood when I picked him up, babbling and giggling to himself the whole way home.

Rough Night

Fingers crossed that this is a short-lived phase.

As I mentioned last week, Jonathan has suddenly taken several large developmental steps forward over the last couple of weeks. The most exciting moment happened last Thursday when he started crawling.

But up until now, he hadn't been able to get himself into a sitting position from lying down. Each night we'd lay him down to sleep and each night he'd stay lying down until morning, at which point he would proclaim, "Mother, I have awakened. Please come in to retrieve me now" (translated roughly from the original Baby, "Eh, eh, eh AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!").

Saturday morning when I got that wake up call at 6:20 (thanks a lot, Monkey), I walked in to his room to find him sitting up, in the corner of his crib.

Getting into a sitting position - CHECK!

Well, that's all fine and dandy, until it comes time to go to sleep, I lay him in his crib and he realizes, "Hey, wait a minute. I don't have to take this lying down!"

Commence 40 minutes of screaming last night while on his knees, holding onto the bars of his crib. Finally Jeremy went up to rock him to sleep, a habit I DO NOT want to get into (again). He was finally asleep a little after nine, only to awaken again at eleven, at which point I rocked him to sleep, only for him to wake again as I lay him down. Happily, I guess he was so worn out that time that he didn't get back up again because he only cried for a few minutes and went to sleep.

I think he only got about nine hours of sleep last night and he usually gets eleven plus. It's going to be an interesting day at school.

I'm just hoping this is not the new normal and simply a side effect of learning this new skill that he will soon tire of.

Fingers crossed.

Them's fightin' words

OK you guys.

I am sorry to have to get on my soapbox, but sometimes the stupidity of others CANNOT be ignored.

Backstory - I am on a listserv of moms that leans towards a very pro-breastfeeding, cloth diapering, attachment parenting mindset. That's cool. I am pretty middle of the road with those things. To each his own, etc.

But when the topic of vaccines gets brought up, my blood boils a little bit. Many women in that group prefer to delay or space them out, which while I don't agree with, I think CAN be done responsibly if you have educated yourself first (Dr. Sears' recommendations, for example).

HOWEVER, today a lady asked the group to recommend a pediatrician who would support her decision not to vaccinate. At all. To intentionally expose her child and others around him/her to measles, pertussis and any number of other DEADLY diseases.

So I emailed her - directly, without copying all - to ask her to please reconsider and provided a link to the article I posted to Facebook.

Here is her well-researched and thoughtful response:

"There is a doctor in Chicago who doent vaccinate his patients and his patients eat healthy diets. None of his patients in 30 years (1000's) have had ADD, ADHD, the flu, cavities, learning problems, none are obese, and all walked and talked early...not an article, but real life."

You guys.

Blood. Boiling.

By the way, I just couldn't help myself and had to respond. An epically idiotic statement like that couldn't just sit out there in the universe without being dealt with.

Plus, I'm kind of obnoxious like that.

My reply:
Wait, you seriously believe that of THOUSANDS of people, NONE have EVER had the flu or cavities?? You are more gullible than I originally thought. Do what you will with your child but please have him/her stay away from mine.

[sigh]

I have this compulsive need to have the last word / be right. As a child I constantly fought (and lost) the battle to control myself and just let other people think what they want. Now, as an adult, I usually win that battle with myself and honestly it's refreshing to just let things go.

But not with this issue. It's just too important. So if I need to act like a 5 year old to get my point across, I will.

Acceleration

For the longest time, as I have mentioned before, Jonathan was on the verge of so many milestones. But they lay just out of his reach.

Now, suddenly over the last week, he has achieved so much, so quickly. To (majorly) paraphrase Britney Spears, he's "not a baby, not yet a boy."

In the past week alone, he has started:
- Giving high fives
- Clapping
- And just today...drumroll please...CRAWLING!!

I swore Jonathan would be one of those kids that never crawled. And the level of baby proofing in our house reflects that belief.

Guess Jer and I need to dust off the boxes of baby gates and cabinet latches that have been sitting around for four months and get to installing this weekend!

Amelia Island - in pictures

I swear - Jeremy, Ryan, Nancy, Tom, Carson and Brad were there too. It's kind of funny when you look back through your pictures and realize that you completely missed getting pictures of 3/4 of the people who were there! Guess that's life with kids.

Beach Trip

We had a fantastic time in Amelia Island with Aunt Nancy, Uncle Tom, Carson, his friend Brad, Sarah, Ryan and Jackson. Full house!

I really enjoyed seeing Jackson and how much he has changed since last August when Sarah brought him to Atlanta for my baby shower. It's crazy how much a child can change between one and two! And I couldn't help but think that Jonathan will be running around, saying two-word phrases and using a spoon like Jackson was in just one year's time. Amazing!

My favorite Jacksonisms from the weekend: "Hi that mommy" (to me) "football guys" upon seeing football players on TV and "elicopter!" on seeing helicopters and airplanes. Super cute!

The boys didn't really play together this year but Jonathan did enjoy watching his cousin. He smiled every time Jackson entered the room!

Getting a picture of the two of them together was like pulling teeth! I think we got a few cute ones though. I'll post pics soon!

I really hope we can do this again next year - it's a reminder of days gone by when mom, Nancy, Sarah and I would spend a week each year in Hilton Head. I hope some day Jackson and Jonathan can have those same great memories - riding their bikes to the corner store to buy candy, staying up late, going out way too far into the ocean and body surfing in and talking in a code only they can understand.

Bad blogger!

I know, I've been a bad blogger.

I can't write now because I am at work, but I will state here my solemn vow to write tonight. Maybe now that I've written that I will guilt myself into doing it. Wouldn't want to disappoint my legions (6) of followers!

We had a great time at the beach and got a few cute pictures of Jonathan with his cousin, Jackson. Plus, little monkey reached a new milestone so there is plenty to share. :)

Hasta pronto!

10 Months!

Jonathan is 10 months old and is really living up to his nickname, "Monkey." Although he still isn't crawling, he is about as active as a little guy can be without actually having the ability to get anywhere. He pulls up, rolls around, spins in circles and reaches impossibly far to get what he wants. And forget snuggling with him - he is far too busy! His new classroom "Busy Bees," is quite appropriately named for him.

Every month we take a picture of Jonathan in his red chair to show how he has changed over time. This month we couldn't get him to stay seated long enough! But this is representative of how he has changed, so I guess it makes sense to use these.

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