john's mom works

i have amazing news. john maneuvered from laying down to sitting up all by himself for the first time! the bad news: he did it at 9:30 pm in his crib when he was supposed to be sleeping. i had put him down to bed at a little before 9. about 15 minutes later i went to put something away in his room, and he was quiet but awake, rolling around in his crib. he started crying a little bit later, which is unlike him - he usually cries as soon as he hits the bed, if at all, then passes out and is down for the count. waking up to cry so soon after going to bed is unheard of. unless, of course, you want to announce to the house that you've sat up for the first time. that's a kid for you, i suppose! i am anxious to see if he sleeps at all tonight, or if he just plans on practicing his new skill for the evening. we shall see!

pic of the day: day 16 step 1: happy baby playing on mom & dad's bed  step 2: happy baby sees something he wants and launches himself off the bed to get it. (don't worry, mom was prepared to catch him)    step 3: happy baby educates himself on the mechanics of smart financial decision making.  this morning, john took a terrifying dive off of our bed. fortunately, i was waiting to catch him, knowing full well he was about to commando crawl himself off the edge of the bed. he had caught sight of something he wanted, and when he wants something, nothing gets in my baby's way - not even a two-foot drop off the bed. i am going to have to watch this child. carefully. he is afraid of nothing. i have visions of swinging from chandeliers and ceiling fans when mom and dad turn their backs for even a moment. look out, world, john is all boy! interestingly, the item that was worth diving off the bed to reach was a book. specifically,...

pic of the day: day 15 commando-crawling may not be as efficient as regular crawling. but it's much more effective for sneaking up on your target: mom's shoes (just out of frame) fyi: if you have the natalie imbruglia song "torn" on your itunes, it would be appropriate to play it right now as you read this post. as john commando-crawled across the floor to try to get my shoes this morning, i found my self full of very ambivalent feelings. pride.  i am so proud of my little man, learning so much so fast and being so curious and engaged in the world. excitement. he's crawling now, he'll be walking soon, he'll be talking soon, i'll get to know him even better as he devlops! trepidation . our house really isn't a safe enough place for him yet. there's so much to do before he can just wander around without uncessarily hurting himself. understanding. he IS going to hurt himself. it's just my job to help minimize the damage. ...

pic of the day: day 14 after wearing this shirt periodically over the past 6 months, john discovered that the leg of the octopus is a tag. this was a FASCINATING discovery. note monogrammed prep-baby shorts. i have noticed a disturbing trend in baby clothing. many octopi seem to actually be pentapi. at least this one has a fancy leg that is a tag for john to play with. what are we teaching children these days????

 pic of the day: day 13 smiling and styling with a big boy hairdo. (not that you can tell, but it's combed to the side!) and the verdict is: crawl first! john took his first hesitant crawling "steps" this weekend. he's not very adept at it yet, but he's practicing hard and i'll be chasing him around soon, no doubt. he's been simultaneously working on his commando crawl. he's quite good at that one - can inch the whole way across the nursery and grab mommy's cell phone no problem! fortunately he's pretty slow, so we have time to prevent him from getting anywhere he shouldn't. they grow so fast ...

pic of the day: pic 12 hundreds of dollars of toys ... but what would any self- respecting baby play with? definitely a receipt and a half-way built bike seat. last night was cousins' dinner - there are six of us cousins that live in baton rouge, so now that we're "grownups" all of us plus significant others try to get together from time to time to have dinner together. my cousin halley and her husband ian hosted us last night and we had a great time! we set up john's pack n play in their back bedroom so he could go to sleep at bedtime and we all hung out until after 11. john slept the whole way home, transferred without a hiccup to his crib, and was out like a light. it was almost 1 by the time mommy and daddy finally hit the bed, and i commented to my husband, "well, guess i'll be up in 3 hours for john's 4 a.m. wake up call." except it didn't come. ahhhh .... sleep. 5:40 a.m. he finally woke up, ate milk, and fell right back asle...

pic of the day: day 11 future vh1 behind the music episode: "at the astonishing age of 9 months, a precocious john constructed his first drumset." yesterday marked my husband and my fifth wedding anniversary. hard to believe it's been so long! thank you, baby, for everything you do. i am so blessed and happy to spend my life with you! to celebrate, last night we to see a very cool ensemble called the portland cello project. it was six cellists playing a very eclectic mix of music from the "habenera" from carmen to "all the lights" by kanye west. they covered classical, jazz, metal, hip hop, a few original pieces, it was awesome. so we were out somewhat late last night (thank you auntie for taking such fab care of the wee man) and looking forward to "sleeping in" this morning. of course my expectations of what that means have changed - i was hoping for 7 a.m.! john did wake up at his normal 5ish for some milk, but then we...