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...

  pic of the day: day 10 as soon as i figure out how to crawl, mom, i'm coming to get that cell phone.  there's an old saying about how you have to learn to crawl before you can walk. and there are plenty of people who will tell you that developmentally, a baby needs to crawl before walking or it can cause physical/mental development issues. the "average" age for crawling is apparently about 8 months. the "average" age for walking is either 12 or 15 months, depending on who you ask. so you'd think that with john being 9 months and not crawling yet but showing signs of pulling up and working towards walking, i'd be concerned, right? that's where you'd be wrong, she says, smiling. watching this kiddo develop is the coolest thing that i've ever witnessed, and it's pretty clear to me that he's doing exactly what he is supposed to do. which basically means, not-quite-crawling, and splitting his time between working on t...

pic of the day: day 9 for those of you who say my baby is always happy. he's not, i assure you. mostly, but not always. this morning, there was a lot of almost in our life. john slept almost through the night ... but he woke up at 3:55 a.m. (he did go back to sleep) i woke up almost on time ... at 5:15 a.m. instead of 5:00 a.m. daddy almost left for work on time ... only 5 minutes late. i got almost no baby food on me while john ate breakfast ... just one little splash. john almost crawled ... he got up on all fours and rocked back and forth. i got to work almost on time ... only 5 minutes late. my leftover lasagna almost didn't spill all over the inside of my bag ... ok so it did spill and there's no almost in this one but i was keeping up the pattern. but you know what? it's almost friday. and i'm looking forward to cousins' dinner and a lowkey weekend. all is well. no almost in that one, either.

pic of the day: pic 8 i dare you resist those baby blues. i dare you.      

 pic of the day: day 7 mmmmmmmmmm peas forget baby einstein. paging baby newton: john discovered gravity today. while i ate breakfast and warmed his peas up for him to eat*, i gave john a paper towel roll to play with. he discovered that if he threw it from his high chair onto the ground, it rolled quite nicely. i picked it up. he threw it again, watching fascinated as it fell to the ground and rolled away. and yes, he grinned every time mommy had to pick it up. i knew this game was coming soon! it's still cute right now. ask me tomorrow and i'll probably be cursing it. i would like to blame the discovery of gravity for my inability to get out of the house on time, but the truth is that i am just constitutionally unable to be punctual this week. (this month? this year? this lifetime?) the nice thing about daycare is it doesn't matter much when he gets there. unfortunately, it DOES matter when i get to work! (thank you work for being flexible and understanding.) ...

what does a 27.75" long, 16 lb 2 oz, 9-month-old baby look like after a poopoo explosion at the doctor's office when mom doesn't have a diaper bag 'cause she left it at daycare? a little like this. cute robe tho. john had his 9-month checkup this morning. the great news: clean bill of health, he looks great, doc says he's doing everything right and just keep on keeping on. he's 16 lbs 2 oz and 27.75" long, so still very small on the charts but growing well and looking fantastic. the messy news: when the daycare teacher says "i just changed him a little while ago but do you want me to check him again before you go to the doctor?" the answer should ALWAYS be yes. even if you think you have a diaper bag in the car. because you don't have a diaper bag in the car. so when his poopy diaper is FULLLLLLLL and you get the the doctor's office and try to change him, there WILL be a poopoo explosion with casualties including all of his cloth...

pic of the day: pic 6 on the left: trying to decide how i feel about waking up this morning on the right: ah, i guess it's ok.

pic of the day: pic 5 in motion at the restaurant well, we made it. i officially was away from john for 32 hours from saturday morning through this afternoon. and you know what? i did fine! oh, don't get me wrong - i missed my little man. but daddy and i had a wonderful time at eddie and becky's wedding. (and what an event it was!) we left early saturday morning and drove and drove and drove. we made great time, actually, and got to our hotel too early; we couldn't check in. they did give us the keys to our room, though, so we could drive the rest of the way to the wedding venue and come back late late at night without having to stop at the front desk. then off for another hour's drive to seaside. the wedding was amazing. kristin and i managed to play well despite wind/salty humidity/sinking in the sand. it was the first time i've ever played a beach wedding and it was a wild ride! but it went well and was a lot of fun, and of course the ceremony was be...

pic of the day: pic 4 watching march madness on tv makes a little man sleepy, so he naps on the couch   you're probably thinking i missed my pic of the day yesterday. technically, you'd be correct. but i'm giving myself a pass because i was at a wedding at the beach and couldn't get to the internet to post this picture that i'd taken! (more on the wedding trip later.) so ... if i post another pic tonight, i'm going to give myself credit for not missing a day. a technicality? sure. but it's my blog so i get to make the rules :)

nine months ago this very minute, i was googling online contraction timers. i found one that let me just press "s" every time one started, then every time it stopped. it counted for me, told me how far apart, etc. nine months ago this very minute, they were between four and seven minutes apart. by 10:45 they'd be getting closer together, and i'd be throwing last-minute items in a bag. by 11:45 the doctor and my doula agreed on the phone that i should head to the hospital. at 12:45 i walked into the assessment center. at 1:45 i finally convinced them i really was going to have this baby. at 2:45 i got to the birthing suite. and at 3:45, this little kitchen bandit joined our family (though he admittedly looked somewhat different back then): pic of the day: pic 3 kitchen bandit says "om nom nom" to some tasty peaches. (thanks nana for the awesome kitchen bandit bib you made!) poor nana is still not feeling well, though she said she was a little bit better th...

poor nana is sick with a tummy bug, so she called me this morning and asked me to come pick john up to bring him to school instead so she can rest. she's very sad not to spend the whole day with the little coocoo, but she needs to take care of herself! the downside, of course, is a nana who is ill. while visiting her grandson and family. i hope she gets well very very fast! the upside? i got a bonus visit with my baby boy on my lunch break. and what a sunshiny little fellow he is today! he grinned at me, giggled, and hugged. nana had him mostly dressed when i got home, so i pulled his jeans on and felt my heart tug a little at what a big man he looked like. (note to self: take pics tonight if possible, because he looked so cute in his big boy jeans!) how did my teensy baby get so big? we sang in the car on the way to the school. he giggled some more and hugged me when i dropped him off. i looked around the room, and he's now almost the oldest baby in his room - only one p...

 pic of the day: pic 2 a little sleeping tree frog that funny position in the pic of the day is the way john almost always sleeps. sometimes when i put him down he'll be a little on his side, but within 30 seconds you hear a thump and know he flopped to his back and threw his arms over his head. i don't believe in tiptoeing around the house because the baby's asleep. my child can sleep anywhere - did i mention that he fell asleep on my head while riding on my shoulders at mardi gras, during a parade? i was still running up to floats to get goodies for him when my dad said to me, "you know your kid is passed out, right?" so this morning when john was still asleep as i was leaving the house (his nana is in town and he's staying with her today instead of daycare) i turned on his bedroom light to snap the pic of the day. he hasn't slept quite right since daylight savings time. i suppose it throws us all off a bit. he didn't nap that day, and was...

pic of the day: day 1 "mommy, don't you think it's time for MY breakfast?" 5:00 a.m. alarm goes off. snooze. (thinking: one day i will actually get up at 5am. and i'll have so much more time. i can blog in the morning! or do some reading. or ...) 5:09 a.m. alarm goes off. snooze. (maybe tomorrow ...) 5:18 a.m.  alarm goes off. snooze. 5:22 a.m. john's awake. he has no snooze button. guess i better go feed him. 5:37 a.m. usually 15 minutes of milk are enough but he's still eating. 5:45 a.m. he's back asleep. gently into the crib ... 5:46 a.m. he's crying. i'll leave the room and see if he goes to sleep. 6:02 a.m. bottles prepped for school, lunches packed, he's still crying. guess he's really awake! 6:03 a.m. john on the kitchen floor, banging toys together and "singing" loudly. sorry, mom-in-law nana who's visiting this week! did i mention the baby alarm clock does NOT come equipped with a snoo...

hi. i am john's mom. you may remember me from such charming anectdotes as "pumping in the janitor's closet" and "letting my son scream himself to sleep ... again." i don't know where time has gone, and i'm not going to write an annoying catch-up post. that wouldn't be charming at all! instead, how about a few catch-up pictures? sleepy baby this morning who only wanted kisses. i won't pretend that bothered me. tho i was late for work. yesterday we were slightly less sleepy and in a slightly better mood. i confess i was still late for work.  this is john in his 1970s-era lollipop leisure suit. he wore it yesterday. it used to be his daddy's. the only thing funnier is when john wears it and dances as i sing the lollipop song. which - surprise - makes me late for work. notice a running theme here? perhaps i should wake up earlier tomorrow ... i might make it to work on time ... and i might even have time to tell you about jo...

it's john's first mardi gras, and the festivities kick into high gear this weekend ... he went to his first parade last weekend, but we have another one tonight, he'll visit with his auntie while daddy and i ride in a parade tomorrow, then we'll all head to new orleans with grandpa on sunday for another parade or three. john loves the to-do - so much to watch, so many people to love on him, he's in hog heaven! (mommy and daddy get a few extra beads, too, i'm pretty sure - after all, you might be able to resist the grownups but who can resist that cute kiddo riding on my shoulders, huh?) the bad news: our whole family is down with the cold that seems to be plaguing 2/3 of baton rouge right now. i actually stayed home from work yesterday - a rare occurrance - and slept all day in an effort to heal. john's been stuffy and coughing for days, and daddy woke up this morning feeling icky, too. here's to hoping it doesn't put a damper on our mardi gras ....

when i was a baby, apparently my favorite baby foods included carrots, pumpkin, and squash. i ate so much of those veggies that my skin actually started to take on an orange-ish tinge. (never fear: apparently that's pretty normal and not really anything to worry about. tic. tic. nothing at all to worry about.) there is a sweet baby named griffin at john's school who is no longer eating baby food (he made a year recently) and so griffin's mom donated a bunch of unused food to the school. john being the only baby-food eater right now, he was the grateful recipient. (if by some chance you're reading this, griffin's mom, thank you very much!) included in the batch were some new tastes he could try ... like squash. so it was with great excitement that i pulled out the little spoon last night and gave john his first bite. which he LOVED. couldn't get enough. he ate half of the container, which doesn't sound like a lot until you realize the most he's ever w...

if you've spent any time within a mile of john and me in the past day and a half, i apologize for the screams. i assure you, i'm not pinching, beating, neglecting, or otherwise mistreating my son. what am i doing? putting him down. suddenly, the only time john is happy is when he is being held. it doesn't have to be mommy - daddy has done quite a bit of holding as well - but in extreme situations only mommy will do. john's not hungry. he's not hot or cold. his diaper is clean. he's just ... screaming. i miss my chipper little dude - haven't seen much of his smiling face lately. i know, i know - it's a phase, this too shall pass, etc etc etc. and it's really not so terrible - this phase coincides with john's ability to hug onto us, so it's pretty gratifying to pick up a little monkey who reaches for you then squeezes you once you have him. but i miss smiles and belly laughs. any mamas or daddies out there have any suggestions?