Food, glorious food!

Jonah likes to eat!

basketballs,...

...his high chair,...

...socks,...

...books,...

...wrapping paper,...

...more socks,...

...his rattle,...

...the Johnny Jump Up,...

...his stacking blocks,...

...even more socks,...

....oh, and more books,...

...sometimes multiple items at once,...

...soft toys,...

...did I mention socks??,...

...donuts (ok, toy donuts),...

...Daddy's nose,...

...Tigger,...

...his rainmaker,...

...and his toucan!

Pretty much anything but food.

"Ewwwww!"

"Help me!"

"What *is* this thing?"

After about a month of trying, though, Jonah is finally starting to warm up (a little, anyway) to eating solids. The first time we tried squash, he gulped at the first bite and gave the appearance of chewing some during the course of the "meal."

I'm sure none of this is news for other parents out there. It has just been fun (and sometimes a bit frustrating). Hopefully he will start to enjoy food more soon!

7 Months Old!

Wow, time sure is flying by! Jonah turned seven months old yesterday. We got some growth pictures with Tigger, but Jonah was much more interested in wrestling Tigger than he was with sitting with him. He also decided he had enough of getting his picture taken and started to make his way off the chair! No, he isn't quite crawling yet, but he sure is getting close. This was some pretty good moving around for him.

It is hard to believe he used to be smaller than Tigger!

Piledriver!

"How come you are always smiling??"

"I've had enough of this. I'm outta here!"

We did try to get some shots of him this morning with Tigger to see if we could get anything better. Jonah wanted to wrestle some more, though.

"I know how to take down Tigger. I'll start with his tail, because he likes to bounce..."

"...Then on to the ears..."

"Aw, c'mon, ref! I'm not breakin' any rules!" (This lip is finding cute new ways to stick out)

more biting

A triumphant Jonah pins Tigger

Anyway, it has been a big month for Jonah. He has started solids (or at least we put spoons of food in his mouth. I don't know how much he is actually consuming), he sits up without us worrying about him tumbling, and he rotates really well. No teeth yet, but they could show up any day now. He is also VERY close to crawling. Tonight he was actually crawling backwards. Unfortunately, he stopped doing it as soon as we tried to capture the moment on video. Sometimes he still gets a little camera shy. 

Back to sleep

When Michelle and I were babies, it was apparently common practice to put babies on their bellies to sleep. Thinking on the most appropriate way to put babies to sleep is on their backs now, as it is supposed to help reduce the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). There is going to come a time when a baby is just going to decide on his own how he likes to sleep.

In December, Jonah decided he likes to sleep on his belly. We started finding him splayed out on his belly in the mornings.

Now, he pretty much rolls onto his belly as soon as we put him down, whether he is awake or asleep when we put him down. If he is asleep, this often has the effect of waking him up to look around, sometimes (if we are lucky) just to put his head back down and go back to sleep. He also moves around his crib, so we've learned where to place him when we put him down so he doesn't roll right into the side.

What is even more amusing is that he isn't just sleeping on his belly. He pulls his knees under his body and gets his butt in the air when he sleeps. I was fortunate to capture some pictures of this sleeping positions one day when I was getting him up for his late night feeding. He is in a sleep sack, but you can see that he gets his little legs crossed inside it. It isn't easy to pick him up from this position both because he looks so peaceful and because as soon as you pick him up, he arches his back in a b--i--g stretch.

It is going to be interesting to see how his sleep positions change over time.

Oh, Crap!

It's been a long time since we had a diapering incident, other than several major blowouts in recent weeks.  Fortunately, all of those other incidents (like this one) had been of the #1 type. 

This all changed on Thursday evening, when I was changing a diaper Jonah dirtied during his 11:15 feeding. A bit of poo had escaped the top of his diaper, soiling pajama outfit #1.  I got that off of him and the area cleaned up, and was in the process of putting on diaper #2 (with pajama outfit #2 under him), when he let loose again.  Poo all over the inside AND outside of diaper #2, because as soon as I heard that sound, I moved my hands as far away as possible from the source while still being able to make sure he didn't roll off the changing station.  So much for diaper #2 as well as outfit #2!!!  Ben was up at this point and helped me extricate Jonah from the mess and select outfit #3.  Thankfully, Jonah had apparently finished his duties by that point and I was able to get the diaper and outfit on him without incident!  No wonder parents with children have mountains of laundry!

All you can do at moments like those is laugh. Or smile, like this little guy:

Hanging Around

We continue to have loads of fun playing with Jonah.  He's still pretty much immobile (though trying really hard to figure out how to crawl and is close to mastering the sitting to all-fours transition) and we try to engage him in activities so he can continue to explore the world around him.

He's finally seeming to understand what all can be done in the Johnny Jump-Up:




His socks continue to be amongst his best friends.  In case you missed two of the videos Ben posted last week documenting this blossoming romance, here are the links: Jonah and the Sock - 1920s and Jonah and the Sock.  Both were shot using an app to make them appear filmed in earlier eras.  When he eats his socks like this, it reminds me of the comic strip Mutts and the character Mooch who loves his "Little Pink Sock."  More evidence of his love of the socks, taken while shopping on Monday:

We weren't sure if he loved or hated the wind-up cars the Basingers sent for Christmas.  His facial expressions started off looking as if he was afraid of them, but he never cried.  Since then, he has definitely come to like them and the "slugbug" seems to be a favorite, probably because it has windows that allow him to grab and hold it more easily.



He also continues to enjoy the musical table and we've played with it in a number of positions: with it in his lap, with him sitting in front of it, with the table at an angle, etc.  You can press a button on it and he will turn his head from across the room.  At times, you can tell he is frustrated because he wants to get to it but cannot figure out how to physically get there at this point in time.  On this occasion he was having fun with the open/close "door" (it happens to play my favorite music on the toy).



Hope you enjoyed this little window into Jonah's world!  I'm sure we'll continue to have fun with these and other toys and we'll provide more footage as we shoot it.

Jabbering Jonah!

Jonah continues to amaze us with how he is growing and developing.  It is hard to believe how much has changed in the past (nearly) 7 months, especially in terms of being able to interact with us through smiles and other facial expressions as well as through his jabbering.  He also seems to enjoy "growling" and making other sorts of noises - perhaps he's trying to live up to the name "Jonah Bear!"

We are just beginning to work on some baby sign and hope that it will help us communicate down the road.  In the meantime, we get to listen to his jabbering and simply wonder what in the world it is he might be trying to communicate.  What do you suppose he's trying to say here?

It's like clockwork!

Jonah is really developing. He enjoys his time on his belly. In fact, he now rolls onto his belly when he sleeps! He sits up really well (we worry less and less about him falling over):

He rolls from his belly to his back.
He rolls from his back to his belly. (He seems to prefer this lately)
He even kind of shuffles forward and backward a little, but we aren't sure how intentional this is, because he usually moves backwards trying to get to something in front of him.
He really has his rotation down, too. At least in one direction. If he has something to his left, he will do a full clockwise rotation to get there:



He gets up on his knees and sticks his butt in the air like he is getting ready to crawl sometimes. He doesn't crawl yet, but we aren't in any rush for that. He will get there when he gets there.

Jonah Tries Solids!

We decided to wait until Jonah was 6 months old to begin him on solids as he didn't seem overly interested in them while watching us eat and he's seemed more than satisfied with breast milk to date.  After some debate as to which food to start with, we decided to begin with sweet potatoes, as they were ripe (the avocados were not) and a bit smaller in scale than winter squash (easier to cook up quickly).  We thought about trying out solids while we were on Christmas vacation, as we knew various family members would enjoy being a part of the experience, but chose to wait until we were home in case he had some sort of adverse action and also because we weren't sure what might happen diaper-wise (no need to tempt fate and a major blowout while in the car or plane!).

So last Friday afternoon when he seemed to be in a good mood, we decided to give it a go.  Things started out well and he seemed to enjoy it, but it soon deteriorated into a major crying and screaming session, precipitated perhaps by a bit of a gag.  The poor guy!

We've tried twice more, but he hasn't really taken to the experience.  The first challenge is actually getting him to open his mouth so the spoon of food can be inserted! Ben tried feeding him from his finger yesterday, but that didn't really yield better results!  And then there's the challenge of getting him to swallow.  Grandpa Gregg suggests that the real problem is in offering sweet potatoes and that Jonah's a smart cookie (he asserts that no one in their right mind would want to eat sweet potatoes).  We're ripening avocados right now, so we'll see if Jonah takes any better to those. In the meantime, enjoy this little clip and a few photos from his first couple of feedings.

First solid foods, December 31, 2010

Not so sure about this experience. December 31, 2010

What is this stuff?  December 31, 2010

I've had enough of this! December 31, 2010

Daddy tries feeding me from his fingers.  January 2, 2011

Pausing to think about how I feel about this.  January 2, 2011

6 Months Old!

It is hard to believe it, but Jonah officially turned 6 months old last Tuesday! My, how half a year has flown!  We took him in for his check-up and shots on Thursday after we were home from Christmas vacation and he weighed in at 15 lbs. 10 oz (up from 13 lbs 8.5 oz at 4 months) and is 25 3/4" long (up from 23 3/4" at 4 months). Unfortunately, we didn't get his head measurement, and the doctor didn't really talk about specific percentiles this time around, so we can't offer those for comparison.  It is interesting to hear the differences in people's reaction to him, though: some think he is tiny ("a little peanut") and others seem to think that he is big for his age (which he really isn't).  Overall, it doesn't really matter, as we know we have a happy, healthy, and beautiful baby boy.

Here's the usual shot with Tigger, taken this time while we were at Grandpa Sweetser's house.  Can you see that his foot is wet?  That's because he was sucking it during the photo session!

We didn't do a half birthday cake to celebrate (he hadn't yet had any solids, so it seemed especially wrong to do so), though we did sing throughout the day "A Very Merry Half Birthday to You," to the tune of "The Unbirthday Song" from Alice in Wonderland.  What will the next six months bring??

Playtime

We've always had fun playing with Jonah, but as he's grown bigger and stronger, we've been able to introduce him to more and more toys and activities and the play time has got increasingly fun for us as he becomes more interactive. He has long loved his activity center and especially the plush monkey and toucan from it, but he really is rather big for it at this point and doesn't need to lie stationary and bat at things.

Over the six weeks or so, we've introduced him to a few new items, including his Exersaucer (which took some time for him to grow into in terms of his height: the one at day care had a lower setting which allowed him to use it earlier), the Johnny Jump Up, and his new musical table from the Basinger family.

The Exersaucer is a lot of fun and Jonah enjoys chewing on just about everything he can get his mouth on (you'd be amazed at his reach).  He is especially fascinated by the pandas on the teeter-totter, the bird that flips end over end, and the flash cards depicting animals (which are great "food").  Here's some footage from December 1.



The first time we tried the Johnny Jump Up, Jonah wasn't a huge fan. Perhaps we tried it a little too soon - his mouth was positioned right about where the top of the "seat" was. And while he's grown, he's still pretty interested in chewing the side of it, so we often pad it with a burp cloth because his drool and slobber are a bit prolific of late (in fact, we often have to mop up drips off of the floor!).  Today, he really got into it and looked like a little ballet dancer or marionette, but I didn't have the camera on.  Here's some video from December 14, though, the second time we tried him in it.




Finally, the newest toy that's caught his interest is the musical table that the Basingers sent for Christmas.  He's sitting really well on his own, so I put it in his lap on Friday to see what he would do: 



He definitely takes note if you press something on this and it makes noise from some distance away. As he's beginning to think about moving across the room, it seems like it is going to be a really good motivational factor. Can't wait to watch and see!

Cheap Tricks

You always hear that kids don't need fancy or expensive toys and that they can have fun with the simplest of things: cardboard boxes and toilet paper tubes and the like.  We remember Jonah's cousin, Alex, rolling all over to get to the soda can.  For Jonah, his favorite "cheap toys" are plastic water bottles and his mommy's hair.  Mommy has mixed feelings about the latter - it's nice because she always has it along with her, but it can become an inconvenience when we need to do something serious (like feeding) and can be painful when he gets his hands on it. As for the plastic water bottles, they probably aren't all that good of a toy (who knows what is in the plastic or where it has been), but he definitely enjoys them and they motivate him to roll over, work on his grasp, etc., so they can't be all bad.  He also seems to enjoy the newspaper and he loved the wrapping paper from Christmas presents (which also go immediately to the mouth).


Here he is having fun with the water bottle, December 13, 2010:





and grabbing for the newspaper on December 20, 2010.

Moving about

During our trip to Ohio for Thanksgiving, Jonah really began to roll over on a regular basis. He'd definitely done some rolling prior to that, but there was really no consistency or regularity to when he would do so.  In particular, he began to roll over from his stomach to his back over his left shoulder and it was difficult to put him down to do anything without him immediately rolling.  Since then, he's become quite good about rolling from his back to his tummy, particularly when interested in reaching a toy, and he seems to almost prefer being on his tummy (a complete turn-around from when he was younger, when he didn't much enjoy being on his tummy).

Here is some footage taken on Thanksgiving day, when he was particularly interested in the Kohl's sale flyer:



and some footage from December 11, when he moved around to check out his play area and toys:


These days, he's less into rolling and increasingly interested in sitting up (which he does really well unsupported) and in beginning to move himself across the floor using pre-crawling moves.

Flying with Jonah

Jonah went on his first plane ride the Tuesday before Christmas. We solicited ideas and suggestions from friends on traveling with an infant, and we got some good pointers for which we are thankful. Despite the feedback, there were some things that came up that were unexpected.

We were sure to allot plenty of time to get to the airport, as we were not entirely comfortable with what the security screening process would be like with the stroller and car seat. I dropped Michelle and Jonah off at the departures area with most of our luggage and then brought the car to the long term parking area. I opted to take the car seat base out in the parking lot and carry it with me on the shuttle back to the departure area because it is light. Doing so also meant I didn't need to worry about pulling the base out while double parked in a high traffic area. I took the shuttle back, and then checked our luggage while Michelle sat with Jonah.

Security wasn't too much of an issue. We were thankful that we got to the airport as early as we did because the security line really piled up behind us. Before anyone makes a snarky comments, this was not *because* of us. We learned some things about getting everything through... it is pretty much the same as when you have less stuff. Stroller, car seat, everything through the x-ray while one of us carries the baby through.

We grabbed some dinner and then headed to the gate. The plan was to feed Jonah on take off, as it is supposed to help with the pressure change. We sat in the cramped waiting area (something about AirTran... they always seem to have gate areas that don't have enough room for all their passengers). I grabbed gate check tags for the stroller and car seat from the gate agent, and we kept watching the departure time get adjusted with no update as to what was going on and when we might actually expect to be taking off. Finally, Michelle decided to feed Jonah when we determined there would be enough time (we ended up departing about an hour late).

The gate agent didn't call for pre-board for those needing additional time or traveling with small children as I am accustomed, but we boarded at that point anyway (They didn't do a pre-board call on our return trip either). As suggested by someone, we used some bungee cords to secure the stroller in its collapsed position. This had the added benefit of allowing us to keep the boppy in the stroller on the return trip.

When we finally got on the plane, we taxied forever. When the plane stopped, we realized it was to de-ice. This gave me a chance to snap some quick shots.

On the flight, we asked the flight attendants if they had anything for first time fliers. Both replied that they didn't have any certificates that the usually carry, but they had some first flight wings. Then they didn't ever drop them off. We will just need to track it in Jonah's baby book.

Jonah was a little fussy (I think we were more concerned with his fussing than anyone around us) at first, but was asleep by the time we took off and slept for the entire trip. When we arrived, though, he was wired, and was cute while we were out in the cold waiting for the rental car shuttle - he thought we were playing peek-a-boo when we were actually trying to keep him covered and warm. His smile kept us warm. :)

The flight home was pretty uneventful, too. I can't imagine traveling with Jonah alone at this point. There is just too much stuff to carry.

Here is a pic from the return:

You can see more pictures from our trip in Picasa.