Eleven Months Old!

I actually wrote this post in 12/23, but forgot to post it.  I'm just going to pretend like Christmas hasn't already happened and all of you are going to go along with it, ok?  Don't like it?  Click here.

Well, here we are…the final monthly update of John’s first year.  It’s so hard for me to believe that he’s only a few weeks away from his first birthday.  But before we go there, let’s chat about month 10 for Johnny.

Getting him to sit still for this picture took an act of God.

John had a really good three weeks followed by one pretty shitty fourth week…hence, the reason why I wasn’t able to write this post on time.  It’s been a long few days.  When John’s happy and well-rested, he’s very sweet, funny, and playful, but lawd help me when he’s grumpy.  You simply cannot really know desperation until you’ve dealt with a baby who can’t sleep yet can’t stay awake/wants to eat yet refuses to eat/wants to be held yet PUT ME DOWN RIGHT NOW.  It’s a lot.  We’ve definitely had more good days than bad, but it’s easier to remember the bad days because they’re like a horror movie that you can’t stop thinking about.  I don’t mean for this to sound so negative and I really don’t want it to sound like I don’t like being John’s mom it’s just a tough phase.

John’s absolutely favorite thing to do at the moment is standing.  He LOVES it.  He’s not walking or standing on his own yet, but will pull up on anything he can and just stand there smiling.  This has lead to a lot of tumbles and tears, but as soon as he’s calmed down he pulls himself right back up.  He also continues to love pulling any and everything off the shelves in his room.  He does this 2-25 times a day.  Whatev, weirdo.

everyone said he'd slim down when he started moving more, but don't worry...he still has plenty of leg rolls to share.

Sleeping:

Same story, different month.  John is an honor student when it comes to nighttime sleeping and gets a D+ on napping.  I have gotten several 2-3 hour naps this month, but I’ve also gotten several (including the past THREE days) when he didn’t nap at all.  Not one wink.  That’s not ok at 11 months old.  NOT OK.

I’m trying new tricks and reading endless tips online, but there are some days when it’s just not happening.  After some research, Bud and I decided pretty early on that we are not “cry-it-out” people.  It’s just not for us.  That being said, I’ve given it a try a couple times and it honestly doesn’t work for John.  He’s one strong-willed boy.  I think he’d cry all day if I let him (which I wouldn’t).  Le sigh…we’ll figure out napping one day, right?

Eating:

John continues to eat like a champ.  He’s nursing less and eating food more and more.  We’ve been trying out more finger foods like apples, carrots, or small bites of whatever we’re eating.  I honestly can’t think of one thing that he doesn’t like…he’s even come around on peas and broccoli which is more than I can say for his parents.

I am planning to stop nursing around his first birthday.  I might feel differently once it’s over, but I’m honestly so excited to stop.  It’s not hard or painful in any way, but I’m just over it.  I’m so, so glad I was able to do it this long and credit breastfeeding for 98% of the reason that John has never even had a sniffle much less an illness, but I’ll be glad to not have to worry about it anymore.

Size:

Basically the same as last month.  He weights 24-25 lbs and wears 12-18 month clothes and Size 4 diapers.  He’s a big boy, but I feel like he’s been the same size for a while.

Teeth:

Six – 4 on top, 2 on the bottom.  I thought I saw two more poking through on the bottom, but I don’t think so.  Is it weird that I’m glad he’s symmetrical?  I saw a baby with an odd number of teeth and thought it looked freaky.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooveralls.  ah! 

Hair:

Oh, John’s hair…how do I love thee?  You guys, I love it.  It’s slightly ridiculous and it wings out on the sides like he’s about to take flight, but I love it.  Bud and I have started to ask each other if he needs a trim, but I don’t think so…even if he is mistaken for a girl when we’re out in public.   We comb and brush it every night before bed and I swear it’s one of his favorite times of day. 

John’s Highlight of the Month:

Gaining an uncle!  Allyson and Paul got married on 12/6.  He was always Uncle Paul to us, but we love that it’s now official.

Favorite Picture:

Others:

'the end of alzheimer's starts with me'

I don't always take selfies, but when I do, I make sure John is in them.

bieber hair

2/3rds of his awake time is spent shoving random things in his mouth

Ten Months Old!

Happy Ten Month Birthday, peanutbutterfaceangel.

Double digits, no big deal

Sadly, I wasn’t able to actually write the 22^nd this month.  These past two weeks have been tough….just very busy with work and a clingy boy.  By the end of the day I am DONE.  So done.

John, however, is wonderful.  He is really into interactive play right now and totally lights up when I look at him.  There are times throughout the day when he’ll happily play by himself, but there’s other times when all he wants is for me to play with him.  It’s absolutely impossible to be frustrated with a kid that just wants me to tickle him and say “Peek-a-boo.” Impossible.  His independent play mostly consists of these 3 strange “games” that he’s really into right now.  This is most of my day lately…

1) Dragging the chairs away from the kitchen table.  Who knows why this is fun, but it’s pretty much the best thing ever.

Doesn't it look fun?

2) Pulling every book off the book shelf in his room.  Whatever…if it makes him happy, go for it.  Not sure it counts as reading, but he is technically really into books.

Not sure if I got every book on this shelf.  Let me stand up and take a look.

3) Sucking on this red string that’s attached to one of his toys.  I swear he could care less about two-thirds of his toys, but god forbid if the red string is out of sight.

Sleeping:

As of last week, John officially went to one nap per day.  I fought it for a while, but realized that I’d rather one really amazing long nap than two kinda shitty 45 minute naps.  This week was amazing…he napped at least an hour and a half every day (and over 3 hours twice!).  This is huge.  I HOPE, HOPE, HOPE that this will last because I’m desperate for predictability.  It really makes both of us happier people. 

This morning, John forgot that "he's down to 1 nap a day" and feel sound asleep in my arms at 9:00 am.  I was not amused.  And yes, this screwed me later in the day when he completely refused to nap.  You know, because 10 minutes at 9:00 am is enough for the day.

Eating:

John has finally realized that food is awesome and will pretty much eat whatever we give him lately.  He’s still not much of a meat eater, but woofs down any fruit and vegetable we give him.  I think he prefers real meat (whatever I’m eating) over the pureed jarred stuff.  Can’t say I blame him.  I’ve given him small nibbles of my food…chicken, turkey, cheese, bread…and he’s loved it all. 

Crushing puffs like a boss

I’m still nursing him, but am down to 4 times a day, sometimes 5.   I still intend to get to 1 year, but lately I’m so over it.  I don’t know why, but I’ve felt so frustrated and annoyed by it.  It’s hard to explain.  I guess it’s easiest just to say that I have a love/hate relationship with breastfeeding at the moment and I’ll be glad once John is weaned.

Size:

Basically the same size as last month.  He’s in the same clothes (9-12 months) and diapers (size 4).  He has maybe gained about a half a pound or so.  Everyone said that the weight gain would really slow down once he started crawling.  They were right.

Teeth:

Six.  Well, I guess 4 teeth and 2 that are just barely poking through, but are not quiet out.  Four on top, two on bottom.  And no, he doesn’t bite me when nursing (I know I’d be curious).

Hair:

Amazing and luxurious.  You guys, the cashier at Target said “Hiiiiiii Princess” when we rolled up last week.  Hahaha. She was super embarrassed when she asked “her” name and I said “John.”  He’s just a pretty boy.

Bud assures me that it’s not a mullet because then it’d be short on top too.  So the question is….should I make it a mullet by cutting it on top and let it get all Billy Ray in the back?

Other milestones:

A sad one.  John had his first injury with blood this month.  I cried.

He and I were happily playing in the living room and fell face-first onto one of his toys.  It caught him square in the mouth.  I knew it was going to hurt.  He froze, looked at me, and then started this completely pitiful and weirdly high pitched cry that I had never heard before.  I scooped him up right away and open his little mouth which already had blood in it.  He stopped crying pretty quickly and I (naturally) called my mom right away.  She assured me that he’d be fine and that I wasn’t a horrible mother. 

After a drink of water (of course) and some rocking in his room, he was fine.  I was pretty shaken though.  I need to toughen up before this kid starts walking and really hurts himself.

Favorite Picture:

Holding hands on a walk with my great-grandmother.

Others:

Grease is the word.  You better shape up.

After his "injury" we went for a walk.

I can't get enough of this one.

I worked the Jacksonville Walk to End Alzheimer's on Nov 16th and Bud brought John to see me and support the cause.  I loved showing him off to my coworkers, but it was even more fun to show him to all the Walk Participants that I've become close with over the last couple years.  They were so supportive when I was pregnant last walk season so it was awesome to introduce them to John.

John just liked the beads I was wearing.  

Look out Mardi Gras 2034, John likes beads.

I understand, Lun Lun, I understand

When I've been with John all day the only thing I want is to get away from him.  That's not the nicest thing to say, but it's true.  He's a lot to handle lately.

Getting away always seems like a good idea, but after about an hour, I basically turn into Lun Lun when I return.  

As crazy as it sounds at 5:00 pm on Thursday afternoon, I can't get enough of this kid.

Happy Halloween!

John’s 1^st Halloween was a hit!  Bud and I were a bit stumped on what we wanted to dress him up as, but I think we nailed it.

I don't always wear a belt-buckle, but when I do my mom makes it out of tin foil and safety pins it to my pants.

 At first, were first thinking we’d get him a costume online or at a Halloween store.  I was “pinning” all kinds of adorable costumes (dinosaur, dragon, penguin, marshmallow man, etc.), but the prices were kind of silly considering we weren’t even going to leave our front yard so we were trying to think of something we could do and reuse most of it.  Bud was lobbying pretty hard to dress him up as one of his many nicknames, President Taft, but in the end he got to be the Man in Black, Johnny Cash.

His hair was my favorite part, but it didn't really turn out that great in pictures.  His hair has gotten so long so we put some product in it, slicked it back on the sides, and tried to get it as high as possible on the top.  I've had a thing for pompadours since my Conan phase so this made me so happy.

John was so relaxed and sweet that night.  The three of us sat in the driveway for an hour and a half just handing out candy and watching families walk by.  He happily sat in my lap the whole time.  Bud and I half-joked that if this is the way to keep him happy in the evening we’ll sit out there every night.  Not everyone got what his costume was right away, but everyone smiled once I said “he’s baby Johnny Cash.”  I mean, come on.  It’s too much.

Just sitting in the driveway being a badass.

John also had a back-up costume that was crazy adorable.  I was at Target on Halloween afternoon and started panicking that my Johnny Cash costume would be an epic failure and then my poor child wouldn’t have any 1^st Halloween pictures because I’m a neglectful mother.  When I saw this puppy costume for only $15 I threw it in the cart.  I’m planning to bring John to see my grandma in his puppy costume this week. Not sure she’d appreciate baby Johnny Cash as much as the rest of us, but any one with the ability to see will love puppy-Johnny.

How could I say no after he tried on the hat?

Gramma and Pop

My parents got to see him in his "back-up" costume because I didn't have time to get him in his Johnny Cash costume before they needed to leave.

Nine Months Old!

Happy Nine Month Birthday, sweetheart!

Considering how the first 6 months draaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaged on and on, I can’t believe how fast the last 3 months have gone, especially this past month.  I feel like I just wrote an 8 Month update 20 minutes ago.  Anyway….

Nine months old and my boy is simply delicious right now.  He’s a handful (to say the least), but incredibly happy, sweet, and funny.  His personality has continued to bloom.  He’s still “opinionated” and does not hesitate to keep me in check if I dare to do something he doesn’t like, but we’re working on it.  I think he’s learning that mama can’t do exactly what he wants 24/7.  I continue to be the funniest person he’s ever met and I LOOOOOVE making him laugh.

He does not have the slightest understanding of boundaries…I mean WHY OH WHY won’t my mom let me play with the diaper pail in my room?? She’s SO mean.  And WHY OH WHY can’t I play with my sisters’ water dishes?? I’m just going to cry about it.  And WHY OH WHY do I have to lay on my back when you change my diaper?  Can’t you do it while I’m sitting up?  The good days are really good and the bad days are really bad.

He’s pulling up like a body-builder on everything he can get his hands on all the time.  I think it’s a matter of weeks that he’ll be standing on his own.  There has been several face plants and wipe outs around here lately.  Why can’t 9 month olds just live in a padded bubble?

Sleeping:

Napping is still hit or miss, but he continues to be a great night sleeper.  We can count on 11-12 uninterrupted hours of sleep every night.  Heavenly.  Considering how easy he is to get down, we thought it was WAY over due to hand him over to Gramma so we could go out last weekend (we’ve gone out before, but always after John was asleep).  So my mom came over right before bathtime.  John was totally cool during bath and getting ready for bed, but ho-lee-shitballs…he got MAD when we gave him his Gramma and a bottle.  My mom has given him several bottles before and Bud has put John to sleep with a bottle many times, but he just wasn’t having it.  For a minute, while listening to him wail and my poor mom doing everything she could think of to calm him down I was going to just put him to bed myself, but decided against it.  Thankfully, I know my mom will love him no matter what and I know that he will eventually tire out.  He never took the bottle, but eventually fell asleep in my mom’s arms while she rocked him.  We were worried that’d mean he’d wake up at 3:00am starving, but he slept until 7:00.  It’s a good thing because this mama was drunk and wouldn’t have been able to nurse him anyway.

On a good day, I’ll get two decent naps (decent = hour or more).  It makes SUCH a difference in his mood. 

Here’s John at the end of the day when he’s had two good naps:

Here’s John at the end of the day when he didn’t take two good naps:

Eating:

Great!  He’s really starting to like food.  His favorite BY FAR is Spinach, Mango, Pear.  He goes nuts for it.  I’ve given him a couple small bites of what I’ve eaten (pulled pork, rice, etc).  He looks at me like I’m crazy for sharing, but hasn’t turned anything down.

Oh, and water.  Always water.  The kid still can’t get enough.  You know how some moms nurse their babies when they hurt themselves?  Well, all I have to do is give him a sip of water. 

Size:

Big. Huge. XL.  Yea, he’s a beast, but I think he’s slimming down a little because he’s so active now.  Almost everytime I’m out of the house with him at least one person says something like “he doesn’t miss many meals, huh.” 

He’s wearing 9 and 12 month clothes and size 4 diapers.

Teeth: 

FOUR.  Yep, he got two more the past couple weeks.

Mom, there's something in my mouth

Hair:  

Amazing.  It’s actually pretty long, but I don’t think it’s a mullet or a rat tail yet.

getting close?

Favorite Picture:

Why does this adult hat practically fit him?

No wonder I had a c-section.

Others:

Q: Guess who's taking this picture?  

A: Gramma - right before she tortured him by trying to feed him a bottle before bed.

It's hard to get into the fall spirit when you're both sweating, but we tried.

swinging is fun!

be still, my beating heart 

38 In, 38 Out

Today marks an important milestone.  Today, John is 38 weeks and 2 days old which is exactly how far along I was in my pregnancy when he was born. 

Just to be clear - No, I don’t count the weeks anymore.  It’s kind of funny because I don’t even remember when I stopped.  Every Tuesday for 2-3 months, I’d say to Bud or my mom, “John is <<fill-in-the-blank-number>> weeks old today.”  Every Tuesday was a little celebration until one week it just wasn’t. 

And now the 22^nd of every month is special.  “It’s John’s <<fill-in-the-blank-number>> month birthday!”  Pretty soon though, we’ll lose track of months too.  No, I will not answer in months when someone asks me how old he is after 1 year old. 

It’s so weird to think that he’s been alive as long as I was pregnant because I feel like he’s been around forever and I was pregnant for about 15 minutes.  It’s so weird to think how far he’s come.  38 weeks ago he was utterly helpless and 38 weeks before that he was a teeny-tiny ball of cells. 

But now at the ripe ol' age of 38 weeks, he's doing this...

The video isn't anything too exciting, but it's a good snippet of what I watch all day.  A happy boy playing with his girls. 

Updated Stats

John had a check-up at the pediatrician yesterday and everything looks great.  It's always a relief to hear that he's doing well, meeting appropriate milestones, and growing right on track.  His pediatrician LOOOOOOVES him.  When she walked into the exam room John was only wearing a diaper.  She gasped, scooped him up and asked if she could take him down the hall to see Dr. Baker.  They both spent about 5 minutes oooing over him, smelling his yummy baby smell, and talking about his fat rolls.  It made me smile, but made John nervous.  He kept looking at me like "Mom, where are my clothes and who are these people?"

Weight: 22 pounds, 9.5 ounces
Height: 27.75 inches (which is 43% of my adult height)

He still has the same hilarious percentiles that he has since 1 month old - 85% for weight, 25% for height.  I could care less because this really doesn't mean anything for his future stats.  I mean, I hope he won't always be 85% weight and 25% height.  It's really not an ideal look:

All kidding aside, because I get SO many comments about John's weight, I asked the doctor if it's something to be worried about and she said absolutely not.  His diet it perfect - just breastmilk, fruits, veggies, and occasionally chicken - so she said he's just supposed to be chunky baby.  It will most likely burn off now that he's more mobile.  

As for the height, Bud and I still think they just don't get a good measurement.  We've said that every appointment though.  I mean, it certainly looks like he's gained a whole lot more than 7.75 inches, right?

New level of tired

I foolishly thought that those first couple months of parenthood would be the most exhausting time of my life, but I was wrong, wrong, wrong.  I think it’s logical to assume that waking up 2-3 times in the middle of the night and breastfeeding around the clock would make me the most tired I’ve ever been, but I feel like I handled that pretty well.  This age, however, is almost too much.  ‘February 2013 Katie’ could run laps around ‘October 2013 Katie.’  No joke.

John is so fun right now, but he’s also so exhausting.  It’s a kind of exhaustion that hard to describe simply because I don’t have the energy or brain cells to form sentences that don’t sound asdfzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Whoa, sorry.  Just feel asleep on my keyboard.

I’m sleeping fine at night and John is still an angel of a night sleeper, but when he’s awake he’s FULL STEAM AHEAD and 100 mph.  Suddenly nothing that’s remotely safe interests him, but anything and everything nearby that could hurt him has a magnetic pull.  “Oh there’s a baseball bat.  Yay, look at that light socket. Mom, do you think I could pull the tv on my head? How about I try to throw myself off the couch?”  We’ve done our best to babyproof, but our house doesn’t have way to contain him so 90% of my life right now is following him around saying “careful, John, caaaaarrrrreeefull, John, careful, John.”  This week he learned to pull himself into a standing position which is a huge accomplishment and I’m so proud of my strong, healthy baby, but I also have the overwhelming desire to push him down because I’m not ready for him to walk. #motheroftheyeargoesto…

I know it’s a phase and this too shall pass, but man, I’m just tired and this shit is hard.  I think it’s time for a vacation.  Or maybe it’s just time to go to bed.  Yea, that sounds better.  A vacation is too much work.

And because no post is complete without a picture of my handsome sidekick...

Just a little post-nap bedhead

Eight Months Old!

Happy 8 month birthday, beautiful boy!

sorry for the dingus bangs...he had just woken up from a nap

Confession…I had to ask 3 times if I had eight spelled correctly.  Man, I hope that this kid gets Bud’s spelling abilities.  Otherwise he is screwed.  For the record, it was spelled correctly.  Maybe I just hope that John gets Bud’s spelling confidence.

Anyway, spelling confusion aside, this has been a great month for our little man.  He is officially a crawler which is equally adorable and exhausting (for both of us).  Gone are the days when he’d happily sit and play with toys.  He is now on the move every waking minute.  It’s so cute because it’s made him and Uma even closer friends.  Uma’s favorite thing in the world is being chased and now she has yet another person to chase her.  Here’s a little video of what I watch all day long.  Notice that most of the time John isn’t actually chasing Uma, nor does he want the rope her in mouth, but she’s just so damn excited because she thinks he’s chasing her and desperate for the rope.

Ok to watch on mute, but you'll miss some giggles and growls.

Don't worry, you won't miss the fat rolls.

This month John also started babbling…finally.  Until now he was mainly just blowing raspberries and saying “ahhhhhhhhhhhhh awwwwwwwwww ahhhhhhh,” but now we are hearing “la da da da.”  Bud is counting Dada as his first word, but I’m not totally sure that counts until he says it on purpose.

Sleeping:

Night sleeping remains great and napping is getting better.  I think all this crawling must be tiring because I’ve definitely seen a difference lately.  John consistently naps in the morning around 9:00 which is wonderful because it gives me a time of the day to get some work done.  Most days I’ll also get an afternoon nap, but some days it’s only 10 minutes which basically means I sit down at my computer, open a project, and then have to click save and go back to baby wrangling.

Eating:

Great!  I’m happy to say that John has put himself on a schedule so I can actually predict what my day will look like.  This started last month, but is so consistent now that I can depend on it.  He nurses when he wakes up, 9:00, 12:00, 3:00, 5:00, and bedtime.  Sometimes we’ll merge the 3:00 and 5:00 and I’ll feed him at 4:00ish instead.

He’s also become a much better eater.  We feed him baby food when we eat dinner and he’s doing so much better than he was last month.  He will still make a sour face at first, but once he realizes that it’s not a shot of tequila, he’ll clean his plate.  We recently added meat into the mix…he add something called Vegetable Turkey Dinner…and he liked it.   He seems to like everything we’ve given him lately except peas, but who the hell actually likes peas.  Blah.

Side note about food…we started out thinking that we would make John food and also feed him jarred stuff, but he likes the jarred stuff A LOT more so we’ve ditched the “we’ll make him food” plan for now.  I buy him Earth’s Best which is at Publix and Target.  I like it because it’s organic and has really diverse flavors.  That sounds really weird about baby food, but seriously check out the Dinner options.  I’m hoping this will make him a good eater (unlike his mama).

Likes and Dislikes:

Like: Crawling, crawling, crawling

Dislike:  Diaper changes.  Holy shit…it never bothered him before, but lately they are TORTURE.  The second I put him down he tried to flip onto his stomach.  He was basically break dancing in a dirty diaper at one point.  Awesome.

Like: Ignoring all his toys and shoving dog toys, shoes, dog hair, etc. in his mouth

Dislike:  Being inside all day.  I have to get him out of the house at least once a day or he goes a little crazy.

Like:  Uma and Juno…he’s obsessed with them.  Makes my heart soar.  When he sees them he makes a weird “gee, gee, gee” sound.  I swear he’s trying to say “doggie,” but it’s possible I just think he’s a genius.

Like:  Climbing whoever is holding him.  He doesn’t want to simply sit in your lap anymore he wants to climb you.

Size:

Safe to say he’s still a big boy, but I have no clue how much he weighs.  He’s wearing 9 and 12 month clothes and we just switched to Size 4 diapers.  We took him to a friend’s beach house on Labor Day weekend and a person there asked me how old he was.  When I said 7 months, she said “Oh God. He’s a ‘healthy’ boy.  I would have guessed a year old.” “Health” is such a funny adjective, but yes…he is “healthy.”

Me:

It’s been a busy, busy month, but I’m doing great.  I’ve been working a lot lately (25-30 hours/week), but I kind of love it.  I don’t love it when I’m working until midnight and I don’t love it when my house is a mess because my spare time (hahahah…spare time….hahaha) is mainly spent working, showering, or sleeping.  But I do love it.  My Chapter is hosting 10 Walks to End Alzheimer’s again this year.  We are now 4 down and 6 to go.  I’m taking care of all the back-end/admin stuff for the Chapter.  I DO NOT miss getting up at 4 am and sweating my ass off at the events, but I try to be as helpful as possible to my coworkers who are out there.

Favorite Picture:

I mean...too much.

This is Labor Day at the beach when he was mistaken for a 1 year old.  "Just so healthy."

Others:

just hanging with my friends Anderson and Woody...NBD

he'll cuddle when he thinks no one is watching

John has a lot of friends

We were pretty excited for opening day of the NFL season....0-3 is not what we were hoping for, but all that means is I get to teach John that we're not fairweather fans.

my favorite outtake from today

ahhhhhhhh....overalls!

Uma gets way too much attention.  

Juno is finally coming out of hiding and getting in some pictures.  

My dear girl needs a haircut, but I kind of like the shaggy dog look.