...
Yikes! Where does the time
go?! I knew it'd been a while since I last sat down to type and even a bit longer since I last actually
published a blog entry... but
four or five months?! Man.
I started a blog a couple of months ago, I guess, and kept adding to it and revising the updates every week or so. I'm not sure where to start... so I guess I'll have to look at that blog and do some kind of copy-and-paste with everything. Yikes. So I just looked at it, and there are over ten long paragraphs! Hmmm... I guess I'll just transfer everything here and everyone who reads this will just have to plan on setting aside a good chunk of time to read everything! :P So, go grab your coffee or tea (and maybe a light snack) and enjoy! Apologies in advance if it's confusing to read. He's progressed so much in just a few short months!
So, here's how I started the blog entry way back in September...
The days and weeks fly by even quicker now that I'm back to work for the school year. The weekdays all meld into one with the only difference being that Monday is even more depressing and Friday is even more exciting than pre-Jacob days. The weekend zips by ten times faster, and evenings just aren't long enough at all. Just thinking about how chaotic things are with only the three of us and with Dave being at home during the day, I am in awe of the parents who "have it all together". I find it amazing that some people can work away from home or stay home with their kids all day and still manage to prepare a healthy dinner for the family and eat it together as well as keep up with the laundry, dishes, and their kids' extracurricular activities on a regular basis. Babies are a lot more work, though. Or at least that's going to be my rationalization. :P So, until Jacob grows up a little more and becomes capable of doing more for himself (or even just becomes capable of entertaining himself for longer than five or ten minutes!), I'm letting myself off the hook of trying to be Supermom. Or maybe things will start falling into place over the next few months and I can figure out how to juggle everything with ease and confidence. One can dream, right? :P
So much to update about...
Jacob's now sitting up for several minutes at a time and is getting stronger and stronger every day. We put a
Leachco nursing pillow behind him for the predictably unpredictable topples. We
had been putting this more closely around him at first in an attempt to cushion him from falls on
all sides, but the therapist pointed out that we were inadvertently preventing him from learning to use his hands to catch himself when starting to fall. (Oops!) So, now we just put the pillow completely behind him - close enough so that his head lands on it when he falls backwards but far enough away so that his hands immediately touch the floor when he leans to the side. We had to "teach" him this reflex (of catching himself) as well as the safety reflex of putting his hands out when being dropped/lowered ("falling") face-first.
*Update for progress through early November... We no longer use the pillow for Jacob in a "safety" sense. He sits independently for an endless amount of time without toppling unless he's trying to reach for something way out of his grasp. We're now using it as a "bump in the landscape" - something for him to try to maneuver over when attempting to crawl. Or a comfy prop for quick living room diaper changes... or a soft pillow for us to lean on when we're on the floor with him. :)**And once again, I started updating and revising and another month flew by. Progress through early-December regarding the pillow... It accidentally got peed on during a recent diaper change and is headed for the laundromat as soon as we can get there! :P He's mastered sitting and getting to the floor by himself (without just falling), so it's really not needed anymore at all. :)
And back to the original September entry -
Over the past month, he's developed quite a bit of strength. Arms, legs, tummy... but he still does NOT like to be on his stomach for more than a few minutes regardless of what cool toy may be in front of him. About two weeks ago (or maybe three), he scooted himself around in a circle and/or half-circle on three or four different days to reach a toy... which is the most independent movement he'd EVER done. A couple of days ago, he started rolling onto his stomach when playing and actually did a full 360 degree flip to get to one of his toys! If we put our hands behind his feet to give him a little leverage, he'll push up against them and propel himself forward... but he's still probably
at least a month away from even doing an army crawl. I'm so glad to see him finally rolling onto his stomach by himself. It's finally time to start working on baby proofing the house. :) He loves when we position him in a kneeling stance and bounces up and down giggling and smiling. He works hard during his therapy sessions and then with us on other days. I'm so proud of the progress he's made since I blogged last. His development's coming along, but I don't think I'll ever stop worrying until he finally gets around to crawling. I know I just have to keep reminding myself that all babies/kids learn and grow at different rates, but it's hard.
*Update for early November... Jacob's still not crawling yet, but he's started to do a "wounded soldier" army crawl for a few weeks now. He bends his left arm at a 90 degree angle, sticks his left leg straight out, and drags himself across the floor bending his right arm and leg a bit to give himself a little boost. It's cute, but I wish he would just get his knees up and realize how much easier it could be to just crawl! His therapist continues to give us "homework" to work on with him to strengthen his stomach muscles as those are what need to be developed to allow his thighs to be more comfortable in the crawling position. Most of the activities involve practicing bending forward and down to reach something on the ground when standing or when sitting on a small stool or couch cushion. She said stairs are actually good practice for pre-crawling, but we don't have any here. Nevertheless, he's getting there little-by-little. Lately, we've been following behind him and holding onto his upper thighs to help alternate his legs in coordination with the correct arms when crawling. At first, his thigh muscles were so tight and rigid, but now they're really loosening up. Crawling's still probably several weeks or another month away, but it's awesome to be able to finally see a good deal of progress!**Update for early December... JACOB IS CRAWLING!!!!!! Just a few days after Thanksgiving, Jacob took his first few crawling "steps"! He's still pretty slow-moving for a crawler, but he can get half-way across the living room before he drops down to his tummy and slips back into the army crawl/drag. His pincer grasp is just about perfected, so he's all about seeking out the tiniest pieces of lint, dirt, leaf crumbles, crumbs, etc. on the floor as he moves about. We're vacuuming just about every day - sometimes every other day, sometimes two or three times a day depending on how the weather is and what gets tracked in or blown through the doorway with the wind. We have a LOT to do to truly baby-proof the house, so it's nice that Jacob's taking his time amping up his crawling. I think the main area of the living room is pretty good (at least until he starts walking and trying to get to the TV and DVD player), and that's usually where he spends all of his awake time anyway. Hopefully I'll be able to get to the back part of the living room and then the dining room soon before he gets faster and more curious.Back to September...
Jake was previously pretty intent on using his right hand for everything (except feeding) and very rarely used his left hand. At this age (or at the age he was during his initial developmental evaluation), babies aren't supposed to show a hand preference. His therapist just encouraged us to keep handing him things on his left side and having him reach with that hand (which I had already been doing), and now I think he's using both hands pretty equally. It was the other way around when it came to eating, though. I think that was due to the fact that I'm right-handed and when I sit directly across from him in the high chair... I've always inadvertently fed him more towards his left side. So, whenever the spoon came close to his mouth, he would reach out with his left hand to help guide it in. I focused on feeding him on his right side for a couple of weeks, and his hand-to-mouth coordination improved quite a bit. So now I've been making a conscious effort to alternate sides every few bites and he's been doing much better with this, too.
*Update for early December... Jacob's doing great with eating and playing with both hands. We've moved onto "finger foods" (bite-sized pieces of soft, easy-to-gum fruits, veggies, and crackers/toast), and Jacob LOVES feeding himself this way. Every now and then, he still seems to prefer using his right hand to eat... so I'll gently block that hand and he quickly reaches up with his left. He looooooooves his food!September entry...
For about a week now, he's been flopping himself over onto his tummy in his crib when we lay him down for naps. He pushes himself up onto his hands and cries, babbles, or grunts and won't give up until we leave him alone for about five to ten minutes and then come back in to check on him. (Dave saw him do this for the first time. I think it was September 25th.) Usually after about ten minutes, we can give him his pacifier, lay him on his side, and he'll fall asleep with a little song or some butt-patting. :P
*December... Now that he's crawling a bit, he's also been pulling himself up on the couch and end tables and in his crib when we try to lay him down for his naps or for bed. He'll pull himself up in his crib and shake the rail like he's a prisoner. :P So far, he'll do that for a few minutes and then start to cry then wail full-force if we don't go in to soothe him. Once he gets to a full wail, I'll go in to check on him after a few minutes and hoist him out of his crib. He usually falls asleep with just a few minutes of me rocking him in my arms (while sitting on our bed) and singing my little made-up sleepy-time songs. I try to lay him in his crib before he's completely out so that he has the feeling of drifting off to sleep in his bed instead of in my arms. (The "experts" say that a lot of babies wake up immediately after being laid in their cribs from falling asleep in their parent's arms because it's akin to falling asleep in a cushion-y bed surrounded by cozy blankets and then waking up on the floor with just a blanket on your back.) His naps haven't been more than 45 minutes long for the past few days except for times when Dave is home with him and lays down in our bed with him. They slept like that for two hours the other day! I wish I had the time to do that on the weekends!September -
Over the past month or so, getting Jacob dressed has been quite a bit easier than before. Well, with his shirts, anyway. He's actually pushing his arms through the sleeves once we get them in the openings. He also grabs the front of his shirt and tries to pull it down after we slip it over his head. He still kicks and moves his little legs like crazy, though, and is flopping over to his side and trying to use the changing table bars to pull himself up now, so getting his diaper and pants on is a different story. He's been grabbing onto his toes during diaper changes (something most babies his age have been doing for months) but still hasn't quite developed the stomach muscles to pull them all of the way to his mouth. He loves when
we stretch them up towards his face, though, and go, "Geeeet doze toes!Get 'em!" ;P
December... Not much has changed on this one. He does great trying to get his arms through the sleeves and occasionally helps put a foot in his pant leg. He's not kicking so much anymore, but now that he's crawling... he constantly tries to flip over and get away from us when we're trying to change his diaper. He still grabs onto his toes when we start out, but he quickly moves on to trying to escape! The Huggies wipes box has been a lifesaver for diaper changes. He LOVES that thing! I'll push the little "button" to pop the lid up and lay it on his tummy before I start. He holds onto it, tries to tap the lid down into place, and feels the soft rubbery part where the wipes come out. Other wipes containers that I've seen have a very rough opening... nothing I would ever give to a baby. So, thank you, Huggies, for constructing your wipes containers to be safe and useful for a diaper changing distraction! ;PAs far as other things Jacob...
He's still obsessed with putting everything in his mouth. I'm sure that's probably inevitable for another few months, though, huh? He got his first tooth (bottom front tooth on left side) just a few days after his six month birthday and the second one - right next to it on the right - just a few days later. Shortly after his eight-month birthday, his top two teeth starting poking through (first the left one, then the right just a couple of days later). He woke up crying in the middle of the night a few times and needed some rocking and cuddling and singing to get him back to sleep after having a dissolveable teething strip... but nothing more than a fifteen or twenty minute disruption in sleep (although sometimes it was three times in one night!). A few weeks later, his teeth on either side of THOSE teeth started coming in... so he's up to six teeth now! His pediatrician told us that she saw Number 7 at his nine month appointment, but we can't see anything (and don't try to feel for them anymore since he's prone to biting now!). He's been drooling and chewing on things a lot lately again, though, so maybe they'll show up before too long. I have a little fingertip toothbrush that I use at night and TRY to remember to brush his little teeth before bed each night. Sometimes, though, he ends up getting tired and cranky a little earlier than I estimate. He doesn't handle teeth-brushing well at all when he's overtired - especially his top teeth for some reason. Oh well. I think I'm doing pretty good overall.
Jacob is still fascinated with the great outdoors and with new faces. We didn't go too many places over the summer, though, since it was so hot, humid, and downright miserable. Every now and then there was a bearable day, so we tried to take advantage of those days as much as we could. We took him to the community park once, and he got to see the high school's marching band practicing as well as watch about 100 kids running all over the playground from the town's community center summer camp. He loves watching other kids play regardless of their age and especially likes it if one of them come up and talk to him or smile at him. He gets a BIG grin. It's so cute to see. I took him for a few walks in his stoller - his first ones sitting upright like a "big boy" instead of facing us in the "bucket seat" attached to the stroller. He was so excited to see the world from this view. He clenched his little hands into fists at his sides, sat up nice and tall, and just took it all in. During our walks, I talked to him about things he might have been seeing or hearing and he would smile, shake his head excitedly, and/or make his deep, little excited noise ("Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah!). Too cute. We bought him a couple pair of baby sunglasses, but his head was too wide for them! So, we quickly learned to be observant about the location of the sun and the direction of the stroller. We took him to the monthly flea market in Belleville a few times, and he had tons of admirers. One older woman approached him in his stroller and said, "Usually I don't give two hoots about babies, but YOU are a CUTIE!" He sat there and flashed a big grin. :) He smiles at just about anyone who smiles at him first... no fear of strangers yet. I took him for a walk to the dollar store a few months ago just to look at new things. We were walking down an aisle with shampoo and stuff and he got a big smile. I glanced around to see what could possibly be so interesting to him... and right at his eye level were a bunch of boxes of women's hair color with pictures of the women with bright, happy smiles grinning right at him. :P We took a few more walks during the fall to see the leaves changing color and went on a few outings with my mom. This year, I really want to make a point of finding friends/playmates for Jacob and setting up times to get together with them. He loves his family, but he really needs more interaction with people other than Mommy, Daddy, and his grandparents!
Over the summer, one of our friends from Texas sent Jacob a high chair! I had been feeding him either in his swing or in his
bouncer chair, and neither of those were very ideal... especially as he was getting older and meals would be getting messier. The high chair is adjustable to seven different levels... so he can be at table-height or couch height - making it easy to feed him in the dining room or in the living room if we're watching a movie or something... or even to just let him play in while we're doing laundry or washing the dishes. The highchair she sent just happened to be the same product line as his jumperoo and a bib my mom had bought him a while back (Fisher Price Rainforest), so we're pretty coordinated with our baby accessories here. :P Jacob's pretty much feeding himself anything that's "finger food-able"... and even spaghetti is finger food-able to an extent. :P He gets noisy and grumpy if we don't offer him finger foods with every meal. He's already asserting his independence at meal times. He definitely loves his fruits better than his veggies, but he eats them all alright. He tries to help feed himself (with his spoon) every now and then, but that's definitely a work in progress! He does great with the finger foods, though.
We've been slowly introducing him to sippy cups and haven't had much progress yet. We've tried three so far. One is a
Nuby brand that he bites the nipple of and gets mad at. Another one is an Avent Magic Cup (
similar to this one but without the handles) which he seems to drink out of a little better, but I think it requires more effort than he prefers. :P The
most recent one we've tried seems to be working the best, but he still would rather just have his bottles. After babies reach one year, they're not supposed to drink formula anymore. I guess he'll just HAVE to figure out sippies at that point, eh? We might just be doing his regular milk (organic soy milk) in a bottle for a few more months, though, to make sure he's drinking enough fluids in general. Sometimes he'll drink maybe 2 ounces of what's in his sippy cup and not drink anything else for over half an hour unless we give him his bottle. :P
Hmmm. What else? Ah... playtime stuff...
Up until about seven months, Jacob wasn't all that into Peek-a-Boo. He would smile when we played it with him, but he didn't seem to realize that he could use his hands to pull the blanket or towelie off of his face. He would just lay there making little excited gasping noises while flailing about like a turtle on its back. The therapy helped out so much. Within a month or two of working with him using her recommendations, he "gets it" now and can tug anything off of his face without a second thought. He gets a kick out of pulling things off of or away from my face... maybe because I react so silly when he does it to get him smiling and laughing. ;) He never initiates it, though. Maybe that'll come in time.
His favorite toy until a few months ago was the
Playskool Busy Tumble Top that his Uncle Derek got him for a "Happy Jacob Day" gift in May. He knew how to operate it from the start and would put his hand up to the "spinner" and try to grab at it, but he finally mastered a fluid push-and-release about two months ago (I think). He still loves this toy and plays with it almost daily, but now that he can crawl and understands that he can control things (putting things IN, pushing buttons, retrieving objects, etc.), he's really loving the
Explore N' Grow Busy Ball Popper. He has an older version than the one in the link, but it works the same. The motor apparently takes a lot of power; we just put new batteries in less than two weeks ago and they're already wearing down! Hmm... or maybe he just plays with it a bit too much! :P
A few other interests...
- His Leap Frog Activity Table (again, an older version) at which he pulls himself up to stand and knows how to activate all of the different functions - turning "pages", pressing keys, moving his hand across a spinning toy, pulling a lever to the side and releasing, sliding a lever back and forth, and pushing a lever up and down.
- Knocking down block towers
- Playing with stacking cups - putting them in and taking them out of the other ones... also tossing them off from his highchair tray as quick as we can put them on ;)
- Pulling things off of the couch or end tables and tossing them to the floor
- Trying to play with one of the kitties with their toys (feathers on a long plastic rod)
- Taking apart, chewing on, and throwing stacking ring toys
- Books, books, books. :) He loves pulling his books out of his shelves on the entertainment center. Sometimes he really show interest and wants to be read to; other times he listen and look for a few minutes and then pull out a few more to mess around with. He loves turning pages, feeling textures in the touch-and-feel type books, and recently got a kick out of a scratch'n'sniff book.
I think I'll go ahead and finally stop here. This is an enormously long update, but I think it covers a lot about his development and growth over the past few months. Hopefully I'll be able to get back on track and keep this updated on a regular basis again now. I'm sure I'll slack off here and there from time to time, but hey... Mom's get busy, lazy, and distracted, too, right?! ;)
We had some trouble trying to get the Christmas tree down from the attic this year. So, a few days before Christmas, I ended up going out and buying another tree so that we could finally have one set up. Jacob was playing in the middle of the living room when I first took the pieces out of the box, but he immediately crawled over and sat down by the box and parts once I started assembling it. He's so adorable in the way that he just sits around taking things in. Every now and then, he would reach out and touch the branches or try to grab the labeling tags, but otherwise he sat quietly and watched me intently. Once the tree was put together, we admired it for a few minutes and then resumed playing.
Eve Day), and Jacob came over to supervise. The ornaments really piqued his curiosity, and he decided he wanted in on trying to decorate it. Just like with his books, he was very careful and gentle when he tried to hang one of them. He got it right up to the branch but just couldn't get it on there since the loop to hang it from wasn't open. I helped him put it on after letting him try a few times and then added a few more while he watched and stood at the rocking chair feeling the branches and looking at the lights.
adoptive mother sent us a few years ago. I showed it to Jacob (telling him "That's SANTA! Ho, Ho, Ho! Merry Christmas!") and then hung it on a wall opposite of the tree. Ever since then, whenever we say "Santa", his eyes go straight to that wall to look at the Santa face.... and then he smiles.
I placed a few Christmas-y stuffed animals on our stereo next to the entertainment center on Christmas eve in between wrapping presents and adding a few more ornaments to the tree. I put them out every year and didn't think anything of it that night, but Jacob noticed them as soon as I brought him into the living room. Something NEW! He gave an excited little grunt, and at first I had no clue what it was all about. He turned his head toward them and made a little "AAAAHHA!" noise. As soon as I realized that he had noticed the stuffed critters, I took him over to them and showed him each one. It's amazing that with all of the STUFF that we have around the house and with as much as we move stuff around... Jacob's observant enough to notice something like that.
When I was a kid, we always got to open one present on Christmas eve and then our stockings as soon as we got up on Christmas morning. I'm continuing this tradition with Jacob (even though most of the rest of my family doesn't do this anymore) and wanted to incorporate it with a new tradition of Christmas pj's. So, he got his pj's as his Christmas eve present (already washed by Mommy) and then I made a big scene out of his stocking on Christmas morning.
one has a different cut-out design on the bottom so water can spill through at different rates), an Elmo toothbrush and baby-safe toothpaste, and a tangerine. He hadn't tried tangerines yet at that point, but he was excited about the Mum-Mums. I let him try them out, and of course he loved them. We played for a while, ate breakfast, and then he napped while I started making a few dishes to take over to my mom's for Christmas dinner.
His favorites of his new toys are a farm with shapes to sort and a stacking tower (silo) by Little Tykes and the small, squishy turtles from a mom-and-babies floating turtle bath set. He loves taking apart the silo and carrying the rings around in his hand while he crawls. He doesn't like it when we put it back together and will crawl over like a speed demon to take it apart again. The little turtles are perfectly sized to fit in his mouth and are apparently have just the right amount of squishiness to satisfy his frequent chewing urges. It only took a few days before he realized that several of the shapes from the farm AND the turtles will fit perfectly inside the opening of the ball popper. :P
