This past week was huge for our little guy. He has built up his walking to a full 6 steps. His MO is to stand up holding onto the giant, TV-protection gate or a toy large enough to support him, then turn his body ever so slightly to aim for me (or Neville), and finally make a run for it. He takes as many steps as he can until he falls into me. He’s been testing himself out more and more by starting out a little further away from me each time. It’s very cool to watch, and has added years to my life with all the laughter it brings.

This morning Jaden woke up happy, gurgling like he usually does when he wakes up happy. He started climbing, as usual, to stand up by the front rail on the crib, but this time, instead of yelling “aaaahhhhhhh” at the top of his lungs to call me to come get him, he simply said “up.” Wow. How amazing that a simple little word can make my heart leap with joy. Neville came running upstairs because he heard Jaden over the monitor, and said “did I just hear him say ‘up’?” What fun we had this morning.

This evening we are going to my in-laws to celebrate Christmas. I’m not even sure who is going to be there besides my mother-in-law and father-in-law, but I’m sure it will be fun. We will be at my parents for Christmas since we leave from there shortly thereafter for our vacation to Arizona. Hooray!!

Speaking of vacation, I’d better start my packing list. It would help to get that done today, since I have to pack tonight and tomorrow. Packing has become a much greater challenge now that I have to worry about my stuff AND Jaden’s stuff.

Have a wonderful week!

Grandma and Grandpa visited this weekend for the first time in 10 days. Grandma was so worried that Jaden wouldn’t remember them – but he did. He was a little wary at first (which is a good thing, IMO) – giving them the once over a few times before he would believe that this truly was his Grandma and Grandpa that returned to spend time with him- but once he was convinced it was them, he went right to them. He adores them – it is really great to see how happy he is when they are around. I’m sure spending all week with Mommy can get a bit tiring too (I even get tired of myself sometimes).  Grandma and Grandpa were a big help this weekend. Between the 4 of us we managed to keep up with Jaden’s messes and get the house dusted and vacuumed (I know – sounds like a really fun weekend for G & G). 

Jaden has decided he likes Elmo so much that he cannot get close enough to the television to watch him. Last week he crawled right up to the TV stand and managed to pull himself up on it before I could say “no” and get over there. Of course he insists on doing it now every time Elmo is on the television – so I couldn’t resist getting a picture.  Never mind the long term damage to the eyeballs – I’m worried he’ll knock the TV over onto himself. So now our family room has a giant mess in front of the television, designed so that he cannot get close to the TV. We have a diaper bag, a couple of backpacks, the changing table caddy, the super seat and a few other odds and ends. It looks like a tornado hit the room, but has been effective at preventing Elmo attachment. If anyone else has a better idea, please let me know. 

I love Elmo

Now have an excuse to go buy that television that mounts to the wall that we’ve wanted to get for eons but could never justify the expense.  

The other problem with this new found mobility is that we are realizing there are more and more incompletely-baby-proofed areas in our house (notice the cord in the above picture – it insists on moving in front of the TV stand no matter what we do). It seems Jaden went from rolling only, to crawling slowly, and now crawling faster than you can say ‘get away from that tv’ in record time. Starting this weekend(on Friday) he has been doing his best to try to walk without the walker. We’re dizzy trying to keep up.

Last week Jaden sat in his Pooh chair that his ‘excited godmother’ gave him (at the baby shower)….

Watching Elmo... again

When we first brought him home he wasn’t strong enough to sit up in the chair, but viola, he can do it now. Bobble-head is completely cured. No, that is not the actual remote for the TV. We gave him an old unused remote to distract him from the real one. He likes anything shiny or silver – which exactly describes our remote (although it doesn’t help us to find it any quicker when we lose it). My Mac laptop is shiny and silver too, so it is impossible for me to work on the computer while he is awake (he’s napping now, in case you hadn’t guessed). 

On Thursday (10/23) he managed to go from a sitting position directly to a crawling position. He keeps trying to reverse it – it’s so cute to watch him try to throw his leg behind him so he can sit down again, but he hasn’t reached it yet. If he only knew he had about an inch more to go before he gets his butt on the floor again.

On Friday (10/24) Jaden decided he wanted to check out our back stairs. These are the carpeted set of stairs so I figured I’d just stand by and make sure he doesn’t bump his noggin anywhere, but let him venture out. After he pulled himself up and then about a dozen attempts to get his knee up on the first step, he did it! The first step is the landing at the bottom of the stairs, so once he was up the landing he momentarily figured he’d try getting up the next step. Momentarily being the key word here …. as he started to pull himself up again, he gave the stairs a once over, looking up to the top and then back to the bottom of the thirteen or so steps he was about to challenge, and it was as if a light went on in his brain and he was thinking “maybe I’ll save those for another day.” It was hilarious, but I’m sure you had to be there to really experience the comedy of it all. 

Let’s see – what else… today was the first time he was able to put food in his mouth by himself. I gave him a Swieback toast –  I put water on it to soften it up so it gets nice and mushy, and then I usually have to break little pieces off for him because he couldn’t manage to put it in his mouth himself. He will just sit there passing it from hand to hand (making a lovely mess all over the carpet and floor), and eventually drop it if I’m not careful enough to catch it when he lets go. Today I was giving him pieces and the next thing I know (I guess i wasn’t fast enough again) he stuck the end of it in his mouth and took a bite off. Of course then I had to go fishing in his mouth because the piece was too big, but the point is that he’s learning to feed himself. Maybe he’ll make it with the Cheerios next. He’s still getting the ‘pincher’ thing down – most of the time he just tries to grab them with his whole hand and sends them flying everywhere. 

Jaden is teething now – he is cutting his 5th tooth. I know that’s part of his difficulty with sleeping right now. Last night after we put him down he woke up every 15 minutes for about an hour until we put the orajel on the tooth and he finally slept solidly for a few hours. I can’t believe we have to go through this for 27 more teeth. Ugh.

I have some more pictures to share — I’ll try to get those posted this week. Tonight I have class so I’m off to finish preparing for that. Have a great day!!!