Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope to have pictures tomorrow of our first trick-or-treating experience but, for now, enjoy our lil' tiger!

Photo Challenge Week 7 - Shadow Play

Next week...Little Things.

Today Jack is...36 weeks old.

What a week. Obviously. I have to say though, Jack seems happier than ever. Happier with a cast on than without. Maybe we should think about making this permanent.... ;)

Of course, with a cast, I still get a lot of comments. Though yesterday it wasn't the type of comments I thought I would get. I strapped him in the Bjorn and went to Target. I didn't take a picture but here he is 30 minutes before.

See what's going on with his feet? I have to keep a sock on his cast because he's constantly walking on it and a) grinding down the cast so it's becoming smooth on the bottom and b) walking through mud so it's getting filthy. So I bought a set of boys socks that fit over the cast and put it on. Guess what I got in Target? Literally FIVE people coming up to me to tell me that it looked like Jack had lost a sock. Really? That's nice but don't you see that one of his feet might be slightly larger than the other? And by "slightly" I mean ten times the size? Hmm...weird.

The real news this week is, now that his walking is a bit impeded, he's started to crawl! Just an army crawl but still, forward progress! Check it out.

Of course, with his new found freedom, he heads straight for the bushes. Typical.

This week we also got him a new little chair so he could sit at the big table. He seems to love it! Bangs on the table and likes sitting with me while I eat.

And now, more pics from the week!

He is so into his reflection nowadays. It's adorable.

He really does enjoy the swing but hates when I whip out my camera.

Mmmm...cantaloupe!

Love this pic. Reading his "Animals" book like we do every morning in bed. He makes us read it about 5 times, give or take.

Five for Friday: Things I Can't Do

My 5 Things I Can't Do:

5. Ride on rollercoasters without getting sick
4. Eat peas, carrots, or celery
3. Ice skate or roller skate
2. Run long distances (I won't specify the distance for fear of embarrassing myself)
1. Sleep in

The cast - an update

happy as ever

Just a quick update about day 2 of Jack's cast. The biggest news is that our first night of sleep with the cast was a success! No change whatsoever in his behavior. I am so relieved. Of course, by posting this to the world wide web, I've jinxed it and he'll have a terrible night of sleep. But now I know that the cast isn't really bothering him and he's more than capable of sleeping with it.

As I said before, he seems totally fine with the cast. Hasn't changed him at all. The only bummer is his nightly bath. We've been doing a bath every single night since he was about 6 weeks old and he loves it. As I can't do a bath now, I thought at least I would do our routine and bring him back to the bathroom, set him in his tub without water and give him a sponge bath. Well, he wasn't into it. Just started crying and yelling. I tried different positions and even holding him but he made it clear that he didn't want a sponge bath. So I don't know if I'll keep trying that or not. We'll see. Anyways, he did the same thing he always does during the day. Marches right over to the line of bushes in our front yard, plops down in the dirt, and starts pulling off the leaves. Oh, my nature lover.

I think it's harder on me than on him.

That's the leg that I had to cut off of Jack's pajamas last night. I had to snip the right leg so the cast would fit. What cast you ask? Oh yes, Jack has a cast on his leg.

So I neglected to mention one little detail from the doctor's visit. Jack took a fall last week out on the pool deck. At the time, he cried a lot and then fell asleep (it was bedtime). The next day I noticed he wouldn't put weight on his right foot so I went straight to the pediatrician. She took x-rays and told me that nothing was broken and that he probably just bruised or tweaked his ankle. She thought he'd be better by his 8 month checkup on Monday. Over the few days, John and I thought it was getting better. He finally would put a little weight on it and started hobbling around. But at his checkup the doctor was concerned it wasn't 100% better and sent us to a pediatric orthopedist. He took more x-rays and detected a teeny tiny fracture in his upper ankle bone. My poor little boy has a broken bone. When the doc said he needed a cast I was floored. And so sad.

Apparently, according to the doctor, it's such a small fracture that if Jack was older, he'd just put a walking boot on him and tell him to take it easy. But because he's a baby who can't control his movement, he needs a cast. So, I picked out the color blue for his cast and held him as the nurse wrapped up his foot and he cried his eyes out. As we left the office, I noticed that a baby with a cast gets a lot of looks. I'm sure the looks are all judging me but that's okay. I can handle it.

All in all, he seems unfazed by the cast. He can scoot around, he can go in the Bjorn, he can bounce in the jumperoo. He still squirms out of my arms to get down and walk. Only now he seems perplexed by the weird sensation when he walks on that leg. Of course, he is intrigued by the loud thud it makes on our hardwood floors. Last week his new favorite activity was throwing his toys and cups on the ground to him them crash. Today it was banging his cast against everything to hear the loud noise. As they say, I think it's way worse for me than for him. The cast stays on for four weeks and I just hope we both survive. I'm praying that his sleep doesn't regress and that his physical development isn't too delayed. I was (and am) pretty down about it but, as John says, the cast is kind of cute and makes him look badass.

8 Month Doctor's Visit!

Yesterday Jack had his 8 month check up and I got the guy up early so we could get out the door at a reasonable time. He was a little bemused.

We got there and, as usual, he was perfectly behaved the entire time we waited - 20 minutes? - but after that, right when the doctor walked in, he was done being in that room and started having a breakdown. I'm sure the doctor thinks he's an unhappy baby because he's never once not cried through an exam. Oh well.

It was a short visit. She was fairly impressed at how much the little guy eats - up to 12 oz. a meal. Of course, it didn't translate to an unbelievable weight gain, but that's okay. He's a lean little guy. Her only instructions were to try more solid foods. Of course, I will, but so far he doesn't seem really interested. He hates holding any kind of slimy food which rules out almost all fruits, and the other foods he puts in his mouth but then can't figure out that he's supposed to chew and swallow. He'll learn soon enough though.

His stats for 8 months:

Weight: 17 pounds, 2 ounces (10th percentile)
Height: 28 inches (40th percentile)

What a difference 7 months makes

Jack at 1 week and 4 weeks...

Jack at 8 months. The shirt finally fits!

Photo Challenge Week 6 - Photo Story

Not an exciting photo story, but it was my Saturday night.

Next week...Shadow Play.

Today Jack is...35 weeks old.

What a week! I have to say I'm glad it's over because the little guy has been up and down. Not sure if it's teething (my favorite excuse for fussiness) or the fact that I think he tweaked his ankle a little. Anyways, he had some not so great moments but he also had some adorable ones. (I'm choosing to highlight the adorable ones.)

He is certainly desperately trying to become mobile. He doesn't know if he should be crawling or walking but he wants to GO! He squirms out of my arms and constantly wants to be on the ground, practicing walking. And on his tummy, he grunts and strains to attempt to make forward progress.

He still can't go forward but he can roll, spin, and go backwards so he sort of ends up where he wants to go. He's also completely outgrown his bouncy seat because this is what he does every time:

It's been a little bit chillier here so we've broken out the socks. Of course, with all of his "walking", he socks get super muddy and stained in the grass. So I purchased his first pair of soft little shoes. I think he liked them...or at least loved the scratchy noise they make on the brick patio.

We also got to bust out some of his warmer clothes. Yay for cute hoodies! And the triumphant return of the Spidey long sleeve shirt!

The kid is still a great eater. I didn't realize that he was eating so much until a few moms expressed their disbelief about how much he can take down. He'll eat 3 baby food jars (12 ounces) no problem. Apparently that's a lot for a tiny stomach of a tenth percentile kid.

Also this week, to record it for posterity, he really does seem to be able to communicate a tiny bit. Of course I already mentioned the book thing where he'll sit down in front of a book and clearly wait for me to read it. And then want me to read it again. He'll also do his sitting move at the pool's edge (mom, now I want to go in the pool) and in front of John's guitar (mom, play this as good as daddy). The little guy also clearly knows what "light" means. He'll wake up from a nap and I'll say, "Okay, I'm going to turn on the light" and his head whips up to the overhead light and he waits for it to turn on. He also knows what "home" is I think and gets excited when we pull up into our driveway. Anyways, I know it's not extraordinary but it's still so cool.

And now more pics from the week!

Making flirting eyes at his friend Abigail during playgroup

Making his model pose

Pensive. Very pensive.

A weak moment when I was very tired of bending over to help him walk all week.

Five for Friday: Songs on the Radio

My top 5 songs on the radio that always make me stop scanning:

5. "Kiss" by Prince
4. "Free Fallin" by Tom Petty
3. "Ain't No Mountain" by Marvin Gaye
2. "We Belong" by Pat Benatar
1. "Time After Time" by Cyndi Lauper

How about you?

8 Months Old!

Another month's photo shoot and it was even more difficult than the last. Most of the pictures are slightly out of focus because he is so darn squirmy these days. But I still think they're pretty adorable.

More Changes...

It's amazing how quickly things change once the ball starts rolling. I guess it was around when he started standing up that his progress started accelerating. So, in the interest of trying to remember when these things happen, I'm going to write a post about it.

As you can see in the video above, he is desperately trying to crawl. Though I think it's more that he's trying to stand. Nowadays when I try to hold him he squirms out of my arms because he wants to be on the ground. But not sitting on the ground, and not on his tummy...no, he wants to stand and walk. So I hold his hands and we stand. And walk. And walk. We walk around the living room, around the kitchen, around the background. He is delighted so it's really cute to see. What's not so cute is my excruciating back pain after so much time bending over. But soon he'll be walking on his own so I'll enjoy this.

I know I said he squirms out of my arms and that's the majority of the time. But he's also started to do this other thing once in a while which is like reach for me and just want to hug me. And, let me tell you, that is awesome. So so adorable.

But his latest move that I find absolutely amazing is that we'll walk around the room and he'll walk over to a book that's on the floor. Then he'll plop down in a sitting position and look up at me like, "now it's time to read mom!" So I read him the book and he smiles and giggles the whole time. And when we get to the end? He picks it up and urges me to read it again. It's just very rudimentary communication but I am in awe that we are actually communicating! And it's because he loves reading which is so great. (Though not surprising since I was such a book addict when I was a kid.) Can't wait to see what he does next!

Things to Do in LA with Kids: Underwood Farms

This past weekend we headed out to Underwood Farms which is about 45 minutes outside of LA. I had heard it was the place to go for Halloween pumpkin festivities but, with the long drive, I almost skipped it. Thank goodness we didn't because this place was AMAZING. So much more than a pumpkin patch. And one of the neatest places I've been to in LA. Of course, the entire time I was thinking how much Jack will enjoy this place in a year or two but, still, we had a ton of fun. And our friends the Lynns were there and made it even more fun. I apologize for all the photos...it was so hard to stop snapping away!

First I had to get the little guy dressed in his best Halloween outfit. I think he looks pretty cute.

He napped on the way out to the Farm and awoke to some overwhelming sights including about 1000 kids and their parents, animals of every kind (ponies, pigs, ducks, alpacas, emus, etc.), hay rides, tractors, a corn maze, and, of course, a giant pumpkin patch. First we hit up the giant haystack pyramid.

Attempting to climb up the pyramid

Family photo!

Us with Kevin, Stacey, and adorable Violet

After that we headed over to the pig races. Yup, pig races.

Truthfully I think my husband was more excited than Jack. Jack seemed far more interested in the other kids and the trees than the actual pigs. Note that he's turning away from the races.

He started crying once his daddy started cheering way to loudly for "his pig" so we had to go ahead to another sight.
Next we just wandered around to all of the animal exhibitions and the little guy was just overwhelmed as he took it all in. So many things to see!

It was right about when I noticed that Jack looked like this (tired and stoned) that I realized he was probably hungry. Well, that look on his face and him diving repeatedly towards my chest.

Luckily, John was happy to feed him a bottle which he blissfully devoured.

With some new energy, we walked around and saw more of the sights.

Giant pumpkins!

A house made of pumpkins!

Finally it was time for the main event...Pumpkins! Or rather, a photo opportunity for the parents who wanted that adorable photo of their baby sitting among pumpkins. I have to say, I more than captured this moment. Here are a few photos (or a ton of photos).

It as a great day. Can't wait to go back when he's older so he can run around all the underground tunnels, climb on the miniature train, and ride the ponies. We found out that Underwood is open all year round so maybe we'll go back for Christmas. :) Either that or the special November event - a Civil War Battle Reenactment. The biggest one west of the Mississippi!

**I just realized Jack looks pissed in most of these photos. He really did have fun...it was just ridiculously hot and super bright. And mom forgot his shades.