Housekeeping...and blood.

I realize that, while I've been good about posting pictures of Jack here, I've been pretty bad at documenting milestones and schedules and specific development.  And I know 99% of you don't care about that... but I think I may want to look back and know when Jack's nap schedule changed or when he started drinking this or that or when he got his teeth.  I think the ship has sailed on a lot of this stuff but I'm going to try to just jot down some notes here so I can remember.  So, basically, this post is for no one but myself.  Enjoy!

Naps:
Jack is now down to one nap and has been for about a month I suppose.  He wakes up around 6 and then goes down for a nap any time between 11:30 and 1:00pm.  Then he usually sleeps a good 90 minutes to 2 hours.  Bedtime is still around 7:30 or 8.
(Truthfully I can't even remember when he went down to two naps but I think it was a long long time ago).

Drinking:
He's been on milk since he turned a year old.  When we switched from formula to milk we almost immediately ditched the bottles.  Well, upon waking he has milk from a soft spout sippy cup.  Then the same thing after his nap.  Then at bedtime he gets a bottle because, hey, why rock the boat?  He's going to bed so nicely nowadays and I don't think there's anything wrong with a bottle at bedtime.
He also drinks water and in the past couple of weeks, toddler juice boxes.  Or I fill his cup with water and put a splash of apple juice in it.  He can use a straw sippy cup but still doesn't like the hard spout cups.

Books:
He still loves books.  And still loves his old favorites like Elmer, Dr. Seuss (especially the Eye Book and Mr. Brown Can Moo), and animal picture books.  Now he also likes to feel the fuzzy, texture books too.  But he's also started to read some books with more words and less pictures.  I'm particularly delighted that he now likes the Big Red Barn, Goodnight Moon, all the Curious George books, and It's Time to Sleep My Love (a really lovely bedtime book with beautiful illustrations that he got as a gift from his cousin Christy).  He will sit and read them for an hour.

Sleeping:
Oh man.  It's been, on the whole, blissful.  I think around 12 or 13 months he finally started sleeping through the night.  And let me tell you, it's glorious.  Before that he used to need a bottle around 3 or 4, but for the past two months he's moved past that.  I have never been so happy in my life.

Teething:
This brings us finally to the blood portion of the blog.  The night before last Jack uncharacteristically woke at 3am with a lot of crying and we couldn't get him back to sleep for 2 hours.  We took turns rocking him in his dark room until he finally went back down.  Then yesterday morning I pulled Jack out of his crib to discover that his sheet was covered in what I would call a good bit of blood.  One spot the size of an apple and the rest of the sheet covered in lighter spots where the little guy had obviously smeared it around.  Combine that with bloody finger prints on the side of a white crib rail and you have yourself a scene from CSI.  I freaked out and examined him thoroughly but saw zero sign of where it came from.  No cuts, no dried blood on his face or anything.  I called the doctor and we figured out that it must be from his molars breaking through.  I had read that the toddler could bleed a bit when they finally broke through but I didn't think it meant it would be a giant gush of blood.  But, sure enough, he has all his molars.  Well, I think 3 of the 4 have officially poked through and the 4th is almost there.  Poor little guy.  It must have hurt so bad.

To make it up to him, I let him run around naked most of the day and he seemed to enjoy it.  :-)

 

 

Today Jack is...51 weeks old.

This week Jack was mostly busy with his two young house guests. It was interesting to see him interact with kids in our house. Obviously he has his play group but having kids in the house when he woke up and went to bed was different. He took it as well as any only child would I suppose. Most of time he was smiley and intrigued by the girls. And a few times he just seemed to want them away from his toys and out of his house. But I thought he did pretty well.

He really seems to learn more and understand more every week. This week John got him to "give" him object after object to practice sharing. It was pretty neat. And one of Jack's favorite new games is to empty out his clothes hamper and then put each item of clothing back in, one at a time.

His obsession with laundry apparently knows no bounds though because he loves diving into the laundry basket. Hasn't quite figured out how to get out, but still....

Since John was home and the weather was gorgeous, we decided to take another trip to the zoo. Jack loved seeing the giraffe up close and personal.

This was as up close and personal as he could get to the gorillas.

For some reason he really wanted to hold his daddy's hand for part of the trip. It was pretty darn cute.

This week for the very first time, we had to give Jack some Infant Tyenol. It's really quite a miracle that he made it to almost a year without getting sick, but it was still hard to see the little guy in pain. He had a fever but I'm not sure if it was from teething or if he had a cold and cough. Anyways, all the aches and pains meant that he was quite cuddly. And needed something to gnaw on.

And now, more pics from the week!

Riding the chipmunk at the park

Playing daddy's guitar

Flying an airplane

Showing off his eating skills

Playing with Delilah's princess wand. He'd never seen such a thing.

Today Jack is...50 weeks old.

That's right people...two weeks until his birthday! Amazing. Look at that kid. Quite a handsome boy if you ask me. He was pretty happy this week until yesterday when a serious bout of teething hit. Or at least I think that's what it is. He was so cranky and just keeps jamming his fingers and whole hand to the back of his mouth. I guess his molars might be coming in though I'm not sure how to help him. But it's sort of sad to see him so upset.

But the week wasn't all bad. I find that if I keep him busy, Jack is a happy boy. He really hates just sitting in the house though. So we go out. To the park, to the zoo, to classes, etc.

The zoo is fast becoming our favorite place to pass the time. I just hop on over there for an hour or two to entertain him and tire him out. He loves the seals and is excited he can get right up against the glass.

His balance and strength is getting so good. He can stand unassisted and a few times this week he has taken a step without holding on to something. But I think then he realized that he wasn't holding on and just sat down. That's his usual move when I try to coax him to walk. Just sitting and crawling is so much easier! But he's getting there...

Jack and I have a lot of fun together every day but he has been exhibiting a little bit of separation anxiety. The other day we did a mommy and me class where the moms left for about 30 minutes while teachers watched the kids and I was called back to come get Jack because he was crying inconsolably. It was so sad but I guess he's pretty attached to me since I'm always with him. Soon we'll need to make room for daddy though! He'll be off work for a few weeks and we are so excited to have him home.

The other day I snapped this picture while he was sitting on the pool lounge chair. We haven't just sat there for a long time because he no longer will sit still. He still wasn't pleased that I was making him sit in one place. In fact, he looks pretty pissed and like he's going to kick the crap out of me.

But compare that pic (ignore the frown) to a picture of him from 6 months ago. Amazing. He was such a skinny little dude.

And now more pics from the week!

Today Jack is...46 weeks old.

We are slowly marching towards 52 weeks and Jack is getting bigger and bigger. Some people swear that he looks bigger than he did last time they saw him two weeks ago. They may be right because I swear that he is taller because he can reach into higher drawers. Which is not good. The past few days he's hung off the highest drawer trying to do a pull-up. Of course this has resulted in him pulling the drawer off the track and essentially breaking it over and over again. He's just into everything. He climbs up on anything and everything and tries to push it or pull it or destroy it. Devilish little child...

Nowadays he's super into hide and seek and "chasing". I get down on the floor and crawl around the house and he chases me, giggling the whole time. Here he is looking around for Pop-pop and then finding him.

And here he is chasing Pop-pop into this giant box (his new favorite toy)...

Other new developments...he's discovered shadows and it's pretty adorable. The other day he was in his swing outside and I caught him staring at his shadow in awe. And every morning the sun hits the pool and makes these shadows on our ceiling that he loves. It's pretty cute. He also loves brushing his teeth. Of course, I use the term "brushing" lightly because I don't know how much he's actually cleaning his teeth, but he thinks he's doing a good job. Hopefully all 8 of his teeth are benefitting.

His dad can even make him laugh while he's brushing.

We took another trip to the zoo with Grammy and Pop-pop before they headed back to Pennsylvania. It wasn't quite as successful as the first...I think he was tired and it was just so hot (80 degrees after Christmas...what the heck?). But he again loved the lizard and wanted to give him a high five.

A last update, on his sleep. At almost 11 months he still takes every nap in my arms. Yes, I try to put him down but he wakes right up. I'm going to have to try to do daytime sleep training soon but we're working on getting back on track at night so I don't want to tackle two things at once. Besides, he's just so darn cute in my arms.

And now, (LOTS) more pictures from the week!

Modeling his "It's Always Sunny" onesie with pride.

Driving his "car" with Grammy

Reading with Aunt Julie

Yet another swing picture

Cruising around the family room

Playing with the broom

Waving to the birds next to the pool

Morning time with daddy!

Waiting for his dinner at Islands. A very successful outing. He loved the restaurant with all it's plants, tree, parrots, and tvs. And the endless french fries.

Family at the zoo

Pushing his friend Violet in the shopping cart.

And I didn't get much video of it, but what I did is downright adorable....