Up to speed...

We haven't had anything too exciting going on over here. The weather has definitely turned colder so we're spending a lot of time playing on the living room floor these days! JD is great with sitting up now. So great that he sat on his own for over 30 minutes this morning. He can also sit up in the shopping cart seat so that will make grocery shopping much easier!

He does occasionally fall over, though, and this led to his very first "injury"... if you could call it that. He was sitting on the living room floor playing with some toys when he fell over to the side, this happens at least a few times every day. This time, though, I guess he must have hit his chin or something causing his sharp little teeth to hit his top gum. He cried but only for a second... his mouth bled but only for a second. His top gum was purple and swollen and the pediatrician told me to just give him Tylenol and lay off the Cheerios for the next few days.

That brings me to the Cheerios. JD loves them! And I love watching him try to get them in his mouth... it's so funny! It's almost like watching a severely drunk person trying to feed themselves. He's getting better at it and would sit in his high chair eating Cheerios for hours if I let him!

And FINALLY, he's big enough to wear his special onesies.... what so special about them? Well, these are the onesies that I had made to announce to our parents that we were pregnant! The place that I ordered them from only had size 6 month so we've had to wait awhile for him to grow... I guess you could say that these onesies were the very first things I bought for him! These are the ones that we sent up to Pennsylvania to Dave's parents. I'll take pictures soon of him wearing the ones that we got for my parents....

This one says "Don't look at me... that smell is coming from Grandpa!"

And this one says "gaga for golf..." Please excuse the darkness of this picture. The flash didn't go off but JD must have thought something was pretty funny... I love the look on his face!

Finally just a couple of random pictures... here's JD going after Dave's ear... he was having a great time playing on the kitchen table!

And here is a picture of Sammy sitting in the kitchen window after her trip to the vet the other day... poor thing hates going there!

And now you're up to speed!!

What a day!

Today was such a great day! JD experienced his first snow... a rarity here at the beach! AND we spent all day watching a truly historic presidential inauguration!

First, the snow.... I was just about to put him down for his morning nap when I thought to myself that I'd better take snow pictures of him before it stopped snowing and it all melted. I'm glad I did! By the time he woke from his nap there was barely any snow left on the ground (not that there was much to start with)! He started out happy, then cried for a minute and then just looked a little confused. We were only outside 5 minutes, TOPS. Here are the pictures of JD in the snow:

And here are a couple of pictures of our back yard as the snow was starting to melt. I'm just happy it accumulated on the ground a little bit. I was going to make JD a snowball but it was pretty much all gone by the time he woke up!

Now for the inauguration! JD was awake and happy for the entire thing. I know he didn't know what in the world was going on but I was very much looking forward to this occasion and the fact that he wasn't crying through the whole thing really made my day! President Obama's speech was inspiring and I think, with a lot of hard work and determination on his part, things will start to look up for this nation. I just had to get this picture of JD watching as President Obama took his oath. JD even watched most of his speech! I think he'll really like this picture when he's in school and learning about the very first black president!

New Developments

It's been a while since I posted new things that JD is doing. He now eats breakfast (fruit and oatmeal cereal), lunch (veggie) and dinner (meat and fruit or veggie with oatmeal cereal) every day. His newest favorite food is corn. He pretty much like everything but peas, green beans and carrots... we're still working on those!

For a baby that I was sure would NEVER roll from his back to his belly he sure is good at it now! As soon as I lay him on his back (to change his diaper, dress him or just to play) he immediately flips over to his belly. Once he's on his belly he uses his feet and arms to spin himself in circles and scoot around. The only problem is that he can only scoot backwards! Yesterday Dave was playing with him on the floor and he scooted himself right underneath his bouncy chair! He was not very happy about it either!

The other thing he's starting to do is hold on to stuff while standing. He's not anywhere near pulling up on the couch and cruising around and he's pretty unstable so we stick very close by, but if we stand him up and let him hold on to something we can let go for a minute and he does pretty good! As you can see from the following pictures, he's just like his daddy in that he LOVES his car!

In non-JD news, we're in the process of training Samantha where her food, water and litter box will be from now on. Dave has built her a maze of sorts. We decided that we didn't need JD playing in the cat's food and water bowls... or her litter box for that matter. So the food and water will be on the floor in our pantry. Dave cut a hole in the wall leading from the kitchen to the pantry. There is another hole in the back wall of the pantry leading to the garage where the litter box will be kept. Plus it gives her 24-7 access to the garage which is one of her favorite places to hang out (don't ask... she's kind of a weird cat). Anyway, she's doing pretty good with her training. She knows where to find her food and can even make it out to the garage..... but coming back in is another thing! She knows the word "treat" which is how we get her to come when we want her to, so we've been calling her and saying "treat" to which she sits my the door leading into the kitchen and waits... instead of going through her holes! I'm sure she'll catch on soon... she's pretty sharp to be 11 years old! And just because she was so cute crashed out on JD's blanket on the floor today.... here's the princess herself!

I hope everyone enjoys the inauguration tomorrow. It's supposed to SNOW here tomorrow (yes, I said snow....) so I doubt we'll be leaving the house. I sure hope it snows!

Play Date

Today my friend Liz and her daughter Kendall came over for a play date. Just like JD, Kendall is getting bigger and stronger every day! I'm amazed at how far she has come.... and she's so darn cute and happy! Here are some pictures of our day:

Name Train

Yesterday I realized that I had yet to take pictures of JD with the name train that Dave's mom got him for Christmas. So, I put it all together on his bedroom floor with delusions that I could just sit JD behind it and get some really cute pictures. Three seconds after I sat him down, this is what I got:

I should have known that he would grab it as soon as he got near it... he grabs EVERYTHING! Well, he was sitting there being so good that I decided to play with the camera's settings and got my cute pictures...even though the train was no longer together. I don't know what I did with the settings but some of these are grainy... but still cute!

And here is a picture of the name train all put together... don't worry, we only put it there for picture purposes. We took it down before JD actually slept in the crib!

If you look at the background of these pictures you'll notice that the crib mattress is very low. That's because we lowered it to it's lowest level. It's only a matter of time before he starts pulling up on stuff and we didn't want to take the chance of him being able to climb out! He just looks so little now, way down there in his crib!

7 Months

I know I say this every month but seriously... where has the time gone?? Above is his 7 month picture in the chair with the bear. I think he gets cuter every day! One thing that I have noticed recently is how long his hair has gotten! If you click on the picture above you can see how it's started growing over his ears.... that drives me nuts so I'm constantly smoothing it back! It's not really getting long in the back though, just the sides, so it will still be a while before that first hair cut.

I took him to the doctor today to get the second half of his flu shot. He did well... didn't cry at all! I also had his stool tested for blood while I was there and it's all clear. In case you don't remember, the gastroenterologist wanted me to have it tested after we started nursing again. He's not exclusively back on breast milk; I nurse him every morning and supplement with formula during the day because I have a lower supply now. We have noticed that he seems to be fussier if he gets too much breast milk, though. There must still be something that I'm eating that doesn't agree with him! But if we keep the breast milk to formula ratio 1:1 he seems to be OK. It was cold and raining slightly this morning when we went out so JD wore the rain jacket that Nana bought for him while she was in town last. He looked quite cute so I had to include this picture too!

The doctor's office was full of sniffling, sneezing kids (thank goodness they have a "well room") so we didn't have time to get him weighed and measured but when I stand on the scale with him he's now up to 18 pounds.

He's getting better at sitting all on his own.... although I don't sit him up and walk away because he still falls sometimes. Once he's mastered the sitting thing we're getting a new car seat! This kid is too heavy to be lugging around in that infant carrier!

Pictures

Whew! So many pictures!! I took over 80 but have only included 27 in this post. I thought about making a slide show but wanted to put captions below the pictures for those of you who don't know my family... enjoy!!

I love how JD is holding my chin in this picture!


My family!! Back row is my brother Merv, my dad and my brother Kent. Middle row is my mom, me and JD and Grandma Marge is sitting in front.


My brother Merv's wife, Angie


Mommy & Buddy


Grandma Marge with all 5 of her great grandchildren. Left to right is Josh (Merv's son), Derek holding Tyler (my cousin Beth's boys) and Brad (Merv's oldest son) is holding JD.


JD loving on Grandma... he likes to grab faces these days


Grandma Marge with her grand kids. Back row is my oldest brother Merv, my cousin Beth and my other brother Kent.


Kent and his girlfriend Sarah with Grandma Marge


4 Generations: Grandma Marge, my mom, my brother Merv and his two sons, Brad and Josh


4 generations: Grandma Marge, my Aunt Earlene (my mom's sister), my cousin Beth and her two boys Derek and Tyler


I don't know what Dave said to Sarah to prompt this reaction but I love this picture
(sorry Sarah)


Grandma Marge with her 5th great grandson


4 Generations: Grandma Marge, my mom, me and JD


JD had fun dancing with Daddy


The whole gang!


Grandma Marge sitting with her two daughters


Grandma Marge and my mom


Little Buddy even had his own place card!


My mom, Grandma Marge and Brad


Angie made this beautiful cake. I'm told it was delicious (it sure looked delicious) but I had jelly beans for dessert!


Kent and Grandma Marge


Now we're on to pictures from Grandma Marge's house on Friday night. Here she is with JD


He loved playing with this orange....


He loved playing with his cousin Derek....


And he really loved playing with his cousin Tyler who is 2 .... finally someone closer to his size!


Holding Grandma Marge's hand....


Another 4 generation picture!