11 Months and counting...

I'm a busy baby but decided you probably deserved an update. I won't be a baby much longer though. I have my first birthday in 6 days. And I'm having my party tomorrow in Lubbock so all my family can be there too. Mommy says we might have a small party with friends on my actual birthday so I might get to eat lots of birthday cake.

I've been growing and changing every day. You already know I quit nursing last month. That's for babies. I do like my bottles though. When I hear the microwave warming up the water for my bottle, I crawl into the kitchen as fast as I can and start fussing telling them to hurry up.

I love this time of year. We've been looking at lots of Christmas lights and I like to say, "Oooooh!" and point my finger at them. My brother decorated our small Christmas tree all by himself. I tried to help, but I kept getting in trouble. I thought the idea was to bring out all those sparkly ornaments and hang them down low so I could chew on them. Apparently not. I also REALLY like ripping bows off of the Christmas presents. So if you're getting a gift from us, you probably have a little extra rip or two in the paper just from me.

I'm not saying any words yet, but I do understand English now. If you ask me if I'm ready for my bath, I squeal and try to dive into the tub. I never did sign "more" or "all done" or any of the other things my brother did, I refuse. I tell you by my squeals and fussing what I want. My mommy always sings me a song before it's time for me to go to sleep. The other day, my brother started singing it to me right after I got up from a nap and I started crying. It wasn't time for night night yet! Now that I think about it, I do kind of say one thing. If you try to make me do something I don't want to do or take something away from me, I fuss and say, "Neh neh neh neh!"

Sometimes I'm jealous of my brother too. Twice in the last week, he thought he could sit on my mommy's lap and give her a hug. I immediately dropped the toy I was playing with and started crying and crawling over to her. She told me her lap was big enough for both of us but it's hard to share.

I've also discovered how fun it is to make people laugh. When we were in Turks and Caicos (see me eating sand in the pic?) my daddy was gently bonking me on the head with a spoon while I was eating breakfast, he's a silly daddy. Everyone was laughing because I would close my eyes in preparation for the bonk even before he tapped me with it. I got the spoon from Daddy and grinned and put the spoon up on top of my head. I knew there was something funny about the spoon on my head and I wanted to do it too. Everyone laughed again.

Another time in Turks, we were playing the "Where's Daddy, etc." game. I'm really good at that game and like to find everyone I know. So my mommy asked, "Where's Grandma?" I looked at Grandma. "Where's Thomas?" I looked at Thomas. "Where's Grandpa?" I looked at Aunt Amy. Everyone laughed at me so when Mommy then asked, "Where's Daddy?" I looked at Aunt Amy again. I'm a pretty smart guy.

I did really good on the flights to Turks and Caicos. I either played or slept the whole time and wasn't fussy at all. But on the way home, I was ready to be home and I wasn't very good. It was a little stressful for my parents, but 11 hours of cars, airports, customs, and airplanes was too much for me.

If I'm ever in the car with you and start crying, I'll let you in on a little secret: I love Queen. There have been several occasions lately when I am not happy to be in the car and the only way I know to tell you about it is to scream bloody murder. Pop the Queen Greatest Hits CD in, and as soon as I hear the opening strains of We Will Rock You, I stop crying and listen contentedly.

I guess that's a pretty good update for you. I am SO looking forward to opening all those pretty presents under the tree!!

Yep. I'm done.

That's right. I told you it wouldn't be long. And now it's time. I'm done with nursing. D-O-N-E. Done. Even though I'd bitten my mommy at least a dozen times, she still kept trying. But I decided enough is enough. On Sunday morning, I nursed at 6:30 like normal. At 11:30, I nursed on one side and refused any more. That was the last time I nursed. 11:30 am, Sunday, November 4th.

My mommy was hoping to go a full year nursing like she did with my brother. Then slowly wean me, like she did with my brother: dropping a feeding a week until he was weaned one month later (at 13 months). I don't know when she's going to understand that I'm NOT my brother.

She took me to the doctor hoping maybe I had an ear infection. But I'm totally healthy. At least I was at the beginning of The Week of Sickness. The doctor said I was a mystery to her. I kind of like that.

The doctor also suggested that mommy go right to sippy cups for my breast milk/formula, but I like bottles. She's been trying all week to get me to drink from a sippy cup but I just like to chew on them. So it looks like my parents get to buy bottles and formula for a month and a half. They almost made it through two kids without needing that expensive stuff. Ha ha!

Check Out My Hair!

I'm getting my first haircut next week after my helmet comes off on Thursday and I wanted to show you another picture of my long hair. Isn't it cute? I've needed a haircut for about a month now but my parents figured why do it when it's covered by the helmet 23 hours a day.

See my teeth? I have 6 now and have bitten my mommy while nursing at least 8 times. My brother only bit her once, but I don't want to be just like him. I'm not sure I'm going to make it an entire year nursing but hey I've gone 10 months already. That's pretty close.

10 Months Old!

Can you believe I'm ten months old already? Wow! I'm growing up too fast for my mommy. Do you like this picture of me doing my favorite thing? Everything I can find goes in my mouth. I get into a lot more things than my brother did. He never chewed on electrical cords. I do. He never banged on the television. I do. He never put his hands in the potty. I do. But it's not all my fault. My brother has so many interesting toys and I like them so much better than mine. One of my favorite things is his easel. I love to crawl over there, pull up, and try to eat the chalk and magnetic letters. One day, my mommy saw me getting into the chalk and she came over to pick me up and tell me "No chalk for you" but when I grinned at her, a long blue drool came out of my mouth. I was so fast, I was already eating the chalk! I'm so sneaky. After that though, they put the chalk and letters up high so I can't get to them. But I'm still on the lookout for other things I can get into.

Do you like this picture of me and the pumpkins? I loved them. I also loved throwing them. If you ask me to throw something, I can do it really far. I love to play catch. Maybe I'll be a baseball pitcher when I grow up.

When my mommy says, "Kick your feet, baby, kick your feet" I kick them as hard as I can and laugh and laugh. When she says, "Can you jump?" I bounce up and down and squeal. I can also climb the stairs. My doctor said I wasn't supposed to be doing that yet, but nobody told me. I can go all the way up by myself, but to be safe, one of my parents goes behind me so I won't fall.

I had my 9 month checkup two weeks ago and I'm healthy as can be. My brother didn't have a 9 month checkup at his old pediatrician, so I don't have exact comparisons, but I can tell you that I'm taller at 9 months (30 3/4 inches) than he was at a year (30 inches). But unless I gain a lot of weight in the next two months, he's going to outweigh me. I weigh 22 pounds right now and he weighed 24 pounds at a year. So at this checkup, I was in the 100th percentile on height, 95th on head circumference, and 75th on weight. I'm just so busy, I burn off all my calories as fast as I take them in.

One more bit of good news. I get my helmet off next week. Woo hoo! My parents have a feeling more bumps and bruises are in store since I'm so used to the protection.

My Fingers, My Friends

My two best friends are the index and middle fingers of my left hand. I suck on them to soothe myself whenever I need to. If I'm tired, I suck on them. If I'm at a party where there are a lot of new people, I suck on them. If I get startled, I suck on them. After every bite of baby food, I suck on them. Get the picture? My brother didn't take a pacifier or suck on his thumb or anything. I don't take a paci either, although it is a fun toy at bedtime. But ever since late June, I can't do without my two fingers. And they're better than a paci anyway, because they're always with me. My mommy isn't sure that's a good thing because unlike a paci, you can't take my fingers from me when I get too old to be sucking on them. I say we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

And just for fun, I thought you might enjoy these pics of me and my brother to compare. Thomas was about a month older than me when his pic was taken, but we're pretty close. I have my two top teeth too but they've just come through my gums and aren't visible in my picture.

Look What I Can Do Now!

I'm CRAWLING! Yeah for me! I've been close for a long time but over the last week I've been getting braver and getting better. Last Friday, I was at James and Lisa's house and was rocking on my hands and knees. Lisa told me I'd better not start crawling there and should wait till my daddy could see me. On Monday, Grandma and Grandpa came over and I crawled hand, hand, knee, knee. Then on Thursday, D'Ann and Natalie were over and I really wanted to get D'Ann's black and white polka dot flip flop. That's the motivation I needed. As she moved her flip flops further away from me, I kept crawling more and more to get to them. I crawled about 6 feet that day and now I'm crawling anywhere I want to go. I'm not very fast yet, but I'm doing it

My helmet has really come in handy lately too. I've fallen several times and it protects me. Now that I'm pulling up, I forget that I'm not very steady and when I let go to play with a toy, I fall down. I also don't remember that I have to be careful when I'm not wearing it and twice this week during my one hour helmet-free sessions, I've fallen and gotten bumps on my head. I'll learn eventually.

8 Months Old

Hey everyone! Bet you didn't expect to hear from me again so soon. I like to keep you on your toes. :-) I have a lot to tell you about. First of all, here's the picture of my two teeth. I love having them but you have to be careful because I like to try to bite things and they are pretty sharp. I've only bitten my mommy one time while nursing. She didn't get mad at me because I didn't bite too hard, but give me a finger and I can really chomp down.

The next important thing you need to know is that I'm now wearing a Dynamic Orthotic Cranioplasty (DOC) Band. Around my house we just call it a helmet. The back of my head is moderately flat because I have always liked to sleep on my back. When my brother learned to roll over, he chose to sleep on his stomach, but I've always preferred my back. As a result, I have a flat head. After my six month check-up, my pediatrician referred me to Cranial Technologies for an evaluation of my head. They determined that I would benefit from wearing a band. From what I hear, depending on my growth rate, this should help my head grow in the correct shape within 2-3 months. I wear it 23 hours a day and for the most part it doesn't bother me. I've been wearing it about 2 weeks now and last night was the first night I slept all night. But hey, you try sleeping in a motorcycle helmet and see if you can do it. Do you like how it's decorated? My brother, Thomas, wanted to go shopping and buy some special dinosaur stickers for it. I like them and even though I don't know their names, my brother tells me the T-Rex is the best. And boy you should have seen my stickers glow when we were playing lunar golf last week! It was cool!
And wearing a helmet is pretty beneficial to me right because I started pulling up a few days ago. When I fall down, I won't hurt my head. I have a 2 year old friend named Cole who wore a band like mine, and he told me I have to learn to be careful with my head when I'm not wearing it. We'll cross that bridge later. Can you see what I went for the first time I stood up? That's right, my brother's dinosaurs. The toys I'm not supposed to have are always more enticing than the toys I'm allowed to have. I usually give myself away though. It either gets really quiet because I'm trying to be sneaky about it or I start squealing I'm so excited to have the "bad" toy.

7 1/2 Months Old!

Hi everybody! I'm 7 months old now and I am such a happy baby. Check me out. Don't I look cool wearing my brother's "matey hat?"

I've had a busy summer! As you can tell from the picture, I can sit up now. I'm such a big boy. I am not crawling yet but I am rocking which according to my mommy means it won't be long. I am really good at rolling though. I can roll halfway across the room, pivot on my tummy and roll off in another direction. I'm pretty determined when I see something I want to get and it's usually one of my brother's toys or the newspaper. Things I'm not supposed to play with are much more enticing than the things I'm allowed to play with. I also have two teeth and Mommy says as soon as the new computer gets here, she'll upload those pictures for me.

I'm napping much better too. When I was younger, I'd only nap about 20 minutes at a time, but now I sleep for 1-2 hours at a time. I'm eating stage 2 baby foods now and I also love feeding myself the Gerber Graduates Puffs. My mommy told the pediatrician that at my 6 month check-up and she couldn't believe I could pick them up and eat them. But since I was, she said it was ok to keep eating them. Good thing, because I'm not about to give them up. I really like feeding myself. Mommy says it won't be long till she can give me more foods to feed myself. I like eating like a big boy.

Speaking of my six month check-up, I was 29 inches long (100+ percentile), 20 lbs 11 ounces (95th percentile), and my head was 18 1/4 inches (95th percentile). I'm still longer than my brother was, by an inch, but his head was off the chart and he outweighed me by 1 ounce.

I now love to squeal and scream. If you need to find my mommy in a store, just listen for me and you'll find her quickly. My brother never yelled as loud as I did, but I think it's fun. Luckily most of the time, my family eats at noisy restaurants so it hasn't been a problem.

Five Months Old!

Hi everyone! Well, I said in my last post that I'd write again in a week but babies don't know how to tell time. My mommy told me another post was overdue so I'm taking the time from my busy schedule tasting toys and rolling around everywhere to update you on my progress.

First things first, I am rolling now! I learned how to roll from my back to my tummy a few weeks ago but was having a hard time figuring out how to go the other way. Last night, I did it for the first time and I got SO excited. Today when we got home from Chuck E Cheese, my mommy and Thomas put me on my blanket on the floor and left the room for a minute. When they got back I was in the kitchen. I heard Mommy telling Thomas they have to be really careful with his toys now because I want to taste them all.

Now for the news from my 4 month check-up. I'm still a big boy. I've got to grow fast to catch up to my big brother. I weighed 19 pounds 2 ounces, was 28 inches long, and my head circumference was 17 1/2 inches. That puts me in the 105th percentile on weight, the 110th percentile on length, and the 92nd percentile on head (Mommy says I have a "little" head). I'm an inch and a half longer and over a pound heavier than Thomas was at this age. I'm going to be as big as him soon!

I really love my family. My brother can make me laugh just by looking at me. My daddy is so much fun and he holds me in all kinds of silly ways that make Thomas and I giggle and Mommy give him looks. And when it's almost time for me to eat, no one can hold me but my Mommy. I know where my food's coming from. My Grandma always wants to hold me but if I'm supposed to eat any time in the next hour, I cry. My mommy went to get a haircut the other day and didn't back until 20 minutes after I should have been eating. I was happily playing with my daddy but when I heard her voice, I remembered how hungry I was and started fussing. I really cry when I see my Grandpa too. I'm not telling anyone why, but when he talks to me, or even looks at me, I cry. He was sitting by me in the car the other day and when I woke up and saw him I started crying until he put a blanket up so I couldn't see him. I know he loves me and I hope I outgrow this phase soon.

I just learned how to blow bubbles and that's what I'm doing in the picture above. My shirt gets soaked but it doesn't bother me. I think it's really neat all the noises you can make with your mouth and your tongue.

I'm Four Months Old!

I've learned a lot in the last six weeks. I love holding my toys and tasting them all. I can roll over from my back to my tummy. Sometimes my arm gets stuck under me and I get mad but I'm getting stronger every day. I love to smile and flash my grin at everyone who looks my way. Last night I got to eat rice cereal for the first time. I LOVED it. Can't you tell?

I love my big brother. He loves me too and has a hard time letting me sleep. He likes to wake me up so he can make me laugh again. Whenever my brother cries, I cry too. Even if I'm taking a nap, if I hear him cry, I wake up and cry along with him.

I laugh all the time and have lots of tickle spots. I even laugh when Mommy is changing my diaper, I'm so ticklish. I love when my parents lift me over their heads and say "Superbaby!" I laugh and laugh and usually a long string of drool comes out of my mouth and my parents have to react quickly or it gets in their mouths too.

I have a doctor's visit next Monday. I'll try to write again and let you know how big I am. I'm wearing 6-9 month clothes so I'm still a pretty big guy. I'm looking forward to seeing if I'm still bigger than my brother was when he was this age. I'll write more next week.

I Have Hands!

Hi everyone! I have been busy since I last posted. I've been working hard trying to get my hands to do what I want them to. I like to suck on my knuckle to soothe myself and sometimes I can even get my thumb in my mouth. My parents hear me sometimes in the night sucking on my fist trying to get back to sleep. It usually works and I sleep the rest of the night until 7:30 or 8. I haven't gotten them up in the night for about 2 weeks now and I think they appreciate that.

I can almost hold toys now. My mommy will hold one in front of me and I stare at it intently as I try to get my hands to move toward the toy. Sometimes I can get the hand I want up to the toy and then I open the fingers on the other hand to grab it. It's hard figuring out how to make them work independently. Sometimes I work and work to get my hands to the toy and miss the toy and put my hand in my mouth. I like that too.

I'm also starting to laugh and that seems to make everyone around me laugh too. My daddy talks to me in a silly voice and I crack up. My mommy has found some of my tickle spots too and she has fun with that whenever she's changing my clothes. I'm very ticklish under my arms and on my chest. If you want to see a video of me laughing a little and talking to my dad, just email my mom. It's a 3 MB file so if you have dial-up it might take you a long time to get it, but it's cute!

Yeah Me!

Hi everyone! I am really growing up. Guess what I've done every night this week? Yep, slept through the night! See how excited I am about it? I eat about 10 each night and sleep till about 7 every morning. One morning I slept till 6 and the other morning 8, but my usual wake-up time is 7. I'm proud of myself for figuring this out.

I went to the doctor for my 2 month check-up last week and she said I'm growing great. I'm REALLY growing because I'm bigger than my brother was at this age and he was a big baby. Actually our heads are the same size (17 inches), but I weigh 15 pounds 4 ounces (half a pound more than him) and am 25 1/4 inches long (2 inches longer than him). All three of those measurements are in the 100th percentile which if I understand my mommy correctly means that if you line up 100 two month olds, I'll be the biggest one.

Smiling, Crying, and Sleep

Guess you can tell by the title what fills my days. Those things and poop. :-) Since I know how to smile now, I like to do it all the time. This morning, I was so happy when my mommy was trying to nurse me that I had a hard time eating because I kept smiling at her. My daddy is really funny too. Every night when he comes home from work, he'll come up to me and ask, "What's for dinner Jonathinner?" I can't explain why, but I think that's the funniest thing I've ever heard and I smile and make laughy noises every time I hear that.

One day this week, I was really fussy. My mommy tried everything she could think of to help me feel better, but nothing worked. I didn't want her to hold me and rock. I didn't want her to walk around singing to me. I didn't want to be in my bouncy seat. I didn't want the swing. I didn't want to be in my crib. I didn't want to be on the floor with my activity gym. I didn't want to have tummy time. I just kept screaming. Finally mommy said, "Let's try this." and sat down at the piano with me in her lap and started playing. I really liked that. I sat quietly the entire time she was playing. She thought I was feeling better and stopped playing but I started crying again so she played a few more songs for me. I like music and now my parents know it too.

Since I hear my parents talking about it all the time, and everyone who talks to my parents about me asks them about it, I thought I'd update you on my night sleeping this week. In my last post, I told you how I'd slept till 5 am with an hour of crying to start the night. The next night, I nursed to sleep at 10:30 and slept till 5 am again. Then since you know I like to mix things up, I woke up every three hours the next two nights to eat. But I did try to apologize by giving my parents sweet 2 am smiles. It seemed to help. Several nights this week, I started crying when my mommy put me in the crib at 11 but she gave me my pacifier and let me hold her finger and I went right to sleep. The last two nights I only got up once at 3 am. I'll eventually figure this sleeping through the night thing out, but it's pretty hard.

Seven Weeks Old

Hi everyone! I've been busy these last three weeks learning about my world and haven't taken the time to write. It's a hard job trying to figure out how this body works. Actually, I just realized that I have arms and legs and spend a lot of time moving them to see what they can do. I already like to hold onto fistfuls of Mommy's hair whenever she's carrying me just like Thomas did. When I get mad, which I do sometimes because I've got a pretty bad temper, I like to swing my arm in a circle really fast. I hear my Mommy and Daddy giggling when that happens. Don't know what's so funny about it though. I have also learned how to smile and everyone seems to think it's really cute. I think so too which is why I'm attaching a couple pictures of my first smiles caught on camera. My mommy tried to get a picture of me smiling for two weeks but I was pretty stubborn and would only smile when the camera was nowhere near. But I finally decided to appease her and she took these pictures over the weekend.

I've had lots of people come visit me over the last few weeks and they all tried their best to spoil me. My Granny, Grandpa and Aunt Sandra came back to visit and Granny said she could really tell I'd grown a lot. My Gma and Two Pa, Mommy's grandparents, finally got to come see me and I had fun with them. I also got to meet my Uncle Jerry, Uncle Bobby, and "Uncle" Patty. And last weekend, my mommy's friend Jennifer flew all the way from Washington, D.C. to see me. I rewarded her with lots of smiles for that.

I've also been sleeping longer at night but I like to vary it just to keep my parents on their toes. Last night, I ate at 10, cried till 11, Daddy rocked me till 11:30 but I stayed awake the whole time, and then went to sleep at 11:35. I slept till 5 which is the longest I've slept so far. I'm still deciding if I want to wake up every 3 hours tonight just for fun. It's sure great being a newborn!

I'm Four Weeks Old Already!

Wow! Can you believe I'm already a month old? My parents sure can't. Sometimes they tell me it seems like I was just born yesterday and other days they say it seems like the last four weeks have gone by very slowly. That's probably because they are so sleep deprived. :-) Most nights I go three hours between feedings. That means from the time I wake up hungry to the next time I wake up hungry is about three hours. For my parents that means they get a maximum of 2 hours of sleep at a stretch. Sometimes I tease them and go four hours. That's one of the fun things we newborns do to mess with our parents' heads, make them think we're about to start sleeping longer at night. Then we might want to eat every two hours the next night.

I think this is a pretty good picture of me and my big brother, Thomas. I usually don't think I look as cute in pictures as I do in person. Mommy says wait till I start smiling and then I'll knock your socks off. But this photo is actually pretty good and I like it. We're both wearing our "handsome" shirts. Thomas woke up that morning and wanted to wear his handsome shirt, which is a shirt like Daddy wears to work. So I decided to be handsome too.

Cool Dude

My brother decided I needed some decorations. Although I played it cool, as you can see, I did really enjoy the attention. I think I look pretty good wearing Spiderman Bandaids. :-)

P.S. Don't forget you can view all pictures on my blog in a larger size just by clicking on them.

Welcome to My Blog!

Hi everyone! My name is Jonathan David and if you've been reading my brother's blog for the last year or so, you know that my family was anxiously awaiting my arrival. Well, I decided that December 28th was a good day to be born. My mommy was already scheduled to have a c-section that morning at 8:30. Her water broke at 4 am which was a sign to my parents that the 28th was definitely the day I wanted to be born. My mommy thought it was funny that her water broke on the same day of her surgery until labor pains started 2 hours later. She got to have 2 1/2 hours of unmedicated back labor before going into surgery which she didn't find very funny. She already knew what labor felt like with my brother and was supposed to avoid it this time, but I had other plans. :-)

I weighed 8 pounds 10 ounces and was 20 1/2 inches long. At my two week checkup last week, I weighed 10 pounds and was 22 inches long. I've got to grow big like my brother so we can play rough like he's been planning.

Everyone says I look just like my big brother but there are a few differences. My hair gets curly when you wash it and my mommy thinks my curls are so cute. My fingers and toes are also really long. I have plenty of time to decide if I'm going to use those long fingers to play the piano or palm a basketball. Maybe both.

The other day, my daddy was holding me and I was staring up at the ceiling. My mommy came up and kissed me and said, "I love you." Daddy then kissed me and said he loved me. Then Mommy again, Daddy again, and Mommy again. After Mommy's turn, Daddy didn't say it and so I slowly turned my head and stared at him to let him know it was his turn.

The biggest news I want to share is that I lost my umbilical cord during the night. My parents were so excited because it took my brother a trip to the doctor and 7 weeks to lose his. Apparently they cleaned Thomas' too much but this time they did better and mine came off right before my three week birthday, which is tomorrow by the way.

Thanks for coming by to read my new blog. I'll try to post more as I learn and do more things.