Baby (not) on the Move

Jimmy's 9-month birthday has come and gone, and the crazy little boy is still not mobile!  I know that one day I will look back on this and think, "Why on earth was I in such a hurry for him to move?!"  But as of right now, it is quite a surprise.  Tim and I did notice today that he is able to lunge and sort of slither forward.  He is quite unconventional and inconsistent with how he gets around.  Jimmy's interest does seem to lie mostly with standing.  He's getting marginally better; slowly but surely he is able to stand a little better, but he doesn't seem to understand that he can't stand on his own yet!  Sometimes he just lets go!  So, in any case, Jimmy's road to mobility is definitely a slow one!  We'll see what ends up happening with his "walking" progress...

Vacation!!

We took our first all-out vacation as a family of 4 the last week of July!  We ended up going to Holland, MI, so that we could keep the car ride short and everything a little low-key.  We had a very good time!  We started off the vacation right: at the beach!  The water was icy cold, but the air was pleasant, so we mostly stuck with playing in the sand.  We ate at a place called New Holland Brewing Co. and had a VERY good meal, followed by delicious coffee!  The next day there was a threat of rain, so we tried to pick things that also had indoor things to do.  We started out at DeGraaf Nature Center, which Anna found fascinating (she actually liked the indoor exhibits more than the nature trails).  It was pleasant though, and none of the trails were particularly long, which works well for little ones.  We then headed over to the Windmill Gardens, which was one of my favorite places of the trip.  There was a huge, still operational windmill, and they give tours and show you how it works and everything.  We were surprised that Anna was so interested in learning about it.  We even got a bag of the flour that they grind there!  The rain held off long enough for us to tour the grounds, learn about/hear the street organ they have (unique and very cool!), play at their bebow, and get Jimmy on his first carousel ride!  We then went to John Ball Zoo in Grand Rapids, which was built on a hill and is very shady.  It was beautiful, and we had a great time!  I think Jimmy even liked it there.  Ms. B's favorite part was the treehouse bebow, which of course has nothing to do with animals.  It was pretty neat though, so I can't fault her there.  The next day we drove to Kalamazoo and spent the day at the Air Zoo.  They had tons of airplanes, space exhibits, simulators, and even some carnival-type rides.  I think Ms. B enjoyed the rides the best, and I'm a little disappointed that she wasn't super excited about the space stuff.  That's not the type of reaction one would expect from a future astronaut!  The next day we went to the Dutch Village, which was jam-packed with stuff to do.  We didn't expect to stay from open to close, but there was so much to do!  Anna enjoyed the "zippy line" the best, but there was also a dutch dancing show, shoe carving, Delft-making demo, swings, goat walking (seriously), a slide, a street organ, and various little tidbits about dutch living.  Our last full day in Michigan we spent in South Haven.  We walked around the downtown a bit, went to the beach (which was ridiculously crowded), and ate at Clementine's.  Jimmy wasn't very cooperative during that meal, so that wasn't too fun for me.  Actually, it seems like he got less and less happy the more we ate out.  That's rough when you eat out at virtually every meal!  But I'm imagining it was pretty boring for him.  Anyway, we also went raspberry picking, which was fun for everyone!  Our last day it was raining, so we had to just buy already-picked blueberries instead of picking them ourselves.  Oh well.  It was a very fun vacation!

Michigan

We took Jimmy's (and the Ford Plex's) first trip out of state this past weekend!  We went with Auntie Lynnie and Uncle R2 to the farm.  It was probably the busiest we've ever been there; usually we slow down and take it relatively easy.  We got up there Friday evening, so we pretty much took it easy and went to bed.  Saturday we went to the beach, where the water was really, really nice!  Jimmy was pretty unsure about the whole thing, but he ended up tolerating it alright.  Anna still isn't very interested in getting better/more independent at swimming.  She just wanted to be held the whole time!  But everybody had fun.  We ended up going to a really fancy chocolate place, had a "tasting" (all three of us), and each of us picked out a package of our favorite truffles.  Yum!  Then that evening we had a bonfire and discovered that our bug spray does NOT work.  But Anna loves roasting marshmallows, so she didn't seem to mind too much.  She kept getting up early too!  Luckily Auntie Lynnie and Uncle R2 didn't seem to mind, and Anna ended up getting to help make breakfast, which made her very happy!  The next day we went blueberry picking and got almost 10 lbs!!  Anna picked 1.5 pounds all by herself!  So everybody had a great time, and we're looking forward to going back again sometime!

7 months!

Jimmy is 7 months old today!  How time flies.  He can sit quite well on his own now (he mostly runs into trouble when he tries to grab something out of reach - then he topples over!), he babbles ("Babamama"), and just this morning he almost pulled himself all the way up when holding onto the laundry basket!  He gets along great with Ms. B, he loves to cuddle, but he still loves to have his "alone time."  One surprising dislike: solid foods!  We've tried rice cereal, carrots, and sweet potatoes, and he takes maybe 3 bites and will have nothing to do with the rest.  We'll try green beans next.  Other than food, Jimmy still loves to put everything in his mouth, especially cloth!  Jimmy has developed a bit of an anti-Da phase, but I'm guessing that's because he spends his whole day with me.  He is a very smart, happy, healthy boy!

5 Months!

I can't believe Jimmy is 5 months old!  He is getting so big.  He is now rolling over very frequently, though still almost exclusively from his back to his front.  He can even sit up for a little bit, though he will inevitably topple over!  One thing that Jimmy isn't doing is talking.  He almost never makes "normal" baby sounds, like "ga," "ma," ba," or "da."  If he makes any sound at all, it's usually, "ah" or bubbly sounds.  So I'm not sure what's up with that!  Maybe he figures Ms. B does enough talking for the two of them!  He's getting better-behaved in church, and he seems to have settled on a couple short naps during the day.  One in the morning, then a longer one in the afternoon.  Sometimes he'll snooze in the evening for a bit too.  I'm hoping to get a decent nap routine in the summer, so we'll see if I'm successful.  He can spread out the eating now, when he wants to.  But now he gets very distracted if I try to read to Ms. B and feed him at the same time, so that hasn't worked out very well.  Some of his current likes are:

Bouncy Balls (even just watching them bounce amuses him)
Smiley faces - he will almost always smile back!
Being sock-less!  Let those little toesies be free!
His giraffe - yummy!
He LOVES to grab newspapers and things to chew on, which is quite fun... actually, anything he can put in his mouth he loves, particularly his fingers!

Dislikes:
Being ignored for more than a couple minutes... a couple seconds if you actually leave the room!
Putting clothes on, although he gets over it quickly
Loud noises - can't blame him there.
Hair, apparently!  He's losing it all!  My poor baby looks like he'll be bald soon!

Swimming Lessons

Anna just started another round of swimming lessons at the Y!  I'm really hoping she'll learn how to swim this summer.  When we were walking over to the pool, I told Ms. B to make sure she listens to the teacher and doesn't get scared.  Very confidently she said, "I'm not scared!"  Well, one of the first things we did was blow bubbles in the water, and of course she was scared.  She didn't even want to lie back and float, despite the fact that I was holding onto her!  So we've got a ways to go, that's for sure.  Oddly enough, the one thing about swimming that she loves and isn't scared to do is jump in the water.  In her second lesson she was able to doggie paddle with assistance from a noodle and floaties, so we're making progress... hey, at least she looks adorable in her bathing suit!

Preschool Graduation

Anna just finished her first year of preschool!!  She had a really great year with a wonderful teacher - Miss Kochan.  She started off the year with little to no fear, seemed to make friends very quickly (especially considering that was what I was most worried about), and further developed her love of learning.  She can now count to over 100, she can talk to others with relative ease, and she has quite a good imagination!  I love listening to Anna play by herself.  Things she liked best about this year:

~The "dowl" house (doll house).  At least for the first part of the year
~Books on CD, in particular "Storm is Coming!"
~Having a job, especially the calendar helper
~Library.  Hearing her act out Three Billy Goats Gruff is priceless.
~Art center.  She has developed a deep love for stickers!

Apparently Anna has also impressed the teachers with her knowledge of Beatles songs.  She has been asked to sing them for a number of the teachers, including the 4 yr old teacher and the kindergarten teacher!  I asked her which ones she sang, and she said, "Eight Days a Week and the 'Da da da da da dum dum da' song," which is From Me to You :-)

Her celebration on the 22nd was a lot of fun.  She got to play lots of games, including a whipped cream eating contest, a race to put on cowboy clothes and ride her horsie to the finish line, Bozo buckets, etc.  Then she got on stage and did a couple songs and prayers for us, which was super cute.  I'm so glad she had such a great year at school.