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.

4 Months Old!

Jimmy just turned 4 months old already!  Here is what he is like now...

He's almost sleeping through the night.  He falls asleep sometime between 10 and 11, then he'll wake up once around 3 am, then he'll sleep until about 8 on the weekends (but I wake him up during the week so that I can feed him before I leave).  He'll eat every 2 hours when I'm feeding him, but he only eats 2 bottles during the day.  He hates bottles!  Luckily he at least will take them now.  For a while he'd actually refuse, and it would drive me crazy that he'd go the whole day with barely any food!

Jimmy is a very sweet boy.  He loves his sister!  Anna can always make him smile, especially when she acts silly (which she is very good at).  He gives us big smiles, but he's pretty conservative with his laughs.  His favorite things are silly noises, particularly squeakers from some of his toys and goofy voices.  He also loves Bubby's tickles, which is one of the only ways he will laugh for us!  He's also very stubborn... and not at all easy-going!  I call him my high-maintenance baby!  We're going to the doctor this afternoon to see how he's measuring up!

Bye Bye, Original Sin!

Sunday we had Jimmy's baptism.  It was performed during the 10:00 mass with Father Roger, and he did a lovely job.  It was very different from Anna's baptism, but in a good way!  First, he had us come up to the front of the church and announce his name.  Then after the homily we came up onto the alter, where he did the baptism so that the entire church could see.  Then he held Jimmy up and announced him to the church, which I thought was kind of neat.  So it felt like a very special service, which is exactly what Jimmy deserves!  He was well-behaved during the first part of mass, then fell asleep right before getting holy water poured on his head.  That woke him up!  He started to cry for that part, but then Auntie Carrie was able to get him back to sleep.

Afterward we rushed over to Proksa Park (aka the Buzzy Bebow) and had to set up the reception while everyone was waiting there, which was a little stressful.  We had lots of people helping out, so it was done rather quickly.  We had lots of tasty food, so everyone seemed happy enough.  Jimmy was even happy at the reception!  The weather, miraculously enough, cooperated for us too.  After a month of cold temperatures and record-breaking rains, we had a sunny, 55-degree day.  It was amazing!  I'm glad Jimmy was able to have a nice special day, just for him!

Back to Work

This was my first week back at work.  Boy, has it been rough!  Even though there were some tears (from me), it's nice to have Bobby watching the kiddies so I don't have to worry about them.  At first it was a little rough on everybody: Jimmy would scream and cry about taking a bottle, Anna acted defiant and bratty, and I was just exhausted and stressed.  I had a talk with Anna about her behavior (she seemed to think it was Bobby's fault that I had to go back to work), Bobby was persistent with trying to get Jimmy to eat, and I just tried to survive :)  But by today, Jimmy ate 2 bottles without a fight, Anna behaved herself fairly well, and I'm celebrating the weekend!  So it all worked out... so far!