Mischief

It's amazing how quickly babies can go from not being able to do something, to being able to do it and then to using their newest trick to their advantage.  Case in point: Jackson went from learning to army crawl three weeks ago, to really crawling just over a week ago, to getting into mischief this week.

On Wednesday, Corey came down with the flu that we'd all been passing around so I was on single mommy duty.  I had Jackson all set up with toys on his play mat in the living room and went to wash bottles and clean up the kitchen.  His usual MO is to play with the toys I put in front of him, but J had other ideas of activities to keep himself occupied.  I watched him crawl over to the coffee table and start to chew on magazines (something his furry sister is infamous for).  After I moved those out of reach, he decided he wanted to crawl over and check out the DVD player and Xbox.  At this point, I decided to hold off on cleaning the kitchen and just follow him around and let him do what he wanted (within reason).  Soon, he found himself kneeling in front of Roxy's toy box (a metal garbage can about knee height) and loved banging on that and then trying to open it.  After that lost its luster, he spotted some of Roxy's toys across the room and quickly tried to get ahold of those.

When I decided to try to tackle the kitchen again, I set him on the floor by my feet with a toy or two, only for him to quickly crawl over to the oven and use the handle of the drawer below it pull himself up enough to pull down the kitchen towels hanging from the oven handle.

All these activities took place without about a 30 minute block of time.  I have a feeling we'll be getting a lot more exercise around the house in the very near future.

And so it begins.

I'm being a perfect angel, Mommy, don't worry...

J showing off his crawling skills just a few days after doing the real deal for the first time.

J's First Christmas

Jackson got to experience his first Christmas this week and apparently, he was a very good boy this year - he was spoiled rotten with all kinds of great gifts, and lots of quality family time.

The holiday weekend started off a little rough as he and I both came down with a stomach bug (which, sadly, we ultimately passed to nearly everyone in the family - so sorry, all!) but after a quick recovery, we were able to celebrate Christmas Eve over at Joan's with Corey's family and Consuelo.  Jackson did great while we opened presents, and as expected, was very interested in wrapping paper and bows. 

On Christmas Day, Corey, J and I spent the morning together opening presents and eating breakfast.  Once my family arrived, we opened presents with them and Jackson was excited to help destroy more wrapping paper.  Corey's family and Consuelo came over later in the day for a Christmas dinner of pork tenderloin, potatoes gratin, salad, rolls, and brussel sprouts.

Corey and I were completely spoiled by our families and Jackson made out like a bandit with several cute new outfits, a sherpa driving cap, pajamas, a wooden 'Jackson' train, piano, laptop (loves to shut it, just like the he shuts the doors on his pop-up toy), a standing/walking activity table (loves to stand and play, but walking with it makes him cry for some reason, even though he loves to walk with us), shape sorter (loves to chew on the shapes), a cookbook and fun cooking tools for when he's a little older, a ride on car, and a talking and singing bear.  It's so fun to watch him try to figure out how new toys work, and of course, it's fun for us to get to see some new toys laying around our house.

We all had a wonderful Christmas and were so lucky to be able to see and spend time with both of our families.

J takes his driving very seriously.

PS - Corey got me a Flip video camera for Christmas, so expect lots more videos in the near future!

8 Months

It's been another fun month in the Moran household.  And a BIG month at that.  Jackson learned all sorts of new and exciting things leading up 8 months.

• He started army crawling...
• ...and just today, he did a bunch of REAL crawling, which was so fun to watch as it looks like he's prancing around on all fours, very proud of himself.  Hard to explain, but will try to capture it on video over the next week, as we're both off work to hang out with him while daycare closed until the new year. Guess it's really time to baby proof...
• He started sitting up in his crib.  One night last week, we checked him out on the monitor after we heard a few sounds, and he was sitting upright, only to lay back down and return to sleep a few minutes later. The last few mornings, he's been sitting and either smiling or crying when I've gone in to get him up.  Pretty adorable either way.
• Even though he didn't need the pacifier when falling asleep at night before, he started waking up occasionally around 4 or 5 a.m. wanting it, and then he'd quickly return to sleep until his wake-up call.  That started to get old pretty fast, so we started attaching it to his sleep sack (since putting it within reach, unattached, caused it to continually get knocked out of the crib as he thrashed around in his sleep) and over the course of just a few days, he learned to put it in his mouth all on his own throughout the night as needed.  It's so cute to watch.
• He's been pulling up to a stand at daycare and even Corey got to witness it yesterday.  Apparently we have low enough furniture/toys here for him to do it at home, but I'm sure that will happen soon enough and we'll  need to be ready (read: baby proofed).
• His very first tooth appeared and boy, is it sharp!  Still hard to see, so no photos yet, but trust me, it's definitely there.
• He's figured out that he can feed Roxy some of the Cheerios we put in his Exersaucer - it's so cute to see him share his snack, for her to snatch up. 
• He's starting to exhibit signs of separation anxiety --- at daycare he puts up a bit of a fuss when Corey drops him off, reaching up and trying to get Corey to pick him up, until he's distracted by a toy or another baby.  When we try to hand him over to other people that he knows (our friends, family), he will sometimes start fussing and reaching towards one of us.  Sad, but kind of cute (for the moment).
• He's been sleeping a little more --- normally, he wakes up by 7 a.m. or 7:15 at the latest (when we are waking him at 6:45 to get ready for daycare) but last weekend he slept until 7:30 one morning and 8:45 the next morning (bedtime was at 7:30 both nights)!  On average though, he sleeps about 11 hours at night and gets about 3 hours of naps at daycare (or 3-4 hours of naps at home).

Only four months left until he turns one, which seems crazy when I think about the fact that I've been back at work over four months, and it doesn't feel like that long at all!

New Favorite Past Time

Evenings are hectic. 

I try to leave work around 4 p.m. to pick Jackson up at daycare.  By the time I get there, pack him into the car and get home, it's usually after 5 p.m.  Roxy needs to do her business, so I get J situated into the BOB and we take Roxy out.  Once we're home, it's play time for J while I get dinner started. 

At that point, J's usually had enough of me calling the shots so he takes over, which usually means he doesn't want to play on his own, but would rather be held or have me play with him, which isn't conducive to getting his (or our) dinner on the table at a decent time, allowing us to have some family play time before bath time. 

So this week, we found a great solution --- Jackson helps me cook by chillin' on the kitchen floor, chewing on whatever fun, new toy I can come up with. The toy of choice, which keeps him occupied for ages, has been a small wire whisk.  Seriously - the kid is in love with crawling around, while alternating babbles with chewing on his 'toy'.  I'm close by, he's happy and I'm productive.  Success!

First Chomper!

Baby J has his first big chomper! 

Given that our kid has drooled like there's no tomorrow (often requiring multiple bibs and anywhere from 2-5 onesie/shirt changes per day) since he was about 2 months old, we never knew what his teething signs would be.  That said, we find ourselves feeling his gums every few days, never finding anything except lots of slobber.  The last chomper check was Tuesday night.

Since getting over his horrible cold last week, he's been pretty happy and very proud of himself as he's learned to crawl.  Then yesterday, he was super fussy in the morning, requiring me to hold and bounce him while I was trying to get ready (not his usual style), but he seemed fine the rest of the day.  Last night though, he was up from 1-2 a.m. WIDE awake and fussing on and off.  He was kind of stuffy, so I thought maybe his cold was making one final appearance. 

But then tonight, he was being extra smiley in the bath and I told him how I loved his gummy smile and that one day it would be full of little chompers.  A few minutes later, I snuck my finger in his mouth and lo and behold...his first little chomper had finally made its appearance! 

No photos to prove it since we can barely get our fingers in his mouth to feel the tooth, let alone see it, but I'm sure it'll make it's way into a few photos soon.

Maybe his stupping to Roxy's level by eating magazines over the weekend should have been our clue that something was up in that little mouth of his...

Human Dust Mop

Our (army) crawler cleans the floor nicely, don't you think?

Munchkin on the Move

As you know, Jackson has loved to stand for quite some time but this week at daycare, he spent a lot of time (very proudly) pulling himself up to a stand using the toy box and the side of the ball pit. And then yesterday, when I picked him up, his teachers were so excited to tell me that he spent the much of the day army crawling around the classroom.  There were toys spread all around the room and apparently, those were all J's toys that he army crawled to and from to play. He's been army crawling a little bit at home recently, but nothing like that, so we were excited to see him do it for ourselves this weekend.

We spread out some toys on his play mat tonight, and sure enough...a little bit of real crawling and lots of army crawling followed.  Cutest thing ever!



Later, he kept trying to get Roxy's hedgehog, so I kept moving it from him everytime he got close to it.  He ended up army crawling about 10+ feet.  Guess we better start baby-proofing!

Seeing Santa

With a little one, the holidays have become even more fun.  Yesterday we decorated our house and Jackson liked looking at the ornaments and trying to touch the tree. Surprisingly though, the lights on the tree didn't fascinate them as I'd thought, given his interest in the lights in the elevator.  Then, last night, we headed to the U Village so Jackson could meet Santa. 

We timed it perfectly and arrived around 4:30 and the line was shorter than I expected - I think we waited less than 30 minutes for our turn.  Jackson did great waiting in line and was fabulous with Santa - no crying and we definitely got a few smiles on camera.

After J's first Santa experience, we headed over to the Ram for dinner, which J loved.  Seriously, the kid LOVES being out and about.  The louder and more stimulating, the better.

All in all, a great pre-holidays weekend with a very exciting first in the books.