Almost crawling

Look at him goooo......well almost.  This is as far as he's gotten.  He will roll over, get on his hands and knees and rock away for a few minutes.  He gets us so excited and we rock back and forth with him and he gets excited and goes faster and faster then he just falls flat.  Blah!  The other day, he was rocking really fast, Tony and I were cheering him on and he was getting real excited, smiling, all proud of himself and he moved his back leg forward.  Tony and I looked at each other like this is it, he's gonna do it, our cheers got louder and louder and Jax got more and more excited and then this look of what the heck do I do know came over his face...and then he fell flat again.  Oh well, in due time it will happen.  The anticipation and excitement of it is fun for all of us.  He will crawl when he's ready and we'll be here to cheer him on when he does.

Jax in the box

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG-AJJJnyIg

Jax Dedication

We got Jax dedicated at church on Sunday.  I didn't want to make a spectacle out of it so I only invited the core group of family.  We met with the pastor on Wednesday and he told us not to worry if Jax cries or does anything crazy.  People would understand and probably just laugh.  So of course Jax didn't disappoint.  When we got on stage, as the pastor is talking to everyone, Jax got a little queezy and threw up all down the front of his new outfit, on Tony and down the stage.  You could hear the crowd laughing and I just motioned to Karrie to get the burp cloth.  So we cleaned him up and the pastor took Jax and said his prayer and asked us if we would do our best to put Jax on the right path and we all said yes.  They had pictures on the screen in the background.  Then we took a bunch of pictures and went to lunch.  It was a good day.

Just a cute pic

Love that smile.

Jax got mama's big head.  It's amazing how that little neck holds up that big ole head.  He's got plenty of room for all the stuff he's learning everyday.

Baby hair and new faces

His hair is finally coming in for real this time.  No more bald spots from rubbing out the cradle crap that has tortured us for 8 months.  I think we've finally tamed that dragon.  The color is still a wonder to us, will it be dark like his daddy or red like his mama or a combination of both.  I really don't care, either way it will be beautiful. He's gonna look so cute with a little color on his head.  I love rubbing my hand over his head and feeling the soft fluffy little hairs that are sprouting out.  I just love it.  I just love him.

He's started making a new face.  I don't know where it came from but he just starting doing it out of no where.  He squints his eyes and nose and makes a little smile.  It's like a fake smile or something.  I'll have to get a picture of it.  It is very cute.  He is interacting with us a lot more now instead of just reacting to us.  There is a big difference.

Belly Laugh

FINALLY, we have the belly laugh we have been waiting to hear.  I wll never get tired of hearing this.

Sleep & crawling

Ever since I stopped breastfeeding completely, Jax has not been sleeping very well.  I, of course think it is because he misses that bond at night.  The goodnight nursing session was the last one I gave up.  I've made it a point to make sure that I am the one that gives him his last bottle and puts him to bed but it's just not the same.  He is more moody lately and he has woken up at least once every night for the past week and a half.  Most nights it's been 2x a night.  We've even had to put him in our bed in the middle of the night just to get him to go back to sleep because he will scream until we pick him up.  I know the books say not to put them in your bed, but we have tried to let him cry it out but I just can't take it after 30-40 minutes of non stop crying.  We comfort him but he still cries.  So we give in and put him in our bed and he is asleep within minutes.  This leads me to believe he is having some major attachment issues.  He is also trying to crawl and I've read that causes sleep disturbances too.  Everytime I look into his crib, he is sleeping on his stomach or with his butt in the air in a crawl position.  Sometimes he's even rocking.  I hope this is just a short phase because mama needs some sleep.

Sometimes

Sometimes I think about how sad it is that my dad is missing all this stuff with Jax.  And then other times I'm glad I don't have to deal with all the drama that comes when he is around.  They are both sad thoughts but I feel them both. I've never said he couldn't see or meet him, he just chooses not to.

Mother's Day

Had a great day celebrating Mother's Day with the family.  Jax got me lots of presents.  He made me a picture with a poem and his handprints and he put his footprints in cement and he made me a flower pot with his little hands as the flowers.  He's so crafty and talented already.  He also got me a charm for my necklace. 

I love my boys.  Thank you both for making it possible to celebrate this day.

Rocking

Look who learned a new trick...

Watch out world...crawling is soon to come.

8 months old

I'm a few days late but it's been a hard week. We had a good Easter. He got to go egg hunting and got a few eggs with some money in them. He Easter baskets from both sets of grandparents and I managed to get a picture with bunny ears.

I can't believe the difference a month makes.  Jax has picked up a few "bad" habits in the past month.  He has started fake crying and complaining.  I think he is picking this up at daycare.  He has always been the easy baby at daycare, no crying, pretty easy going, but all of a sudden, when you try to put him down or aren't quick enough to pick him up, he is squinting his eyes and screaming bloody murder.  Then, as soon as you pick him up, he is fine again.  No tears, just squinty eyes and crying, then life is good again.  We have called him on a few of his tantrums and he will stop, look at us and laugh as if he knows we caught him faking and then he will start cry laughing.  It's very cute when we catch him but hopefully this will not become a trend.  We don't want that baby.

 He can stand with a little help and he is really trying to crawl now.  Yesterday, I put him on the floor on his belly, pulled his arms up a little and he pulled his butt up and rocked on his hands and knees and then thrust himself forward.  He's never done that before so I think we are gonna have a scooter or a crawler in the next week or two.  He gets really frustrated that he can't move forward yet but he'll get there. 

His new favorite activity is to ride on Tony's shoulders.  He can balance himself up there now, so Tony lets him ride all over the house.  He looks to proud of himself, smile beaming and his hands are going crazy with excitement.  Tony likes it too.  Their relationship is growing so much lately. 

I really wish we could get him to sleep through the night on a consistant basis but I guess that's normal.  Now that I'm not breast feeding, at least I don't have to be the only one getting up in the middle of the night.  We've started feeding him more real food.  He really likes pastas and chicken and bread and we are experimenting with bite sizes.  I get freaked out about choking but he seems to be doing well with everything so far.  Still no teeth yet.  He's a super gummer though.  He weighs somewhere around 20-22 lbs. and he is getting tall.  We've had to raise some of the toys to accommodate his growth. 

Separation anxiety is in full affect.  We got a new car seat for Tony's car so that I wouldn't have to carry the baby carrier anymore.  It was getting too heavy.  He still won't say mama or dada.   When he cries, sometimes I'll hear an mmma sound but that's it.  Getting closer though.  He knows who Sadie and Joy are, if you ask him where they are, he looks for them.  He's so smart and a good troubleshooter.  When he is sitting on the blanket on the floor, if something is out of reach and he doesn't feel like rolling over to get it, he just pulls the blanket until it is within reach.  My little Einstein.

Breastfeeding

I have mixed feelings about it but today will be my last day.  Jax turns 8 month old today and I guess this is as good a day as any to stop.  I've already done 2 months more than I thought I would.  He is so excited when he sees his bottles now and breastfeeding seems more like a chore to him except for first thing the morning.  I've been weening him for over a month and he has only been nursing from one side once a day for the past week.  We had a sweet little session this morning.  He was all smiles, half asleep enjoying his morning snack and occassionally he would look up at me and give me a grin. I just caressed his head and back and took it all in one last time.  I wanted to make sure the last time we did it that we both had a pleasent experience and today was that day.