Browsing Category

Kid Growth

Family, First Year Months, Kid Growth

Eleven months

James,

I am in total denial that you are almost a year old.  I don’t know where the last year has gone! Where is my 6 pound baby that I brought home from the hospital and who had to wear preemie clothes?!? You are developing such a wonderful personality and we love seeing you grow but I wish you would SLOW DOWN just a little!

This month has been huge for you development wise.  You have, thankfully, mastered getting down from standing up and are proficient at cruising around furniture now.  In fact, if I sit behind you and hold out my hands and ask you to come to me you try walking to me!  You aren’t scared to try to take those steps but you lose your balance and your legs buckle quickly.  But since you are so fearless I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re walking earlier than your sister did.

Your crawling has changed this month and it’s hilarious.  You rarely army crawl anymore but fluctuate back and forth between true hands and knees crawling and crawling on one knee with the other pulled up to your tummy.  I honestly can’t describe it but it’s hilarious to watch and seems so counter-productive but you’re amazingly fast at it!

Your sleep has gotten back to normal this month once both of your top teeth came through and you learned to get down from standing.  We are thankful for that!  You are still taking two naps a day (9:30 – 11 and 1-3:30) but do fine when we go to church and you miss your morning nap in the nursery.  That makes me relax since I was a little concerned about you going all morning without a nap when school starts in a few weeks but you do really well with it.

In the last week we started transition you off of nursing.  I need you to drink something while you’re at school in a few weeks and have a lot of frozen milk so we are down to one morning feeding a day and will probably drop that one this week.  So far you enjoy playing with and spilling milk from your cups rather than drinking out of them but occasionally you will get a sip.  Charlotte didn’t take to the cup until a day or two after I weaned her completely either so I’m hoping you’ll pick it up soon.  It’s an adjustment dropping those feedings and Charlotte is very confused as to why I’m not feeding you during the day but you’re eating enough to keep up with what you were drinking.

Speaking of eating, you will down almost anything we put in front of you.  Fruit is still a favorite and you will devour basically any kind (mango’s, strawberries, pears, apples….).  We gave you a cereal bar recently and you LOVED it but make the biggest mess with it.  I typically give you the crusts that I cut off of Sissy’s peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and you enjoy them.  You’ve had some peanut butter and seemed to enjoy it so it’s nice to know that you aren’t allergic.  A funny development this month is if you hear us getting something out (crackers, cereal, chips, etc) you will start whining until we give you something to eat.  You have good ears and even if you’re in the den you’ll hear the crackle of the wrapping and beeline it to the kitchen for a snack.

Now that you’re not nursing during the day you have started “sharing” snacks with Charlotte.  I tried giving you a bowl of cherrio’s or something to munch on but you would just pour the bowl upside down and eat from the floor until you got distracted from something else.  Then, when I went to clean it up, you would race back to your mess and whine at me until I gave you back the bowl with the cleaned up food in it and proceed to dump it out and eat some more.  Thankfully, in the last week or so you’ve gotten the hang of the snack trap and are doing better eating out of it.  But sometimes we still give Charlotte a snack trap full of Club Cracker mini’s and have her dole them out to you.  The doling of snacks and your mobility has caused you to constantly trail after your sister like a lost puppy.  For the most part she is very good about playing with you and being sweet but she’s still having to learn that if she doesn’t want you to play with it she’s got to put it out of your reach!

We transitioned you to taking baths in the actual tub this month.  You love splashing around in the water although I feel bad for you because you basically just have some random tupperware in your tub while your sister has lots of bath toys.  You don’t seem to mind though!  Maybe you’ll get some bath toys for your birthday!

You’re still in size 3 diapers and probably weigh between 17 and 18 pounds.  You can wear most 12 month outfits but can also still fit into 9 month ones.  You are still wearing the Hanna Andersson outfits that we got for your 6 month pictures too so you’re sizing it kind of all over the place.  We’ve noticed that your size 1 Angel shoes are pretty tight now and your size 2 Angel sandals fit good.  We’ve got to get you some new shoes before school starts!

Over the past few days you’ve also started being a lot more verbal.  You say “Luca” a lot now and sometimes say “Mama”.  You also mimicked me saying “Nay” the other day talking about horses but you haven’t repeated that one.  You babble a lot and look at us like we’re supposed to understand you so I’ll be interested to see if your verbal ability takes off in the next few weeks.

We are planning for your birthday and looking forward to celebrating you!  You are the sweetest little boy and we can’t imagine life without you!  We love you little one!
love, Mommy

*James at months one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten
*Charlotte at months one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve
Family, First Year Months, Kid Growth

Ten Months

Jamesy-poo,
You are a ten month old little BOY now and we can’t believe it.  While I’m sure there have been other months in your life that have been this dramatic of an advancement I can’t think of any.  We are astonished at all that you have started doing in the past month (the past two weeks really!).

When we left you last month you were rolling and army crawling around and would get on your knees from your bottom.  Now you are 1) starting out regular crawling but switching back to army crawling within a few crawls because it’s faster, 2) pulling up on everything, and 3) trying to climb up the stairs! We can’t turn our backs on you for a minute!

On June 20th I was sitting in the floor playing with you and Charlotte and got a text on my phone.  You were sitting on your bottom playing with your activity table.  I looked at my text and when I looked back up you were STANDING at your activity table!  I couldn’t believe it!  The light was low and you were rocking back and forth so I couldn’t get a good picture but I did manage to get one.  It’s funny because Charlotte pulled up for the first time on the activity table too!

Two and a half weeks after pulling up for the first time you can pull up on the couch, chairs, people’s legs, your crib and basically anything else you decide to.  And on July 6th (your 10 month birthday) we were making dinner and you were exploring on the floor.  Charlotte had just called that she needed me and Daddy was stirring food on the stove when we heard you whimper.  He looked around and couldn’t see you and so went to find you and you were on the second step of the stairs working on getting to the third!

Your desire to climb has us the most scared.  Even when standing at your activity table or in your crib you will lift one leg to try and see if you can get it high enough to climb.  Charlotte wasn’t a climber so we are a little baffled as to how to contain you.  Once you get a little taller there won’t be any stopping you!

It’s been fun seeing you progress so much physically this month but it might have been one of the hardest since you were born.  For the past six weeks or so your top right tooth has been trying to come through and it has been very painful for you.  We’ve been giving you ibuprofen but it doesn’t do the trick like Orajel used to.  So you’ve been much fussier than usual during the day and have been waking up crying at least once every night over the past weeks.  Thankfully, you were able to stop crying quickly and get back to sleep without intervention but about two weeks ago you started having a really hard time getting to sleep.

The concurrence with you pulling up probably compounded matters but you started crying a lot more and being a lot less willing to be out of my sight or out of my arms.  Over the past week you have started pulling up almost constantly in your crib but still haven’t mastered getting down by yourself and your inability to get down or calm yourself down has us going up to help you multiple times during each sleeping period.  And over the past few nights you’ve been awake crying for up to two hours at a time in the middle of the night.  We’re all exhausted and were so thankful when your tooth cut on the 6th.  Sadly, you are still not feeling good and waking up crying often.  I’ve noticed that your top left gum is now swollen so it might just be a little while before you feel back to your old self.

One night when you had a particularly hard time going to sleep (we thought at the time, daily it’s worse now then it was then but it was bad for you then) I took you to the doctor to make sure you didn’t have an ear infection in addition to your teeth.  You didn’t but we got to weigh you and you weighed 17 lbs and 2 ounces so you are definitely growing!  You are still wearing 9-12 month outfits and some 12 month ones are way too big but you are getting much closer!

You would think that your eating would have fallen off with your teeth but it’s actually picked up.  Most days you will put as much food as I put in front of you and will only stop when I physically remove you from the table.  Your absolute favorite food is strawberries and you will cram at least four pieces in your mouth before mushing them and swallowing them.  Two or three whole strawberries, cut into pieces, are gone from your plate almost as soon as we can put them down!  You also love cherries and any type of cracker.  Tonight you loved all the baked potato that I gave you and you have started eating shredded cheese as well.  I fed you real oatmeal one day and you weren’t a huge fan but you love yogurt.

You still won’t take a bottle and at this point we’ve given up trying.  We’re now just trying to get you to take a sippy of some form.  Last night Papa finally got you drinking water from a straw so hopefully your straw sippy will allow me to not be here for a feeding and not have it result in you skipping a feeding like it has been up until now.  You are still eating four times a day (7:30, 11, 3:30, 7) and napping twice (9:30-11, 1-3:30).

You were Christened this month and we loved getting to declare as a family that we would raise you in a Christian home and model Christ to you.

We love you so much James and are so thankful that God placed you into our family.  You are all boy but we love that about you and love learning how to parent a boy.  We pray that God will help us lead you so that you grow into the man that God wants you to be.
We love you!
Mommy
*James at months one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine
*Charlotte at months one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve
Family, First Year Months, Kid Growth

Three Fourths

James,

I know I say this every month but HOW is it that you are NINE months old?!?! In three very short months that will FLY by you will be a one year old!  This month has been so big for you physically and it has been so much fun to see you progress!

We’ve been to the pool a handful of times now.  Some days you LOVE it and just sit relaxed in your float for almost an hour before getting cranky.  And other days you don’t want anything to do with being in the water.  It’s so funny to see you go back and forth and makes going to the pool a little difficult because we don’t know what James we’re going to get!

You are so sweet and are still tilting your head a little when you see someone and want to smile.  Those dimples come out and whoever you’re smiling at is a goner.  We’re going to have our work cut out for us little man because you are a cutie!
You have also started “talking” a lot more this month and we couldn’t be happier about it.  You say MaMa and DaDa along with a lot of babbling.  When you have finished everything on your tray at dinner you also start yelling something that sounds like a combination of “Mo/Ma” and that’s really the only time it sounds like that so I think you’re trying to tell us that you want more!

We finally took you to the church nursery this month and you did great.  You’ve gone three times and twice you sat in the swing and slept the whole time and the other you sat in one of the workers laps and played happily.  You are so sweet and go with the flow and are great with whatever we throw at you.

One of your favorite activities now is being sat down next to your basket of toys and pulling them all out.  It’s hilarious to see you spend so much time taking them out, examining them, playing with them for a few seconds, and then throwing them across the room for a new toy!

We changed your schedule this month and took you to feeding four times a day (7:30, 11, 3:30, 7:15).  The first few days you were really sleepy at that last feeding (and occasionally still are) but you took to the new schedule like a champ.  You love being awake and are playing so much these days.  It’s so nice to get to spend long periods of time with you.  Daddy especially loves it because it means that you are awake the entire time between when he gets home and bedtime!  You are napping from 9:30 – 11 and from 1 – 3:30.

The day after your 8 month birthday you rolled over from your back to your front in bed and since then you’ve been constantly in motion.  For a week or so you slept primarily on your tummy in bed but now you’ve evened out and sleep about half on your back and half on your tummy.  It really depends on how tired you are when we put you down.  If you’re really sleepy you’ll just start snoozing as soon as we lay you down but if you’re going to play a little bit you’ll end up on your tummy.  We also moved your crib down this month because you were starting to reach up for the rails and I didn’t want you to pull up for the first time in the bed!

Speaking of pulling up, you aren’t pulling up on furniture yet but are getting close because you’re now starting to pull up onto things around you from your bottom to on your feet.  Usually it’s as part of a movement to get to your tummy from a sitting position but you have stayed like that for a little while a few times.

And you are definitely crawling now!  Not on your hands and knees, but you are a FAST army crawler and can be out the room in seconds if you want to.  You are finding yourself in some predicaments (like stuck under your play table in this picture) but mostly are just interested in checking out your surroundings.  One of your favorite things to do is to push a round tupperware container around the house (it’s on its side).  As it rolls away from you you scoot up next to it and push it off again.  It’s pretty cute to watch!  And we’ve found that the one thing that you will ALWAYS beeline for if you see it is a cell phone.  You will drop whatever you’re playing with and make for the phone as quickly as possible when you see one!

You are working on “for real” crawling too and I’ve seen you take an actual crawl step with one hand and one foot once.  But a lot of times these days you are just pushing yourself up onto your hands and toes.  Sometimes you stick your hiney in the air and sometimes you just look like you’re working on your pushups.  You are definitely getting stronger!
You have become a great eater.  You eat three times a day with us and will try anything we put in front of you.  You love fresh strawberries but aren’t too fond of pancakes.  You have eaten pasta but I think found it too sticky since it didn’t have any sauce on it.  Last night you enjoyed some mashed potatoes finger style while celebrating Memma and Papa’s anniversary.  You love any kind of crackers and light up when you see Baby Mum Mum’s.  You are eating baby food great and we’re giving you between 1 and 2 containers a day of it.  You look longingly at our plates when we eat though so we’re going to work on introducing you to more and more table food.  Yesterday at lunch you had some cooked carrots and ate them pretty well until they started to get cold (I don’t blame you!).  
Our one negative eating wise this month has been that you’ve decided you don’t want a bottle or pumped milk in any other drinking device.  You will push hard (that’s probably why you’re working on push up’s!) to keep the bottle (or sippy) away from your mouth and if you do happen to get some milk in your mouth you’re more likely to spit it out than swallow it.  This is extremely frustrating for me as we have some things planned in the next few months that will require nights away from you and I would like to be a little more lenient on when I schedule meetings but I’m hopeful that it’s just a phase kind of like your sister’s nursing strike almost exactly at this time in her life.  We’ll just wait and see I guess.

Yesterday I took you to the doctor for your nine month checkup.  Your doctor said that you looked great and you wowed him with all the “MaMa’s” that you were saying while reaching for me once he started checking you out.  You weighed 16 lbs 8 oz (5th percentile) and were 27.5 inches long (25th percentile).  Your sweet head was 17.3 inches around (15th percentile).  

We love you so much James and are so thankful for your precious little life!
love, Mommy

*James at months one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight
*Charlotte at months one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve
Family, First Year Months, Kid Growth

Eight Months

James,

This month it seems that you have become quite a big boy.  You are still such a sweet little baby but you are developing your own personality each and every day and we are having so much fun learning all about you!

Last week you started pushing up on your hands and knees.  Now that you’ve done it (after some intense training sessions with Papa) you do it every few minutes when you’re on your tummy.  Sometimes you rock back and forth but for the most part you’re just content to hang out on your hands and knees for a minute or two before laying back down.  I think we’ve got a ways to go before you’re crawling but you could always surprise us!

You are such a happy boy.  You have a real, true smile and what Papa calls your “fake smile” that you give when you’re not sure what’s going on but you know we’re expecting some reaction to you.  Whenever you see someone you tilt your head to the smile and give them a really big fake smile.  It’s precious.  You also have started really reaching for people to take you.  You pump your hands into fists while you’re leaning towards them too like you’re saying, “Get me! NOW!”

Some other physical milestones include standing (with us always right behind you), going forward from a sitting position to your tummy, and today (a day late from your 8 month birthday) you rolled from your back to your tummy in bed!

We have gone back and forth in feeding you and we have somewhat gotten into a routine.  You originally weren’t having anything to do with baby food so we went with the Baby Led Weaning approach and were just giving you table food.  That worked great and you started eating and loving it but we eventually tried some baby food and you started eating it also.  Now you are eating about a container of stage 2 baby food a day plus puffs, cheerios, banana, strawberries, raspberries, bread, Baby Mum Mums, and basically anything else that we’ll let you have.  
You are still nursing five times a day (7:30, 10:30, 2:30, 5:30, 7:15) and taking naps from 9:30 – 10:30, 12:30 – 2:30, and 4:30 – 5:30.  We will probably drop one of those feedings and one of those naps this month after Sissy gets out of school and we don’t have to leave here by 11:30 to pick her up.
I took you to the doctor last weekend after you screamed off and on for two hours going to bed.  Since neither you or your sister ever do that we’ve found that it’s usually associated with an ear infection.  But you were fine so that was good and you haven’t done it since.  Must have just been a fluke.  The good thing was that we got to weigh you and you weighed 15 lbs 14 oz.  Still pretty small for your size (just like your sister was) but you are definitely growing!
You are wearing 9 month and 12 month clothes.  Some 9 month things are getting small on you but the 12 month outfits (other than the bulkier Jon Jon’s) aren’t really big on you.  Your first pair of “real” Angel shoes for Easter were size 1.  You also are still wearing size 3 diapers.

Speaking of Easter, you celebrated your first this month.  You did pretty good at church with us and then did great at lunch with Papa’s family.

We also had our first trip to the beach this month!  You had fun playing in your tent on the sand and did great with the long car ride and sleeping in your pack and play.

Jamesy,
You are the sweetest natured little boy.  You are so laid back and go with the flow (unless you’re on your stomach like you are right now while I’m writing this without any toys in reach and then you cry!).  You are a fantastic sleeper and were a great traveler.  You are snuggling with us these days and we love just holding you and talking.  You are all boy and we are so grateful for you.  You are the best little boy in the whole wide world and we love you so much!
Love, Mommy

Family, First Year Months, Kid Growth

Seven Months

James,

You are seven months old today!  In some ways it’s hard to believe that you’ve been with us for so long and in others it’s hard to remember a time without you.  You are growing like a weed and we are loving watching you discover yourself and your surroundings!

This month we started baby food.  I had gotten the baby food making bug and made peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, and avocado’s.  But you didn’t like any of them any more than the three different kinds of cereal that we tried in the last few months.  So after some research we switched to the “baby led weaning” method (more in a future post) and now you’re eating great.  You feed yourself bread and strawberries but the other night when I gave you pea’s you maneuvered around them again!  Right now we’re just letting you eat whatever you want and not worrying about it.  You seem to be enjoying sitting at the table with us!  

Your two bottom teeth came in this month.  We were glad for them to finally make an appearance because you were pretty miserable for about a week before they showed up.

You went to the doctor for your six month appointment and did great.  The only part that you disliked was the shots and I can’t really blame you for that!  Our doctor was very impressed with your sitting abilities and said that you looked great!

You love your sister these days.  You will track her across the room as she’s dancing and love to have her sit next to you and hand you toys.  You also love sitting on the bed while she’s waking up and grabbing her legs!

We’re counting your first word this month as “Mama”.  We had gone out to eat at a Mexican restaurant and I was going to look for some friends that we thought that we had seen.  As soon as I turned around and started walking away you got a panicked look on your face and said “Mama!”  You aren’t saying it consistently or anything but this situation led us to believe that you might have known what you were saying.  At least we’re telling ourselves that you did!

You took your first trip out to a restaurant and sat in a high chair this month.  You were a little overwhelmed by the loud noise and bright lights but did great!

You and Sophie are never that far apart these days.  She is your favorite toy and you love holding her and chewing on her!  You will stay on your tummy for a while without complaining as long as you have Sophie or one of the basketballs from your basketball goal.  You still aren’t really rolling over.  You do it every once in a while but it’s never consecutive rolls and you get annoyed when I flip you back over once you’ve rolled over.  You are starting to pull your legs under you (though not with your arms up) so maybe you’ll just skip rolling, who knows!  You are also a great stander and really only need us to balance you while you stand but you aren’t interested in standing up next to the couch or anything yet.  
I know that you’ll get there when you get there and our doctor said that you must just be very laid back.  But with two very non-laid back parents, please know that there will probably be a big learning curve in figuring out how to balance our personalities with yours so that we don’t overpower you!

You are starting to develop a little bit of separation anxiety when I walk away from you.  Thankfully it hasn’t reached your sister’s level and it’s not every time I walk away from you but sometimes you get upset when you can’t see me anymore.  A normal reaction, of course, but it makes it hard to leave you!

You are wearing 9 month clothes and a few large 6 month outfits.  You are in size three diapers and those still leak when you’re in the jumper or laying on your tummy.  You are still eating five times a day (7:30, 10:30, 2:30, 5:30, 7:30).  We tried dropping a feeding and you did fine without the feeding but it left you awake for too long in the afternoon so we went back to this routine.

James, you are such a sweet little boy.  You love laying in my arms and babbling.  You love playing in your jumper or with your tool bench.  We love you so much and are so thankful that God placed you in our family.  I love being your Mommy and love watching you grow each and every day!

Love, Mommy

Family, First Year Months, Kid Growth

Six month checkup

We had James’ six month checkup not long after his half-birthday and were happy to see that he is a growing boy!  He is tall and lean!  His stats were 14 lb, 11 ounces (8%), 26 1/4″ tall (50%), and his head was 16 3/4″ (20%).  Other than the shots he enjoyed his visit with our doctor.  And I was told to quit stressing that James doesn’t think rolling over’s that great (he’s done it a handful of times but that’s it) or that he doesn’t really like to eat food.  Our doctor said that he’d grow into those things soon and that it was perfectly fine.  He was very impressed with James’ sitting abilities though and said that he doesn’t usually see sitters that good until their 9 month appointments!