Cute Baby Alert

Jamisen in all his little tyke glory...

Baby Feeling Better

Jamisen is feeling better - at least his mood is better - but his little injection sites are red and a little swollen. During his baby massage tonight, I made sure to stay far, far away from them. His fever was gone by midnight/1ish this morning (phew) and didn't return.

PS - Shout out to Ryan Renoud. We're all decked out in Harvard gear, his alma matter. Grandma and Grandpa Renoud were so sweet to outfit us in this super stylin' comfy wear. We're hoping just wearing the Harvard gear will set Jamisen on the right Ivy League college track. No pressure, Jamisen, no pressure.... =)

Shots

Jamisen got his second set of immunizations and has been a very sad little boy all evening. His fever is 101 and he is not sleeping, just wailing in his crib. We've done Baby Tylenol(Grandpa and Baby Doc approved) and are doing lots of extra hugs. And, he just wheedled a midnight feeding out of us. Poor little guy needs extra TLC.

The Grinch versus Santa?

Only in Fairhaven do we have both a Grinch and Santa on the day after Thanksgiving to take photos. Jamisen was NOT a fan of the Grinch. We had to sing in public (his favorite song right now is "With Jamisen in the family, happy, happy home") to get that one small smile out of him.

He was fascinated by the Santa. He seemed mildly confused and baffled, "Why did Mommy just drop me off with this person I've never seen? And what is on his face?!"

Notice the awesome sock gloves? They are our go-to for cold hands in this surprisingly-balmy-but-still-cold winter weather. 

He Scoots!

Jamisen's fine motor skills continue to develop at a rapid pace. I've learned that if I pile dry (safe) food for him on his high chair tray that I can keep him happy for at least 20 minutes while I prepare his baby food or clean the kitchen after feeding him. The grunting is something he's started to do in the last month. He does it all the time - usually to express his displeasure (I think)? Remember, if you subscribe to this blog via email that you need to click through to the blog to see the videos.

Another great example of his fine motor skills? Putting his hand AND foot in his mouth at the same time! He was cooing the entire time he was doing this. It was adorable.

This is the warm "teddy bear" suit that I referenced yesterday. It literally is like a hollowed out teddy bear that we just stuff him into. He can't really move in the suit so it's not his favorite but it keeps him warm in the freezing weather when we're out on our daily walks.

Jamisen's balance continues to improve. Here, he is standing with just a little (nicely camouflaged) help from Daddy's hand on his back. He still doesn't stand up flat footed; he's almost always rocked forward on his toes. I haven't looked on Dr. Google yet to see if this is normal.



As you can see, Jamisen is mastering the fine art of the 'scoot'. He is scooting around like a little pro - and this is ALL NEW today. We cannot leave him alone anymore because he can go scooting pretty quick. From here, it's a whole new world.

Super Saturday

We had the *best* Saturday today. I got up at 5 a.m. with the baby and then Chris let me go back to sleep at 7 a.m. for a couple more hours. After that, it was off to our favorite cafe, Time in Play, where Jamisen learned how to go down a slide (with help). See the two videos below of his amazing foray down the slide:








And then his Daddy taught him how to beat on toys. He caught on pretty quickly! If only he would catch on this quickly to learning how to crawl, read, talk .... you know, the biggies. But he can now bang his toys on the table with the best of them.





Finally, he took a ride in a really cool toy car. He seemed to enjoy his brief ride and his increased tummy strength definitely paid off for this 'big kids' toy'.




Jamisen is at the stage where EVERYTHING he sees goes in his mouth. His Dad had a minor heart attack trying to keep this toy away from his mouth because of how dirty it was. On the walk back to our house (yes, in freezing weather but not to worry, Jamisen was well protected in his teddy bear suit and a thick blanket), I asked Chris where his over-protectiveness came from. He didn't have any insight but of the two of us, he is definitely the careful and cautious parent. That's good - we can be the yin and the yang of parenting together.

Jamisen Is ALMOST sitting

I've spent a lot of time at Time In Play, a new children's play time cafe in Bellingham. Jamisen has seen more babies in the last week than he's seen in his entire life (no really, his entire 6 1/2 month life) and I think he's feelin' some competition!

Also, you'd think that I'd be showing you photos of Jamisen sitting up but I don't have any so you'll have to enjoy his incredible cuteness and imagine him sitting, sort-of.

Last week, he was falling over basically all the time when I tried to sit him up. And these weren't graceful falls. These were fast flat face plants with wailing and little red marks (if I wasn't quick enough to catch him - I caught him almost every time but when I didn't, he was very quick to express his indignation).

But, after he saw a  5 1/2 month old (that's right, a full 20% younger than Jamisen) sitting up unassisted at Time In Play, he took it as a personal challenge (because the Faiola Family is nothing if not 100% competitive) and he's been sitting up for very short (10 - 45 second) stints of time. It's gotten to where I can actually let him sit and usually, he slowly topples over, gracefully with no face planting.

Go trunk strength! Our baby is getting stronger! And he's still quite tall for his weight so we are all hoping he takes after Grandpa Winston with his height!

And here's a video of an amazing duet Jamisen and I did together while Daddy was on a business trip. You'll notice I probably shouldn't have fed him as he did a little bit of coughing action there (whoops). I will do anything and everything silly to make my little boy laugh. It is the best sound in the entire world.

Woah! I'm a Big Boy Now!

Jamisen celebrated a big milestone this week - he turned 6 months old! He celebrated this milestone by popping a tooth out. Whoah kid, good timing there.

He's really enjoying standing up (with help) and still isn't a fan of scooting across the floor. We're hoping he does learn to crawl eventually because there's some theory (supposedly debunked) that crawling helps with math skills later in life. It has something to do with the left brain/right brain working together.

He is an incredibly happy baby and we are so thankful that he's in our family. Chris and I can't imagine a better entree into parenting.

Reading with Grandpa

Someone loves his Grandpa!  

We LOVE our Beaba

This ingenious little device makes homemade babyfood easy. It steams and purees, all in one easy little machine. And, it's incredibly easy to learn to use so everyone in our house, Dad included, uses it.

So far, Jamisen has eaten plums, mangos, apples, pears, avocados, potatoes, pumpkin, winter squash, butternut squash and rice cereal. He isn't a fan of mango (as you've seen) or avocados. And, now, after a recent choking episode, we're pretty sure he's not a fan of potatoes any more. When he started to choke, Chris immediately unsnapped him from his 6-point-restraint harness, put him upside down (horizontally, not by the feet), started forcefully patting his back and I swept his mouth. Two large chunks of mashed potatoes came out. And, that was the end of his ill-fated journey into potatoes. He shall have no more potatoes until much much later in his eating career.

This happy grin is after he ate applesauce (homemade, of course). He had a very different look on his face after the choking episode. Our goal is grins and giggles though so it's pureed foods from here on out.