Jamisen has become a real chatter box. His favorite things to say are "Ay Ya Ya Ya!" in a very emphatic voice and "Da Da Da Da Da" and sometimes, he coohs in an garbled, sweet little voice.
Jamisen is also bored with all of his pureed foods. He would like to eat solids but unfortunately, he only has 2.5 teeth and can't chew much. So it's purees for now.
Jamisen is happily sleeping through the night. He goes to bed at 7 p.m. He wakes up a few times a night, cries a little or sings, and then promptly goes back to sleep. He's up every morning around 6ish and Chris and I share morning duties.
Happy baby boy is learning how to stand and is prepping to walk.
He loves to hang on to this incredibly flimsy little play toy that is not designed to be held on to (in the slightest).
We're working on reflexes with a very light and floaty balloon.
It's a work in progress.
Playing with book is his favorite thing to do right now. He will spend twenty or thirty minutes taking all the books out of the box. Then, he tries to crawl on top of the box, hi-centers himself and has his Mom and Dad sprinting across the room to save him before he topples over. So far, so good
We just finished our first round of Baby and Parent Swim Classes. Jamisen took to the water like ... well, like a recalcitrant teenager at an Air Supply concert. He warmed up but it took a while.
We never quite got dunking. We tried it the first class and he crawled up Chris like he was in a tree climbing competition at one of those Logging Day Festivals. The only difference between Jamisen and an actual logger is that Jamisen was coughing uncontrollably the entire way up. He was not a fan.
After that first rather unsuccessful try at dunking, Chris decided that Jamisen should not be put under water again so we didn't do any more underwater exploration for the remainder of the class ... until, that is, this week. Video below of a snippet from the class where Jamisen shows his kicking abilities (click through to the blog if you're reading this on email).
One of the guys at work told me that his son loved swim class and that his son wasn't a fan of dunking but they made him do it and eventually, he was just fine with it. At our last swim class, properly inspired by this tale of success, I elbowed Chris aside and in my oh-so-flattering momkini, waded into the pool, with Jamisen under my arm like a large football. I was ready to conquer for the both of us! Video of Jamisen's amazing kicking skills (20ish seconds in) below - click through if you're an email subscriber.
The first opportunity to practice my newfound passion for dunking came quickly and with Chris watching, horrified, from the sidelines, I dunked our precious, red-haired little man. He coughed but came up like a champ. I was so delighted that I did it again!
And Jamisen came up coughing again. And then he coughed twice and promptly projectile vomited. Projectile vomited. Into the pool. With his horrified father looking on (to say nothing of the other students in the pool with us). I looked at Jamisen, we had a meeting of the minds, and we both started moving immediately away from the expanding cloud of vomit. If he could have whistled to show how nonchalant he was about moving away from the vomit, he would have.
We were positive no one had noticed the vomiting episode (well, except for his still-horrified father) until the end of the class when we were handed the grades for the class. We failed. We need to repeat Baby Parent Swim Class A.
This is Jamisen's first failure and if failing often and failing early means anything, he is well on his way to a fantastic life.
I remember bubbles in childhood as fun and magical. Naturally, I wanted to introduce Jamisen to this fun and magical concept. I would like to point out that the fact that there are this many photos of a horrified Jamisen clearly shows that I am possibly the world's worst Mother to keep blowing bubbles in the hopes that he'd warm up to them.
Nope. Nope. Not warming up to them yet. Quick! Try some more!
Hm. Still terrified. Wait, if I can remember bubbles, how old was I when I played with those bubbles? Hm. Perhaps too early for the bubbles. But, proving he is my son, he did eventually warm up to the bubbles and even tried to use his slow baby reflexes to catch a few.
The other day, I was cleaning the kitchen and he was merrily playing on the floor. And then I heard him choking. He had randomly found a remnant of cracker on the floor, did what he does as a baby (in the mouth, in the mouth!) and then choked. I picked him up, did the mouth sweep, gave him a hug and then reached for the nearest camera.
See! He's snarling at the offending cracker... well, masked in a grin but underneath it all? He's feeling jubilant that the cracker was not triumphant. And I'm feeling like I need to vacuum the floors. Daily.
Greetings from a fantastic weekend in the Pacific Northwest. Though our snow has melted now, it has been quite a week! These photos are from my Dad's medical office (in Olympia, WA). They got a bit more snow than we did 3 hours away but we were colder, with temperatures down to 9 degrees.
Luckily, Heritage Family Medicine has one all purpose family practice doctor - turns out, he's pretty handy with an excavator too! That's Grandpa Faiola clearing the parking lot so his patients could park and walk without slipping and sliding. We were all impressed with his can-do-it attitude and as it turns out, he's got mad skills with heavy machinery. Go figure. Even with that, he experienced a pretty massive drop in patients so they had a very quiet week.
Someone stayed wonderful and warm, thanks to an amazing knitted hat from our retail store manager, Kat (the very talented soapmaker behind all the swirled soap at Otion's blog here). The hat is from The New Project on Etsy and they have the most adorable knitted tights, knitted hats and knitted shorties. I think these Dino Longies are seriously off the cute charts. Proving that talent and generosity does run in the family, The New Project is run by Kat's sister, Leanne, who donates all the profits to NICU centers to help newborns in need.
Though Jamisen does have quite a lovely snow outfit (with gloves and booties too!), we did not make it out in the snow. It was either too cold, or it was snowing and ridiculously windy so we'll make it out next time. Jamisen's Grandpa on his Daddy's side was a ski instructor for many years so cold and snow is in his blood and I'm betting he's going to love outdoor, winter sports.
Chris just made it home safely from Saudi Arabia where he was setting up a branch office for his family engineering firm, FSE. He had to pay for an entire year's rent in CASH up front. It was quite an interesting experience for him. He also got a flat in the middle of the dessert, in a suit. He is sooooo thankful for the hospitality and kindness of the Saudis who helped him change the flat. Snowmageddon wrecked havoc with his flights and his flight to Seattle was canceled so he ended up taking almost an entire 20 hours to make it home to us and he is more exhausted than usual - but of course, thrilled to see his baby boy Jamisen. Jamisen missed his Dad terribly - there wasn't nearly as much laughing in this house in the last week - we're all glad he is home.
This will be the only good video you see from this swim class (email subscribers, click through to the blog to see the video):
That is because what happens in this video at about 10 seconds in happened in every single other video that was taken by Daddy:
So worried was Chris that Jamisen might (gasp!) get some water in his mouth (water! at the pool! oh no!) that every single video starts out great and then devolves to water or ceiling shots and Chris saying in the background "You gotta watch out. He's getting water in his mouth." We love that Daddy is so protective of his little boy.
Though there is no video proof, we did have a fantastic time. Jamisen made the sweetest happy noises. It was adorable. He's definitely getting more comfortable with the water (though still not a fan of getting his head under water).
This game somehow involves the little tunnel becoming London Bridge and falling down. It was mostly just a way for the instructor to get us all moving around the pool with the babies on their fronts and their backs.
We had a fantastic time and can't wait for more water time this week.
What you can't see is my Daddy making funny hand motions for me to laugh at for this photo shoot:
And because I have my Mom's energy levels, I can't sit still (why haven't you gotten me ear buds, an MP3 player and a subscription to Audible.com yet?!). Thus, squirmy little boy immediately upon this photo shoot losing the court jester (Daddy). Stimulus! I need something to focus on! Hmmmmm.... that looks like fun. Is that granite? I wonder how long it will take me to knock my new teeth out if I practice standing with the granite? Let's find out! Whhhhheeeeeeeee!
Well, we're pre-saving his life. Swimming pools and open bodies of water (including bathtubs and toilets) are dangerous places for babies to be. So, we have enrolled Jamisen in swimming lessons at the ripe old age of 8 months. So far, he's not a huge fan of the water but he is a huge fan of the play toys IN the water (see below).
See the single minded focus in the below video as he goes for his ball (email subscribers, click through to see video)? The kid has the power of focus!
This sad boy photo is at the end of swim lessons, when he quite cold and shivering. He can't make it more than about 25 minutes before his body heat drops and he shivers. We left class a little early last week before of the shivering but ultimately, he's catching on to his lessons well.
I think this little video is precious. See how he reacts when Daddy pours water on his head?
Another ball chase video:
Demonstrating his ability to kick his legs (go Jamisen, go!)
Lest you believe that I am not swimming with Jamisen - I am. Someone had to take photos AND that someone also didn't want to be photographed in a swimsuit. So, thus all photos of Jamisen and Pappa in the pool And so, have one more, proud proud Pappa and son:
Jamisen had a busy morning. First, he went for the lamp (can I pull it over on myself? I'd really like to try!). Then, he went for the uncovered light socket (can I get my fingers behind this plate? Can I pull out the socket protectors?). Finally, he went for the fan (can I stick my fingers in between the slats? What are those moving things?).
And that was just in the first five minutes of being up!
My only regret of the morning was that there was no camera around to record the light socket foray. Mother of the Year .... that's me. We also had additional fun this week with more dangerous explorations.
Playing with the wine collection:
Exploring the toilet:
And my personal favorite, playing with cords while army crawling towards the stairs.
Jamisen has zero ideas about personal safety or the miracle that is gravity. And, we always do our best to catch him. No falls yet! Knock on wood ...
