June 19, 2008

• A Jack-Centric Entry

  Although most of my blog entries mention Jack (and of course feature lots of pictures of him), it's been a while since I reported solely on my boy, his development, latest interests, etc. I figured I should document these things before I forget. So here we go!

  Jack is now 11 months and one week old, and he:

  • Has seven teeth -- three on the bottom, four along the top.
  • Is down to just two bottles a day (from four) -- he has a breakfast bottle and a post-morning-nap bottle. He takes a sippy cup with lunch and dinner. Looks like we are on track to be down to just one bottle (or maybe none?) by his first birthday. I'm not too anxious about taking away bottles completely by one, but I figured we would transition slowly, and it seems to be working. Jack's been playing around with sippy cups since he was six months old (when he started solids), but in the last couple of months, has really begun drinking in earnest from them.
  • Enjoys some whole milk. Since he's supposed to start on whole milk at 12 months, we've been adding some whole milk (the kind spiked with DHA, for extra brain power ) to his formula for the last couple of weeks. He doesn't really seem to notice a difference -- he guzzles it down just the same.
  • Is eating more table foods. I am still making purees (but much chunkier ones now) for him, but now Jack also has grilled cheese sandwiches (cut-up into small pieces, of course), pita, hummus or whatever else we're eating.
  • Is so ready to walk! He only holds on with one hand while cruising now, and it's with a pretty light grip. Sometimes he'll let go while standing, and once he realizes he's standing by himself, he gets this cartoonish "uh-oh!" look on his face and falls to the ground.
  • Waves and says something when people leave. Sometimes it's "baba" (which of course we think means "bye bye"), sometimes it's "dada" and sometimes it's just "aaaaah." But, he seems to get that he's supposed to wave and make some sort of noise when people walk out the door. Sometimes he says it after they've left (for instance, when Ann came to visit the other day, Jack kept waving and saying "babababa" as Ann walked down the hall!), but it's still cute.
  • On the verbal front, Jack continues to come out with new syllables. I feel him edging closer to actual talking.
  • Tosses his paci out of his crib at bedtime, then lays there, calling out, "Maaaaaama. Maaaaaaam. Mamamamama" lazily. If I don't go to him within a few minutes, he'll get more insistent: "Mama! Mama! Ma!" Then he grins like a bandit when I go in there to pick up the paci. It's hard, but I always just hand it back to him and walk out without lingering, so he doesn't get the idea that it's a fun game. It's not so cute when he does the version where he tosses his paci out and then cries holy murder. He did that a couple of times last weekend, when there was lots of activity due to Johnny's graduation festivities. Luckily, it seems to have been a few isolated incidents.
  • Chews on the rail of his crib. Jack apparently likes to pull up on his crib, stand there and gnaw at the rail like a mouse. The paint on the crib is lead-free and safe for this very activity. I am amused to see the little tooth marks on the top of the crib. It reminds me of June, who gnawed a lovely ring all around our wooden coffee table as a toddler.
  • Finally, Jack loves having his teeth brushed! One of the fellow moms on my pregnancy.org birth club forum asked how often people brushed their babies' teeth. I was like, "What?! I've just been going over Jack's teeth and gums with a washcloth." Little did I know that other moms were brushing their babies' teeth! At first I was confused -- how would babies spit out toothpaste? Would Jack actually tolerate a brush in his mouth? I learned from the forum that there is such a thing as baby toothpaste that the baby can swallow, that most babies love the flavor (usually banana or apple), and that it usually comes with a fingertip brush. So Johnny went out and bought baby toothpaste from CVS (actually, it was apple-banana flavor), and it came with a blue fingertip brush. We laughed because it reminded us exactly of brushing Atari's teeth -- we used a green fingertip brush and peanut butter-flavored toothpaste with him. Anyway, Jack adores it. When he sees the blue brush, he claps his hands and opens his mouth, and he laughs when the bristles go over his gums. I hope this love of brushing continues!

  Now that I have bored you half to death, here are some pictures from Father's Day. We took Jack in the pool with his floaty seat. Johnny bought it for Jack at Target. It also comes with a shade that can go over the seat. It wasn't too sunny when we went in, though, so we left the shade part in the apartment.

  Goofy faces

  

  Jack loved floating in the pool

  

  Yes, water!

  

  My turn

  

  He kept wanting to leap out of my arms and into the water

  

  It was fun to be all wrapped up with Jack!

  

  After the pool, Jack got bundled into PJs and went on to his next favorite activity: pushing a mixing bowl along the kitchen floor

  

  Thanks for reading!

  • 1:19 pm
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