Jonas: 11 (and a half) Months

*Yesterday he was sitting in his high chair yelling, "Lola! Lola!" and throwing his food at her. 
*He started waving 'hi', and does a perfect little princess wave where he twists his hand back and forth.
*There is little motivation to learn to walk:

He's been waking up around 6 each morning and wanting his breakfast immediately.  He eats just as much as the big kids because he really likes food.  He's only 3rd percentile for weight though, so high five to him for his amazing metabolism.  (16lbs 11oz (and a pulse of 118!) at his May 7th doctor appointment.)

All 4 top teeth have come through now.  I thought that might help him be not quite so clingy, but instead he seems to have found something else that bothers him.  Not sure what the mystery ailment is this time around, but anytime he wants to let me know I will gladly try to help make it better. 

He loves being read to.  I feel kind of badly about this one, because I read to the big kids a lot but haven't really read directly to him.  Finding out he loves to sit on a lap with a book was a recent discovery that made me feel like a terrible mom.   

"ok Jonas, Jesus had 12 de-cycles"

He is SO squeezable and loveable.  What do you call the phenomenon where you can be extremely weary of holding the baby, and yet the second you put him down you miss him?

Even fussy, I can't get enough.

i miss you too, mom

i neeeeeed you, alllllwaaaays

alright, one quick smile

Jonas: 10 Months

Before we get started, let's mention real quick that this is almost three weeks late.  Yowza.

Favorite Things: food, standing up. Even when I'm holding him he likes to stand on my hip.  It's very uncomfortable.

Most Impressive: saying 'mama,' 'Daph,' 'all done,' 'night night,' 'boo;' mimicking sounds and pitches.

Weirdest: if I lay him on the floor, he will barely move.  If I lay him on a bed, he will roll and crawl all over it.  If only the whole world was a bed. 

I noticed his top teeth coming in recently.  And just like with Daphne, it's not the typical top middle two, it's the two on either side.  Like little fangs.  So weird and funny that both of them did that.

hanging out on the counter top gnawing on garlic, because we are anti-vampire

He had been waking up so often at night, and I think part of it had been his nighttime use of a pacifier.  It would fall out, then he would wake up and need someone to put it back in for him.  Like the gentle mother that I am, one day I just stopped giving him the pacifier at bed time.  He was very alarmed at the loss and we had a few very rough days and nights of sleep, but now he seems to *mostly* be sleeping through the night. This makes him my youngest baby to sleep through the night, and so he wins a prize of...nothing.  Except my joy and gratitude, of course. 

smart lola

look at his face!

One reason I've been blogging so scarcely lately is because Jonas wants to be held constantly.  As much as I love holding my babies, I think being in the stage where they want to be held almost all of their waking hours is one of the toughest things for me in the baby year.  I wish I could at least get super muscle-y arms out of the deal.

But the nice thing about being on baby-number-three as opposed to baby-number-one is that I know each season passes, and I know that one day it won't be as hard.  Soon enough I'll be able to do whatever I want with my arms.  Wave them around, or....just whatever. 

And one last thing; he lives with perpetual bed-head.  

Jonas: 9 Months

Here's what we can say about 9 month old Jonas (or 9.5 months, as the case may be):  he is super lazy.  He's nowhere near crawling, and he only rolls over if he absolutely needs to.  Like during diaper changes. 

He may not like to move, but he does love to eat!  He's very brave to try all the foods and seems to love most of them. He eats a lot.

Now that I think about it, I see for him a bright future as a couch potato.

Other things he likes besides food:
-He adores Lola.  I'll say, "where's Lola?" and he'll look and look until he spots her. (As much looking as he can do from a stationary position, of course.)
-He likes to yell, especially in quiet places.  He's usually pretty quiet when it's loud.
-He's our first kid to not be afraid of grass!  He likes to dig his fingers in it and also eat it.  Salad!
-He's also the first of our kids to really like David.  He will go to David just as well as he'll go to me.  It's nice to be able to share the baby-holding with someone.
-Clapping is a new favorite trick.  Sometimes when we're driving I'll hear the slap slap slap of his little hands as he claps to himself in his carseat. 
-He still likes to store food in his mouth.  This pictures was taken an hour or so after breakfast when I realized he still had a piece of apple stashed in his cheek.

"i'm afraid that when i leave the kitchen i'll never get to eat again"

He's in a bit of a clingy stage where he would rather I hold him for most of the day, especially during the fussy evening hours. The Ergo is our friend, because otherwise supper would not get made. 

Being outside always brightens his day, and the rocket ship swing is a favorite.  (Here's Christian at almost the same age riding in it as well.)

He needs a haircut, but I don't know if you're allowed to give haircuts to babies?  Like their little baby hair is so sweet you need to keep it for as long as possible? I don't have a great picture, but his hair is super short in the back from sleeping on his back, and then long and shaggy on the top and sides and likes to stick straight out from his head like he electrocuted himself.  It's the opposite of a mullet and that is not good. David likes to slick it back and act like J is a used car salesman, then part it down the center so he can be a nerdy mathematician, and then give him a nice side part so he can be a southern gospel revival preacher.  It's a pretty good show that the two of them put on. 

Aside from the hair, we have no complaints about this little guy. 

(Sleeping through the night would be welcomed, though.)

(And a slow-down on the growing.)

"would someone please blow my nose?"

Jonas: 8 Months Old

Seems like I finish writing one of these monthly posts just to turn around a few days later to write another. 

Do these photos make you want to pick him up and give him a big squeeze?  Because that's the effect they have on me.

Oh, Jonas; he is just the greatest little thing.  When I pick him up he wiggles and squeals with happiness.  It's like he thinks that once I've got him we'll be going on a grand adventure and he can't wait to see where it will be. 

When he's happy he screams and shrieks.  He still loves to eat, bananas being one of his favorites.  He's developed a tiny bit of stranger-danger, yet is still pretty content to be with anyone who wants to hold him.  

I finally stopped swaddling him.  Isn't that hilarious?  A big eight month old boy still wanting to be snuggled tight for sleep time.  I tried to stop around six months but he was not happy about it.  Right now he seems to be OK. 

He adores his older siblings, gets so excited when he sees his dad, but still reaches for me above everyone else. As long as he is happy on the floor I try to stay out of his line of vision, otherwise he won't be content until I'm holding him. 

But holding him is one thing I don't mind, because we all know how short these years (months) are. 

Guess I'll be seeing you in a day or two for his next monthly post. 

1 week, 2 mos, 4 mos, 5 mos

Jonas: 7 Months

Let's use all the cliches: HOW is he so big already?  WHERE is my tiny baby? Only 5 months until he turns 1!  WHY is this happening to me?

get over it, mom

Jonas's Favorite:
*Big Boy Food.  All the time. 

Jonas's Not Favorite:
*Being on his tummy.  Does any baby ever like that?  Usually he'll roll himself over but sometimes he'll just growl until someone rescues him.  Because there's no reason to do for yourself what someone else will do for you.

He got his two bottom teeth last month, the earliest of any of my kids.  He looks so grown up now.

wittle teefies!

One night last week he let me sleep from 10PM to 5AM.  I woke up at 5 and realized I felt fantastic from getting the longest sleep yet since he'd been born.  We haven't gotten to do it again, but he's such a better sleeper than his older siblings that I don't really care.  He usually wakes up once in the night, then again between 5-6, then sleeps until 7:30.  

He needs a little evening catnap, but for some reason that evening nap has always been hard for all of our kids.  Do other people have that problem?  It's rare but nice when we get him to take a little snooze for us.  Otherwise I try to chase away the evening fussies by sitting him in his chair with an apple slice or something so I can get supper going.  My goal is to teach him that when he's sad/tired/bored he should eat.  The lessons are going well so far.

I think he weighs around 14lbs.  Our scale is fickle so it's hard to tell.  He's still working on filling in his 6 months clothes.  He gets to wear mostly hand-me-downs from Christian, but the boys are off ever so slightly in seasons so that he needs some warmer things that C didn't have.  But I keep not buying him stuff so he'll probably just have to tough it out and be cold. (NO he won't, he wears hats and other warm coverings.)

I almost forgot his funniest thing!  He likes to store food in his mouth like a chipmunk.  I was trying to put him to bed recently and couldn't figure out why he wasn't relaxing and taking his pacifier. I finally did a little mouth swipe and pulled out a chunk of apple!  But he still wasn't relaxing so I did another swipe and found another apple.  So silly.  He likes to sit around with food hanging out of his mouth, too.  You can see this for yourself with Exhibits A, B and C:

It seems like most photos of him now are when he's eating.

bath time is a good time, too

He's such a good, wonderful, perfect baby.  And even though I miss his tiny-ness, 7 months looks pretty good on him.

at 1, 3 and 6 months

Jonas: 6 Months

Fun fact for the day: Jonas was born on Friday the 13th, the day of a full moon, and he turned 6 months on 12-13-14.  Such a cool life he's living, mathematically speaking. 

intro to cars by prof. big brother

The most exciting thing that happened this month was that two nights ago he slept for 9 hours straight!  This was a PR for him.  Lest I get too excited thinking this is a new thing, last night he slept for the opposite of 9 hours.  The opposite of sleeping for 9 hours is waking every 3.  Sadly for him, now I know he really doesn't need to eat so I don't have to feed him.  Ha!  I win.

He got to try some Big Boy food this month because when he sits on our laps while we're eating our meals, he likes to open his mouth really wide and face-plant his mouth on our faces in an effort to steal our food.  It's funny, slimy, and gross.  We really like following the baby-led weaning approach for introducing food, so we've been giving him some big pieces of meat, fruit, and vegetables to gnaw on.  He loves all of them, even dill pickles. 

happy feet waving while gnawing on ham

(I like that my floors look deceptively clean in that picture.)

Other points of interest:
*It's his favorite to stand up and jump.  If we had some sort of excersaucer or jumping contraption, he would probably adore it.
*He smiles at me with a huge, happy, open mouth.  Adorbs.
*He loves his older siblings.  They are hilarious people.
*No stranger danger yet!  But he still likes me best.
*I ask him every day if he wants to be my baby boy forever.  So far I think he's amenable to the plan. 

I tried to recreate some of his newborn photos for the 6 month marker.  It did not go well.  Maybe another day?  Or maybe it's fine to have these be our pictures, because rarely do things go perfectly.

And honestly, the mess makes me laugh.

i mean, how can you not laugh at this picture?

Jonas: 5 Months

Jonas got his first cold this month.  His little runny nose and cough have been so sad.  It looks like he doesn't like to sleep when he has a cold, and that is also so sad. 

Tiredness won out the other day when I was driving home and pulled up to a stop sign.  It was confusing though, because there was no intersection or cross road or anything??  The need to stop didn't make sense. 

Until I realized I had stopped at this:

The only thing to do is to slowly keep on driving like you meant to stop in the middle of the road.  No harm, no foul. You're going to have to stop soon, anyway. 

I've been weighing Jonas constantly to make sure he's gaining enough weight.  We only have an adult scale, so I weigh myself, then weigh both of us and subtract the difference to get his weight.  But then the scale broke.  Having the scale break on you is way more depressing than discovering you stopped at a not stop sign. 

P.S. I wear as many clothes as possible when doing this weigh thing so that I don't have to know my real weight.  Scarves, a bathrobe, boots; lots of stuff.  I suppose it's no wonder the scale broke?

I dropped dairy and gluten this month, just to be on the safe side and hope that what happened with baby Christian (poor weight gain and bad eczema starting around 5-6 months) won't happen with baby Jonas.  Jonas has a little red on his cheeks that showed up last week when the temperatures dropped so low, but it's hard to know if it's cold weather related or something else?  I'm just a wee bit paranoid. 

Honestly, I can't remember much about this past month beyond hoping Jonas will stay healthy.  It can consume your mind if you let it.

So I'll just think about his darling feet instead.

And about that face. 

I just want to pinch those cheeks!!!

I love him.

Jonas: 4 Months

A few of Jonas's current favorites:
-laughing at Daphne
-chewing on his hands
-staring at his feet
-looking at Mom with sad eyes so she will hold him
-eating in the nighttime
-yelling at people
-drooling
-spitting up
-wearing bibs/changing clothes a lot because of drooling/spitting
-letting his hair turn blonde
-grabbing stuff

Today he filled his diaper and spit up at the exact same time, while sitting on my lap so that I got the leakage of everything on my pants.  That is raw, 4 month-old talent right there.