Baby J turns 1!

It's been almost a month now since Baby J actually turned one.  I'm just getting around to posting about it but better late than never.

For his birthday we had amazing weather and were able to have a beautiful BBQ outside on our deck with friends and family.  I made Baby J a Very Hungry Caterpillar Cake however he ate a healthy muffin for his Birthday dessert instead of the unhealthy cake!  Over the years I've realised that my kids don't even eat birthday cakes so if I have lots of other people round I just use icing and food colouring because I know others are not as picky and it's a darn site easier!

 

He got so many presents from friends and family he will be set for a long while now.  The gift I am most excited about is this Tag Toys ball tracker.  I have been wanting to get one of these for the littles and when a wonderful uncle gave Baby J some b-day money we put some in ourselves and splurged. 

It was so worth it.  He got it right away and both Baby J and Sweetpea love it.  It's quite wobbly and it's recommended to bolt it to the wall.  Instead what I've done is move it behind the pull up bar so it is stable and Baby J is able to balance on the bar while bending down to get the balls.

 

As far as development Baby J is now using a spoon on his own to eat his meals and we just introduced him to a fork.  I would highly recommend watermelon as a first fork food.  He caught on to it right away and LOVED it.  I think he enjoys the amount of force he can use to "stab" the food!  He went through tons of watermelon practising his new found skill and had a fit when we finally had to call it quits.  Both littles now have a fork food with their breakfast every morning.

 



 

I don't think it will be long now before Baby J is walking.  He took three steps last night and is starting to stand on his own. 

He is still our cheeky little jokester and is full of joy.  He has been giving a grunting sign to tell us when he needs to poop for about a month now and we make it about 90% of the time.  The thing is he also thinks it's a hilarious joke to look at us and do the pretend poop grunt and then give us the cheeky grin!

 

As I mentioned Baby J got many presents that both the littles have been using and I'm working on a post about what is on our shelves.

 

Since technically Baby J is no longer a baby I am here on out going to be referring to him as Little J!  Wow does that time fly by.  What an amazing year it's been getting to know this wonderful little person!

Baby J 9 1/2-10 months

Month 10 has been full of changes and major leaps in development for Baby J.  The major thing for him is that he is now on the move!  In one weekend he went from only being able to sit and reach for things on one knee to crawling, pulling up and cruising.

I was just starting to think that this pull up bar was not really worth the time and money making it when Baby J totally proved me wrong.  At around 9.5 months he started showing an interest in pulling up.  He was too short to reach the bar from sitting so I put the stuffed elephant below the bar for him to sit on.  It totally did the trick and he was able to pull up and have a soft place to land.  Now he can pull up on the bar no problem and he loves to do squats and cruise along it.

Baby J loves to use his walker waggon.  Although Sweetpea is not really interested in it anymore since she started walking she all of a sudden wants to use it when Baby J uses it.  Here they were working together pushing it which was so cute but most times she will push the other end and bowl Baby J over!  She better do it while she can because soon Baby J will be as strong as her!

Although he is moving now and can get to whatever he wants, Baby J has still maintained his focus.  He will move over to the item he wants and then spend time interacting with it.  These two materials that I originally put out for Sweetpea he loves to do.  He is definitely in a sensitive period for putting things into containers and small openings. 

I was surprised that after a demonstration and some experimentation he is able to now easliy put the stars into this slot.  He is also now able to put the rectancluar prism into the imbacure box.

We are still working with feeding himself at the table and most times I am able to put the food onto the spoon and he will take it out of the bowl.  He is starting to put the spoon back into the bowl but this happens about 50% of the time.  He is pretty excitable and we usually end up with the spoon on the floor several times throughout a meal.  If I find that he can't handle the bowl on his table I will remove it and just hand him the spoon for a few minutes and then let him try again.  This seems to work.  I will leave his glass on the table and offer it to him by asking him if he would like a drink and then putting it in front of him.  He will lift it and take a drink and sometimes return it to the table gently.  Sometimes though he will smash it down onto the table with gusto like he's just finished a shot of Tequila and he's all proud of himself!

 

Baby J is a super potty pooper!  Since starting him on the potty at 9 months he's done about 5 poos in his diapers which is pretty amazing!  At this point I'm not concerned with catching the pees and anything he does I consider a bonus.  He has definitely made the connection though which before having done this I never would have believed a baby of that age capable of doing.  It just blows my mind how much infants are really capable of doing if we just give them the right environment to do it in!!

 

Baby J continues to delight us with his extreme excitement and joy for everything!

Baby J 81/2 to 9 months interests and activities

Baby J 81/2 to 9 months

 

As I was preparing to write this post I realised that I hardly have any pics of Baby J "in action".  I'm so busy taking pics of Sweetpea for her parents I haven't taken hardly any of Baby J.  I will try to be more conscious of recording more of Baby J's efforts in the future.

 

I would have to say that my main observation of Baby J is that he is a details kind of guy.  He loves to explore all kinds of small details of any object he picks up.  He will usually spend several minutes or more exploring each item.  He is not crawling yet but does move around on his knees to reach things and rolls over to get to things.  I'm not sure if his attention to detail and focus on individual items will change once he can move around with ease.  I'm wondering if this is just part personality and part the fact that he has been given materials to develop his focus and concentration since birth.

 

Baby J loves the cylinder imbacure box and has spent so much time trying to figure it out.  He will spend sometimes 15 or more minutes with the material.  He has now mastered it and I've introduced him to the rectangular prism.  He has managed to get it through the hole once or twice but not consistently. 

 

He also enjoys the egg and cup and the peg and cup and can do both easily. 

 

 

 Baby J loves the stacking cups and can put several of them into each other.  He likes when I build a tower and knocks it down.

In general he is trying very hard to move but just can't seem to get past moving all the way forward onto all fours from a sitting position and then sliding onto his belly.  He gets soooo frustrated and it is painful to watch him do this over and over.  I seriously can't wait until he figures out how to crawl!

 

I have been so focused on Sweetpea this month that I can't really think of anything else specific that Baby J is doing although I know he has been doing lots of things!  Next month will be more evenly recorded for sure!