The Cold

Aaron: I am going to take John on a jog. Do you want to come?
Emma: No, I want to stay nice and warm in this house.

Currently, it is 64 degrees outside. Genetically, Emma and John are engineered to be happy at 70 degrees. John would probably object to the jog but since he can't talk, he's going. Talk about motivating to learn to talk.

Classic

Yesterday Emma had some great ones:

Me: Emma, please sit with your bottom in the chair.
Emma: I can't. It hurts my skeleton.

I hear something suspicious and asked Emma what she was doing. Her reply was, "Mom, don't look at me." Translation: "I am doing something you wouldn't like." She had spilled cheerios all over the diaper bag and carpet. She was attempting to half eat them and half clean them up.

On Sunday John was beyond tired and crying and whining and we got him to bed as fast as humanly possible to stop the torture on both sides. In the hurry, we forgot to brush John's teeth. Emma just about had a melt down at the thought of not brushing John's teeth that night. We always brush our teeth before we go to bed and that was just too much to handle at the thought of breaking routine. Oddly enough, she is okay breaking routine when it comes to her going to the bathroom before bed time - totally unnecessary.

All Done

John can say "all done" now. I was trying to teach him the sign for all done and instead he now says the words. This morning was the first time he said it when he was all done with breakfast of his own volition as opposed to saying it after I had said it. This is the first time that I have seen him say something on purpose using the correct meaning. I have suspected that he can say mom, dad, no, and Emma but wasn't quite sure because he make those babble sounds a lot.

With Emma her first word of similar circumstances was "no" when I dunked her head under the water at the pool. When I was about to do it a second time she looked me squarely in the eyes and forcefully said "NO!" It was too clear to be mistaken for any other meaning. It kinda freaked me out and there was no way I could in good conscience dunk her again.

Fast Sunday

I asked Emma to come to the table to eat lunch. She was playing with something at the time. She looked up and said, "No, I am not eating lunch today because it is Fast Sunday." It was Monday or Tuesday. Apparently Fast Sunday meets her goal of playing as much as possible. She was disappointed when I told her she doesn't get to fast just yet.

One Year!

Birth

One Month

Two Months

Three Months

Four Months

Five Months

Six Months

Seven Months

Eight Months

 

Nine Months

 

Ten Months

 

Eleven Moths

John is one years old. This year has flown. The first few months were rocky but once John got settled into himself he has turned out to be a cute, relatively calm easy going baby. John will tolerate Emma pulling him across the carpet by his arms, hugs in the form of sleeper holds and picking him up by his stomach in a Heimlich maneuver type hold. John loves his food. He has gone through the four stages of acceptance with eating - denial, refusal, cleaning (where the food goes into the mouth, gets cleaned and is sent back out), and now he will actually eat. He is offended if you are eating something and not sharing.

His likes:

• Pacifiers
• Aaron
• Emma
• Anything to chew on
• Anything with lights and buttons
• Anything to chew on
• Cheerios
• Apple
• Orange
• Banana
• Anything to chew on
• Quesadilla (which are really frioledillas)
• People
• Chairs to push around in the kitchen
• Shoes to chew on, specifically Emma's sparkly flip flops
• Anything to chew on
• His bottle
• Broccoli
• The dishwasher
• The bathroom
• Anything to chew on
• Baths
• Other babies
• Anything with lights and buttons
• Being tipped upside down and tickled

His dislikes:

• Stopping playing
• Sippee cups
• Peas
• Being up high on a changing table
• Eating a bottle without being entertained with a toy
• Being left alone
• Aaron being in the anywhere near vicinity and not picking him up
• Sippee cups
• His carseat
• Shopping at the mall (he is ok if Emma is with us at the grocery store)
• Going down the stairs on his tummy
• Being confined in any fashion
• Being left alone in a room.

To celebrate John's birthday we went for a walk in Jones State Forrest and jumped on the swinging bridge. Then we had pizza, calzones, and salads and of course cake and ice cream. John loved the ice cream. He was a bit confused looking at first but then came to appreciate the ice cream. He never really got into the cake. Eventually he just squished it into his fingers. It may be that a tasted or in this cake a lack of interest in cake may be genetic. I am not a fan nor Emma. Ice cream ranks high in our family among all members. Good thing I don't have an interest in baking cakes. I can purchase ice cream - that is in my core proficiency.

John is starting to walk. He started a couple of weeks before his birthday and he is taking more and more steps at a time. He appears to be less frustrated now that he can walk some.

I think John can say "mom", "dad", "Emma", and "no." It is a bit subjective, but I will give it to him.

Peace Out!

I was putting John down for a nap and the routine is that I read him some books, and then sing twinkle twinkle little star. Apparently John has figured out what is going to happen after I am done singing twinkle twinkle little star. He wiggled down from my lap and calmly crawled for the door. He wasn't going as fast as he can to escape. It was more of a "I am not doing this - see you later!" So I picked him up and put him in his crib. He didn't protest too much.

It Happened Earlier Than I Expected

I had my first experience with Emma pretending not to know me in public. At the end of her gymnastics class her teacher pointed her in my direction and she said, "No, that's not my mom." Then she pointed to another area of bleachers where a ton of parents sit and she pointed in that direction and said, "she's up there." I was sitting 20 feet away from her and the bleachers were 50 feet away from her. Hmmm... Really I think that the call of an unexplored place was too strong to ignore. I don't think she is embarrassed to be seen with me in public just yet but maybe I am in denial. My guess is I have 2 years before that happens.