Swinging

Today we went to the park to swing. I had you wrapped up in the Moby on my front, so I thought the motion might help calm you down for a nap. I was wrong. You perked right up and had so much fun. I regretted not bringing my camera with me, so tonight I had Grandma come with us to help me take some pictures.

I love the look of anticipation here.

So tiny!

Stats

Nine month checkup - September 29

weight - 16 pounds, 4 ounces - 1st percentile
height - 28 inches - 43rd percentile
head circumference - 5th percentile

Nine months

Dear Jay,

Today you turn nine months old. You have now been in the outside world longer than you were inside.

Every day you seem to learn something new. You just started saying mama. Although you don't yet know what it means, it still makes me melt to hear you say it. You have mastered crawling and walk all over the place while holding onto our hands. Your second tooth broke through yesterday. Somehow you keep getting cuter every day.

You have struggled with sleep for the last few months, but we are on a mission to fix that. When you had a bad cold this summer, I gave you comfort when you woke up during the night by letting you nurse as much as you needed. You got used to that comfort and haven't been able to put yourself to sleep on your own since then. You have been sleeping in our bed with us, and I have been letting you nurse because frankly, I have gotten more sleep this way. And your papa and I have enjoyed getting more time to cuddle you each night. Your daycare provider mentioned to me last week that they have been having a hard time getting you down for naps, and then the other night, you went and fell out of bed. So two nights ago, I decided it was time to retrain you to sleep on your own. You cried and wailed and I went back and forth between calming you down in my arms and putting you back in your crib and leaving your room. Finally, you gave up or just wore yourself out and you were out for a couple of hours. When you woke up at 3:00am, Papa didn't have quite the same resolve and brought you into bed. Last night, rinse and repeat the process, but it took about half the time for you to finally settle down, and I was able to get you back to sleep on your own when you had your early morning wake up. Tonight was a little harder, but you were more tired having had a shorter afternoon nap. I am proud of you for the progress you have made. And I'm also proud of myself for having the resolve to make this work for you. I am confident that we are setting you up for successful sleep in your future by doing this hard work now. But we do miss having you with us at night.

Fall is here now. Papa is in the midst of marching band season, and the weather has cooled down. We can't wait to take you to a pumpkin patch next weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Hoover. The leaves are starting to change colors and we are looking forward to raking them into a pile for you to play in. We are so thrilled for the little person that you are becoming and are so excited for what's yet to come.

Love,
Mama

Football Friday

This picture is from last week when Jay attended his first football game and marching band performance. He LOVED the crowd and lights and noise. The band didn't interest him too much; the flags and pom poms and the umbrella over his head were more captivating. I was holding him in my arms on the track at about the 45 yard line, and every thirty seconds or so he would kick his feet and wave his arms all together with such pure excitement at all there was to see.
And I discovered his first tooth! Bottom right.

Uncooperative

Two out of three looking at the camera will just have to do.

"I only have one eye!"

Grandpa tickles are the best

Family puzzle fun

Sleeping tiger

Huh?

And another test from blogger's email

Pulling himself up

photo.jpg, originally uploaded by mthimmesch.

I'm testing out a new (to me) tool from flickr.com that may make it a lot easier to post pictures from my iPad.