Happy Birthday to the J-dog!

It is so hard to believe that our little baby is one year old already! The J-dog's birthday on Thursday was relatively uneventful, as I had to work, but we had a small birthday party on Saturday with just some close friends who have a baby the same age. There was brunch food and Bellinis for the grown-ups, and string cheese, melon pieces and Cheerios for the little ones. And of course, the piece de resistance - cupcakes! Although he got off to a slow start, the J-dog eventually dug in with gusto and enjoyed eating his first sweet treat. He obviously doesn't have too much of a sweet tooth, as he eschewed the icing for the cake itself, but the icing still managed to end up all over the place.

Present opening was spread over the course of several days, as he received oodles of loot. Favorites include a classic Chatter Telephone, a (pink!) watering can, and a little green dump truck from Mom and Dad (to go with his beloved little blue car). He also received some adorable outfits from friends and family, lots of good books, puzzles, stacking blocks and his first crayons and coloring books. Lots of things to keep us busy, and in style, for the next year!

As the first year milestone is upon is, so is the inquisitive mind and hard-headedness of a toddler. The J-dog's determinism has gotten him through the cat door of the gate that blocks off the rest of the house from the living room, so we have to be ever-vigilent to make sure he doesn't make a break for it. He gets better by the day at standing and cruising - we think he'll be walking soon. And he enjoys going to the park and crawling around to explore the grass and trees, while watching the joggers and bicycles go by. He is also a total flirt, smiling and waving at anyone who passes by. It is easy to see that he is a sweet boy with a vivacious personality. Even though he definitely keeps us on our toes and wears us out by the end of the day, every day continues to be a joy and an adventure. And as my semester is coming to an end soon, I'll be able to go back to spending all my days with my little boy as he continues his explorations of the world....and possibly some new adventures coming our way soon. Here is a picture from an outing in the park this past week. It is so fun to just go hang out with him as he watches the world go by.

Random ramblings

As I mentioned in my last post, of course there are lots of things to catch up on. I am constantly thinking of things that I need to write about here, and then just don't get around to it. The J-dog is keeping me on my feet. He is super-mobile and crazy active. Although not walking yet, he is a master crawler, and pulls himself up with ease. He also cruises, even with just one hand. But his stints at solo-standing only last about one second. So we'll see.

He also is not really saying any words but makes lots of sounds. He goes "brrrrrrrmmmm brrrrrrmmmmm" a lot, and not just associated with his little car. He also likes to click his tongue - we taught him that and now he will initiate click conversations. We reply with clicks and he gets a big kick out of it. Of course he is really good at the "mamamamama" sound, but only once or twice have I heard him stop at only two "ma's" where it actually sounded like "mama". Once was this morning, and he was repeating after I said "This is coffee for mama." So I am still waiting for the spontaneous production of the word with meaning.

I am constantly impressed with how good he is at playing by himself and keeping himself amused. Now that we have our living room baby-proofed to the gills, I can be in here on my computer while he plays. I am very proud of his independence. But I also love it when he crawls over to me, pulls up, and reaches his arms in the air to be snuggled. Or when he hands me a book and grunts.

It seems like I only just went back to work and now the semester is getting close to wrapping up. I only have one more month of school, and then will be back to having all my days with the J-dog. I actually have been enjoying working again, but this is the point in the semester when students start slacking off, so I get very frustrated with them and start looking forward to the end.

Amazing as it seems, the J-dog will be one year old in a few weeks! I guess I need to think about weaning, and I have very mixed feelings. I am actually amazed that I have made it this long and am still breastfeeding him 4 times a day. There are just 2 days a week when I am at work that he misses two of those sessions. He doesn't really take a bottle for the first missed session, but he does for the afternoon one, so I guess that dropping that late-morning session would be the natural thing to do, replacing it with a snack. I just can't bring myself to start doing that, even though I know that twice a week he does it and is fine with it. I think I would feel better about it if he were better at drinking from the sippy cup, but he still really doesn't take it. So far I have only been giving him water in it. I don't know if he would like it better if it were juice, but I am reluctant to start him on that. I am sort of waiting until he is a year so I can try milk. I guess he really is close enough that I could try now. Oh well.

So here is a final random rambling thought. I looked at all the people who follow my blog, and realized that I have no idea who most of you are! Most of the people who comment regularly aren't even signed up as "following" my blog, but I know you from blog land and the bulletin boards for you-know-where. But every now and then someone will come out of lurkerdom and comment on my blog (which I love!), but it makes me realize that I have an actual audience out there and have no idea how many there are, and who you are! I don't really have the right to complain about that, because I was a lurker for a long time in blog-land before I finally got the courage to speak up and start commenting, and then to start my own blog. I'm just curious. So if any of you want to pipe up and say hi, I would love it.

Ok, I'm off now. Today is J's birthday (I have two Aries men in my life!) and he is taking the day off. He is sleeping in now, and then I'm going to make him pancakes. I am mostly not a very good wife when it comes to cooking for him, but I want today to be a special day for him. Plus he mentioned a while ago that he wanted pancakes for his birthday... so how could I refuse?