Jones Family Journal: July 2008

... a new post and an update...

Well the last time I updated Brian had just started crawling. I will do my best to hit the highlights of his growth and development. He is changing so much and so fast.

He now crawls like a pro and is pulling up on everything. He will stand for a few seconds on his own, but still likes the security of something to hold onto. He will walk holding on to someone (or something), but still has not taken any independent steps.

He is into everything. He is so curious and I love watching him study things. He notices every little detail it seems like. His favorite games right now are 'hide-and-seek' and 'spin around'. In 'hide-and-seek' I will go into the next room and call his name. He will start to laugh and crawl toward me. When he gets into the room where I am I say 'boo' and he just laughs and laughs. He thinks it is great fun. For 'spin around' he sits in our small desk chair and I spin him. After I stop spinning him you can see his eyes moving back and forth from being so dizzy, but he just laughs and starts trying to spin the chair more. It's pretty funny. He is going to be a thrill seeker like his dad and me.

Brian has FINALLY started sprouting his teeth. About a week ago I was feeding him with a 'real' spoon and I heard it click in his mouth. At first I thought I was just imagining it, but then next time he took a bite I deliberately tried to click the spoon and whad-a-ya-know it clicked! I couldn't believe it. (He was almost ten months old at this point, a little later than most babies). I could feel the tooth in there, but couldn't see it. The next day, Jason felt another tooth right next to that one. They are both on the bottom in the middle. We still can't really see them unless he is screaming, but they are there. He is noticing them too and has been playing with his tongue a lot on his new teeth.

He eats anything and everything. We are slowly moving away from jar baby food into more table like foods. I haven't really found anything that he refuses to eat. He loves food. He drinks well from a sippy cup and we are also going to be going to milk soon instead of formula.

He is starting to sign. He waves 'bye-bye' and signs the sign for milk if he wants something. He also just recently began signing the sign for more. He uses it if he wants more food or if he wants me to do something more/again that I have been doing. He recognizes probably 20 signs or so and I bet it won't be long until he is using a lot more of them.

Just last week he began shaking his head 'no'. At first I was pretty sure he didn't know what it meant, but he proved me wrong. I had a bottle, a sippy cup, and a snack on the table and Brian was signing for something that was on the table. I didn't know what he wanted so I handed him the bottle - he shook his head no! I thought it was a fluke until I handed him his sippy cup and he did it again. When I handed him his snack he began signing again and got all happy. It is more of a game to him than something he uses to communicate, but he does shake his head no if we tell him 'no' about something. It is kind of cute. I am just glad he hasn't figured out that he can tell us no yet!

Brian is trying to talk. He can say ma-ma and da-da and we are pretty sure he knows what they mean. He is also saying 'dog', 'frog', duck' and 'uh-oh'. We don't know for sure if he knows what these mean, and they don't sound exactly like they are supposed to, but they are the same word every time so he is saying them.

It is really interesting to me to watch him grow. He has reached a point where he listens to everything. He listens when he hears the fire trucks outside or the big trucks. He listens to music (and dances too - he LOVES to dance). He mostly listens to words. He wants to know what every thing's name is and wants you to say it several times. I just know he is storing all this information for later when he starts talking. He is figuring out too how to problem solve. If he can't around an object or can't get to something he wants he goes at it from a different way. He is starting to interact more. He will give us a toy or put something in our lap if he wants us to do something with it. He loves to read and have favorite books (and toys too). He has his own little ideas and knows what he wants and is starting to express it. I love watching him learn and grow.

I finally completed another year of medical school (way back at the end of June) and very quickly left for Cape Cod. Jason's whole family was there and it was nice to escape for a while. It was a lot of fun to see all three of the little boys playing together and to see how they are alike and also so different.

(Brian (~9 mo), Jackson (~10 mo), Lennon (~11 mo))

Brian had a blast. He LOVED the water. He would head straight for it every time we went down to the beach. Even though the water was freezing cold, that didn't stop Brian from "diving" right in. There was one occasion where we had to pull hi out of the water because his lips were actually turning blue!

My little fishy!

The fireworks on the 3rd of July (Plymouth's 4th) were amazing. We were right on the beach for the show and there fireworks everywhere. It was on of the most amazing fireworks displays I have ever seen. Brian didn't know what to think about the sound of them at first, but he really liked them. He caught on quick that there was a whistle type sound before the big sound and then being able to see them. He would look in the direction of the whistle and get excited when they went off. It was fun to watch him watch the fireworks.

While we were in Plymouth Jason's parents took Brian for a day and I took Jason to Martha's Vineyard for an areal tour of the island. Our tour was an hour long in a classic bi-plane with an open cockpit and everything. We had the leather helmet and goggles to go with it! I paid a little extra so we could also do aerobatics in the air - AMAZING! It was pretty scary. Way better then any roller coaster! We even had to have parachutes on! It was one of the coolest things I have ever done and Jason loved it too.

The cool plane we rode in.

While we were there we got to explore old town Plymouth. We went and saw the Mayflower (not the actual one, but a real replica). We saw one of the original water mills and even went to a mock plantation that was set up like it would have been after the settlers arrived on the Mayflower. It was very neat. Jason and I are history junkies like that.

Overall, the trip to Plymouth was amazing and we are beyond grateful to Jeff and Laura for making it possible. Here are just a few more of my favorite pictures.