Thank You Uncle Cousin Charles

JJ's cousin Charles (we call him Uncle Charles because he's really old enough to be JJ's uncle) came to visit for Thanksgiving this week.  JJ has known how to blow raspberries for a while now, but thanks to Uncle Charles, he has refined his technique to perfection.  So, Uncle Charles, this one is for you :

Prayers for Hazel

One of my BabyFit mommy friends, Amanda, has a beautiful baby girl, Hazel, who is currently in the hospital.  After a misdiagnosis by an idiot ER doctor who told them it was the croup, they discovered she'd swallowed a battery from a remote (the *good* doctor who operated on Hazel said this is a very common thing - especially with those little batteries from greeting cards.  Please take note and DO NOT send those kind of talking greeting cards to anyone with little children!!!)  She's had surgery to remove the battery, but has suffered some damage to her esophagus due to the acid in the battery.  Please pray for a fast and complication free recovery for sweet little Hazel.  We're all thinking about y'all Amanda!!

JJ's First Thanksgiving!

The whole Baker-side of the family came to visit and what a wonderful time was had by all!  JJ got to play with all his Aunties and Uncles (plus a bonus visit from Auntie Angela) and was just about as happy as you could want. All three turkeys were delicious (a roasted heritage turkey from Rehoboth Ranch, a fried turkey and a Greenberg smoked turkey) as were the traditional accompaniments that John made and the tasty desserts from Casa Linda Bakery.  

Poor JJ - all worn out from the festivities!

Babyfit

Since I was about, oh 4 months pregnant, I have been on a website called BabyFit.  It has lots of cool articles about how to stay fit during and after pregnancy, advice on breast feeding, etc. as well as a way to log your calories, track your weight, record your workouts etc.  It's a really useful little site and I found it invaluable while I was pregnant to help me watch my weight and really stay healthy.  

An unexpected area of the site that I would never, in a million year, have thought I would find interesting/useful is the message boards.  When you sign up, you enter your due date and they assign you to a message board with a bunch of other ladies who are all due the same month as you.  I've never really been much into the virtual interaction thing, so I sort of just lurked for a while, reading posts as the titles interested me and so on.  Once in a while something wierd would happen (because, well, being pregnant is sort of weird anyway)  and I started to post questions.  The answers were always so helpful and everyone was so welcoming that I started reading and posting more and more.  Eventually, I started to think of all the gals in my "February club" as my close and personal friends - people I could say anything to and who I would try my best to help if they were in trouble.  I've shared joys and sorrows with them and listened to theirs in turn.  I've never actually met any of these wonderful ladies in person, and yet I have this very real connection with them.   

What an unexpected and wonderful thing virtual communication can be. 

Count JJ!

Well, all the fussing and drooling have finally produced another two teeth - and this time they're canines!  Got a little vampire on our hands here.  As soon as they come all the way in, I'll definitely be snapping some shots for future blackmail material :)  In the meantime, I'll just have to teach him how to say "mama, blah!"

Teething Myths

As poor lil JJ has only 2 teeth so far (on the bottom, like a little upside down rabbit) we know we've got lots more to go.  And with all the DROOL and fussiness and a host of other things that indicate we'll be seeing more cuspids any moment, I definitely have teething on the brain.  Well, one of the ladies on the babyfit board posted this really interesting site about the myths of teething:

http://my-teething-baby.com/baby-teething-myths.php

OMG - some of this stuff is too funny!  But I guess maybe I ought to let the dog lick his face more often ;)

Standing without help - or anything to pull up on!

John and I were running around this morning, getting ready to go to work and had plopped JJ in the pack n play (playpen) while we took care of a few things.  He's playing quietly, sort of talking to himself and all of a sudden it gets really quiet.  John walks in and I here "OhmyLord!"  I come running in and JJ is standing there in his playpen smiling at us.  Standing.  Now, there's NOTHING in the playpen for him to grap onto - it's a mesh side affair with no bars or anything like that inside.  So how the #@% did he get standing up?!?!  Yikes!  John is going to have to get moving on the childproofing!

Crawling...mostly

Well, we've got three out of the four limbs going - both arms and one leg (he alternates).  The final leg just kind of gets dragged along.  It's like he's just about to stand up so he doesn't really want to commit to having both legs crawling at once.  What a crazy little boy!  We shall have to change his name to Igor :)