Month 11 in Pictures

Oh my goodness. Oh. My. Goodness! The last monthly update before my sweet baby is one. ONE. Oh my.

This month has been so much fun. In addition to celebrating his first Christmas and all the fun that goes along with the season, Jonah is learning so much and doing so many new things these days. I really love this age. (I say that about a lot of ages...) The personality starts to really shine through, and he is so stinkin' playful and cute.

I'm not kidding when I say he is learning all kinds of new things. He is officially signing. After getting a bite of Eli's birthday cookie cake, he pounded his little fists together to ask for more! Now he signs "more" all of the time...sometimes it is random and sometimes it is whenever he wants more food or even more of a person or activity. So precious. He signs milk too.

I have continued to supplement with formula and coconut milk this month. He is eating everything. The boy loves to eat. His 5th tooth cut at the start of this month which helps him chew anything I let him try. (*interesting side note: he favors his left hand when picking up food....do we have a lefty???)

Jonah loves lasagna!

Loves meat, snacks, fruit (bananas!!!), cheese, and bread. Doesn't love veggies, but will eat them.  He gained another half pound and is up to 18.5 pounds. He is definitely still a peanut.

Here he is wearing all 3-6 month clothes and they fit him just fine. I seriously just packed up some 0-3 month pants. Crazy, right? Mostly wears 6 or 9 month stuff and finally starting to not be swallowed up by the 6-12 month clothes.

He has no serious interest in standing or walking, but the boy can crawl and cruise like crazy. He climbs well (eek!) and loves to explore...as long as Mama is nearby and watching. He has tried to stand a little bit here and there, but not really. He seems too nervous to try. Sweet boy.

Jonah has definitely become more vocal, finally figuring out how to open up that mouth to cry (scream?) a bit more. It was bound to happen. He will scream to get my attention as I am often busy bustling around the kitchen while he is in his high chair. He points at everything and says "do!" He babbles Dada and Mama more (finally) and will say "uh oh" when he drops something and "ow" when he is hurt. He will even purposely bonk himself on the head, pull his own hair, or bite his hand and then say, "owwww." And then giggle. He loves the attention.

And he gets lots of it from all of us. Jonah loves his brothers and will point at them and laugh at all of their funny antics. Eli and Jude love to try to get a belly laugh from him.

Jonah gives high fives and kisses on demand and loves to dance to music. He will bounce on his knees and flap his arms when music is on. I love a dancing baby! Adorable!!

He plays with toys more and is definitely in the dumping stage. His favorite toys to dump are the kitchen toys. He also enjoys playing with doors, swinging them back and forth. Balls are another favorite as he has figured out how to throw and roll them.

Still a fabulous sleeper. Sucks that thumb...only when he is tired and ready to go to bed. He grabs a blankie and snuggles in for a little hug and that's it. He might fuss for a minute, but rarely longer than a minute or two. I can't believe I actually have a baby that sleeps.

Jonah is truly a joy and such a happy, even-tempered baby. Can't wait to celebrate his first birthday next month....just wish it all hadn't flown by so fast.

January Slow Down

After all of the Christmas craziness wore off and family left and Daddy went back to work, we did what we could to stay busy and have fun with the rest of our time off of school. It got chilly and rained a lot, so we stayed inside and kept ourselves entertained. 

Jonah learned to give kisses on command. Always adorable and fun.

Not sure this was one of my smarter Mommy decisions: letting the boys play in the paper shreds...

They had a blast, but cleaning it up took a whiiiiiiile. They helped. In the end, not something I will do regularly, but still fun. (....we did find paper scraps in strange places for the next week or so....)

January is time to come down and slow down after the crazy busy season of birthdays and holidays. The temperatures finally drop...it takes a while for winter to settle in for us in Florida. The cold brings dryer air too which is always means good hair days....for some of us. 

Static much? It does this EV. ER.Y.Day in the car. Love it!! 

(Eli's hair, on the other hand, always flattens out and looks a hot mess during cold days...especially if he has been wearing a hat or a hood.)

See, it really does freeze in FL. The Polar Vortex got us too, and it stayed cold enough all day that there was ice on the playground after school. The boys were in heaven. Only Florida boys would be so excited about ice. Eli was thrilled to find an inch of water that had frozen at the bottom of a bucket in our backyard too.

And just when I thought we were settling in to a nice, calm, smooth daily routine, we had some drama. Jude's fingers were accidentally shut in a heavy door at Mom's Morning Out. He was in some serious pain, so off to the doctor we went. And of course, we waited over an hour to see her. In that time, he seemed to be doing much better, but after checking him out, the doctor still wanted us to get x-rays. So we did.

Cute little bones, right? They looked fine to me, but what do I know. Thankfully, we got the phone call that all was fine. But when it rains, it pours. That evening, Jude went down for the count. He woke up from his nap with a fever nearing 103.

I was in no hurry to rush back to the doctor again...after all, I was convinced that the long wait in the germ infested waiting room had contaminated him in the first place.... I tried to see if he would rally, but after day 2 of fever, not eating, whining, and lots of sleeping I figured he was really sick and probably needed to see a doctor. 

It was also around this time that I discovered a rash all over his body. The doctor was quick to make his diagnosis once the strep test (immediately!) came back positive and feeling his sandpapery rash: Scarlet Fever. Really? People still get that? Sigh. Some strong antibiotics quickly got him back on his feet. Jude was back to his crazy self within 24 hours of the meds. Thank goodness for modern medicine. 

With all the lying around, Eli was climbing the walls....literally. Nah. He was just getting his cereal off of the top shelf. Doesn't everyone do it this way? 

Boys. Crazy, I tell ya. 

Things are finally starting to seem a little normal around here. Eli is rocking it at school. He totally brought home another straight A report card. Way to go, kiddo!

And I can't deny it any longer....we are counting down to Jonah's first birthday. I'm in party planning mode. We are keeping it simple for this little cereal snatcher. (He found Jude's bowl of Mini Wheats and could.not.stop.eating. Baby heaven!)

Wish January would slow down a little more cause it sure seems to be flying by. No? Not gonna happen, huh? Oh well. Then I guess I need to start getting excited about celebrating our little Love Bug.

I'm Going to be an Aunt.....Again!!!

I have been bursting with excitement and beaming from ear to ear ever since my big sister and her hubby shared that they have a little baby girl on the way. Wahoooooo!!!!  They shared this sweet announcement with us all on Christmas Eve. There were lots of screams, whoops, tears, and hugs all around. It was truly the best.

This sweet, little girl is truly an answer to prayers. She is loved so much already. I cannot wait to love on her and hug her.....and spoil her rotten. 

Congratulations, Kristi and Steve!! 

We love you and are over the moon excited for you. You are going to be amazing parents. 

xoxo

Our Christmas in Pictures

Too many pictures. Not enough time. Not enough time to take them well or edit them well. Gonna let the pictures do most of the talking. Some captions here and some highlights there. 

Two days before Christmas, Matt turned 38, and we celebrated him with Momo's pizza, a Texas sheet cake, and some tasty libations. It was just right.

Sweet cuddles with Grandpa....I love these moments.

Our Christmas was merry. Very merry....once it finally got underway and the to-do lists were finally tossed into the trash. I felt the stress slipping off of my shoulders as we sat down for the children's mass on Christmas Eve. I loved seeing the boys all dressed up. So glad I was able to get a few pictures of them in their fancy duds before dashing off for Christmas Eve dinner at my folks'.

Their faces make me smile.

We had a great time at my parents place with the family for dinner. The boys were a wee bit excited about it all. Family, fun, Santa, you know....

Aunt Zany FTW

The two littlest boys zonked out on the car ride home, so we tucked them into bed. It was time for the sugar plums to start dancing in their heads. Eli took care of hanging everyone's stockings and getting Santa's treats ready. Finally, Daddy read Twas the Night Before Christmas before it was time for Eli to head to bed. We had been tracking Santa on our NORAD app, and we knew that we needed to hurry if Eli was going to be asleep before Santa came. 

And he came, all right. He filled their stockings until they were stuffed and brought each boy 3 gifts (just like baby Jesus!). 

Christmas morning, the boys were up before we were for the first time. They waited eagerly in their room until Daddy told them they could come down. It is always such a delight to see the look on their faces when they first see the tree and goodies. We took our time and took breaks to eat breakfast and play, so it took a while to get through it all, but the boys were overjoyed and thrilled with their gifts. So fun.

Jonah's first Christmas! Merry Christmas, Little One.

Eli had asked Santa for a real bow and arrow (he's been a little obsessed ever since reading and seeing the Narnia books.) I think you can see how excited he was about getting it. Go Santa!

This was Jonah's favorite gift, fo' sho.  

He threw this gift aside to get to the phone. He knows what he wants....

We eventually made it through all of the gifts, got dressed, and headed over to my parents place for Round 2. The boys were spoiled rotten and got more fun goodies. They loved playing with it all, spending QT with the grandparents, aunts, and uncles, and taking advantage of Grandpa's awesome back yard to try out some of the new toys. 

An Aunt Sandwich!!

The out-of-towners were leaving the day after Christmas, so we tried to spend as much time over there as possible. We even headed back over the next morning for more backyard fun and adventures.

And to wrap up the Christmas adventures, we headed out to The Lake to celebrate the season with our extended family too. My boys always love all of the fun runaround time outside. 

The remainder of our 12 Days of Christmas were spent relaxing, recovering, and playing with all of our new goodies. It was a really nice Christmas. Our first as a family of 5. I see new traditions beginning (...and some that need to be brought back) and more memory making in the coming years.

I finished taking down and packing up all of our decorations the last two weeks. Little by little....the cards and outside lights were the last to come down. The house looks so plain now. Bigger. But plain. Our new year has already been full and plans are being made to celebrate our baby turning one. Yikes! Hard to believe that I was super preggo this time last year. We had no idea that Jonah would be surprising us a little early. All of a sudden, I am feeling overwhelmingly nostalgic and sentimental. Deep breaths, Mama. Deep breaths.