38 weeks

Well, my days are numbered...Jack took his first steps on Monday!  He's been standing up every chance he can get.   Each day he's been getting more and more brave with letting go or just holding on with one hand.  Jack was standing by himself for a few seconds and then took 3 big steps to Jon and fell.  CRAZY!  I was so proud & excited, which then led to terror and anxiety :)  Our days are about to change very quickly.  He's already into everything, so my head will just continue to spin.

Jack took a step backwards in swim.  He's been doing so good, but yesterday and today went south.  Jack is very unsure of men for some reason.  Jon is the only man that Jack will let hold him.  He's let his grandpa's and some of our friends but only for a few minutes.  I've been noticing he's fine with women (go figure), but cries almost every time with a man.  I'm sure it's because he's surrounded by women almost every day with our playgroups, but it's so silly.  We had a makeup swim class and the instructor was male.  He was okay for a little bit, but then started to meltdown, and anytime the instructor had to hold him to have him swim, he cried.  We had our usual class today and it wasn't too much better.  Hopefully we are back to normal next week.

I think we are also getting another tooth.  This might be part of the problem with swim as well :)  When in doubt, blame teething!  It's awful!  We can see a little white spot on the bottom next to his 2 front teeth. He's been super drooly and trying to eat everything...including his arm, LOL.  Crazy kid!

He's saying "Mama" ALL the time.  I love it.  Today he started saying "Dada" a little more.  He's learned how to wave "bye bye", give a high 5 and plays peek-a-boo with himself.  He's growing up so fast!

Well, hope everyone has a great week!

Lots of love,
The Waags
 

35, 36 and almost 37 weeks :)

Sorry it's been awhile since I've updated this.  It's been a busy couple of weeks.

I guess we left off right at our trip to Dallas.  We had a wonderful time visiting Auntie Molly and cousin Ri Bug.  We also got to see Mama Mac, Mimi & Pops while we were there.  Jack did alright on the drive up-- not his best, not his worst.  Thankfully he slept all the way home.  Unfortunately, he slept all the way home because he was up most of the night before.  I think we are getting new teeth...yay/boo.  Friday night, he did great.  Slept like a champ and took great naps on Sat.  He was up for about 3 hours crying.  He bit me for the first time a (happy birthday Mom!) and was chewing on his pacifier after that, so I'm assuming his teeth were bothering him.  I finally gave up and put him in bed with me.  Needless to say, I didn't sleep much at all.  I barricaded him with pillows and the wall & tried to get some sleep.  He is a crazy sleeper...he gets it honest.  At about 4am, I put him in his pack-n-play and he slept for a few more hours.  We stopped in to visit Mama Mac on the way home.  We had such a good time chatting with her.  Jack loved the camel foot rest that all the grandchildren have played with.  Put bells on a string and he has entertainment for hours.  

We had cupcakes for my birthday.  Jack didn't seem to really have any reactions so far.   We had pizza the other night and he's been a bit fussy today, but who knows if it's really from the dairy.  We will try it again.  Either way, it's better than what it used to be.  Thanks everyone for the flowers, sweet cards, gifts, calls and texts.  It has been such a wonderful year!

Next up was Halloween.  We had such a great time!  One of our neighbors had a block party in our section of the neighborhood.  It was great to finally meet some of neighbors and participate in Halloween.  I've worked late every single Halloween since college, so I haven't really done anything until this year.  Jon and Jack were astronauts and I was wonder woman.  I decided instead of buying a costume I would make my own.  Everything in the stores for women seem so skimpy and pricey, so I thought it was time to get crafty.  I was pretty pleased with how everything came out.  

This weekend, Jack decided it was time to start saying Da-da.  My birthday weekend he kept saying "mama" and "mom", but now he is showing Daddy some love.  On Saturday, he was talking up a storm.  Just crawling around saying "mama, dada, papa, rara" and other noises.  You can tell he's pretty proud of himself.  He's using any and everything to stand himself up.  Sometimes he lets go, but he's still unsure about it.  For the most part, he's holding himself up just standing, but he likes to just touch something for balance.  Yesterday, he was pushing his walker and decided he wanted me to hold one hand, while the other hand was on the walker.  So we walked around and around...and around the coffee table while he held on to my finger and his walker.   Yes, I completely melted :)  I could have done that forever.  

Well, again, sorry for the late update.  Here are a bunch of pictures from the past few weeks.  I'll post a second page when I get all the pictures from the pumpkin patch up...hopefully I can get them up this evening.  Hope everyone is great!

Lots of love,
The Waags

Ready for hunting!

Let me out!!

Thinking about being friends with Cash

Making funny faces with his cousin

He sure loves his Auntie Molly!

Such a special moment.  Playing patty cakes with Mama Mac...I have video too :)

Swing time

Get this hat off of me!

My boys

Mimicking Daddy.  He learned how to stick his tongue out that night when Daddy does the same

100% boy.  Why go around, when you can just drive over it?!

Happy Halloween!

Love this boy!

We really need to discuss all these pictures you take of me. 

34 Weeks

Hi All,

Jack was so excited to get new snacks.  We got him the "happy puffs".  I made the mistake of getting the "greens" and his tummy cannot handle them just yet.  He was doing so good at picking them up with his pointer and thumb and getting them in his mouth.  We went to dinner with some friends and took these along.  He LOVED it.  He really seemed to enjoy feeding himself.  That night and the next were hell though.  Nothing would calm him down, we rocked, walked, pat, bounced, tried to nurse- not even the boob solved the problem.  After the boob failed, I was out of tricks. The boob ALWAYS works, LOL.  Poor little guy was miserable and just flailing his body all over.  That was his first try at store bought baby food, and I think the last for awhile.

Other than him being gassy, he's been a happy boy.  He LOVES his new swim lessons.  We had a lesson today and Jon got to go and watch.  He was smiling and squealing the entire time.  As soon as we started to get in the pool, he smiled, and started to kick his little legs.  They usually start the babies off with 1 second under water on the second class.  Jack ended up doing 3 and he finally kicked his little legs and swam.  He never did that at the previous class!  He's kicking, jumping off the sides and splashing around.  I'm so happy with the new lessons and Jack seems to be as well :)  The goal for the class is 10 seconds under water by Jan.  Can't wait!

We are still doing our playdates with his friends at least once a week.  It's so funny to see the difference between boys and girls, even at such a young age.  The girls are sitting there playing quietly in their own little space, and here comes the Tasmanian devil, Jack.  He's "touching" (clawing, pulling, etc) faces and hair, knocking kids over, using them like a jungle gym, stealing toys...he doesn't understand how strong he is.  He doesn't even really cry when he falls either.  Jon and I don't make a big deal when he falls, so maybe that is why.  If he does cry, we know it must have actually hurt pretty bad.  

We are finally able to take walks again with the cooler weather.  I am so excited for fall.  We are going to the pumpkin patch this weekend with Jack's little girlfriend Caroline.  I can't wait to take pictures of the kiddos. 

Well, that's about it for now.  Hope everyone has a great week!

Lots of love,

The Waags

33 Weeks

I'm trying to freeze time and it's just not working.  Each day is something new for the little guy.  His current obsession is standing and trying to walk.  He's loving the push walker and doesn't seem to want to stop.  He's tried just letting go of stuff while he's standing, not realizing that he will fall down quickly.  He of course loves to practice while he's supposed to be sleeping.  I'll look at the monitor and he's holding on to the edge of the crib, walking around the crib and going after the monitor.  We had one sitting on the edge of the crib and that has hit the deck at least a dozen times.  All of a sudden you look at the monitor and there is Jack's face and hands coming at you...and then there's a loud thud from it hitting the floor.  

He has 2 new games he likes to play.  He will make the raspberry noise with his tongue, and then Jon or I will do it back.  He loves to do this back and forth.  He also scrunches up his face and breathes in air from his nose and back out.  When I make this face at him, he'll do the same right back to me.  When we are driving we just go back and forth with the raspberry and the nose trick and he starts smiling.  He tries doing the raspberry while eating sometimes, which is obviously not ideal.  

He tried carrots this past week and seemed to like them.  I'm not crazy about them because they stain EVERYTHING!  He looked like a little oompa loompa from Wizard of Oz after he was done eating because the carrots turned his skin orange where he made a mess.  

Jack started a new swim class this week since our other one was over for the season.  We love it!  The pool is indoors and they actually do circuits of different activities in the water.  The pool is also a saltwater pool, so we don't have that chlorine smell when we are done.  They also have a slide for the babies to go down.  I wasn't sure if Jack would freak out or love it...he seemed to like it just fine :)

Jack has been evicted from Mommy's garden tub to his own big boy bathtub.  I didn't think the transition would be a big deal at all...WRONG!   He was standing up too much in his baby tub that we put inside my big tub, so we said it was time for him to just be in the big tub.  The first night he was really tired since he gave up his 3rd nap.  As soon as we put him in the water it was a FULL meltdown.  Standing up, trying to get out of the tub.  He was so upset that I thought the water might be too hot.  Water seemed fine, so I jumped in the tub with him and he was a little better.  Still, he wouldn't get in the water, he was climbing up me as high as he could get.  It was so weird, because he's been in plenty of "big boy" tubs at my parents, Jon's parents, my brother's and my sister's house, so it wasn't anything foreign to him.  Just a new phase I guess :)  I thought for sure the second night would be better...not by much.  I didn't get in the tub this time, we just threw a bunch of toys his way and kept cheering him on.  We will see how tonight goes.  Eventually, he will be fine with it.  

Well, I think that's about it for now.  I hope to NOT be reporting walking anytime soon.  I'm savoring each day I have left :)

Have a great week!

Lots of love,
The Waags 

Jack and Addie

Eli & Jack sporting the speedos

He's a crawler

The scrunched nose face :)

We are trying to master the sippy cup!

Lotte tackling Jack

"Do I have anything on my face???"

Can't turn your head for a second...

32 Weeks

Well, the days of leaving Jack in a room for a quick second are officially over.  We left him sitting playing with his toys for 2 seconds, came in and he was standing.  STANDING!?!?!  He is pulling himself up and standing while holding on to his walker, the coffee table, anything that can support him.  He was holding onto the pack-n-play Sunday morning, and started to scale the sides of it.  I'm not ready for an early walker!   He's crawling now too.  He doesn't always do it, he still army crawls most of the time, but he's able to do it. He doesn't want to be held at all, he's ready to move!

He has said "da-da" and "ma-ma", but of course has no idea what he is saying.  The other day when his Tinga was on the phone, we were trying to get him to say "hi", it actually sounded like he did say it!  He also acted like he just found his tongue.  He's been feeling his gums with it lately and thinks it's just hilarious when you do funny things with your tongue.  If you make the raspberry noise at him, he will do it back.  

On top of all of these new tricks, I think he has grown about an inch.  All of his sleepers are getting a bit snug; he'd be showing off chest hair if he had any.   

For now swim is TBD, it all depends on the weather.  Lately, we've been getting so much rain, so the water is freezing.  We decided to hold our own music group instead of going to the organized one.  We had our first "class" today and it was a lot of fun.   At the end of the day, it's an excuse to get the babies together and have them socialize, as well as the mommies.

He's pretty much dropped his 3rd nap.  There are days I can't even drive around and get a last nap out of him.  He's in the stage where 3 naps are too much and 2 just aren't enough.  It does make for an exhausted little guy at bedtime though which is nice.  He's too tired to fight it.  There's times where I swear he's trying to jump out of my arms to get into his crib.  

Well, that's about it for now.   Hope everyone has a great week!

Lots of love!
The Waags

He's SO proud of himself

His trusty baseball

He's as surprised as we are

"helping" mom cook dinner...helping by staying entertained!

Ready for some grub

Right before he stood up.

31 weeks

Well happy 7 months to our little guy!  Time is flying by!  I think we will have a crawler by the end of the month...or at least by 8 months for sure.  He's so close and gets pretty frustrated, but he's just not quite there yet.  He does have the army crawl mastered though.  You can tell he knows there is a faster way to get where he's going, but he still needs some practice.  I'll take all the time I can get :)

We had a wonderful time in Dallas.  Jack got to see his Tinga, Mimi, Pops, Auntie Molly and cousin Riley.  It was a weekend of attention and loving for the little guy and he soaked it up!  Somehow I barely took any pictures!  I wish we had more time so we could have seen the rest of the family though.  He was a good little traveler as well.  Not too much fuss on the way up there, or on the way back, which was great!  We stopped to eat downtown and on the way back, and he was a happy camper both times.

He is great at sitting up on his own- too great for his own good.  He'll get up in the middle of the night and sit up and start playing with his little pacifiers.  He'll organize them into a neat little pile (must take after me) and then starts testing each one out.  The other night he must have tired himself out, because we saw him face down on the mattress but still in the sitting position.  There is no way he was comfortable, but he slept that way for close to an hour.  It looked like he was doing baby yoga :) Namaste. 

This week isn't too crazy for us.  We have swimming with Miss Amy, and then a playdate with Jack's buddy, Eli.  We are going to take some time off music class.  It's clashing with his nap and they aren't really cleaning the bells off (one of our friends already got sick).  I'm all for him getting some germs, but I was totally grossed out last time with the kid next to us couldn't stop coughing and had snot rolling down his face.  So the girls decided we would do our own music class.  :)  This should be fun and probably hilarious.  

This week we are adding apples and carrots to Jack's diet.  We were going to do meat, but I need to speak with his GI doctor and see what they suggest since he's apparently allergic to the animal protein.  Jack loved the apples though!  He was pitching a fit being in his highchair while I was making his food, I put a spoonful in his mouth while he was crying and instantly he went silent and then started grunting for more :)  This kid keeps me laughing!

Well, have a great week.  

Lots of love!

The Waags

Figuring out the big boy walker

First time at P Terry's

Morning cuddles

I can't get enough of that smile

Our buddy Eli

His namaste pose.  Legs straight ahead and facedown. 

30 weeks

Well, good news!  Jack won't need dentures :)  We can see his 2 bottom teeth poking through.  I thought for sure the doctor has been lying to me for the past 3 months, haha.  Poor little guy isn't having the greatest time with them either, but I've heard some major horror stories with teething, and we haven't had it THAT bad...knock on wood.  Now that I said that, he will probably be up all night. Naps haven't been all that sweet since these 2 little boogers decided to show up and he's been getting up more in the evenings, but I guess it's to be expected.  The doctor said he has one up top coming in as well, but we can't see that one yet.  This too shall pass...

Along with his teeth keeping him up, his new tricks are keeping him up during naptime.  I'm all for "practice makes perfect", but there is a time and place, and nap time in his crib is NOT what I have in mind.  I'll put him down for his nap, turn on the monitor and he's already sitting up staring at the camera and playing with his pacifiers and monkey.  Yesterday, he was sitting up for about 20 min playing.  He was just reaching over grabbing his paci, putting it in the pile with the others and then trying out each one.  Such a little show off :)  He's also practicing his bear crawl techniques in his crib.  He's planking and sticking his butt up.  He's not sure if he wants to stand or move...I'm not sure which is the lesser of the 2 evils either.  It's all just a matter of time before he is running around this house causing all sorts of trouble.

He loves his walker, and he LOVES to play with the trashcan.  He does NOT love it when mommy tells him no though.  He's testing me for sure.  He'll roll over to the trashcan in his walker, start reaching for the bag while ever so carefully keeping an eye on me to see if I'm going to catch him in the act.  I'll say, "Jack..." and he stops but doesn't put his hand down.  The other day he was just looking at it, and then looking at me, and then going "mmm mmmm", over and over.  I keep telling him no and moving his hand, which sometimes leads to a meltdown.  It's clear he knows he's not supposed to do it though.  Good times ahead :)

He is awesome at finding the ONE thing in the room he's not supposed to have.  I was in the shower the other day and just put him in there to crawl around.  I picked up everything I thought could be a potential hazard.  I'm right in the middle of washing my hair when he decides to army crawl over to the door stopper, pulls at it, the white tip falls off, and he of course tries to put it in his mouth.  I nearly kill myself getting out of the shower.  Needless to say, there won't be door stoppers in this house for awhile.  He also loves power cords...oh joy. 

Jack is also really enjoying his food these days.  So far, I think his favorites are zucchini, squash, and sweet potatoes.  Last night I mixed the sweet potatoes with the squash and he kept going "mmm mmm" and getting really excited.  For breakfast, he's been doing oatmeal, bananas and pears.  He seems to really like the oatmeal mixed with fruit, but not so much by itself...I can't say I blame him!  Next week we are going to introduce meats.  Jon's ready to give the kid some BBQ...all in good time :)

Tomorrow we are heading to Dallas.  Jon's mom is in town for work, so Jack will get to visit with both of his grandmothers and his Pops.  We also get to see Molly & Ri bug...wish Bubba was here!  We are really looking forward to the weekend with family.  Hopefully Jack does as good as he did last time with the roadtrip.  At least this time I'm not driving solo!

Well, hope everyone has a wonderful week.   

Lots of love!

The Waags

Our meet up from last week.  Look at those little girls checking out Jack :)

Jack and Sophia

Going to be a fisherman like Daddy

1/2 asleep and still asking for more cereal

Trying to master crawling in his sleep