10 months. I can't believe it. He is so much fun. He is so INTO EVERYTHING! It's nuts.

He has 6 teeth now, is a master crawler, but prefers to pull himself up and walk while hanging on to stuff. My mom & dad got him his walker dinosaur a couple weeks ago and he loves it! I can't imagine it being too much longer before he walks.

He still jibber jabbers all the time. When his room is dark, except for his turtle lights or when we are next to the Christmas tree, he raises his hand and talks and ooohhhhs, like he is telling a story. He also makes this noise that sounds like E.T. It's pretty funny.

Oh, and we are done nursing... This is another post itself. But, I will say that it was a natural end and the baby hasn't seemed to mind one stinkin bit. :::tear:::

Santa... classic...

Weekend & Stuff

I haven't blogged in a while because my laptop has been acting really strange. We thought I lost a lot my pics and music a

couple weeks back because I haven't backed anything up since before the baby was born. BUT, it is working again. (whew!!)

This weekend we had two major firsts for the baby.

1. He spent the night at my parents and John & I had a night out. Like, a whole entire night!

2. He saw the ocean up close (not just driving by on the way to my folks) and touched sand & ocean.

Here are some pics from the weekend.. (I can't get my pics to load where I want them to. So annoying. So, yeah, they are up top).

Gracias!

Thanksgiving was a success! We had about 40 people over and tons of food. Baby J did great, except he was not up for napping with all the excitement. In honor of Thanksgiving day & my love for lists, I decided to type up some things I am thankful for.

1. Coconut creamer (my fave)

2. My husband. He worked SO hard to get everything ready for Turkey Day. He is always there when I need him.

3. Online shopping. I love it. It makes my life easier. And with free shipping, I mean, come on!!

4. My awesome girlfriends. I have the best. You shouldn't even argue. As one of my favorite band sings, "Oh I'm a lucky man, to count on both hands, the ones I love..."

5. Lysol wipes. Let's just not go into my craziness, but they make me feel a lot better.

6. I'm thankful I have a job that provides free benefits for my entire family.

7. My family. It's huge. It's not perfect. It's loving. It's always there for you.

8. I guess, my dogs. I do love them. I'm not sure I am thankful for them, but they are looking at me right now. So they are peer pressuring me to add them.

9. Baby J's walker. Really, it is the best. And it is perfect for our house.

10. Last, but certainly not least, BABY J. Awe. I am so, so thankful for my little boy.

New Blog Design

Thank you so much Dana! I love it! Check her out everyone: http://www.DanaSears.com/

9 months

Well, our little dude is 9 months. 3 months from being a 1 year old. Crazy & sad. He is really crawling & getting into everything. He likes everything that could hurt him: cords, remotes, outlets, the oven, oh and he likes to put everything in his mouth. Which scares me all the time. One of his newest things is pretending to drink out of a cup. He takes a deep breath and then "drinks" nothing... He is so funny.

Oh, and he cut his top two teeth this week. They look super cute. I know I say this every month, but I really do think 9 months is my favorite age so far. He is so much fun. I just love him!

Crawling

The babes is for reals crawling now... and is into EVERYTHING!!!

Sleep

My munchkin is not a great sleeper. This weekend I decided to try CIO (cry it out) again. I had tried maybe a month ago and he got so worked up, so fast, I thought NO WAY. How do people do this?!?! Then on Friday, we both desperately needed some good sleep, so I decided to give it a try. I told myself that I would not let him cry more than 10 minutes. I put him down when he was sleepy. He cried for 7 minutes and then... Then he slept from 10pm to 5:30 in his crib without a peep!!!!!!!!!! It was glorious. Last night, I tried again, he fussed for over 10 minutes so I got him. When I picked him up, I realized he wasn't even that worked up. He wasn't hot & didn't even have tears. He was just screaming b/c he knew I would get him. Because he has ME trained! I failed.

I don't think CIO has to be so extreme, but I do think it works for some babies. I think, I may have one of those munchkins....

Halloween Weekend

Friday night we carved pumpkins with friends at our house. It was perfect. The baby fell asleep early, around 7:30. I got to carve and hang out with everyone for a few hours. Saturday, I decided to try out a stuffing/dressing recipe since I will be hosting my first Thanksgiving (for 50 people!?!?!?!?!?!?). The baby & I ran to the market to get the ingredients. It was his first time riding in the basket. He loved it. He swung his legs the whole time. I love the look on his face in the picture. Oh and the stuffing was C-O-M-P-L-I-C-A-T-E-D. And to be honest, it wasn't that good to me. AND it took me like 4 hours. Don't ask.

Today was Halloween. We dressed the baby as the Hulk & went out to lunch. Nothing major this year. We went to Panera for lunch and John & I let the baby try our soups (black bean and broccoli & cheese). I know, not very exciting, but it was to us. It was his first restaurant food. We're nerds, I know. :)

Tonight the baby would cry if John left the room. I'm not sure whats up with that?! I thought for sure he would start doing that for me when I left for work, but nope. He cried when dad left the kitchen?!

Maybe another tooth is coming? Anyways, it was a great weekend.

So, last weekend we took baby J on his first Glamis trip. Guess what??? He did awesome. The drive out there took John & I a little over 3 hours. We gave him a bath & fed him & loaded him in the car about 7pm on Friday. Not a peep from him until we were about 10 minutes out from Glamis. The whole weekend he did great. The weather was perfect also. Overcast, but warm. Here are a few pics... We're already planning our December trip!

The first pic is right before we left. Little guy was sleeping, but we wanted one more picture.. Oh, and riding in the sandrail was so FUN!!

Crazy Pants Party (last Sat. for Adams bday)

My little guy is 8 months old

Wow. He is 8 months old. In 4 months he will be a 1 year old. That is so crazy (and a little sad). It really goes by way too fast.

I want to start doing a rundown of what he is up too. Especially since I am about 8 months behind on his baby book. (EEK!)

Words: (sorta says) Mama, Dada, Nana -- sorta… :)

Eats: Still nursing, but eats baby oatmeal, baby yogurt, bananas through the mesh bag, fruit and veggie purees and puffs

Milestones: Sits up great. Can grab small things (like his puffs) with his little fingers and bring them to his mouth. Is discovering his voice (jibberjabber & happy screams). Barely army crawling, but not actually crawling. He rocks back & forth on all fours & then his little arms give. Can book it in his walker now. He used to just go backwards, but now he can go forward too.

Mood: Happy almost all the time. Fascinated with everything. Loves taking peoples glasses. Loves the dogs, remotes, cell phones & water bottles.

Sleep: Oh sleep. Oh how I miss sleep. Naptime is going pretty good, he is a light sleeper and always moving, but naps have got longer. How many each day and for how long is pretty inconsistent. I’m sure this is not helping our night time sleep. At night, I nurse him to sleep and the second I put him in the crib he screams. It’s been awesome.

We go to the doctor on Monday for 2 more shots. I’m still doing the delayed/Dr. Sears vaccine schedule. I’ll try to get the nurse to weigh him so I can get his new stats. I do know that he is growing out of everything FAST! He is in 9 to 12 months & wearing a size 3 diaper.

Oh, and every time I am nursing him on our bed & someone walks in. He stops and rolls off onto the bed until he is on his tummy/elbows and greets the person with a smile. He literally does a little dismount EVERY.TIME.

October 15th

I just read that tomorrow (10/15) is officially Pregnancy & Infant Loss Remembrance Day. Whether it is legit or not, I will treat tomorrow as a remembrance day. I have angel babies and it makes my heart hurt so much that I really can't express it in words. But, tomorrow I will remember my angel babies and also remember how lucky I am to have this wonderful, beautiful, happy little guy.

My new boots!

I bought these rain boots yesterday. Now if it would just cool down a little and rain, I could wear em'!

Just great?!

I got bit on my foot by something last weekend. I'm not even sure when it happened. I know it itched really bad at one point. And the next thing I knew there was a red line coming from the bite mark. This could have been Friday, Saturday or Sunday. I can't remember. It doesn't look good, but I feel fine. Today I decided I better have the doctor check it out. Let me tell you this, you never want your doctor to say this, "Well, I have never seen anything like it before!" ((all excited too!)) He even sketched it. He said most insect bites come with pain & you know immediately you were bit. I basically told him that I am too busy to notice if I get bit by something. Since I'm still nursing & not having any problems with the bite (swelling, fever, etc...) he decided we would give it 2 more days before he prescribed antibiotics. Luckily I do feel ok, I really wish I knew what bit me though. Especially since little Munch is minutes from crawling. Now I think we need to get our house sprayed regularly. UGH, another expense! Well, keep your fingers crossed that the red line doesn't move more. Oh, and John thinks this will now make the baby Spiderman.

Pumpkin Patch!

We had a great weekend and to top it off... it's not over! I have Monday & Tuesday off! Hooray! Saturday we had amazing weather. It was clear, warm & raining. Sunday we started the day with macadamia nut pancakes. John made them for us and they were delicious! The last time we had them was in Hawaii. ((side note: Saturday John said we needed to take a family trip there again = awesome)) Then we took the baby to the pumpkin patch. This cool pumpkin patch is at the end of our street!!

((2 more side notes - 1. John is showing me the pumpkin butt crack. 2. that same picture confirms I have green/MURKY hair color! yuck!))

Mama-ma-mum-mum-mama-ma

He says "mama" now! He started a few days ago. I'm not so sure he knows it is me exactly, but everyone I say that too says that he does. Regardless, it is so sweet to hear. :)

Food Network

I love Food Network. I used to watch it all the time. Now I have much less time for watching t.v. and even less time to cook! But, on the weekends I still catch up with my old friends Giada, Guy, Bobby, Paula, etc... Anyways, Hubs was at a show in Hollywood on Tuesday (seeing Powell play w/ Jamey Johnson) and look who he ran into!! John does not go up to "celebrities" ever. I only once saw him freak out & become a super fan and that is when we saw Kerry King (Slayer). So, it is very sweet of him to go up to Guy & ask for a pic for his wife... :)

The baby stole my brain... I may have even posted this before... I can't remember?!

Before I had the Munchkin, or I should say, before I was pregnant... I used to be on top of things. I used to remember bdays, already have a card bought for the person, NEVER forget my keys, our bills were nicely organized on an excel sheet (yes, I'm a nerd), if I was hosting anything I had a to do list & was On. Top. Of. It.

Now. Now, things are all over the place. And it has really been hard for me to lose that control. Today I forgot the milk I pumped all day at work. This is the 2nd time. I even had a piece of paper taped to my keys that said 'MILK'. It fell off on Sunday & now look. I forgot on Tuesday. Sheesh. The other day John told me we got the final thing we needed to finish our taxes. I said, "for next year? what do you mean?". UMM.. No. For last year. We have been waiting on this & I would have just gone about business never even thinking that our taxes weren't filed yet.

Hopefully, my brain comes back. But for now, at least the baby is fed, loved & bathed everyday. I can't say I do anything else daily.... I do brush my teeth daily.

Weekend

Little Munch is a sitting up master now. Also, his jibberjabber has changed from Ohhhh Ahhhh to little baby words. It's hard to explain, but it has changed. He is definitely trying to tell us something. He got 1 shot on Thursday and one oral vaccine and he handled them like a champ!

Saturday night we went to a reception for our dear friends. They married in June, up in the Redwoods. Just them, the officiant and the photographer. Romantic. But luckily, we all got to at least celebrate with them on Saturday. The only bummer part was that it was like 100 degrees!

Here are a few pics of the last few days...

Brace Face

So, I got braces. I know, awesome, huh? You wish it was you, huh? Yeah, that's what I thought... I did have braces when I was younger, like 13. And my teeth were perfectly straight afterwards, but retainers were lost and teeth moved. SO, I decided it was time to fix this. I am actually going to my same ortho who put them on me a million years ago AND he still had my file. Actually, its his son's office now, but they were both there when I was 13 too. Anyways. I have to wear bottom braces for 4 months and a top retainer for who knows. I sorta feel like a rapper with a grill. And if you read my last post I was shooting guns, so maybe I'm just a gangsta now?

ps - don't mind my cool pic. It was right after I got them & it was late in the day ok.. OK!

Its da kill shot!

So, we went to a shooting range on Saturday. Our friends had their joint bday parties at a shooting range in Oceanside. It really was a lot of fun. I have gone shooting with John before, so I was an old pro (wink, wink). I do have to say - check out the hostage pic. That was mine. I never shot the hostage. Also, note that I got the killer in his ring finger. Bottom line... don't mess with the Sessums.

How could you not like his version??

Sitting up

Well, Munch is 6 1/2 months old and he is starting to sit up. He can sit up for a few minutes, but when he gets excited or if he reaches for something to the side of him, he crashes. Whatacutie!