Catching Up

Yikes! It has been awhile since we last wrote. Let me do a couple of highlights of TJ's 10th month:

TJ has teeth! Yep. . . two top and two bottom. There was about a week and a half there of really difficult nights. We tried baby oragel, but found that a bit of Tylenol worked much better. TJ gives us a big toothy smile now. I think he feels much better now that those first teeth are in.

TJ is sleeping through the night! YEA!!!!! I think once he got over his teething episode, he decided to master the art of sleep. For 7 days in a row TJ slept from 8:00 PM to 6:00 AM. We did break our in-a-row streak just the other night when for some reason he woke up at midnight in a fit. Bad dream, maybe? The fact that TJ can soothe himself back to sleep at night is HUGE. We love our new found rest. Its wonderful. And now that he is sleeping through the nights, he is also doing much better with his day time naps. I think the thing that has made all of the difference is that he is not getting breastfed before bed or during the night anymore. We are weaning him, and because of this, he has found other ways to soothe besides being connected to mommy's breast. He does have a bottle before bed time. But he is falling asleep in the crib and not in mommy's arms.

Yep. . . breastfeeding has now officially ended. Almost 11 months. I impress myself with how long we kept it up. I do miss the cuddle time. For some reason feeding from a bottle is just not the same. I know that TJ misses it a bit too. Any time he sees his mommy naked, he does what I call the "boobie dance" and gets all excited. For awhile I thought it was cute, but it also can creep me out that he gets sooo overjoyed. Yes, TJ just might be a breast man.

We purchased a jogging stroller. TJ loves going FAST. Mommy loves that she can find additional time to hit the pavement and get back in shape now that the weather is warming up. The stroller is great and works so well on all of the bumpy, uneven sidewalks.

TJ loves bath time in the bathtub upstairs. We have a good time. But the part that he loves the most is the tail end of the experience. Once I take him out of the tub and dry him off, he immediately pulls himself up along the side, peers in at the water draining out and then tosses all of his toys back into the water. SPLASH! He giggles uncontrollably.

The other thing that TJ loves to do in the bathroom is to watch the flushing toilet. What is it about draining water that fascinates this child? Of course the biggest chuckle of the whole thing is that sometimes he waves "bye-bye" to what ever may be flushing down the toilet along with the water. Ugh. . . we really have to watch this habit. . . some day he is going to want to flush his toys down the toilet.

The weather has been amazing in Cortland for the past week now which has allowed us to spend more time outside. We have quickly discovered that TJ does not like grass. He refuses to crawl on the lawn and when placed on the grass he will not move. We think he is just not comfortable with the texture quite yet. This, of course, has its advantages. For instance, just today we were able to lay out a blanket in our front yard and know that TJ was going to stay on that blanket while we chilled in the sun. Its like a pack-and-play with no sides.

TJ has also started to become quite the dancing machine. Any time he hears music he starts bouncing up and down to the beat. It is quite a riot to watch. At this point in time he does not discriminate between genres of music. I wonder when that will change and he will show a preference. He will even dance to mommy's singing (sometimes). He hears music, he bounces, he discovers mommy and daddy are watching and gives us a great big smile.

Finally, TJ seems to be getting ready to run a marathon. Earlier tonight we were at our church to help out with the youth group meeting. As we were waiting for the youth to arrive, we brought out a handful of toys from the nursery. One of the toys we brought out was a simple wheeled walker push toy. He warmed up to it pretty well. Of course mom was right there trying to slow down the walker so that TJ's feet could catch up. The walker went pretty fast on the hardwood floors of the multipurpose room. But after some prodding from dad, mom let go of the walker to see what TJ could manage himself. WOW! It was like we let the race horse out of the starting gate. He went with it and moved at quite a fast pace. And once he discovered how much fun he was having, he did not want to stop. We must have done over 10 laps around the room. I have never seen TJ so excited while playing with a toy and I have never known something to hold his attention for as long as the walker did. After a few laps, he would take a break, drink some water, and then get back up on the walker and GO. I am sorry that I did not have any Gatorade to give him. He was like a mini-athlete.

This past month has been a blast with TJ. It is wonderful to see him grow, learn and explore the world around him. More fun stories to follow. . . .