Mountain Climber

Shortly after Jimi figured out crawling he discovered he could climb to a standing position on just about any and every surface. And he does on EVERYTHING.... the couch, his crib, his changing table, our bed, boxes of soda, chairs, and even his diaper champ.

Annoyed I distracted him from his mission

Getting into position

And he's up... now he doesn't really know what to do with himself

Got the baby gate up just in time... That's about 15 stairs on the other side of the gate.

We love that Jimi is developing so quickly and is exploring all new areas of the house. Now it would be great if he could figure out how to sit himself back down again when he's ready to move on to the next target. For now though there is a lot of tumbles and a few head bumps while he figures it out.

Jimi had his first trip to the zoo this last Saturday. Jimi and I (James was out of town with 20 Riverside) took the trip with my sister Stephanie, her husband, and son John. Jimi seemed to enjoy himself. Out of all of the great animals they have at the zoo, he pretty much only paid attention to the crows walking around. Thankfully kids under 2 are free because I could have showed him those in our yard.

Our monkey made a new monkey friend

This was the start of a lion fight... not kidding. It was crazy.

For my first Mother's Day, James brought me breakfast in bed, roses, a venti coffee, earrings, and a diaper bag I had asked for. The three of us (James, Jimi, and I) went to Redhook for a brewery tour and dinner. It was a fabulous day. Thank you James!

In other news:

Jimi is now in his big car seat

He seems to enjoy it even though he doesn't have toys to play with anymore. We certainly enjoy not having to carry around the extra weight.

Jimi is eating more and more every day and Penny has figured out the best spot in the house during meal times.



12 Months!

It really is hard to believe but Jimi is 12 Months (and 5 days) old already!

Weight: 22lb 5 oz (42%) Height: 31 inches (85%)

As usual, catching this little boy and getting him to stay still for a picture was quite difficult. It is amazing that in the little over a month he has been walking he has gone from a few steps at a time to full on running. He is still proving to be a picky eater, although his doctor doesn't seem concern since his weight is still maintaining the same percentile even though he's still active. Maybe once he gets more than one tooth he'll be more interested in eating real solid foods. Until then we'll just keep on trying....

Jimi still isn't sleeping through the night but the doctor said at this rate we probably shouldn't expect it until he gets his teeth in. That doesn't give me much hope for sleeping through the night for the next few years considering James got his teeth in late and Jimi only has one thus far. Sigh. I don't think my body would know how to sleep through the night anymore anyway. I haven't been able to do so since I was about 4 months pregnant with Jimi.

Jimi seems like he'll be speaking any day. He is definitely trying to make words and every day they become clearer and clearer. I'm sure some of the words are clearer to us because we see him everyday but even people who don't can understand what he is trying to communicate. Most of his words aren't clear pronunciation though yet. It is amazing to watch him learn and understand more clearly every day. 

This past year has been one of the most amazing of our lives to be able to experience all of the awesomeness that comes with being a parent. There are definitely challenging and frustrating days but overall it is the most positive and rewarding experience. I would sum up parenthood this far as every emotion bundled into raising one little person. There is so much joy, excitement, hopes, fears, frustration (with the occasional tears), and love. 

This once itty bitty baby.....

Is now this fun, crazy, energetic little boy:

The month has been very exciting around here. James start his position at Jackson High School in Everett and has had several shows with the big band MoJo and 20 Riverside. I ran another race with my father. This time one benefiting a local elementary school's PTA. We've also had several visitors from out of state for Jimi's birthday party and baptism (both on the same day). James' grandparents made the long drive from Alabama and my mom and step-dad flew out from Virginia. I'll write another post about Jimi's baptism and birthday party another time but it is late and I'm sure I've only got a few hours before Jimi is awake again...

11 Months!

Holy Moly, Jimi is 11 months old already!

Once again, Jimi was not interested in sitting still for a photo session....I'm thinking I may try to get a few more photos later this week.

 (Are you really going to make me sit here?)

 Gravity storm while walking

This helped distract him for a minute

Pulling off the sticker

This last month was a big one in milestones for Jimi. He got his first tooth and started walking!!! All pretty much on the same day. Both occurred just after I said on my facebook page that I was pretty sure he would be walking before he got a tooth, so he did both on the same day to prove me wrong. (I'm sure he's an avid reader of my facebook) We're still waiting for any other teeth to come in. I think he only have the one on his first birthday. 

My best friend Melissa, who is in her last year of Physical Therapy school, says it's not considered walking until they take ten steps in a row. Clearly whoever decided that wasn't a parent, because as amazing as it is to watch him walk more and more those first three, four, etc steps are the most exciting. It didn't take Jimi long to work his way up to ten steps though. Now I'd say he's walking at least 90% of the time we're at home and probably 50% when were out and about and he's able to.

Jimi's sleep patterns are still pretty much the same... going to bed at 8pm, up once or twice (occasionally more) before eating at 6am and up for the day between 7-8am. He still won't eat much real solid foods. It is always surprising what he decides to eat... He won't eat a piece of cheese but he ate pot roast and potatoes. He won't eat noodles but he'll eat bananas. He won't eat a blueberry but he'll suck on a lemon wedge. He won't eat bread but he'll eat a piece of lettuce. The list goes on.

As far as language development, I'm a little worried he's falling behind. He "talks" non stop jibberish but he only says a clear 'Mom', 'Momma' or 'dawg' (no I'm not using slang that's how it sounds) once in a while. We're still working on it all though. He has begun to properly use the sign for "more" and he is a pro a correctly waving 'hi' and 'bye bye'.

This month we took Jimi on his first couple of hikes. I found a great deal on a hiking carrier with a rain/ sun shield (which proved very useful on our hike today) on craigslist. Jimi likes watching everything from a higher perspective and it must be pretty comfortable because he spent the first half of today's hike asleep.

10 Months!

Jimi is 10 months old!

I need a faster camera because it was once again nearly impossible to get any pictures of him because he is constantly on the move.

Jimi still has no teeth! About a week ago we were sure one was about to pop up because he was chewing on everything and drooling more than normal.... but we're still waiting. The only real solid foods I can get him to eat are bananas, pickles, different Gerber snacks and crackers. ...We've tried different cheeses, pasta, diced steamed carrots, bread and anything else we're eating that we don't think he'll choke on. I'm not sure what the trick is to get him to eat our food... Hopefully he'll just decide to do it (and soon!). Re-sleep training (see previous post) seems to be going well, at least last night and today anyway he only fussed for a couple of minutes. It's definitely harder this time around because Jimi is A LOT louder and much more pitiful about it. His memory is getting pretty good, so I always feel guilty in the morning thinking that he's going to remember I made him cry the night before. Other than 'Mama' and 'Mom' Jimi isn't really saying any real words. He definitely already has his own language though, he uses the same sounds repeatedly for different objects. As for walking, I'm not so sure he will be doing it early like everyone has predicted. He seems pretty content knowing he can get around fast crawling. However, he has been standing for increasingly longer periods of time unassisted and can take a couple steps at you when he gets help getting balanced. I wouldn't call it real walking though.

We took Jimi to the Seattle Aquarium:

Exploring in the 'Tide Pool'

Touching a Star Fish

Blowing the fish kisses

Shark bait

Watching the Seals swim

Also, we have a new nephew! My little brother's wife gave birth to a healthy baby boy
Wade Robert Wessels on July 28th.

We can't wait to meet him next month!

9 Months!

It's hard to believe but Jimi turned 9 months old today! I can tell that doing his monthly photo shoot is going to continue to be more and more difficult to accomplish. Jimi is on the move and he doesn't want to slow down, especially for me to take pictures of him. Here some of the best that I was able to get:

Are you really going to make me do this again, Mom?

I went and sat on the deck to try to keep his attention... it didn't work very well.

Between weddings, James' gigs, Mariner's games, birthday celebrations, and Father's Day festivities this last month was a pretty busy one. Jimi (and James) went to three Mariner's games this month! If he keeps up at this rate he might actually notice what's going on at the game by the end of the summer.

Sleepy boy at the game on Father's Day

Jimi is still crawling and climbing everywhere! He's also pretty good a figuring out how to manipulate things, such as, opening and closing drawers, flushing the toilet, opening his diaper champ and putting clean diapers in to it (we'll give him the bill for those ones when he's older). We now have locks on nearly all of our cabinets and drawers. We left the one full of pot holders open for him so he can feel like he's getting away with something. He's not walking yet but he is able to stand unassisted for several seconds at a time now.

Trying to fit himself into one of the storage baskets from his changing table

This month he got to chow down on his first real strawberry, orange slice and pickles. If we cut it up into pieces for him to eat he's not interested but he'll put the whole thing in his mouth. He absolutely loves pickles! I think the rubbery feeling feels good on his gums. He just gnaws on them whole and sucks the juice out. He is not a fan of sourdough bread. I'm going to work on giving him more "real" finger foods this month as Jimi is becoming less and less interested in us feeding him and more and more interested in trying to eat our food.

Mmmm Pickles

Eating a strawberry

In the great tooth watch of 2011, Jimi still has nothing! He has been chomping down hard and gummy on everything for the last 6 months but yet he still has nothing to show for his hard work and pain. I did just learn that James did not get any teeth until he was a few years old and they say it's hereditary. I really hope not for Jimi's sake! Jimi is now sleeping through the night pretty regularly. He goes to bed around 8 and sleeps until 5 or 6, drinks a bottle and then goes back to sleep for another hour or so. He is also FINALLY napping in his crib. It's great to be able to get stuff done while he's napping now.

Jimi had a cold that lasted almost two weeks this month. Poor little guy was wheezy, coughing, and full of snot. We took him into the clinic twice to have him looked at. His pediatrician is amazing and very understanding of worried first time parents. He has a 9month check up with more shots but not until July 11th, so I'll post and update after that.

Jimi and his friend Miles

Jimi and his friend Carmen

High chair sleepin'