Today's Normal 2/17/11

We had Jonah's first birthday party on Saturday and it went well. I wasn't sure how Jonah would do with so many people in a small space, but he did a good job. We made him take a nap that morning before the party, which I'm sure helped a lot. (This meant that he didn't take an afternoon nap and was awake for nine hours straight before bed.) He got a lot of presents and seemed to enjoy everyone's company.

I think we may be getting closer to the end of the transition to one nap a day. I decided to take more of an active approach to this transition, rather than just letting Jonah figure it out naturally. So I am not letting him nap in the morning, even if he seems sleepy. And then putting him down for a nap in the early afternoon. We have had a couple of successes with this so far, in which he took a long (almost two hour) nap in the afternoon. It would be so nice if this becomes normal and I could begin to count on that two hour block to get stuff done in the afternoons. I'm sure that as soon as it becomes a nice routine, something will change again.

Jonah has started playing more and entertaining himself with his toys more. He seems to be showing more initiative in trying to do things that he couldn't do before (like climb onto his caterpillar and riding toy). He's growing up!

He's not too interested in trying to walk on his own yet, which is fine with me. He can cruise along holding onto furniture just fine, but if there is a small gap between furniture, he will get down and crawl to the next one. He does not seem to want to try to make it there on his feet (although he has occasionally leaned for the next thing if it's really close and doesn't involve moving his feet).

Jonah has another tooth coming in - his 8th one. It's been a while since he's had any new ones. His hair is getting a little crazy in the back, and it may soon be time for his first haircut (if you don't count the one he had in the hospital).

He has started "sympathy crying" when other babies are upset. It doesn't matter if Jonah was as happy as a clam, if another baby is nearby and starts crying/screaming, he gets upset and will start crying too. It's really kind of cute and funny, but hopefully this phase doesn't last too long, because it just results in him being upset for no reason.