Jonah will be one-year-old in a week. This seems like anything but normal! I don't want him to stop growing and changing, I just want it to slow down.
Jonah has started eating more finger foods at his meals than "baby food." This is a nice change because it means he can feed himself a little more at meals, and I can buy fewer jars of baby food (I had originally figured I would make a lot of his baby food, but that didn't happen). His current favorite food seems to be peas. They are just the right size for him to pick up and feed himself. He also really likes bread, ham, and cheese.
He is still napping twice a day (mostly), but hasn't taken a long nap for me in a while. He has been maxing out at 45 minutes. He is also still consistently eating twice in the middle of the night. I made a deal with him tonight before I put him to sleep that if he would sleep all night without eating, I would feed him first thing in the morning, even before I change his soaked diaper. I don't think he was listening.
Jonah still loves bath time. He crawls into the bathroom if we leave the door open and heads straight for the tub. He usually stops right before he gets there and looks back to make sure Mommy is chasing him. As soon as we put him in the bath, he starts splashing around. He's funny with his bath toys: he likes to put them behind himself. He'll reach for a toy, obviously wanting it, and immediately put it behind himself. When he's out of toys, he looks a little confused. We put them back in front of him, and he starts over. As much as he loves the bath, he doesn't seem to mind too much when we take him out at the end.
One thing that has only been going on for a couple of weeks is Jonah's fascination with the "booger snatcher" (the bulb syringe used to suck boogers out of a baby's nose). We haven't actually needed to use it that often, and when we first did, he hated it and fought it. And then a couple of weeks ago, something changed. We were using it on him, and then he became curious about it. Then he started seeming like he wanted us to use it on him. Now he almost seems to be fussing for it when he sees it in the bathroom. When I get it close to his nose, he often grabs it and tries to put it in his mouth (he has never succeeded in this). He usually lets me use it a couple of times, and then is still interested in it, but won't actually let me stick it up his nostrils any more.
Jonah can't talk yet, besides babbling and your typical "mamama" and "dadada." I have started "teaching" him animal sounds though and he tries to moo. It's really cute when we say "moo" and he immediately says "mmmm," and he smiles like he knows he's copying us. He likes the other animal sounds, but hasn't imitated any of them yet.
He likes books and will look through them for a while as long as Peter or I am sitting nearby. One book that he seems like (and I like) is "Snoozers" by Sandra Boynton (I like many of her books). This is a book of 7 short stories. He has obviously learned one of them enough to anticipate what is coming next, because he gets excited for when we will say "SNORE" loudly. He gets this smile on his face (even behind a pacifier) and them gets really excited the closer it gets to that part.
Speaking of books, since Jonah was a couple of weeks old, we have read "Goodnight Moon" to him every night before bed. This isn't something that either of us grew up with, and we didn't put a whole lot of thought into it (although we had read that it was good to have a consistent bedtime routine), we just started doing it. And now we have done it for almost a year. Both of us have had it memorized since pretty early on. I usually read him "Go to Bed, Fred" before his naps. He likes that one too.
Jonah is somewhat mobile, crawling all over the place, and "cruising" along while holding onto furniture. He can climb the stairs like a pro, and pulls himself up using whatever he can. He is not entirely stable though, and he hasn't figured out that some things are not good for supporting himself. This has led to something that I wish was not normal: bumps on the head. Luckily, he seems to have become a little more stable in the past week or two, so he hasn't fallen quite as often. I always try to catch him, but rarely succeed. Luckily, he gets over these things quickly. He has become a little more brave, starting to lean against furniture, instead of holding on, so that he still has use of his hands, or only holding on with one hand. Tonight, he was standing in his crib and he even let go for a second, and did not lose his balance.
Some of these "normal things" will remain the same until the next time I post, and some of them will not. I wish I knew which things were going to change so that I could better cherish them while they are still normal.
"Some of these "normal things" will remain the same until the next time I post, and some of them will not."
ReplyDeleteReading this for the first time a week and a bit later, I notice how much has changed in such a short time. He's not putting the toys behind him in the bath as much now; he's playing with them. He's not still napping twice a day (I know you cherished that!).