Christmas

We celebrated AJ's first Christmas. He was fortunate to be spoiled in both gifts and attention from his relatives. Like most 6 month olds, he was intensely interested in wrapping paper and ribbons and would have been happy as a clam to just get a couple of boxes of tissue paper. Several people have told me recently that having a baby makes you realize that Christmas is all about children and their wonder and joy at the holiday. Although AJ is a little bit young to understand what Christmas is, I think I can already see what they mean.

Tubby Time

AJ seems to love bath time more and more every day. No matter how grouchy he gets at the end of the day, he is always happy to get in the tub. Joe's favorite maneuver of AJ's in the tub is when AJ bends down toward a toy floating on the water as if he is going to pick it up and then-- slurp--takes a big drink. In the picture above, AJ is wearing his washcloth as a fashionable chapeau pour la bain.

Big Snow

This post is a little late in coming, since the Big Snow of 6-8 inches is already dirty and melting, but here is a picture of AJ checking out his first major snowfall with snow angel-eligible snow. We are supposed to get another one on Saturday. If it comes through, I am going to try to take AJ out to play in it with Uncle Will's puppy, Wrigley.

Peekers

I have a confession to make. I let AJ play with one of his Christmas gifts today. Look at how darn cute this elephant is--how could I resist!?! I am only getting away with admitting this on a blog because my husband never reads these postings anyway. Plus, I figure that AJ hasn't developed object permanence yet and so won't miss the elephant now that I put him back in the box and will be genuinely surprised to see it again in a week.

I justified it to myself by saying that AJ was crabby and I thought it would be a good distraction. Plus, the box has been sitting in our living room for almost a week now, and it has been killing me to sit there looking at it every day without giving it to him. As my family knows, I love to give gifts so much that I have a hard time waiting for the designated gift giving time. I think it comes from my love of surprising people. My sister even gave me a print of a woman saying something about how she has to buy all of her gifts at the last minute or she will give them all away too early. So true! I won't get away with this next year when AJ is old enough to talk and lets it slip to daddy that we were peekers, so I decided to live in the moment and enjoy it this year. We had so much fun!

Red Balloon

AJ was crabby all afternoon, so I finally bundled him up and took him to the grocery store for a change of scene. Our local store gives little kids free balloons at the checkout. AJ hasn't been offered one before because he is too little, but the lady at the counter offered today so we took home a red one. It completely made the rest of his day. He was delighted to tug on the string and bonk himself in the head with it over and over, giggling the whole time. (Don't worry--I kept a close eye on him and didn't let it get near his mouth.) The balloon improved my day considerably, too--no more crabbing. Since I have to bill my time in fifteen minute increments at work, it felt luxurious to spend an hour and a half playing with a balloon.

Six Month Update

AJ celebrated the six month mark last week. At his checkup on Saturday he weighed in at 23 lbs and 29 inches, 98th percentile on both. He is doing fine on his developmental milestones, such as sitting up, bringing toys to his mid-line to play with them and passing toys back and forth between his hands. If he ran a personal ad at this point in his life, it would say something like: "6 m.o. male seeks buddies for playtime. No hair, hazel eyes and solid build. Enjoys drooling, stroller rides in the snow and squealing with delight at silly things."

The pictures are from 6, 3 and 1 month to provide a basis of comparison.

Holiday Party

AJ and I went to our holiday party this week with our tummy time baby and mom buddies. See if you can spot our little guy in the picture above with his other bald pals. I'll give you a clue--when we went to take the picture, most of the babies started crying, but AJ flashed a huge smile every time we said cheese. We are joking that he is a show business baby who is just waiting for his parents to realize his true calling. That or he has a mom who takes way too many pictures of him.

It is fun to see how much the babies have all grown and changed since we first met in September. Some have more hair, some have teeth, and they are all much bigger and have new tricks they are working on. A couple of the older babies are pulling up on furniture and crawling already.

We have much to be thankful for.

Books

AJ recently has started to show more of an interest in books. Like most kids, he is especially into books that have rhyming phrases and/or singsong chants. His hands-down favorite for several weeks was Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. with illustrations by Eric Carle. We could even get him to stop crying in the car just by reading this book to him. I am sad to say that he has started to loose interest in that one, because I haven't been able to find a replacement book that works nearly as well.

As a parent, the repetition of reading the same books over and over and over takes a lot of patience. After a few readings of the shorter books, I start to feel like I am on autopilot. My sister was an early childhood education major in college, and she recently told me that a study showed children need to hear something about 38 times before it goes into their permanent memory. I guess that explains why kids love repetition. It made it easier for me to read Brown Bear for the 37th time, though.

Score!

AJ finally figured out how to get his toes in his mouth. He previously had been grabbing them, but they hadn't made it to his mouth yet. Some of his tummy time buddies have been doing this since late summer, so I was starting to think that it was a feat that might pass him by (no pun intended). I read somewhere that babies are able to be so flexible because they are born with a higher number of bones in their bodies than adults, and these bones allow more movement until some of them finally fuse together in early childhood. So enjoy them now, buddy, because this will not last for long.

Teeth

Here is the long-awaited picture of AJ with teeth that I promised. I finally gave up on getting him to show off his own teeth for the camera and provided him with a little assistance in showcasing his new smile. He has been a big crab apple for the last few days, so we think he is probably getting his upper teeth, just in time for Christmas as the song goes.

MJ

AJ is officially an MJ wannabe, as in Michael Jordan. He has recently started sticking his tongue out in a way that reminds me of MJ in his heyday. Now we are just waiting for him to execute a one-handed dunk.

AJ even obliged us the other night and did it on cue for this photo.

Mom Exercising = Hilariously Funny

I put in a mommy-and-me exercise DVD again today that I haven't used since AJ was about 2 or 3 months old. Okay, let's be honest--that I used once previously when AJ was about 2 or 3 months old. It confirmed for me that he has little long-term memory, because this was clearly a new experience for him and one of the funniest things he has ever seen in his life. It is hard enough for me to get up the energy to exercise and the nerve to put on spandex. Then the little guy goes and laughs at me like the sight of mom exercising is gut-busting comedy. Truth be told, I couldn't help but laugh with him.

First Snow

How fitting that AJ's first snow came on December 1st. We had about 3 inches today in the Chicagoland area. I took him for a stroller ride at the height of the snowfall, and his little cheeks quickly turned very pink. As for the snow, he seemed a little unsure of what to make of it, but he was definitely interested in watching it.