Fun At The Fire Station!

Sunday was such a beautiful day, so we ventured out for a ride to a nearby fire station. "Fireman Rob" as Mommy's students call him, had invited us to come for a visit to take pictures of Jonah with the BIG fire trucks! What great fun it was! Jonah absolutely loved it and was completely mesmerized by all the big trucks and gadgets! Here are some great pictures from that afternoon.... :)

Jonah and Daddy in the big fire truck. Look how excited my boys are!!! :)

Yay, Jonah!

Jonah with his very own fireman's hat!
What fun! Jonah was so happy, talking and laughing!!!All together on Engine #8!!!
In Fireman Rob's boots! Hey, they fit pretty good! :)
Mesmerized by the fireman.
Fireman Rob made Jonah laugh the whole time we were there. :) With Mommy in front of Squad #8.

Melanie, Mike, and Sydney's Visit

This past weekend a great friend of Mommy's from college came into town with her husband and little daughter Sydney (20 months). The last time we saw them was at our wedding when Melanie was pregnant with Syd! Well, that was almost 2 years ago. It was so nice to see them and meet Sydney for the first time. She is absolutely adorable, sweet and shy. She says lots of words and uses sign language as well! I really want to get Jonah into signing now too! It seems like a great way to ease the frustration of communicating. Anyway, we got to catch up a bit while Mel had the chance to play with Jonah and watch him on the move as he is crawling, sitting and even starting to stand up holding on to things. She, just like us, could not believe how strong he is and how much he is moving around already at not even 7 months. It was so wonderful to spend time with old friends. Every time we do get to see each other it seems like it was yesterday that we were together, but time goes by so fast now and our families are growing and I realize more and more how much I miss having them all nearby...

Melanie, Mike and Sydney...such a cute family!

Together again, with our little ones :)

Yummy, Yummy Banana!

Poor little Jonah got a stomach bug last week and ended up not keeping anything down all day Monday. It was really scary for me to see his tiny body throw up so violently. :( By the evening we were giving him Pedialite every 5 minutes for an hour to see if he would at least hold that down, per doctors orders. By Wednesday he seemed much better and had actually eaten on both Tuesday and Wednesday just fine. Then on Thursday he refused to eat. Grandma and I got pretty nervous and ended up taking Jonah to see Dr. Meyers. Turned out Jonah had a little red throat but that was about it. He hadn't lost weight at least from his 6 month visit and was acting okay. So I took him home and he ate fine for the rest of the evening. I still don't really know why he protested eating, but Dr. Meyer said and I quote "We haven't lost any to starvation yet." Since the vomiting last Monday, I stopped our afternoon meals of veggies and oatmeal cereal for a few days and decided to try fruit after resuming this past weekend. Wow, forget the peas and carrots! Jonah loves his yummy bananas! By the fourth day he had eaten more bananas and oatmeal cereal then ever before. We even tried apples yesterday! So there you have it, we are on the road to eating better at least with fruit and I'll eventually sneak in those peas and carrots too! After the week he had, I just wanted to give him something yummy.... ;)

"Mmmmm, this is good! Give me, give me...Aahhhh!"

Jonah is satisfied after a yummy meal of banana and oatmeal cereal. "Now that's the good stuff, Mommy!"

Weekend Fun

Jonah is doing lots of cute things these days. He is just starting to sit up on his own by pushing himself up. I have seen him do it twice so far, which means that Mommy and Daddy will have to lower the mattress on the crib very soon! He's babbling more and more, "eating" his toes, scooting across the room, and even trying to pull up on things. It's getting a little hazardous with him moving so much, our eyes have to be on him every second! Jonah also loves playing with his toys. Lately, he is very entertained with his stacking cups. Every time I build them up, he will make his way over from anywhere in the room to knock them down. Of course, we shout out "YAY" when he does and he smiles proudly :) Jonah also started something really funny this weekend...Since he hasn't quite figured out how to point to what he wants with his fingers yet and since everything is in and out of his mouth, he's been showing what he wants by curling up his lips and stretching forward with his head, using his mouth to show us. It's very cute and hysterical to see!
As far as Jonah sleeping at night, it is definitely much better than it use to be. Jonah has made it several nights sleeping straight through from about 7:30/8:00pm until 5am. He even slept all the way until 7:00am one morning. Though there are still nights in between where he wakes up around 2 or 3am and cries on and off for 25-30 minutes, with us checking in on him of course. It's still torture for me to hear, but just when I'm about to give in and get him, he's back asleep. So basically it's going day by day, or night by night and I am no longer feeding him until sometime in the morning, not the middle of the night anymore. I know it's what we have to do...Jonah needs his sleep and so do we!
With the weather finally getting a little warmer, we took advantage of being outside last weekend. On Sunday morning Daddy, Mommy and Jonah went for a long walk on the legacy trail by our house and then took Jonah to his favorite spot so far....the swings. In the evening we also celebrated Uncle Adam's birthday! It's been a fun filled week, playing and watching Jonah explore the world around him. :)

Jonah loves putting his toes in his mouth...they are yummy after all :)
Outside on the swings! Jonah is always happy here!
He is so curious about everything around him, it's so endearing. :)

I know you can't see his face here, but I love how he's looking down. You can see his long eyelashes...."Push me higher, Daddy!"Weeeeeee.....For Uncle Adam's birthday, Jonah wore Gator colors and baseball....
Can you believe Grandma has had that He-Man blanket since Adam was a little guy... it was his 28th birthday!
Happy Birthday, Uncle Adam!!!Here are the stacking cups, I mentioned. Jonah loves knocking them down. Get em Jonah!And...boom!And again...going, going...
gone.....

No More Peas, Please!

Jonah started solids last week and what an adventure it has been! We started with rice cereal again and peas. I figured since he doesn't really know any better, we might as well try the "yucky" stuff first...Well, the first day was awful. Jonah was not happy with any of it. The second day was slightly better, but still not great. By the third and fourth day of peas, Jonah seemed to tolerate it and actually ate a few good spoonfuls. Day five we moved on to sweet potato! I pureed a fresh one which makes me happier than using the baby jars and so far Jonah has done okay with it, much better than the peas, but I still can't say he's thrilled with eating yet. It's definitely slow going. That's fine for me, I have no intention of rushing him or forcing him to eat more than a few tiny spoonfuls if that's all he takes for now. Maybe he'll like fruit better....hmmmm!

This was day #1

"Oh Mommy, what is this stuff you're giving me! Yucky!"

"Okay, give me. I'll try it...."
After the 4th spoonful, Jonah definitely had enough. He closed his mouth real tight!
"No more peas, please!!!"By day 4, Jonah did much better....
Giving him another spoon to "help" seemed to work also!

We were at Grandma's house so Jonah had lots of people around him making him laugh while I stuck a spoonful in his mouth. He seemed happier though :)
All over the face, all over the place...Then there was a Sweet Potato....
"Okay, Mommy...it's not too bad and I can feed myself in my big boy highchair, see!"
All done now! Jonah's way of telling me he's had enough.

Six Month Updates...

Jonah had his first visit with our new pediatrician on Monday. I think it was a good decision on our part to start going to Dr. Meyers. His office and staff are so child friendly and a better environment for our little guy. Dr. Meyers seems really laid back but attentive which will hopefully work out well for us being that we are "hyper" new parents ;)

Anyway, Jonah is doing great and growing strong! He's healthy, alert, curious, and moving around everywhere! He weighs 16 pounds 7 ounces! Even though we were sure he weighed more, it's right where he should be. He is also 26 inches long. When the nurse was straightening his legs to measure him he sat himself right up using his stomach muscles! It left us all amazed at how strong he is! Jonah also seemed to tolerate his shots pretty well too. The usual expected cry but he calmed down quickly. So, now it is time to start solids and sleep training since Jonah is not sleeping through the night. Yikes! I'll be starting him on rice cereal and veggies...pictures to come soon! It will be interesting to see how he likes it. I definitely think that he's ready so hopefully it will go well and he will be happy trying new foods. As far as the sleeping, well Monday night Jimmy went to him when he woke up around 1:00am and helped him go back to sleep. Last night, when Jonah woke up around 2:00am we both checked on him once and let him cry it out like Dr. Meyers said to do. He was back asleep within 25 minutes. It seemed like the longest 25 minutes ever but it was not as long as I thought it would be and I know ultimately we were doing the right thing for both him and us. So, I'm not planning on feeding him throughout the night anymore. I guess, it's time for that first step of a little independence. Let's just pray it's not any worse then that from now on and that Jonah is able to soothe himself back to sleep at night.

The great highlight of our Monday was that we spent some time with our friends Melissa and Dave and their adorable boys Ethan (almost 4) and Zach (1). They were in town escaping the New York snow, visiting family, us, and making a trip to Disney. It was so nice to spend the day with them and finally meet their boys! It's always a treat to catch up with old friends! Despite the weather being cool here, we ventured out to Siesta Key Beach and took the boys to the playground. Dave and Jimmy ran after Ethan as he played all over the slides and play structures while Melissa and I pushed Zach and Jonah on the swings. It gave us the chance to talk about life, our little ones, motherhood, etc. Then we went out toward the water, played on the sand and took some cute pictures. After having a late lunch together we said our good-byes. It really made me realized how much I miss having close friends from college near by. They also gave Jonah an extremely nice toy which he seems to really like already. It has lot of activities, songs, sounds, numbers, shapes, letters, opposites, and more.... lots to learn with. It was such a great surprise and so thoughtful! Here are pictures of Jonah having some fun outside and in.....

Jonah's wearing red for Valentine's Day....playing with a teddy bear from our friend Kristin! He was having lots of fun rolling/wrestling with it!

Posing for Mommy...Look at how Jonah is almost pushing himself up to sit!

Fun with Zach at Siesta Key Beach!

Jonah loves the swing....

Out on the sand....this three wheel stroller is great for the beach!

Check out my new toy! Thank you Melissa and Dave!!!!

"I'm drooling all over it already!"

Some more cutie pictures....

Like my monkey slippers???

Happy Half-Birthday Jonah!!!

I can't believe it! Jonah is 6 months old today!!! Wow! My baby boy is growing so fast. And since Grandma isn't feeling well, I got to be home from work with Jonah yesterday and today! We've had so much fun playing together, taking walks, and introducing Jonah to some new toys for his 1/2 Birthday, of course. He's sitting up for longer periods of time and doing a caterpillar crawl to get around. His giggles are adorable and very contagious. It would put a smile on anyone's face! He is getting so strong, today he even tried to pull up on the bars of his jumperoo and he's almost sitting himself up. He will roll to his side and push himself up leaning on one arm....Here are some cute pictures from last night and today!

Jonah likes his new ball, we were rolling it back and forth...

Laughing so hard at Mommy playing "peak-a-boo" behind the camera.


Jonah's laughter lights up my life!


Jonah's playing with some new toys...
Happy Half-Birthday Sweet Boy!!!!

"What do I do with all these, Mommy?! :)"