Weight: 17.7 lbs.

Height: 28 inches

General Observations:

We traveled a LOT this month and he really did well being in so many different places with so many new people!  That being said, Jedi’s schedule was completely out of whack for the majority of the month.

We spent almost three weeks in Minnesota and while we were there, Jedi picked up some bad habits.  His cousin Evie puts EVERYTHING in her mouth and up until they spent a lot of time together, we didn’t really have that problem.  Now… not so much.  Let me be clear though, I’m CERTAIN that she picked up some bad habits from him as well- like banging on everything and screeching in his high pitched excited squeal (Sorry Christie and Ryan).

When we got back from Minnesota, Trent went right back to work and I started watching my friend’s two girls for the week.  During that week, Jedidiah developed major stranger anxiety.  He was SUPER clingy and would freak out if I even left the room.  Sometimes he would freak out if I walked two steps away from him!  I think he had a hard time transitioning to daddy being at work all day after he was home with us all summer.  He was probably thinking, well daddy’s gone, now I better make DARN sure that mommy doesn’t leave too!  Poor baby.

He started making these stink faces toward the end of the month.  I have no idea where he gets it!  I am SURE that neither Trent or I make those kinds of faces!  He would look at people when we’d be out and just make these RUDE faces at them!  It was awful, but it only lasted a short while.

Object permanence- it’s there.  When an object moves or disappears, he knows to look for it and is actually very adept at where and when to look as well.

He’s been talking a lot more.  It is sounding much more syllabic and we’ve even noticed him copying our intonations!

He has CURLS!!!  They are tiny and just starting in the back and on the side of his head, but they are adorable!  I tried to get a good picture, but didn’t have much luck… this was about as good as I got!

And can we just talk about his eyes for a minute… these EYES!!!  OMG, I took this picture of him while the light was hitting them just right and they just look AMAZING!  And those lashes…

Health:   He’s got 2 teeth so far!  Look at how cute they are!

We went in for his 9 month check-up and the doctor said he is doing very well.  We had his appointment while I was still watching the two girls, so all four of us packed up and headed across town for this check-up.  He had to get tested for anemia this round and so he got a little heel prick (actually two of them since the first one didn’t get enough blood for a good reading).  The doctor popped his head back in before we left to give us the results and he left me very encouraged that we’re doing good.  He said, “I don’t know what you’re feeding him, but keep it up, because he is not anemic AT ALL!”  Lots of fruits and veggies are keeping this boy healthy and I’m pretty sure that my Shakeology is also partly responsible for the encouraging news!

Here we are in the waiting room with the girls

Eating:  This boy ALWAYS wants to eat and shows an intense interest whenever we’re eating.  He tends to throw a little fit if we’re eating and he isn’t.  So I almost always have something on hand that I can give him.  The only problem is that I have to time it right so that we finish at the same time… if he finishes his food before we’re finished eating then it’s more tears.

 

He’s also been quick to get into the fridge.  He wants to be all up in EVERYTHING all the time!  And we’ve had to move the breakable things in the door up higher so that he can’t reach them!

He’s started smacking his lips when he really likes something.

While Jedidiah used to rub my arms or chest sweetly while nursing, it has turned sour as he now likes to pinch my skin between his little fingers over and over again.  It hurts!!!  Occasionally he will still rub me sweetly, but lately it hasn’t been as pleasant.

Oh yeah, speaking of not as pleasant… let’s talk about biting for a second, shall we?  Yowzas!  He hasn’t done it often, but wow, does it hurt!  I’m thankful that he only has bottom teeth at this point… I can’t imagine how a full set of teeth feels.

Sleeping:  Well, the majority of this month was spent on vacation, so his sleep was not consistent to say the least.  We had him in and out of our bed, in a pack and play and even in the same room as his 6 and a half month old cousin for a while.  There were lots of wakeful nights and it was definitely out of our normal routines.  So… momma hasn’t been sleeping so well either.  I’m thankful that now we are back and in our own house and Jedi is in his own crib again.  I was worried about transitioning back in, but that first night was AMAZING!  He went down, woke up once early on but cried himself back to sleep after a few minutes, then woke up later to nurse and went right back down for the rest of the night!

Diapers:  We definitely only used disposable diapers this month but we were traveling the whole time!  It’s way too much work to try to do cloth diapers on vacation!

Clothing:  He still wears primarily 6-9 month clothes, although he still fits into a good portion of his 6 month ones.

Social:  Oh, goodness.  I don’t even know if I can scratch the surface of “social” this month.  We flew to Minnesota to visit family and friends and we had about 2-3 outings a DAY for nearly 3 weeks!!!

Before we left we attended a birthday party for Trent’s best friend’s oldest son.  It was a nice time to catch up with friends, plus they had a little kiddie pool so Jedidiah enjoyed that!

On our way up to Dallas/Fort Worth we visited several friends/family members.  We were able to visit a friend of ours from China and her family.  Stopping at Debra’s was a nice break in the driving.  Then we spent the night with my aunt and uncle (who is also my Godfather) before meeting up with a friend of mine from high school for lunch.  Then we flew out of DFW to Minnesota!  (It is so much cheaper to fly out of there than it is out of SA, Austin, or Houston)

Hanging out with Debra and her family

With my aunt and uncle

 

We spent a lot of time with family- he got to hang out several times at his great grandma and grandpa’s house.

I was so thankful that we got to attend his cousin’s baptism!  My sister tried to plan it for when we were in town, but between us coming and our pastor being on vacation, there was only one Sunday available!  We’re so thankful it worked out for everyone to make it!  It was such a blessing to be there for the christening of our sweet niece!

We took a day trip to the zoo with his aunts, uncle and cousin.  Jedidiah loved seeing the animals and was actually pretty engaged in what was going on around him!

We hung out with TONS of different friends (far too many to post here).

We attended a benefit for my dear friend Terri, who passed away 6 years ago from a gastrointestinal stomach cancer.  The benefit was to raise money for GIST awareness.  They have this benefit every year, but this is the first year that we were able to make it.  I am very grateful to have been there!

We spent a week up at the lake!  My family has had a time share at Breezy Point Resort since I was in high school but Trent and I hadn’t been up there in several years.  It was so much fun with both of the babies together and EVERYONE was able to make it up!  It was great to spend time together as a family in a relaxing environment!  (Again, there are WAY too many pics to post to fully capture our time together)

 

Memorable moments and firsts:

• He took his second round of flights to Minnesota this month and clocked a whole lot of driving hours!!!  He did really well on the flights and mostly played with the kids in front of him or on the floor at our feet the whole time!  It was so cute- he kept reaching in the crack of the seat in front of us and would put his hand on the little boy or girl’s arm (two different flights, two different kids) to make them look back and play with him.  But the kids were great with him and they seemed to love playing with Jedi!  It was SUCH a blessing!  I will say, however, that trying to keep him still this time around was MUCH more difficult than when he was a newborn!

On the flight TO Minnesota

On our flight back home to San Antonio

• He started walking in the pool using a floatie to keep him up.  This was AMAZING and SO unexpected.  Another family was in the pool and had offered to let us use their little inner tube, so we accepted.  I put it around Jedidiah not thinking much and for a minute or so he just kind of hung out… and then all of a sudden, he TOOK OFF!!!  Literally walking from one end of the pool to the other!  It was such a cool thing to see.  He LOVED it!!!  (And while I won’t post it here because it’s far too long, my brother-in-law managed to catch it all on video!)
• He says “Mama” now (even though “Da-da” came first)!  And I think he also says “Ma” by itself for “more” (judging by context).  We’re trying to teach him the sign language for that, but it doesn’t seem to be catching on yet.  It also sure sounds like he says his name- “Di-di-a.”
• He is FEARLESS when it comes to water and swimming.  He is not at all worried about going under water and in fact, there were several times where he would just take off and dive in. He’ll sit on the side of the pool and “jump in” (fall in) to mommy.  This is something we practiced at swimming lessons, so he knew what to do, but he wasn’t the least bit scared!  This momma and daddy are going to need to watch him SUPER closely around the water!

 

• Poor baby had a fall in the tub… well actually, it wasn’t a fall as much as a push-off.  You see, he loves to stand up along the side and pull everything into the tub with him (the soap, the washcloth, the pouring cup, etc.).  Anyways, then he just sits back down, like he would fall from a standing position normally.  Well, on this unfortunate evening, he not only fell back onto his bum, like normal, but pushed off back onto his bum, which wouldn’t have been a problem EXCEPT… he fell right onto the tub plug… and all the weight went right onto his poor little balls.  His first time getting racked.  It was terrible.  He cried for like 10 minutes and there wasn’t really much I could do to help him except to nurse him, which was the only thing that finally calmed him back down.  Eek!
• Speaking of balls, he figured out how to throw!  He’s not great at it yet, but he can throw them!  He got to practice with his great grandma and his uncle Derek!

• He went to the zoo for the first time with his aunties, uncle and cousin.  We had a lot of fun watching the animals!!!
• He took his first steps!!!  One day at my sister’s house, he randomly took two steps towards me and we all stopped, looked at each other and were like, “He just walked!” The next day he took two more steps!
• While we were up at the lake, we went up to the playground and put both Jedi and his cousin Evie in the swings.  They swung for a little while, while we all tried to get a good photo of the two of them together.  Yeah… that wasn’t so successful.  But my brother Derek started playing with Jedidiah and he absolutely LOVED it!  Just look at his face!

• He began standing on his own for long periods of time!  We were at my grandparents’ house and he was playing with a toy and all of a sudden, he was standing… and still standing… and still standing, all on his own!  We were so impressed!!!

• He started waving hello and goodbye.  He still won’t necessarily do it all the time, or when we want him to, but he gets the concept and moves his sweet little hand up and down!

• We visited my alma mater Northwestern College after an evening at Caribou Coffee meeting up with some old girlfriends.  I LOVE the campus there.  It is just so peaceful.  Even though it was almost dusk, I decided to take Jedidiah down to the island so we could spend a few minutes by the lake.  I’m so glad that I did, it was a beautiful evening and I think just being there was good for my soul!

• After seeing how much he liked the sand while we were on vacation, we were all too eager to get his sandbox up and going once we got home.  We had purchased it right before we left on our vacation, but Jedidiah has now finally had the chance to play in it!  The verdict- it’s a hit!

• When we got back from Minnesota, Trent had to go back to work right away.  We spent most of that first week back helping him in his classroom and getting ready for the school year.  There were two significant events that were memorable.  One was just on a random night when we were there late helping daddy get set up and Jedidiah started moving from hook to hook almost like a monkey and then reaching up and pulling down the papers that we had hung from the cubbies above.  It was HILARIOUS to watch and we were all so impressed with his coordination!

The second was on “Meet the Teacher” night.  I had driven up to his school with the girls I was watching to help with some last minute touches for his classroom and to help out in any way that we could.  Anyways, it was getting close to time for the girls’ mom to pick them up and Jedidiah needed to nurse, so I decided to go out to the car where we could have a little more privacy.  Anyways, the girls’ mom came and Jedidiah finished up.  I was just finishing something up on my phone so I was letting him play with the steering wheel (which, for the record, I had done before many times, and he’s always loved it and we’ve never had an issue).  Anyways, once he finished, I headed back inside.  All of a sudden, I looked at him and realized that he was covered with black stuff!  Like ALL OVER.  It was on his face, on his hands, on his clothes… I was so embarrassed to see him such a mess so we hit up the bathroom and I cleaned him up as best I could, but his clothes were still black, so I decided that that was a sign that we weren’t supposed to stick around and we headed home instead.  I still don’t know what the heck was all over him!

Likes: Water- both the ocean and the lakes, playing peek-a-boo, throwing balls, playing in the sand, spoons, banging on things, being outside, going on walks, screeching with excitement, animals (especially our kitty cat or Nana and Popo’s dogs), and eating!

Dislikes:  Being in the car!!!  Oh, my, we had some pretty LONG, LOUD drives along the way, with lots and lots of tears.  He also very much dislikes having his hands held (unless we’re walking with him).  He gets mad at us if we try to hold his hands while we say grace before meals or any other time really.  We tried to reach back and hold his hand when he was upset in the car and he would just bat us away.

What about mom?  Well, mom got to run a race while I was up in Minnesota.  My good friend Katie had invited me to run the Warrior Dash with her and since it was a race that I had wanted to run for quite a while, and it happened to be while we were up there, I said YES!!!  Originally Trent was going to run it with me, but Jedidiah was at a stage where he wouldn’t take a bottle and since the race was an hour away, there was no way we could have left him with anyone.  SO, Trent volunteered to stay with the little man and my brother ran in his place.  It was really fun for the three of us to run and do the obstacles all while getting down and dirty!

Other than that, I REALLY enjoyed seeing my family and meeting up with friends.  It was a busy time that really flew by but I wouldn’t have traded it for anything!  The time we are able to spend with them really is priceless and it is so much more meaningful now that we have Jedidiah.  I really want him to know his grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousin (plus Great aunts and uncles, second cousins… you get the gist).  I have to admit that I also really enjoyed our time up at the lake.  There is something about being around water that really just helps me to relax and enjoy God’s creation.

Once we got home, I’m not going to lie, I was a bit overwhelmed.  We got back pretty late Sunday night and Monday morning Trent had to return to school and I was up at 7am with two extra kiddos.  Having them all week WHILE adjusting to having Jedidiah by myself and not having any transition time really made it tough getting back into the swing of things, but we ended up finding our rhythm again.

Separation anxiety has made things HARD on me.  Jedidiah was SUPER clingy that last week of this month and wouldn’t leave my side.  He would just cling to my ankles for dear life and desperately want me to hold him.  Poor baby… and poor momma!

Daddy time:  I know it was a hard transition for daddy to go back to work as well, especially after a really short summer (due to three weeks of training for his new job as soon as the last school year ended) and lots of traveling.  It kind of felt like there wasn’t much time for just the three of us to relax.  But I do know that he enjoyed our time in Minnesota as well and we had a lot of fun with my siblings and the rest of the fam.  Trent got some gaming time in with my brother and brothers-in-law while we were there and he really enjoyed playing with the babies!  We are also sad that daddy is back at work and he’s been working insanely long hours.  Once school started we really didn’t see him unless we went up to school to help out.  That was a BIG change for us (and for him as well).  Here are some of my favorite pictures of the two of them this month.