Weight: Terrible as it is, I didn’t weigh or measure him this month either… totally forgot about it!

Height:  Again, I have no clue, but lots of people have commented that he seems much taller.

General Observations: Jedidiah is talking so much more and seems to be learning new things almost daily.  He is very social and loves to wave to anyone and everyone passing by.  He also has mastered the art of high fives and loves to give them as well!  Jedidiah has also gotten much better at walking and directing himself where he wants to go, although he had no awareness of obstacles in his way at the beginning.  He has gotten better about knowing where things are and how to steer clear of them.  Even though he walks well, he still enjoys pushing his walker around the house.  He is excellent at maneuvering that thing!!!  Like seriously, I am impressed.  He knows that if he’s hit a dead end or run into something, that he needs to back it up and redirect it, and he can even turn it all the way back around in a U-turn when he hits the end of the hallway!

I’ve definitely noticed that his personality is much like ours- silly and playful with a bit of mischief.  He plays little games with me, like he’s teasing me, and likes to go where he knows he’s not supposed to go.

He’s developed this adorable little squinty faced smile that reminds me a lot of the face my little sister Jackie used to make when she was little.  It’s super cute and makes me laugh every time!

 

Health: Jedidiah had his first real fever this month.  😦  It lasted only a day and a half but it wasn’t super high and it didn’t really seem to bother him too much otherwise.  He was still his normal, active, silly self, just a much hotter version (literally).  I’m pretty certain that it was teething related, so we didn’t go to the doctor.  We used essential oils to bring down the fever and it got better soon thereafter.

Speaking of teeth, we now have four teeth!  Two on the top and two on the bottom!

Eating:  I know I’ve said this before, but this kid loves to eat!  He really enjoys food and wants to eat a lot more “real” food.  He’s even thrown a few tantrums when he didn’t get to eat what we were eating.  I’ve been making a deliberate effort to make our dinners something that he can eat too.

He really likes carrots, sweet potatoes, broccoli and strawberries.  His favorite though is probably still banana.  He can eat an entire banana in one sitting, no problem.  Jedidiah has also enjoyed vegetable curry and rice when we made it as well as acorn squash with wild rice and a little bit of chicken.  He really hasn’t run into too many things that he DOESN’T like (which we’re very thankful for), except for peas.  They were mushed up, so I’m wondering if it was the taste or the consistency.  We’ll try again with regular peas.  I think if he can pick them up and eat them, he might like them a bit more.

Another thing along with eating is that he used to eat dominantly with his left hand.  I would dish up whatever he was eating onto his spoon or fork and he would very accurately get it to his mouth.  Well, now we’ve been letting him try to scoop/stab things for himself and he’s SO funny!  He will pass the spoon or fork to his right hand, but only hold it by the very tip of it and then try to scoop or stab whatever it is.  He doesn’t have much leverage however, since he’s only holding the tip of it and usually only by his thumb and pointer finger.  Then, IF he can get a piece on his utensil, he has a much harder time getting it to his mouth!  I’m not sure why he won’t just try to scoop things up with his left hand- I think he’d be SO much better at it, but for some reason, he REALLY wants to use his right hand.  So far, he’s just ended up getting frustrated, so between that and us wanting him to eat independently, we’ve more often than not opted to just put little chunks of food on his plate that he can eat by himself.  Then WE both get to eat our dinner as well without pausing every other bite to feed him.

Sleeping: Jedidiah has gotten into a much better sleeping routine and now hardly fusses at all when we put him down at night.  I nurse him and then put him in his jammies, then we read to him and pray with him and give him kisses and hugs and then put him into bed.  He knows the routine and will even point to the oil diffuser we put on at night and say “light” because he knows that the little light goes on when we turn it on.

Napping is hit or miss.  Some days he cries for a LONG time (now “long” is more like 20-30 minutes, not the old “long” which could be upwards of an hour) and some days it’s only for a few minutes.  He still only sleeps for 20-30 minutes at a time and only twice a day (which, to me, doesn’t seem long enough), but I’m grateful for what I get!  That’s the only time I get during the day to catch up on things or do anything that requires silence!

The one thing is that we’ve ran into is that he ends up sitting and crying until he falls asleep, but then he ends up falling asleep against the bars of the crib and by the time he wakes up he’s got these deep creases (and occasionally small bruises) where his head was resting against the bars.  It’s a terrible predicament… I don’t want to go in there and move him when he’s asleep because he will surely wake right back up.  But I hate that he sleeps this way too.  My poor baby…

 

 

Diapers:  Oh, my.  I really want to be using the cloth diapers again, but we only have a few of the ones that are already set to the right size, so I constantly run out of them and the other kind we have all need to be adjusted, which is actually quite a task.  The elastic on each side of the diaper has to be changed via two tiny buttons on both sides.  It’s something I just need to sit down and do, but WHEN?!?!?  The other problem I run into then is that I’ve used the 6-8 good diapers that we have, but I never feel justified washing just that few… plus the last load I did, I washed with some towels and all the diapers came out with lint on them, which end up on Jedi’s little bum when they get wet.  Ay-yay-yay!  I just need some time to get situated and then I’ll get back to using the cloth ones!  I especially want to start doing that now, since he’s getting closer to the age where he could be potty trained!

Clothes:  For as tall as people think he is (which I don’t ACTUALLY know because I keep forgetting to measure him…), he’s still barely fitting into 9 and 12 month pants.  If they don’t have elastic on the bottom he trips and slips on them as he walks and they end up being more work than they’re worth.  That being said, he is wearing mostly 9 month clothes.  He still fits into some 6-9 month sleepers, and a few 6 month onesies.  On the other end of the spectrum, he’s also fitting into some 12 month clothes.  So it varies.

Social:

We went to Mr. Gatti’s again this month, but this time with Nana, Popo and cousin Cohen.  He really had a fun time playing arcade games and particularly ANY game with a ball.  At the end he even got to cash in his tickets for a little orange bouncy ball, which excited him beyond belief.

Jedi and I went over to a friends house to make fall wreaths and have a play date.  We made tacos and drank mimosas and had a wonderful time hanging out (and letting the kids hang out) and celebrating fall (or what SHOULD be fall… except that we live in Texas…).

We got to celebrate daddy’s birthday!!!  We didn’t do anything particularly special.  I kept asking Trent what he wanted to do, but he just said he wanted a day to relax with his two loves (Awwww).  So that’s what we did!  We’re so thankful for him and another wonderful year of life to spend together!  We did, however, get to go out to celebrate both of our birthdays that evening with Trent’s family.  We went to Houlihan’s and then back to his parents’ house for cake and presents.  It was a great time celebrating!

We drove up to Austin for a surprise birthday party for one of our best friends from China.  We barely arrived on time, but were there to yell “Surprise” to “uncle Zach.”  It was a really nice party (His wife, Heather, ALWAYS throws amazing parties) and we enjoyed catching up with these dear friends.  Another friend, Nicole, who we also met in China was there as well, and we were thankful to be able to catch up with her too!  Jedidiah loved being outside, playing with Chara (their dog) and throwing the corn-hole beanbags in the hole!

Jedidiah and I headed to a pumpkin patch at Stahlman’s at Bear Creek in New Braunfels.  We went after Bible Study Fellowship one morning with our friends Ashley (and Avery) and Vanessa (and Elizabeth).  I totally forgot both my camera and my phone that morning (total mom fail) but thankfully Vanessa had her nice camera and was kind enough to take some pictures for us.  Here were a few that I absolutely LOVED!

We had another play date with two of my old co-workers from the days when we worked at Copeland Elementary/Walker Intermediate School.  We got together in the late morning and had a nice time chatting and catching up over lunch while the kids played together.  🙂

We had the chance to go to Hondo to their South Texas Maize festival with our neighbors and friends down the street.  It was so much fun to do together and the kids had a good time.  We walked through the corn maze, played with the pumpkins, and checked out the animals.  I totally recommend going!  We had a great time!

The two of us attended a baby shower for one of my friends from Northwestern College (in Minnesota) who lived in San Antonio for a while before moving to Austin with her husband.  We are so excited to meet her little guy!

Mommy hosted an Usborne book party and Jedidiah got to play with some of his little girlfriends.  He had a good time pushing Avery in his little riding motorcycle.  He’d make the car noises and push her down the hall.  It was soooo cute (the picture is a blur because he was moving too fast)!!!

We went to a small outing with a few close friends to celebrate my friend Abby’s son’s 4th birthday.  We went to the Trinity soccer game and enjoyed hanging out with all the kiddos and her brand new baby boy!

This month we attended our neighborhood’s National Night Out, although we couldn’t stay long because of other obligations at church.  We still made it in time to see the police officers and their patrol dog.  Jedidiah of course loved the dog!  He also got a police badge sticker from the visiting officers.

 

Likes: The three B’s- birds, balls and balloons!  If he sees any of these things, he will literally shriek with delight!  It’s hilarious and a bit obnoxious, but you can’t help but admire his enthusiasm!  We will be walking through HEB and he’ll see the balloons and freak out.  I have to try to keep him away from the front area so that he doesn’t get too excited.  Even still there have been a few other times, where they’ve had special promotions (one day was “Italy day” so they had red, white and green balloons at the food sample booths) or there has been a random stray balloon that floated up to the ceiling (even in the back where they store everything).  If there’s a balloon there, he will find it!  In parking lots or even sitting in his high chair, he will point out the birds with great excitement.  It’s really adorable to watch!

Another thing Jedidiah loves is the broom, vacuum or duster.  Really anything he can push back and forth… oh, yes, and the fly swatter (not something I particularly like for him to play with).

He is very interested in the dishwasher and every time I open it to load or unload it, he climbs right up into it and starts “helping” me with the silverware.

Much to my disdain, one of his favorite places to play is in the toilet.  He just can’t seem to understand why he can’t play in that water and why momma makes such a big deal about it.  At the beginning, we could just close the cover because he couldn’t quite open it, but those days are gone.  We really need to invest in toilet locks but for now we’re just trying to keep the doors to the bathrooms shut at all times.

Speaking of doors, he still absolutely LOVES to open and close doors.  Thankfully he has a good awareness of where his fingers are and hasn’t pinched them.

Jedidiah REALLY likes rocks!  Especially when we arrive to the church that my bible study is held at, he sees the rocks and FREAKS out!!!  I use it as my bribe to get him to stay in the child care.  I tell him that afterwards we can come out and play with the rocks.  It’s worked so far and he REALLY gets excited about them.  He really impressed me one day because he picked a particular rock and threw it (into a million other rocks) and then went and found that exact same rock to throw again!  He did it twice, finding that same rock, before he moved on to another one.  I don’t even know if I could find the same rock I threw in all those other rocks!

Another thing he gets  SUPER excited about is seeing dogs!  He loves Nana and Popo’s dogs and any dog he sees while we’re out walking.  Our neighbors all have dogs and when I’m loading him into the car, he’ll say dog and point (even though they’re behind the fence) if he hears them barking.

Jedidiah absolutely LOVES the bath.  As soon as we start filling up the tub, he is right beside us, SO ready to get in there and play! He walks ALL over the tub, which of course scared the crap out of us at first, but he does a good job with it and is really proficient.  Of course, his favorite bath toy is still the little orange puffer fish that resembles a ball.

Dislikes:  He HATES having his diaper changed.  In fact, I think he really dislikes any time we try to lay him on his back or keep him still.  He also STRONGLY dislikes and fights getting put in his car seat.  He arches his back and squirms so that it makes it very difficult to get him in!  It doesn’t happen ALL the time, but it would be safe to say that MOST of the time, he does NOT want to be strapped down!  Usually once he’s in though, he’s fine.

He also hates having his mouth wiped after he’s done eating, and he’s gotten pretty good at blocking me!  Sometimes we’ll be out and about and I’ll see a spot I TOTALLY missed!  Oops!

Memorable moments and firsts:

We went to our first pumpkin patches this month!  One in Hondo at the corn maze and the other with my girlfriends.

Jedidiah has started saying lots of new words this month.  He’s added “peek” (for peek-a-boo), “light,” “outside,” “water,” “thank you,” and “choo choo.”

Shopping with him has really become a lot of fun.  He is able to communicate much more clearly the things he likes.  One day we were out at Toys’R’Us getting a gift for a friend’s birthday party, and as we were leaving, he was adamant about sitting on the little rides they have in the front.  He could care less that they weren’t moving.  He just wanted to ride them!  So I brought him over and let him sit on both rides and clearly, he enjoyed it!

Jedidiah has been greeting with us at church since he was about 3 weeks old, but now he is ACTUALLY greeting people, with waves and high fives!  He’s so darn cute!

He makes car “vrooming” noises when he’s playing with his walker or toy cars or even anything he can push (like it’s a vacuum).

When he’s playing with his toy phones, he now puts them to his ear (backwards).  He also does this with my cell phone too.  When daddy calls he won’t talk to him but he will wave hello and goodbye to him.

He puts his face in the water at the pool for 4-5 seconds at a time.  He hasn’t figured out how to blow bubbles yet, but he holds his breath.

There’s this cute little café up the road from us called Emily’s Place.  We walk there often and Jedidiah loves to play on their little playground or run around outside while we just chat and relax (and chase him around).  We’ve been making a habit of going up there on Saturday mornings just to unwind and begin the weekend slowly.  Plus the weather has been nice these last few Saturdays so that’s been super helpful as well!  They have this little motorcycle there that he likes to ride on.  He can get on and off of it by himself and he loves it when daddy pushes him around on it!  The picture to the left was particularly great because he was wearing his yellow and blue motorcycle shirt riding the blue and yellow motorcycle.

He’s learned how to kick the ball (like intentionally, not accidentally) and occasionally will choose to kick-the-ball-and-chase-it rather than his usual throw-the-ball-and-chase-it down our hallway.

We were at Ihop one Sunday after church and after we had finished our meal, Trent was walking around with Jedidiah (as he often does, to let me finish my food).  Anyways the cleaning crew had come around and Jedidiah saw the broom and dustpan and was ENAMORED!  I’m telling you, I hope this kid keeps up his excitement over cleaning tools!  Anyways, we let him “sweep” a little and all the staff thought he was adorable.  Who knows what the other people in the restaurant thought… maybe that he was going to have to work to pay for our meal!

We randomly decided to go garage sale-ing one morning but got a much later start than we had intended.  We really only found a few that were still going, but we totally lucked out!  We found an awesome rocking horse in excellent shape that gallops and whinnies!  It would have been my dream as a little girl to have one like that, so we snatched it up!  He likes to push it around like a walker, and he also likes to rock it back and forth.  He’s not too sure about being on it yet (but it’s a bit too tall for him yet).  That day will surely come!

Jedidiah has been helping me make my shakes for a while now.  For the longest time, he just liked to put his hand on top of the blender and watch it blend.  But one day we were making my shake, and he was already helping me with the ice cubes (we always count them as we put them in) and then he kept motioning towards the sink.  I couldn’t figure out what he wanted, so we went over there and I let him grab his little plastic fork out of there.  When we went back over to the blender, he put the fork in and started stirring around my ice cubes!  This was amazing because it just goes to show how much kids watch what you’re doing, even if you don’t know they’re watching, and even if you don’t realize you’re doing it.  You see, every time I make my Shakeology, I grab a spoon and push all the powder down so that it gets blended and doesn’t stick to the sides, and he NOTICED that!!!  Not only did he notice, but he tried to replicate what mommy does on a daily basis.  WOW.  That sure gives me pause to what else he sees me doing!

Speaking of which, another thing he must frequently see me do (like every time we leave the house) is unlock the deadbolt to the door with  my key.  One day after coming in, I left my keys on the table beside the door.  Jedidiah immediately took the keys, turned around and reached up towards the lock with the keys.  He KNOWS what he’s doing!

He has finally figured out the art of sucking!  He can suck out of a straw and he can suck out of those little food pouches by himself.  Now he also likes any water bottle that you can suck out of as well!

When we go to HEB, they give the kids these little things called “Buddy Bucks” which you put into this arcade-like machine and push a button and it gives you points which you can then redeem for little prizes.  Well, Jedidiah could care less about the prizes, but he sure does get excited about pushing the button!  It’s super cute to watch his tiny little self walk up to that machine and reach up and push the button.

When we put him in his car seat when it’s already in the car, he loves to play a little peek-a-boo game with us.  It is SOOOO adorable and he gets such a kick out of it!  We usually let him play it for a minute or two and then he doesn’t fight us so much getting into his seat.

We are still going to the library for “Baby and Me” time and it’s been fun to watch Jedidiah begin to come out of his shell more and get more excited about playing.  He still doesn’t necessarily play with the other kids, but he’s at least playing alongside them.  🙂

We’ve started going to parks now that he can walk and climb.  He can’t do everything, but he loves to be outside and loves to climb on everything.  He particularly wants to go up the slides, but the stairs are good practice for him as well (he crawls up them, not walks).  He also enjoys the little steering wheels that they have on the playgrounds and any of the little rocking animals (he’s also figured out how to rock them by himself!).

He makes “choo-choo” noises every time he hears the train.  He’ll stop and listen and then make the sounds.  It’s super cute and I love how observant he is!

I think I wrote last month that he had used crayons successfully one day at Ihop, and this month he was very interested in me writing.  He loves to play with pens but I usually make sure that they are “disabled” so that he can’t write on anything.  But one particular day, he crawled up in my lap while I was making a to-do list or something like that and I let him draw a bit.  It didn’t hold his attention for long, but he did make the connection between what he was doing and the lines on the paper that were forming.

Jedidiah loves to be a part of everything that we do.  We had bought a new shelf for his room for his toys and such and we were putting it together in our living room and he was enamored with the hammer.  So we helped him use it to “hammer” in a few nails.  I love that he always wants to be a part of everything.

What about mom?  Well, this momma signed up to run a half-marathon on the 19th of November, so I’ve been training through the weeks.  Usually on the weekdays, Jedi ends up being my running buddy, but I’m not really a big fan of running with the jogging stroller.  I’m not a fan of running with anything, really.  I just prefer the freedom to move my arms and run unhindered.  It has however, been good for training as when I’m doing my long weekend runs WITHOUT having to push the stroller, it is MUCH easier!

Other than that, I’ve still been going to Bible Study Fellowship on Wednesday mornings.  I LOVE this time to grow in the word and fellowship with other women.  And as much as I love spending time with my little guy, I am SO very grateful for those two hours a week that he is being cared for and ministered to by OTHER people!  It has been a huge blessing for me.

I’m really LOVING my job as a Beachbody coach!  I love connecting with people and encouraging them on a daily basis.  How cool that building relationships and pouring into others’ lives can be my ministry AND my job!  Plus it keeps me in good shape and keeps me accountable for how I eat too.

Daddy time:  I know that I literally say this every month, but I. Love. These. Two.  The way they interact is so precious to me.  They play little games and have so much fun.  Jedidiah looks up to his daddy and loves spending time with him!

One night they were playing this silly little game as we were getting Jedi ready for bed.  Daddy would put his shorts on his head, and Jedi would laugh and pull them off.  Then daddy would put the shorts on Jedidiah’s head and he would laugh and pull them off.  They went back and forth with this little game for quite a while and we all got a good laugh out of it!

 

Until next month… thanks for reading!