Smart Baby

Jason has gotten so smart! Not only can he show you his body parts, but when you ask him to pick out one of his toys he will go and get that specific one. He is also forming an opinion about what he wants and doesn't want. We love him so much, but our poor little boy has been getting frustrated. He has started throwing tantrums when his toys aren't preforming as he would like them to. Also he definitely knows what he does and doesn't like to eat. Right now we are struggling to get him any fruits and veggies. He hates picking up anything slimy. I thought I had him fooled when one day we covered cut up peaches with crumbs from cereal and he ate them, but we haven't had a repeat preformance. What am I going to do to keep my little boy happy and healthy?

New House

So we are into our new house! We love having more space and Jason loves trying to climb the stairs. When we first got in here we put up baby gates. There are some things you discover when you move into a new house like the floors aren't level at all. So in the office Jeff's rolling chair can sometimes roll away from the desk. Now that the kitchen is further away from Jason's room he sleeps in even when Jeff has to get up at 4:30 am! Also for some reason the internet is much faster here then it was at our old place. So here are the promised pictures:

Our room:

The upstairs bathroom:

The office:

The kitchen:

Downstairs bathroom:

Living room:

Craft area in the basement:

My baby is 1!

Can you believe it? Our little boy is 1! I thought I told him never to grow up, but it doesn't seem like he has listened. In a way I am happy he didn't heed my warnings because this little man is so much fun to play with and no less cute then he was as a baby. As we always tell him he is our sunshine!

On Friday (Jason's birthday) we had the pleasure of having Jeff stay home with us. We all got to go to playgroup and Daddy found out how Jason and Mommy spend most of their days. Jason had his first taste of birthday cake there and didn't want to get messy at all. After a nice nap, Jason received his present from Mom and Dad, a rocking horse. You might think that first thing he wanted to jump on and ride it, but Jason prefers to cuddle "Fred" and push him around the room.

(video deleted to make room for new photos)

On Saturday we had a bunch of kids and their families over to celebrate Jason's birthday. I may have invited too many people for our little house to handle, but I think everyone had a good time. At least they are all too nice to tell me if they didn't. His party was a winter wonderland theme and the older kids got to make a snowflake out of popcorn while the younger ones played in the living room. We had another cake and again Jason didn't want to make too much off a mess. Jason is now the boy with too many toys and we had to put some of them up for a little bit.

I know I shouldn't worry, but I am a mom and I do. Jason isn't walking yet. I hear about all these moms with babies younger than mine who walk and Jason doesn't. I know every book and resource says he is fine for not walking yet and he will do it in his own time. I keep telling myself that I don't want him to walk yet anyway because then he will be all over the place, but I think that is just a case of sour grapes. I am sure that in time Jason will decide that staying upright is much more fun then crawling around. Jeff predicted 13 months, should we hold him to it? :)

(video deleted to make room for new photos)

We're Moving!!!

Now now, don't get excited we are not returning to the "land of the free" we are just moving across town. I may have noted in another posting that we are currently living with the stairs of death. You know in The Exorcist at the end when the priest falls down the stairs? Ours are like those. Jeff (and many of his co-workers) have expressed concern for my safety carrying Jason up and down the stairs. Otherwise this apartment is pretty good. It's large with big rooms and the best part is it is furnished.

Wait Rachel, why would you need it to be furnished? I know you have a house full of furniture...well we do, but it is all in storage in the good ol' US of A. It was too expensive to ship so we are going to have the company buy us all new furniture. I have been told that is also a cheaper option. So yesterday we spent the afternoon making the lady at the furniture store very happy! This afternoon we are going to go shopping for everything else that we will need. I will post pictures of the new place when we are in and all set up. Now I have to go wake up the baby so we can go shopping!

Shower Troll

Now that Jason is crawling and pulling up on things we can't just sit him in the bouncer chair and hope that he will entertain him while we are showering. So instead we bring out toys, some of his favorites, to entertain him as he crawls around the bathroom. Instead of playing with all those great toys Jason wants to peek into the shower. Peek may be a deceptive way to put it, pulling the curtain half way open is really more discriptive. Most normal people would notice that doing this will get you (and the floor) soaked, but Jason doesn't care. If our bathtub was low enough I am pretty sure he would try to climb in with us. So he has earned himself the nicname of Shower Troll

Peering in at us is a vast improvement to what he used to do, sit in the bathroom and scream because he couldn't see us. This way he doesn't scream so we work with it. But it isn't only the shower he goes after. Any time he is in the bathroom with us he will attack everything in there: the trashcan, the toilet paper, the toilet. So on any given day if you drop in on us without warning you will not only find smudges on the mirror and a couple of stray hairs, but also the trashcan in the sink and the toiletpaper on the back of the toilet. Such is the life of the family of the Shower Troll.

Troublemaker at 11 months

Jason is always looking to get into something. He has about a million toys, but only wants to play with what he can't have. He still loves to play in the refridgerator and dishwasher, but now he has found Mom's scrapbooking stuff, the key rack, wrapping paper, tredmill, behind the TV and anything else that might be extreamly distructive. So we stop him, redirect him and he gives us a "love nip." Yes, my son has learned not only that biting hurts, but you can hurt Mommy when she doesn't do what you want. Any suggestions on how to correct this situation?

I don't always mean to be complaining because we are really lucky. Jason is a very sweet boy and is currently sitting here giggling at me. He has been eating a lot more foods and trying things that Jeff and I eat. We think he has even figured out the sippy cup. He isn't walking yet, but a couple of times he has stood up for a few seconds without holding on to anything.

I can't believe that Jason is 11 months already. I was kind of in denial that he was getting older until the new year started. Now we are planning his first birthday party. We are thinking of doing a Winter ONEderland theme and inviting some of the families from the center that we go to on an almost daily basis. I'm not sure what to do with all those kids, but I am working on some ideas.

Post-Christmas wrap up

I know I haven't written in a while, but hopefully you will excuse me for being on vacation. We just got back from our Vacation in the States and are trying to find homes for everything. Jason has gotten so big and we were glad for him to spend time with family over the holidays.

We started our vacation a week before Christmas in Virginia. We seem to have brought down the cold weather with us because the day after we got there they had one of the biggest snow storms in recent memory. We spent a lot of the time there at the house because it was so difficult to get out. We get a chance to go to my dad's promotion ceremony. We are all so proud of him. We even got to spend time with Kevin's Fiance, Rachel, before she went to spend time with her family. On Christmas eve we left for San Antonio to see Jeff's family.

We had an amazing Christmas with the Salomons. They absloutly spoiled Jason and I am not sure that toys r us had anything left. I got a bunch of scrapbooking stuff including a Cricut. Now I hope to get Jeff to set up a table I can work on instead of the coffee table. In Texas we played a bunch of board games, swam in the pool, went shopping and just spent time together. On New Years Day we visited Corpus Christi where we went to the aquarium, the aircraft carrier, Lexington, and the beach. We were so sorry to go the next day!

Everyone enjoyed seeing Jason and by the end of the trip he was even okay with letting people other than Mommy hold him. He pulls up on anything he can and, as the grandparents found out, nothing is safe from him. He now has 4 teeth, two on top and two on the bottom. Occasionally when he doesn't relize it he will stand up on his own. Normally this is when both hands are occupied and he doesn't notice that he isn't holding on. He is causiously currious and wants to explore the world at his own pace. Of course he wanted to attack Uncle Michael's cool toys and Michael even shared his cars.
We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and 2010 brings you many blessings!