Jumping Jonah!

Jonah is absolutely crazy for his new Jumperoo (yet another one of those ridiculous-looking baby contraptions I thought we'd never get but am glad we did).  He just loves it.  Check it out:

Note that this particular video shows Jonah playing relatively tamely in the Jumperoo... until the end at least.

My only issue with this thing now is that it's hard to get (or keep) him out of it.  When he's in it, generally speaking, he's jumping, he's bouncing, he's laughing, he's squealing with delight.  His feet fly up and down over the floor with the grace of Mikhail Baryshnikov.  He throws his arms up as if he's enjoying the thrill of a roller coaster, and he slams them down with grand smacks of approval.  He grabs at the toys attached to the tray that surrounds him, spins them, pulls them, inspects them intently with his eyes.  And he smiles!  Oh, those smiles!

All that, of course, means that not only does he want to be in it often but his dad and I also find it unexpectedly rewarding to see him in it.

My motherly reservations about allowing plastic monstrosities to essentially babysit one's children aside, I'm happy that my darling baby's happy, and I'm gratified that with this single gift from his grandparents, we seem to have satisfied much of his current and urgent desire for more independence and mobility.

Busy Day

Jonah had an activity-intensive day today:

It started with a trip to the natural history museum, where we checked out the massive dinosaur fossils, the sparkly gems, and the creepy insects, among other things.  Such fun!  Mostly for Mom and Dad, of course, but Jonah had a few good moments, too:

"Stegosaurus is soooo Jurassic period, Mom."

Sparkly gems have a little more
appeal than dinos at this stage.

In the Hall of Architecture.  Jonah's checking
out the off-camera Christmas trees.

Family photo time!  This is Jonah's first inclusion
in our traditional self-snapped family portrait.

After the museum, since Jonah seemed to be in a good mood, Bryan and I pushed our luck by making a stop at Banana Republic for some traditional Christmas self-treating.  No pictures from that event (though I thought of snapping a shot of Jonah fascinated by his many counterparts in the dressing room's 3-way mirror).  But once again Jonah showed off his developing patience by being a perfect young gentlemen all through Mom and Dad's searching and trying and buying.  So impressed!

Through the car ride home, Jonah chatted with us amiably.  Then at home he spent the rest of his seeming endless supply of energy playing in his new Jumperoo--an early Xmas gift from distant Grammy and Grandpa.  Jonah loves loves loves this thing.  He jumps like a mad man when he's in it, and laughs like one, too.  I think it appeals to his desire for greater independence.  He so very much wants to be able to move around on  his own!  Jonah loves his Jumperoo so much it may deserve it's own blog entry in the future, but for now we'll just include one inevitably blurry photo:

Thrilled to be jumping in the Jumperoo!

Well, after all this activity, Jonah's more than a little tuckered out now. Time to put our exhausted little man to bed. One big day behind us, but with the holiday coming, there are more than a few other big days ahead, and Baby need his rest!

Jonah's 1st Tree

Christmas tree is up and trimmed!

Happy holidays to all our friends

from Meg, Bryan, and Jonah!

18+ Weeks

At his 4-month pediatric appointment last week, we learned that Jonah's grown to nearly 26 inches and to just about 16 pounds. Every day he looks (and behaves) less like the infant he technically still is--and more like the little child he's bound to become.

Jonah's certainly made a few developmental leaps of late. For one thing (drum roll please), he actually slept through a full night last night! That's a "full night" even from an adult perspective: seven hours. This is a huge deal for me in particular, as I haven't had a chance to sleep even close to that long since Jonah was born. And, frankly, I probably never slept that long in one go while I was pregnant either. So... A. Big. Deal. For. Me.

Beyond that, Jonah's been showing ever more curiosity about the world around him. And he's definitely inherited his mom's (dad's?) determination (stubbornness?). He's reaching for everything these days. And he's vociferous in his frequent attempts to tell us where he'd like to go and what he'd like to do there. The poor child is clearly aching for better mobility. We've been increasing the amount of time he spends independently on the floor, the better to practice those little rolling/crawling/standing/walking muscles. And every gain in muscle strength seems to make him even more determined to get on the move. It's a vicious(ly exciting) cycle.

We did have one teensy little hiccup health-wise recently, and that was that after his pediatric appointment (which involved one oral vaccine and three shots in his thighs), Jonah developed a low fever and became nearly inconsolable over (presumably) the pain in his legs. A little acetaminophen seemed to provide him with the comfort he needed to eventually sleep, but until that kicked in, Mom's and Dad's hearts were nearly breaking over their darling's desperation. At this point, we're pretty accustomed to him crying from over-tiredness, for instance, but crying through pain and fever is still a largely new experience for us. I wished I could have explained to him that what he was feeling was only temporary, that suffering through the actual illnesses against which he was vaccinated would have been so much worse and more drawn out. But, alas, I could only imagine how miserable and helpless he must have felt, with almost no experience to help put his pain in perspective. My poor baby.

Oh well. Obviously, he's better now. At the moment, in fact, he's napping contentedly against my chest. I should probably take a nap, too. One truth I don't need to learn even with this new experience: a parent just can't take seven straight hours of sleep for granted!

UPDATE:  Jonah woke up pretty much as soon as I was settled down for my nap.  Naturally.  :-)

Lights!

On these unseasonably warm evenings, Jonah loves sitting out on the porch, checking out the Christmas lights, and watching the cars zip by through the dark.

Christmas Decor!

Bryan, Jonah, and I put up Christmas decorations this weekend.  Our home now feels warm with Christmas cheer:

Too thrifty to spend on garland, I made one myself
using some spare ornaments, ribbon, and a string.

A few pine cones and bows transform the dining room
chandelier.  In the background, a snowman we bought years
ago in an after-Xmas clearance sale smiles at us from
under a string of laundry-pin-hung Xmas cards.

Uh oh, that candy jar in the foreground looks a
lot emptier than it did when I filled it last week...

I made bows using just some wired
ribbon and cheap-o miniature ornaments.

I love this baker Santa nutcracker--one of the
few decorations on hand from holidays past.

In my quest to find inexpensive decoration ideas,
I learned that little adjustments to the decor you
already have can make a big, festive difference.  In
this example, I replaced the contents of picture frames
already hanging in the dining room with cheery holiday cards.

The buffet features yummy in-season oranges alongside
the last few of our decorations on hand from past
years.  As a finishing touch, the chalkboard
exclaims an Xmas greeting in red and green

Still no Christmas tree, but maybe next weekend.  In the meantime, holiday tunes are playing, the hot cocoa is ready, and many peaceful evenings by the fire with the family are in store!