Joey - 11 Months

Let the party planning begin!! :)

I realized about a week ago that my baby was going to be 1 year old in a month.  I'm so excited!  I've already planned a lot of his birthday party, and I can't wait to see it all come together!

This last month in Joey's life:

- First and foremost, Joey learned how to walk!  One of his favorite things was to hold onto one end of a pair of drumsticks while we held onto the other end and cruise around.  I had gotten him to take a couple steps (with some pacifier bribery), but he didn't seem too inclined to walk on his own.  Then one Sunday we were sitting in the foyer at church with one of Joey's friends and his mom and I looked up and he was walking toward Owen to share a toy with him!  He hasn't stopped since :)

- A couple of days ago he stood up completely on his own (meaning without pulling himself up).

- He caught pneumonia.  Poor kid.  He was such a trooper though.

- Figured out he could knock over a laundry basket and climb onto it to get onto mom and dad's bed.

- Decided windows taste good.

- Had his first enjoyable snow experience.

- Started doing chores (haha not really.  He just likes handing us things out of the dishwasher.)

- Took a trip to Utah to meet his cousin Lucas.  Pretty sure he was plotting his revenge on us for most of the car ride.

- Figured out balloons are fun.

- Had his first face plant that ended with blood (mom didn't freak!)

- Caught yet another cold.

The pneumonia really took up the majority of our month.  We spent about two weeks cuddling, watching tv, doing nebulizer treatments, and trying really hard to keep him from getting too worked up.  Trying to explain to a 10 month old that they have to relax so their body can heal doesn't exactly work well ;)

Joey - 5 months

Joey's 5 months old now!

ONE more month and he will be a half a year old! (Insert happy but sad tears from his momma here).

- Joey started moving around a little bit this month.  Later in the month he figured out how to roll from back to front (apparently he likes to do things backwards).

- He went on his first hike.  We took the jogging stroller to Devil's Backbone in Loveland on one of Neal's days off, and hiked about a mile in.

- He sat in a baby swing in Grandma and Grandpa Johnson's back yard for the first time.

- Loved playing with his feet.

- Got to meet one of the local police officers and the fire department when mom about chopped the tip of her thumb off with a cheese slicer.  He thought mom's purple thumb was pretty cool.

- Tried bananas, sweet potatoes, peaches, and apples this month.

- Played outside lots.

- Went to Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Psuik's 50th Anniversary celebration.  Spent some time at the temple while mom and dad went inside for part of the celebration that morning.

- Started falling asleep completely on his own.

- Started sitting up on his own.

- Started holding books on his own.

- Started "playing" the piano and the drums.

- Went to Grandma and Grandpa Johnson's 50th Anniversary celebration.  Got to meet dad's cousin Sam, his wife Jaimee, and their kiddos.

- Probably started teething.  Mom can't tell for positive.

- Found his voice (I wish I could figure out how to post videos on here!)

Other cute pictures from this month:

I hate parenting advice books/websites/etc

When Joey was first born, my mom told me that it's great that they know more about babies now (like about dairy sensitivities) but that she feels kind of bad for us because there's SO much information out there about babies right now.  It's enough to drive a person mad.

I didn't agree with her.

Until now.

Over the last two weeks Joey has decided he hates naps.  Before this, he would easily take 3-4 1-2 hour naps, depending on the day.  4 months hit and boom.  We're stuck with a child who takes craptacular naps.

So, in my normal fashion, I went to the trusty internet to see if I could find a solution, and here is what I found:

- You could be keeping your child awake too long

-You could be keeping your child awake not long enough

- It could be teething, an ear infection, or cold (none of which are the answer)

- Your child may not need as much sleep

- Your child may need more sleep

- Make sure the room is dark and cool, but make sure it's not like night time because then he might get his days and nights mixed up

- It may be a growth spurt which should only last 2-3 days but some people swear they last 2 weeks

- It could be some tummy trouble

- He needs help getting through the transition from light sleep to deep sleep, so go in and pat his back, shhh, etc

- You going in may wake him up even more or make him dependent on you to fall back to sleep

- He's hungry because you're doing "eat, play, sleep" so he gets hungry shortly after he goes to bed.

- He may be about to hit a developmental milestone, so he's practicing in his sleep.
- He needs more of a routine, so put him to bed at specific times, like 9, 12, and 3.
- He needs less of a routine so just put him to bed 2 hours after he wakes up.
- Don't do a routine at all, wait until he looks sleepy and then put him to bed.

And I'm sure I could come up with more that I found.

But really people????

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

End rant.

Joey - 3 Months

All about Joey this last month :)

- He went camping for the first time :) We stayed in a tent, and it was pretty chilly, so we were worried about keeping him warm.  Thank goodness for the internet though!  We found an awesome idea to keep him warm during the night.  We wrapped him up really well in blankets, laid him in his car seat, and draped a fleece blanket over the handle to create his own little "tent."  I'm pretty sure Neal and I were more cold than he was!  (Funny note: I forgot his stocking hat, and so we had to use my mom's hat and a hair tie to create a hat for him.  We called him our unicorn).

- He got salmonella.  Yup, that's right.  Salmonella.  He was having really green, stinky, mucousy stools.  That's usually a sign of a dairy allergy, but I was already not eating dairy, so I took him into the doctor.  They took a stool sample, and a couple days later we got a call from our pediatrician saying he had salmonella.  Talk about a freaked out mom.  The pediatrician asked if we had any reptiles in the home because that's where the majority of salmonella cases come from.  Long story short, we ended up giving Ayowin to the reptile store in our town.  It was heartbreaking for me to get rid of her, but we decided it was not worth risking Joey getting bacterial meningitis or anything like that.

- He started sucking on his thumb.  It's pretty cute :)

- He started grabbing onto toys that we put on his chest, and swatting at toys that are hanging above him.

- He went swimming for the first time.  I don't think he necessarily enjoyed it, but he didn't freak out either!

- He started really laughing.  He laughs a lot for dad.  I've only been able to get him to chuckle a couple of times for me.

- He went on his second camping trip.  This time we stayed in a cabin, so we weren't worried about him being cold.  That's where we were when he really laughed for the first time.

- He celebrated his first Independence Day.  (Read about that here!)

Love this sweet boy!