Cover Your Face Immediately When Confronted with an Explosion. Obviously, it is Good to Avoid Explosions in General.

Where does the time go?

Mine and Alan's best friend, BA, (we say that Alan and BA are "hetero-lifemates" and I am BA's "hetero-lifemate-in-law" ... so his wife, Stephanie (who is awesome:  good job, BA) is also my hetero-lifemate-in-law, and we like to trade stories about all of Alan's and BA's antics... but that's other stories for other days) told Alan that he doesn't really read my blog because the posts are too long - ha!  I am a very wordy person (see the preceding fabulous overlong, run-on sentence).  So, BA, beware:  this is a long, wordy post coming up to make up for the months I have taken off from blogging (in my defense, as you will see, we've had A LOT going on around here)

A LOT going on around here, # 1:

Jones turned 10 months old!

At 10 months, Jones:

• Weighed between 21 and 22 pounds
• Wore size 9 months ( a little tight, and definitely a little short, especially pajamas), 9 - 12 months, and 12 months clothes.  I love dressing him up.  I recently acquired a pair of Toms for him (they were, truly, the only shoes I could squeeze onto his fat little foot) and they are so cute it's bananas.
• Wears a size 3 diaper (PSA:  I bought some of those Huggies slip-on diapers (because I had a good coupon ... love me some coupons), which are advertised to be just the thing for changing wiggly babies, and I can say without hesitation that Alan and I both hate them, and they do not make changing any easier.  If anything:  harder.  It might be easier if we changed him standing up, but we don't do it that way (yet, anyway).  I will say that, on the plus side, they do have excellent leak-controlling qualities - no blowouts to report, and they really keep him very dry all night long.  Still:  changing him using these is generally a nightmare, and way more difficult than it needs to be).
• Is getting his two front teeth!  You can see them pushing their way out, little white spots on the tops of his gums.
• Has parted ways with the jumperoo - now that he's mobile (very, very mobile), he does not like to be confined to the jumperoo.  We can only get him to do it for about 10 - 15 minutes before he's hollering to get out of it so, alas, we will be putting it up in the attic this weekend, I think (along with the bouncer, and maybe possibly the swing ... sniff, sniff, tear:  he's turning from a baby into a toddler!).  He does like his walker, and he likes all of his toys in general, particularly his Sing and Play puppies and his musical table.

• Loves daycare, and loves people in general - he smiles at everyone, and still has no stranger anxiety or hesitation about meeting new people at all - what a relief!
• Is eating finger foods now and, thankfully, this has really gotten a lot better.  In fact, now it's hard to get him to eat baby food because he prefers to put the food in his mouth himself and chew on it.  We still do baby food though (I sneak it in between him taking bites of finger food), and he still prefers vegetables over fruit, especially green beans, and blueberry yogurt is still a favorite.  As far as finger foods are concerned, he loves sweet potato puffs, Cheerios, turkey, and the green bean/corn/carrot veggie mixture.  He still takes bottles, and still likes them a lot ... he's definitely not a fan of the sippy cup, although he does okay with the one with handles, and he does okay with the straw.  Still, he prefers the bottle, and that's fine by me, I think we can handle having him be a baby for a little bit longer, you know? ... I would say he takes 3-4 bottles a day.  The finger food thing has sparked an even deeper bond between Jones and the spoiled labradors, particularly Augie.  They get really excited when they see Jones get in the high chair, because they know they are going to get some food - food that falls down on the floor, little swipes off of the tray, and then they clean up the seat after we get him out of it (and, do not despair, I go back and clean and disinfect everything between meals ... I mean, I love my labs, but it's not like I think a labrador tongue-cleaning is an acceptable method for cleaning the high chair). 
• Is a crawling machine - he really gets going, and it's so funny!  He heads right for electrical cords - he likes to wave them around if he can get a-hold of them (don't call Child Services yet - we've removed all of them, don't worry ... that's just his preference, and what he did in the beginning before we moved such items out of his reach).  He loves to pull up and stand, and he will frequently take his hands off of whatever he is bracing himself on and just stand there for a minute before sitting down.  His favorite place to try this trick is the tub.
• Loves bathtime!  Still the cutest thing ever ...

• Needs a haircut, but I just haven't been able to bring myself to do it.  So he's sporting the beginnings of a parental negligence mullet.

• Babbles and talks - ma, ma, ma and da, da, da, and all of that, and has developed the unsettling habit of high-pitched screeching/squealing - I think he just likes to hear himself make that noise?  I don't know ...
• Can best be described as happy.  A simple word, but really, this is the word that encompasses everything that Jones is:  he is just, really, the happiest baby you'll ever meet.

Then Jones turned 11 months old!

Jones is 11 months old!

At 11 months, Jones:

• Weighed between 21 and 25 pounds, I would guess.  We'll be having our 1 year well visit soon and will get all of the official stats at that time.  I think I will take him to weigh-in here pretty soon, though, so I can get a weight for the swing.  We still put Jones in the swing when he's sleepy and fighting it, but I'm pretty sure the weight limit is 25 pounds, and we're fast approaching that, if not there already.  It creaks when it swings side to side with him in it, and the little feet kind of come off of the floor a little bit when it reaches the farthest point of its trajectory.  Part of me is having trouble letting go of the swing because, in my mind, that really will mark the transition from baby to toddler, when he can't go in the swing anymore.
• Wears a size 3 diaper, but I think we're going to go ahead and switch to size 4, even though he's still technically in the size 3 weight class - he's close enough, and since we buy diapers in bulk, I don't want to have too many that are too small.
• Wears size 12 months clothes, and some 12 - 18 months.  He wears a size 4 shoe, but only because his little feet are SO  FAT.  It's really difficult to shove them into shoes, but I've been putting him in shoes more frequently because they go out on the playground at daycare, and I figure shoes would be a good thing for that kind of adventure.
• Is still on formula, but less and less these days - I would say we are lucky if we manage to get him to eat 24 ounces of formula a day.  For a baby that struggled with eating solid food, you would never guess it now - this kid eats like a machine!  We have started just cutting up whatever we are having into really small bites and he eats that.  I usually add a vegetable or something, depending on what we are having.  This has kind of helped Alan and I to eat a lot healthier.  Some of his favorites:  broccoli; corn/carrots/green beans/peas mixture (I know!  This is the baby that Would. Not. Eat. Pureed. Peas.  And now he can't get enough!); rice, especially Spanish rice; mandarin oranges; he's a big fan of protein:  he always eats all of whatever we have for him, chicken, pork, etc.; Cheerios (a classic); applesauce and yogurt are about the only "baby foods" that he'll still eat, and I don't know if you count those.  He won't eat the pureed baby food, so we've given up on it.  He loves toast and saltine crackers as well.
• Is doing really well with a sippy cup, as long as it has handles.  I have taken the valves out of all of them, because he gets so frustrated if he has to work very hard for it.  He drinks a lot of water, and prefers water to juice, really, which I think is a positive thing.
• Still likes bathtime, but it's become more difficult because of the earplugs.  We have tried all kinds, and all kinds will fall out at least once, probably closer to three times while we are bathing.  Frustrating.  He is really good-natured, but he gets put out with me for continually shoving stuff in his ear, and I don't blame him for it.  Anyway, bathtime is still fun time, for the most part, and the tubes have really been a blessing - he hasn't been sick since he got them, which is nice.  We've made it almost two months without having to go to the doctor, knock on wood.
• Crawls like a demon - he is so fast!  He is crawling and pulling up and cruising and he's just everywhere all of the time.  He doesn't like to be by himself, so he crawls to wherever you are, which is sweet.  He likes to stand on his own too.  He's pretty good at it, and he's taken a step or two here or there, so I'm sure he'll be walking soon.
• Has four teeth, and 2 or 3 more coming in.  I think it's bothering him more this time than previous times, bless his heart.
• Still likes his musical table, his maracas (they count and do colors and stuff, and it can do everything in Spanish), his FP Sing and Play Puppies, and his walker.  He also enjoys his Dinosaur Ball Popper, but mostly he just likes to take the balls out and play with them on his own - I think the fascination with rolling and throwing and all of that is set to begin.  With his birthday coming up, I'm sure there will be new stuff to add to this.  His most favorite toy is the spoiled labradors' water bowl, or their food dishes.
• Puts everything in his mouth.  This means we are all on high alert a lot of the time.  He ate a "very small pebble" the other day at daycare (that's what the incident report that I had to sign referred to it as ... when I read it, I turned to Jones and said, "Did you eat a rock, buddy?" and he just grinned and grinned, like it was the funniest thing ever).  I think the daycare thought I would be upset, but I just had to laugh because under Alan's and my watchful eyes, he has managed to eat another Post-It note (you would think I would have learned my lesson), part of a newspaper, and he has made several credible attempts to eat his earplugs when they fall out of his ears during the bath, and he very nearly ate a dried piece of caulk off the floor in the living room.  And, there's this:  my confession:  we've already had to call Poison Control (very helpful people, very nice) because we believe he ate Layla's thyroid medicine out of her bowl - there's no proof that he ate it, but it was in there all by its lonesome in her large food bowl, and then it was not, and I doubt that Layla strolled over there and finished it off, having previously managed to eat everything around that tiny pill.  Never fear, the Poison Control fella told me that he would've had to eat like an entire bottle of the stuff to have any ill effects, and there were no ill effects to speak of on that particular evening or, indeed, ever.  There's no telling what he has managed to eat when I wasn't looking.  You would be surprised by all of the things around your house that you don't think about that spell t-r-o-u-b-l-e as far as an 11-month old is concerned.
• Is best friends with Augie.  They are so sweet together.  Augie has taken to sleeping in Jones' room all of the time - whether Jones is in there or not.  He lays in the bathroom or just outside of the bathroom door while Jones is getting bathed.  He sits right beside him while he eats (this is more of a cupboard love thing, though ... if it's one thing Augie loves, it's people food, even if it's people food that he would normally turn his nose up at - I guess it's special because it's Jones').  He brings his toys over to Jones and the two of them trade them back and forth.  It really is very sweet.  Layla, bless her, is protective of Jones, but she doesn't really want him to play with her.  She's not a fan of his grabbing and pinching and wallering (is that a word?  Should probably be "wallowing").  So she watches from afar, but sometimes she just can't stand it and rushes in to play with them (usually to steal whatever toy it is that they are playing with).  We bathed the dogs recently so their coats are very soft, and Jones loves to hug on them, and Layla actually lets him do it now.

• Is going through something with his sleep schedule - we are having trouble making it through the night (I blame the time change).  Since he doesn't need to eat in the middle of the night anymore, this has resulted in us going into his room (the first time he wakes up), rocking him, giving him a drink of water, and then putting him back down.  Sometimes he goes back to sleep.  Sometimes he really starts to scream and we have to go in for the second time, but right now, we're trying to just let him scream himself to sleep.  This is a lot harder than you might think, but I think it's working.  He's almost back to normal now, with his bedtime around 9:00 or 9:30, and up around 6:30 or 7:00.
• Babbles a lot - I think he thinks he is really having a conversation with you, so I repeat a lot of his babbles back to him. This seems to please him - there's no telling what he thinks I'm saying.
• Likes to be around people. He gets really upset if you put him in his crib or his walker or whatever and walk out of the room or out of his line of sight.  I don't really think it's separation anxiety, because he doesn't cry when I leave him with other people (like grandparents or the church nursery or daycare), I really think he gets upset because he doesn't like being by himself and just wants to be around people.  He's very social :o).
• Is still, overall, very smiley and happy and easygoing.  He's such a joy :o).

And then, Jones turned a whole year old - one!

At 12 months, Jones:

• Weighs 23 pounds and is 29 inches long.
• Wears size 12 months and size 12-18 months clothes.
• Wears a size 4 diaper (but can still fit into size 3s).
• Wears a size 4 shoe (still has fat feet, but it's getting easier to put shoes on him because he has learned how to help you ... that is, he quit curling up his toes so that you could never get his foot completely down into the shoe).
• Eats table food pretty much exclusively, with a morning bottle and a night bottle.  Dr. H said he needed to be weaned from the bottle by 15 months.  The morning bottle won't be too hard, but the night bottle is going to be a struggle, at least I think it will, because it's part of our routine and a signal that it's time to go to sleep, so once we lose that, I predict some tough times at our household for everyone.  His favorite foods are Spanish rice, macaroni and cheese, chicken, green vegetables (he will consistently pick out the green peas, green beans, asparagus, turnip greens, or whatever if presented with a mixed vegetable plate), and Saltines.  He drinks whole milk (cow's milk) from the sippy during the day - he's gotten more accepting of other kinds of sippy cups, but he's pretty brand specific:  NUK, soft spout, with handles, if you want him to drink the whole cup.  So I put water in the others to try and train him to accept all kinds.  The straw thing is not going well - he gets so frustrated and, I admit, I can't stand to watch him struggle right now so I don't force the issue.  I just routinely let him have water in a cup with a straw and hope that eventually it'll all come together.
• WALKS!  He's a champ! 
• He started walking for big stretches about 2 weeks before his first birthday - he'd walk 4 or 5 feet at a clip.  Then, one weekend, he just started walking everywhere and now he won't quit - he toddles all over the place, and it's precious.  This has resulted in a newfound interest in our cabinetry, so on our to-do list is to child-proof all of the cabinets in the kitchen and his bathroom.  The fact that he is constantly upright now means he has a new vantage point on everything which also means he likes to pull things off of tables, so a lot of the tchotchkes (Alan refers to them as booby-traps) around our house are going to have to go lest they be pulled down on little heads and/or broken.
• Has 6 teeth - the bottom middle 4, the two front teeth, and one coming in on the right side of the two front teeth.
• Still puts everything in his mouth.  It's exhausting keeping tabs on him, because even though I make an effort to make sure there's not stuff lying around that he could eat that he shouldn't eat, there always is.  Or, it's just something you wouldn't think about anyone trying to put in their mouth, but I promise you that's the first thing a 12-month-old thinks to do with any unidentified object.
• Plays with the spoiled labradors all of the time now, and they love it.  They are so patient with him, it's sweet, especially when they give you a look that would be them rolling their eyes or wincing if they were people - this is usually when Jones is really grabbing their fur and pulling, or pulling their tails, or stepping on them like they are pillows.  But they just sit quietly and patiently.  So sweet.
• Favorite toys of the moment:  drums and maracas, FP Elephant that the balls fly out of his nose, empty water bottles and milk jugs.
• Sleeps around 10 hours a night and has gotten really good at self-soothing.  I'll hear him wake up sometimes in the night and cry or whimper, but at this point it only last for a minute or two and then:  silence.  He's back asleep.  It's awesome.
• Babbles a lot, but no real words yet.  We've taken to identifying anything and everything in an effort to get him talking - we identify eachother, the dogs, his cup, his food, his milk, toys, etc.  It's kind of exhausting.  He did say "dog" the other day, I'm positive of it, and he says, "ma, ma, ma, ma" and "da, da, da, da".  But the little toot won't repeat stuff, I think because he knows that's what you want him to do and he thinks it's funny to watch you dance around trying to coax words out of him.  I'm sure some day we'll long for the days when he was so taciturn :o).
• Knows and understands the word "no" and actually does pretty well with obeying it ... sometimes.  He will also screw up his face and wail sometimes (most common example:  when we tell him "no" in regards to playing with the wood blinds), but this is usually short-lived.  Most of the time if you say "no", he'll look at you and you can really see the wheels turning.  He generally stops what he's doing, looks at you, determines whether or not you are serious, then decides whether or not to stop it.  Honestly, he usually stops, even if that results in his wailing, he has stopped what he's doing, he's just upset about it.
• Loves to be outside in the beautiful spring weather - we have been to the playground and he has slid down the slides, but that's all.  I haven't found any of the bucket-type swings that he could go in at any of our parks, so we're still waiting on that, which I think he would really enjoy.  We've also been taking more walks with the stroller and where he used to go to sleep pretty quickly, now he stays awake the whole time and loves looking around and checking out the great outdoors.
• Loves people - still such a happy baby with a genuinely good nature.

 A LOT going on around here # 2:

So, back around Thanksgiving, we got a torrential rain that resulted in water creeping into our house from the patio.  Thankfully, Alan and I were both awake, so we were able to pull up carpet and lay towels down around the hardwood and keep the water from ruining the wood, but the carpet ... well, we had planned on replacing it with something else anyway, so the flood incident just really kicked that into gear.

Before getting the floors done, we also had some stuff fixed in the yard:  we added a row of chain link so that the drainage easement that runs through the back would have better flow, and we are really happy with it, believe it or not - I think we're going to get better use of our yard now, since the spoiled labradors can be kept out of the mud when necessary and, if we have people over (you know, you may find it hard to believe, but some people do not love giant dogs jumping all over them when they come over to visit.  True story.), we can banish the spoiled labradors to the other side of the fence and spend time with people on the patio.  And since we kept the privacy fence up, people can't peer into our yard and house either (Alan is going to rig some sort of system that allows the parts of the fence that cross the drainage easement to be lifted up for rain, and put down during the dry summer so the dogs have access to the whole yard ... it's going to involve hinges or some such something or other ... stay tuned).  So:  win/win.  We also installed some new gutters and down-spouts (oh the joys of home ownership).

With the completion of the floors, all of the major work is done as far as cleaning up after the flood.  We decided to go with stained concrete because hardwood was just too pricey (we would have had to have done the whole kitchen too, since we wouldn't have been able to match the old wood to the new wood, and, frankly, some day we'll probably replace the wood in the kitchen with tile - wood floors in kitchens look pretty, but are not functional at all if you use your kitchen), and because stained concrete looks nice and is durable for people and pets alike.  The stain color is "Walnut" and I am really happy with the way it turned out.  Also, let me put in a plug for the people that did it for us, the Taylor Brothers.  You will never meet two nicer people in the whole word, I don't think, and they did such a fabulous job and, again, they were so nice.  In the "A LOT Going on Around Here" vein, let me also point out that while the floors were being done, that meant that we couldn't access that part of our house ... so we lived in our master bedroom (all of us:  me, Alan, Jones, and the spoiled labradors) for 10 days.  It was totally discombobulating ... but worth it.  I am a person who prefers order and tidiness, as is Alan, so you can imagine what living in this:

for 10 days did to us.  Again, though:  worth it.  It is still a work in progress, as we are taking care of the baseboard and trim (have to be built up because carpet, obviously, goes up higher on the wall.  Alan is doing a fabulous job, as you can see by the picture, but when you're both working full time and have an infant, and have lives, and it's spring and you're starting to have lots of stuff to do on the weekends, it's slow going).  I really do like it though:  totally pleased.

The new floors also mean that the Bad Cat gets to come home!  So, expect a homecoming post in a couple of weeks (he's been living at my in-laws since May ... the Bad Cat developed the very Bad Habit of going outside of the litter box.  Our dining room was his favorite improvised litter box, and if you have ever smelled cat pee, you can imagine how awesome that was, especially with a new baby around.  So, my in-laws very sweetly and graciously took him in while we got settled back in as a family of 3, until we could do something about the floors that would keep him from marking everywhere, and now he'll get to come back ... although he might not be all that happy about it:  he's been living the Life of Riley up in NLR).

A LOT going on around here # 3:

Alan has a new job!

While it was a little sad (he had been with his former employer for several years, and he liked everybody there), it was the right thing to do for our family, and a good move for Alan.  Everyone has been very congratulatory, and told him that he would really like his new place of work and all of the people there, and that he will really do well working there, so we're very happy with the decision.  And I cannot even begin to tell you how nice it is to have all of us located in the same town everyday - Alan and I are especially enjoying getting to eat lunch together!

A LOT going on around here # 4:

Jones got tubes put in both ears.  Back toward the end of January, I found myself in Dr. H's office for the 3rd time that month, with the 3rd ear infection of the month, and Dr. H was like, "Look, he's in here every 10 days to 2 weeks with an ear infection.  I think it's time to have a serious discussion about tubes."  I was actually not surprised at all; if anything, I had been expecting it.  I mean, the little guy was nine months old and this was his 6th or 7th ear infection.  So, we got the referral to Dr. K, an ENT specialist, and after meeting with him, we set the appointment to have tubes put in.  Everybody I talked to about this made me feel a lot better about it:  everybody told me how wonderful it would be afterward, how he wouldn't be sick, we wouldn't always be at the doctor's office, he would be able to hear better therefore he will be talking more (although he talks and babbles plenty right now) and would walk sooner (because his balance will be better - all of that inner ear stuff), etc, etc. 

The actual surgery itself was nothing, believe it or not.  We arrived bright and early at St. Mary's, and all of the nurses were so sweet to Jones (he's such a flirt - he smiled and laughed and held out his arms to them, so he got a visit from every nurse on the floor once word got around that there was a sweet, happy baby hanging around - they brought him a teddy bear, too, it was so sweet).  He got a little hospital gown to wear, and I wish I had gotten a picture, but I didn't take my camera to the hospital because I really didn't think we would want/need pictures of this momentous occasion, but I wish I had because it was really pretty cute, the tiny little hospital gown.  He was cheerful right up to them coming to get him and taking him away for the surgery - he grinned and hugged on the nurses who came and got him.  It was seriously only about 15 minutes from the time they came and got him to the time Dr. K poked his head in the door and said everything went great and he was in recovery.  10 minutes after that he was back in the room with us and sucking down some apple juice like there was no tomorrow (he couldn't have anything to eat or drink after midnight before the surgery ... I really thought he would be a wailing banshee because he was hungry, but he didn't have any trouble with that part of it, thank goodness), and he was pretty fussy for a bit, until he got his fill of apple juice (he seriously drank like 10 ounces).  And then, just like that, we were discharged and on our way.  So, I am very hopeful that this surgery makes his quality of life better - only time will tell.  I can say that we have had our post-op appointment and got the thumbs up, which is awesome, and no problems thus far.  Our main adjustment has been bathing, because he has to have earplugs now, and let me tell you, you cannot imagine how difficult it is to put ear plugs in a wiggly baby (or, maybe you can ... if you can and you have tips on how to get them in so that they stay in, please share).  Still:  no ear infections are a good thing, but that doesn't exempt us from things like:

A LOT going on around here # 5:

The Stomach Virus Fairy visited Noah's Ark and, sadly, chose our little Jones to bestow her gift upon.  And Jones bestowed it upon me.  And I bestowed it upon Alan.  So, you know, fun times.  I won't go into the details, but suffice to say it has not been the best of times for our family as far as feeling great goes.  Lucky for us, this happened before and around the Jimmy Buffet Concert.

A LOT going on around here # 6:

We went to the Jimmy Buffett concert!

I have been to another concert, in Cincinnati, but Alan had never been, and we had a really good time.  Jimmy Buffett concerts are a lot of fun, I can highly recommend them.  I've been a Buffett fan since I was very young, since both of my parents are fans.  I even danced the father/daughter dance at my wedding to a Buffett song ("Little Miss Magic" if you are dying to know).  Anyway, lots of fun was had by all, and it was a nice respite for everybody, especiallly considering how much we've been up to, and the stomach virus that came and got us that same week.

So, like I said:  A LOT going on, right?!  Wouldn't have it any other way ...