Let the talking begin

Jonas has been saying so many new words lately.

The other day, Jeremiah was telling him, "Lets go to the store, let's go hang out together." A few seconds after Jeremiah had said, 'lets go,' Jonas mimicked him by saying in a beautiful, angelic voice, "go." We looked at each other, eyebrows raised in amazement.

Jeremiah: (Tapping me on the leg) "Did you hear him? He just said, "go."
Me: "Yeah, I heard him! (With a huge grin on my face)

It's the coolest thing to hear our little man speak.

I remember waiting patiently for him to say mama. He would say ‘dada’ all the time and I didn't mind. What can I say? The boy loves his daddy. But now, he has learned how to say mama. Oh, what joy he has brought me.

If he is in his baby walker and wants to be picked up, I’ll hear a sweet little voice say, “baby, mama” and then again, “baby, mama”. He lets me know baby needs mama. How beautiful is that?

I watched a video about a study being done on how babies learn to talk. When they hear familiar words, an area in their brain called Broca's Area, the part responsible for speech, tells them, "Hey, I can say this word."

My little Jonas' Broca's area has been working hard these days.

Just this afternoon, my dad was asking Jonas for a kiss. He kept saying, "Give me a kiss Jonas." Then, Jonas said, "ki". My dad was so happy.

Pretty soon, he'll be saying, "Mom, dad, can I borrow the car?" Wait a minute, maybe I don't want him to talk.

Light goes on, light goes off

Every morning, Jeremiah and I wake up to a wild-haired, chubby-faced Jonas smiling at us and insisting we wake up. He wakes me by pulling my hair and wakes his daddy by doing what we like to call his signature move, "the wrestling scratch." He holds his hand over Jeremiahs' face and does a sudden swoop downward with all his baby strength. I'm lucky because he never does this to me. No, I just get a few hairs yanked out of my head once in a while, no big deal.

Sometimes I'll wake up and see Jonas staring out the window with his head resting on the pillow, looking very contemplative. I stare at him, wondering what his little mind is thinking about while looking so peaceful and sweet, until he realizes that mommy isn't sleeping anymore, then he turns to me and is ready to get moving. Jonas does not like to waste his day away. He is always ready to have some fun and begin exploring!

It amazes me to see how fast he learns something new. This morning my mom was teaching him how to turn the light switch on and off. He perfected the off motion, but turning it on was a little tricky. Well, when I arrived home from school, I was going to give him a bath and asked him to turn the bathroom light on, and he did. I was so proud of him! So we stood there turning it off and on, then we celebrated with a fun, relaxing bath.

I was looking through baby developmental charts and found that my boy is up to speed with all the big physical, social and intellectual developments.

For example, he...

Understands and obeys some words and commands
It's so adorable to see him wave goodbye. You barely have to mention the word "bye-bye," and his little Michelin man arm goes up automatically.

Increasingly imitates actions of others
When he watches us brush our teeth, he wants to do the same, so I bought him his own bright green shark toothbrush, which ends up on the floor after about five minutes of his chewing on it, but he's got the gist of it.

Enjoys playing with water
Whenever he sees the hose outside, he lets us know he wants to get wet by making an "uhh" sound. We sit on a chair in the backyard and spray our dog, Lulu. But don't ever think about taking the hose away from Jonas or you're in for some trouble.

My baby boy amazes me day by day! I can't help but brag about all his developmental accomplishments.

I am one proud mama!!

Sleep?

Sleep in my life is a foreign term. I believe the last time I had a full night's sleep happened about 10 months ago.

My sweet little Jonas, for some reason or other, does not want to sleep through the night. I remember when he was about 4 months old, I was reading an article in babycenter about when babies begin sleeping through the night. It said that at about 6 months old, they do not need a late feeding, and that they will eventually sleep through the night. I, as a first-time mom, naive and all, believed that my gorgeous son would do as the article said. Well let me tell you, it has not happened yet. He awakes at about 12 a.m and 3-4 a.m. He still has a late night feeding, which I am trying to wean him from, but it is so hard to do because when you wake up from a blissful three hours of sleep at 4 in the morning, nursing him seems to me the easiest option.

We spoke to his pediatrician about it, and he told us, plain and simple, to let him cry it out. Well, that is easier said than done. He said most babies cry for a good half hour the first night. The next night there will be less crying and so on, until eventually Jonas will learn to fall asleep on his own. Jeremiah and I tried it one night. I think we only lasted about five minutes, and we went in and checked on him. We couldn't handle it. He sounded so sad and hurt because we weren't going in to check on him. Jonas has us trained, and he knows it.

I begin to think, well maybe he's in pain because he's teething or maybe he's hot. I just can't do it. Jeremiah can handle a little more crying than I can, but in the end we both give in.

I guess we'll continue to have sleepless nights with our little chubby chunker. I've done it for 10 months. What's a few more? I keep hoping that maybe tonight will be the night that he decides to stay asleep longer. I guess I'll have to wait and see.

The apple of my eye

Let me introduce you to one of the most important people in my life, my son Jonas. He was born in November, which makes him an almost 10-month-old bouncing baby boy, and I do mean bouncy.

This boy can move. Set him down, and he's off happily chasing our little chihuahua Pico. When Pico looks back and spots Jonas going for the hunt, he waits until Jonas gets so close he can almost pull his hair, then Pico takes off running. Jonas sits down, with a big toothless grin, knowing he was so close to catching his movable stuffed animal.

This is just one of the many adorable things Jonas does on a daily basis. But don't let this cute baby fool you. He has got quite a personality and quite an attitude. He knows what he likes and doesn't like, (at 10-months-old!), and you can't fool him.

This is just the beginning of my family's adventures with my beautiful son Jonas.