lo and behold

A post.  Imagine that.  As Marty's been saying lately, "That's odd".  I guess I've been busy.  And tired. And reading other people's blogs while I neglect my own. Shame on me.

I'm going to dedicate this post to this adorable tri-toothed 10-month old that lives with us.  He sure is cute, but rather consumptive of my time, attention, energy and sleep.  He adores me. For that I am profoundly grateful.  His first tooth finally came through just before he turned 10 months, and two more quickly followed. The fourth is slower, but I see it there, trying to break through.  They are all on the top.  The older boys both started with two on the bottom and then two on the top.  

My friend asked me the other day how often Jax nurses.  My answer was "Whenever he wants!".  I am fully aware that I am reaping the consequences of not establishing him on a consistent eating and sleeping routine.  I've also come to know about myself that it's totally okay.  Yes, he can be tricky to get to sleep. Yes, he wakes up a few times a night.  Yes, I bring him into our bed in the wee hours of every morning.  Yes, that's usually the point at which he starts his long stretch of sleep.  Sometimes I have to wake him up because it's time to head out the door to preschool or something else.  I have always said that I make the choice to demand feed, co-sleep, hold to sleep ... and so I will put up with the downsides of those things.   I knew that this summer would be too busy (and HOT! SHEESH!) to sleep-train.  With holidays and moving and more holidays and the HEAT! SHEESH!  ... I didn't even attempt it.  Since then my plan has been to wait until we are well settled into our fall routine, and waiting for the time change.  (Yay, today's the day!)  By now it's only two months till I can start to wean him, so, really, what's the point of sleep training now when we'll need to do it all over again during weaning?  

I'll tell you what it comes down to.  I'm lazy.  

But this will change.  Perhaps sooner than I had planned, as there's a possibility I will be taking on some part time evening work soon.  If you know the part time evening work I did two years ago, it's the same thing again.  Just waiting for confirmation.  If for some reason that doesn't happen, there's something else I'm considering to contribute to our household income.


Lazy - this boy is not!  He cruises all over the place.  His favourite spots include the cookie sheet cupboard, the lazy susan, the toilet (door is now closed at all times!) and wherever his brothers are.  Paul put Max and Marty to bed the other night and brought Jax out of the room with him.  He cried all the way to the living room, squirmed to be put down, then crawled all the way back and sat outside the bedroom door crying.  They're quite pleased with him.  Marty does not respect his personal space, and is quite a pest to him, but we're working on that.  He pulls up to stand on pretty much anything, can crawl up and down from the hearth, and can even get himself off the couch with ease.  Except for the times when he dives off the end of the arm of the couch. He did that once and I don't think it was the last time we'll see that.  He thinks it's pretty funny to make a bee-line for it when he's up on the couch.  Once he even managed to get himself down from our bed.  I had forgotten he was up there and when I came in the room he was sitting on the floor playing.  He can wave and clap, too.  So smart.

These are the only pictures of him in a costume for this year.  It was from an afternoon we spent at our favourite pumpkin patch with one of our favourite people from Prince Rupert.

Eating big people food is a bit of a challenge for both of us.  For some reason I'm kind of at a loss for what to give him.  He never really liked mushed up stuff, and if I give him chunks, they often end up swished or dropped to the floor.  He's actually very deliberate in dropping food off the side of his tray, and even sometimes down through his legs to the floor if he's feeling really sneaky. If I give him the chunks from a fork or my fingers, he'll take a few but then often refuse the rest.  His main staples right now are Mum-Mums, bananas, peaches, pears, cheese, cheese toast (I make a grilled cheese sandwich, pull it apart, eat one slice for myself and cut the other into small pieces for him.), Bran Crunch cracker/cookie things (Peek Freans - so yummy!).  My friend suggested avocado spread on toast, so I'll try that next.  He loves Kraft Dinner!  I always put peas in with it and he eats them but keeps the little outside shells in his cheeks long after lunch is over.  (When I told Marty the other day that we were having it for lunch he asked "With ketchup?! And peas?!".  He was so excited.)

Also?  He's a free-stander!  He can very quickly go from his bum to standing, and will hold the stance for quite a while until he plops back to his bum or gets knocked down by a certain 3-year-old.  The boys both get so excited when he stands on his own.  He's been doing it for a few weeks but it's the most exciting thing for them, every time.  I suspect he'll be walking by his first birthday.  Max walked at 13 months and Marty at 14 months.  So far (except for the teeth thing) Jax has been several weeks to a month or two ahead of when the other boys reached the same milestones.

(He was on the way back down in this shot.)

So there you (finally!) have an update on our little Jac-a-mo.  Oh, and when I weighed him between 9-10 months, he was just under 19 pounds.  Not chunky, but not a pipsqueak.  He's just right.  

We'll keep him.