CJ's First Halloween

For CJ's first Halloween, I decided that CJ dress up as Cookie Monster from Sesame Street because one of Jeff's most memorable Halloweens as a kid was when he was dressed as Cookie Monster and I thought it would be great to pay tribute to that. I bought this really deluxe Cookie Monster costume online and made a big chocolate chip cookie out of felt to match. The whole costume looked great!

And since it was our first Halloween in our new home in San Ramon, we decided to stay home to pass out candy. We got a few kids but not too many.

During the day, Jeff and CJ came to visit me at my work and to participate at the company's Halloween festivities. There were lots of kids and the company hosted a very kid friendly party. There was also a costume party and Jeff, dressed up as the Joker from the new Batman movie, won Scariest costume!

CJ's first time on a swing!

This past Sunday was Pug Sunday so after the gathering, Jeff and I decided to go to the nearby kiddie play area to see if CJ would enjoy the swing. He was a bit small for it so we had to surround him with a blanket, but he was giggling the whole entire time. It was sooo cute. Jeff and I will try to make an effort of walking to our nearby park each weekend for CJ to get some outdoor playtime!

Man does the time fly by

CJ is now 9 months old, and each and every day, I feel like I see something new in him. For instance, a week ago, as I was holding him and he was arching his back to show his dislike of being held at that moment, I was thinking...Man are you strong now kid! I can easily drop you with that arching! A little later in the week, I was looking at his hair and thought...Man is your hair thick now! I wonder if I should give you a haircut. And finally yesterday, I put an A's baseball cap on him which was previously too big and what do you know, it fits him well meaning Man, his head is big now. It's been 9 months and every few days, I notice that he's changing. Especially when you look back at the pictures of when he was a newborn, 2 months old, even 6 months old, you can see how much he has evolved. I just have to remember to cherish every moment, despite how much I may dislike what it is. Remember in a previous post how CJ loves his veggies...well guess what, he HATES veggies now. I've tried to offer the same veggies at 3 different times and each time he spits it out and screams loudly to show his dislike. Oh well, he has a sweet tooth like everyone else in the family. At least he still likes fruit, unlike Daddy.

Videos of CJ

This last weekend has been quite life altering for CJ...for one, he took his first dip in a swimming pool! At first he was a bit scared and held me tight, but it didn't take long for him to get comfortable with the water. He enjoyed himself so much he kept patting the water with his hand to make mini splashes! He has also started to sleep in his crib and has stayed there every nite since. After a week, it still hasn't been easy to put him down to sleep, but Jeff and I are trying to be persistent.

Over the past few weeks, I've been using the video feature in my point and shoot camera to take some videos of CJ. Unfortunately, because of the limited amount of memory available on my memory card, I could only take short clips. I figured a short clip was better than not having any moving memories of CJ as a baby!

And just today, Jeff recorded CJ on the camcorder! Jeff made a nice edited video of CJ today crawling around our living room and attempting to climb 2 stairs. He is really getting quite mobile.

So please do check them out...the links are to the left of this page! Enjoy!

Many more milestones (and scares)

Okay so it's been a long time since my last post...I gotta tell ya, moving into a new home and taking care of a baby gives you NO time to really do anything else. At the same time Jeff and I were busy participating in my friend's wedding so lately sometimes I feel like I didn't even have time to breathe.

CJ is now 7 months old, and just in the last 3-4 weeks, he's got two baby teeth (bottom front), he now can sit up on his own, and he is almost on the verge of crawling (he can sorta move around like an inchworm). We've also discovered that his favorite solid foods are carrots, sweet potatoes, winter squash and peas (veggies!) and seems to really dislike fruits (bananas and apples particularly). I'm hoping that sticks, so then I don't have to persuade him later to eat his vegetables! He'll also probably love spending time and eating Aunt Audrey's food (she's a vegetarian) when I need her to help me babysit!

The bad news is that Jeff and I failed to recognize that CJ is getting more mobile this quick as CJ had an accident and fell off our bed last week. Jeff's snoring was causing me to have trouble falling back asleep so I decided to sleep in the guest room assuming CJ would be okay since Daddy was sleeping next to him. Next thing I know, in the early morning, I hear a thump followed by crying. My heart raced as I ran into our bedroom and sure enough, CJ fell off the bed...Jeff picked him up off the floor faced up. Luckily he didn't cry too hard and was comforted once he was in my arms. Since then, Jeff and I have been trying to teach CJ to sleep in the bassinet/playpen next to our bed. We've successfully gotten him to sleep in it for hours at a time, but he still isn't able to fall asleep on his own in it, nor does he really want to be in it at all. Hopefully soon he will be more comfortable in it and be able to sleep in it on his own as the next transition would be his crib. A family bed was a nice idea in the beginning, but now that he's mobile, it's a dangerous one.

Life without Daddy

Jeff had to leave for a business trip or shall I say training class this past Sunday, so it was time for me to act like a single parent for a while, meaning I had to dropoff and pickup CJ from daycare while working, prepare his bottles in the morning, prepare dinner for him and also tend to Sammy. I was a little worried at first but the first few hours away were okay. Then of course I had some setbacks which made me stress out...for instance our kitchen faucet broke and I couldn't use it at all the first evening, but luckily Jeff's dad came to the rescue and fixed it for me. Luckily I had my parents come over to help out by Wednesday (3 days later) which I am so relieved for. I have to give major props to those single moms out there...I don't know how they can make it work because in that short time, I had moments where I thought I would pull my hair out.

Anyways, after all this...I appreciate having a partner like Jeff to help with the parenting. I love you hon for all you do!

This week CJ has been teething and getting fussy cuz of it. I think he is also starting to recognize his name! I'm gonna start teaching him sign language soon...hope he catches on quickly!

A busy month

So it's been over a month since I've last posted on this blog. So much has happened that I haven't had time to do so, from getting more comfortable yet busy at work, packing and unpacking, cleaning the condo to be ready to list, buying new appliances, to traveling for my friend's bridal shower. Normally doing all this at one time wouldn't be horribly bad, but try doing that while having to care for a baby who needs his attention! Needless to say there's still more work to do but I deserve a break and people need to know what's been going on in CJ's life.

In the last month, CJ has been more interactive. He now bats at the toy bar I attached to his carseat handle a couple months ago, and now that we have our house, we set up his big high chair that comes with a toy base and he gets almost violent with it. He likes to grab the attached teether toy and hit the toy base repeatedly. It gets really loud with the banging and the music/noise from the toy! He also got an exersaucer from our neighbor (Thanks Jon, Sara and Paul!) that can entertain him for quite some time so that Mommy can have some time to do other things! It's really cute...the exersaucer basically keeps him standing and he can swivel a whole 360 degrees and explore all the toys around him. It didn't take long at all for him to catch on...now he's so good at it and loves it so much he doesn't know which toy he wants to play next! The next thing I want to get him is a walker!

CJ has also started on eating other foods other than rice cereal. He's had his taste of apples, bananas and pears. I think he's done pretty well eating out of a spoon! Next is veggies!