Mommy & Daddy's Big Weekend Out!

The Central Park Boathouse

Kyle and Jess

We had our first weekend without Baby J this past weekend, and although we missed her, it felt good to have some time just to ourselves. Friends of ours got married at the beautiful Central Park Boathouse on Saturday afternoon, so my Mom graciously agreed to watch her ALL weekend. That meant 2 mornings of not getting up at 6:30am, and two evenings where we didn't have to be in our apt by 6:30pm (her bedtime). Needless to say, it was quite nice!

Music for Ardvarks- Central Park Music Class

Our first music class meeting in Central Park. J was a natural with the maracas (I wonder where she gets that from ;) and the teacher thought she has great bongo potential!

Burton + Jocelyn = Best Friends Forever

Burton was our "first" child- we smothered him with love and attention. Once Jocelyn came aboard, it was a big change for him. He got placed in the #4 spot, and most of that love and attention now went to someone else. But I have to say, for the most part, Burton has done an excellent job of adjusting. He has his days (when he just can't seem to resist licking her face just ONE more time), but he is really gentle with her. As she is getting bigger and interacting with him more, he is seeing the potential of another attention giver and the ever important food dropper.

Burton got a new toy and had to show it off to J. She wasn't close enough to really see the coolness of his new toy, so he kept on creeping closer and closer to her .

J agrees, this toy is pretty cool.

.

BFF's forever

Success with eating!

It took for J to officially turn 7 months for her to accept that this eating from a spoon thing was not going away, and that she might as well just enjoy it. Jocelyn polished off her first ounce of food yesterday- pears, followed by 2 more ounces today. Even though this has nothing to do with me at all, I have to admit, I feel accomplished. This has been a 6-7 week process, with J sealing up her lips or just spitting out everything that she has just eaten. I knew she wasn't going to go off to college still only eating from a bottle (although, I have to admit, the image makes me laugh), it still felt like something that "all the other kids were already doing; without any problems!" and J just didn't have any interest in it. Each in their own time.....

7 months Photos

Mommy still thinks that I'm a little baby... ha! Well I'll show her when she tries to put the 7month sign near me...

Nope, not safe up there either!

Ha ha! Victory! The sign is mine!!


Oh wait..... what was that... a toy, oh... much more interesting (mommy succeeds.... this time!)

feeding journal 6.5mos

We have been working on solids with J for over 5 weeks now, and up until this past weekend, we haven't been having much success. She was on rice for about 2 weeks, and then we moved onto fruits and veggies... none of which did anything to excite her. She would be excited for the first spoonful, maybe the 2nd, but by the 3rd, that light in the corner was looking mighty interesting.

Chris and I were out to dinner the other night, and since it was past her bedtime, J was being a bit fussy. To keep her quite, we started giving her pieces of the hard, toasty bread that was on the table. She was loving it! A basket of bread later, and we were onto something...

This past weekend, we were trying all the regular foods, and having all the same reactions. Nothing was interesting her, but she showed interest in my food, specifically the hummus that I was eating. So I grabbed a carrot, plopped some hummus on it, and she loved it! She ate about 3 carrots full of hummus, and about a spoonful (although spooning the hummus into her might have been a bit over the top.. it is pretty thick!), but we were onto something.

This morning I tried some thicker foods (a sweet potato, pea and spinach mixture I had from the food exchange) and she was a lot more into it. It could be that it's not a sweet as the carrots, apples and pears I've been trying, it could be that it's thicker, or it could just be all the stars are aligned... but whatever it is, at least she seemed into eating, at least a little bit!

PS- J is now loving the frozen piece of whole wheat hamburger roll she's gumming

Dedication

We had Jocelyn's dedication on Sunday June 13th. It was a really beautiful day and

with the help of all our family and friends, we had a wonderful celebration afterwards.

Our little peanut in her pretty white dress (although what you see most of is her ever present bib!)

Making sure we'd have a happy baby during the ceremony



The Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents and Great-grandparents

In her pretty white dress!


Lolo looking beautiful!

It's a Jouney not a Destination

I was reading one of my favorite blogs by another very wise mother of 3 and she mentioned those very words - "Motherhood isn't a journey, it's a destination." There are so many times when I just want to say to God, "OK, you can stop time now, this is the perfect age- look at her, she's sitting up, not moving all around, happy as can be... this is it, let's leave it as is"

OK, you can stop laughing now- I know, time doesn't stop for anything and that's what I have to remember so often. Yes, I can love these moments, enjoy the time and the laughs that J brings, but time will be moving on, bringing on new adventures, laughs and loves. So although I can't dial up that phone to the Big Guy and ask for the freeze, I will try and remember all these little moments and enjoy each one, because the journey is continuing all the time.

Look Mom, No Hands!

With each day, comes new accomplishments, but it's always fun when one of them is so noticeable! I took J to Battery Park to enjoy the beautiful day, and we were hanging out watching life go by. I needed to get something from the diaper bag and as I leaned over, I noticed that I was no longer supporting her. I backed off completely, and J sat on her own for well over a minute.

It's just amazing, the day before, she's falling all over, today, she's sitting up all by herself. Life is incredible....!

And then of course, I had to record this momentous moment on video.