Well, that was fast

Jude decided crawling wasn't good enough, so today he did this. I have no idea when they're supposed to do this, but we weren't expecting it. I'm going to go ahead and sign him up for next year's NBA slam dunk contest.

Lu

In my last post, I believe I ended by talking of Lucy's interest in high chair. As you will see in the photos, Lucy has now fully explored the highchair. Upon her investigation, she found it was easy to get in but impossible to get out. She is motivated by Jude's Puffs. Once he tries to eat the Puffs, they get sticky and stick to his hands, bib, and the high chair. I'm typically able to get most of them, but Lu seeks out any I may have missed.

Jude is also enjoying the highchair, and he likes to use the bars to get up onto his knees.

Crawling

Jude has taken his first steps toward being a full time crawler. He took a few "steps" on Tuesday, and at the gym today he crawled all over the mat. He crawled more there, I think, because he was on a slick mat that let his knees glide and he didn't have to pick them up. I'm going to try him in the kitchen later to see if he likes crawling in there.

Our experiment in letting him put himself to sleep is going very well. So far, it has assisted with 3 nights of sleeping all night. We are so proud of him, and we are happy to be rested!

As you can see, we have also transferred from the Bumbo to the highchair. He loves having the tray in front of him, so he can bang things on it or eat Puffs off of it. I think it's only a matter of time before we find Lucy standing on it--she is intrigued.

"He's just a big dude"

Why is Jude still getting up in the wee hours for a snack?
"He's probably hungry. He's just a big dude," said our pediatrician at Jude's 6-month check up on Tuesday. Measuring in the 95th percentile for weight at 20 lbs. 4 oz., Jude is off the chart for height at 28 3/4 inches long.
Our doctor has encouraged us to continue to offer him a variety of new foods and textures since all previous attempts have gone so well. He is eating cereal, fruits, veggies, and even had some chicken this week. Jude also tried chewing something for the first time with the Gerber graduate puffs. The little Cheerio-like pieces also offer him good practice working his fine motor skills.
We met with a developmental therapist this week who will be following Jude's case, but she does not see a need for regular therapy. She will be coming in once a month to see him and check his milestones, but she was not particularly concerned with anything. The best part of her visit was learning some exercises Jude and I can do to help him think more about crawling and developing the muscle memory to do so.
This week, we have also started working on Jude being able to soothe himself to sleep. With his terrible acid reflux bout, we got into rocking him to sleep and holding him alot. Now he has trouble falling asleep without our intervention. In our move toward more sleep independence and better sleep, we hold Jude until he is grogy and he takes it home. This did not go well the first few times, but now he's down to about 10 minutes to fall asleep during the day. The big exception is the nighttime routine, which I think is going to take much longer to adjust. I know he can do it!

All he has is his two front teeth

Jude would like to announce his newest addition, his other front tooth on the bottom! I don't have a picture of it yet because it's not quite tall enough, but I'll be working on it. We have part of the living room blocked off because Jude is very interested in the computer and all of its wires and lights. As you can see, the barriers will be useless soon.

Jude commando crawling

Jon!

Happy birthday!
We love you!
Amanda, Jude, Lucy and Clara

First Snow!

Snow Day

It's snowing so much here that Jon got to stay home! They are predicting 1"-3" here, and it is still snowing at 9 a.m. Jude had a great night last night, sleeping from 8 p.m.-6:30a.m. After his morning meal he went right back to bed until 8:15! We'll take Jude out later to experience his first snow, but for now we are all bundled inside watching the inauguration coverage, also a first for Jude. Here are some pics of the snow and Jude's tooth (click to enlarge).

Little Gym Bug

Jude is now a Little Gym "Bug." We took our trial class today at The Little Gym of North Raleigh and enjoyed it very much. We joined a circle of other 4-10 month olds and stretched, sang, and banged sticks together. The class begins with some organized playing and ends with free play on the gym equipment. The most interesting thing about the class is the vast variety of skills. From the just now holding his head up 4-month old to the starting to walk 10-month old. We sat next to a "bug" who is a week older than Jude but who is not yet scooting at all and seldom lays on his belly. And we have our little guy who, dressed in camo today, did the army crawl all over the slick gym mat. They all develop so differently that I feel odd even comparing them. We started looking into these classes before we left Winston so that Jude would have interactions with others kids and get some additional brain stimulation. It's not until Jude starts talking and starts school that we'll know if the two foci on his MRI are of any consequence. The activities in the class are supposed to promote development, and though everything appears "normal," we figure they won't hurt.

Jude had a great time and was all tuckered out, falling asleep on the way home. We begin the spring semester on the 30th.

UPDATE: We have a break through! A tooth has emerged in Jude's bottom gum! His new nickname is Chester Toothsworth.