Sitting up and eating solids

And the moment we've all been waiting for:

He's sitting up! He sort of leans forward on his legs but I think it counts. We actually took these pictures a couple weeks ago, a few hours after posting the last blog entry about how he was not sitting up yet.

Turns out that day was pretty eventful for him because that evening we gave him his first solids meal -- watered down rice cereal. Yum. He loved it. Our pediatrician recommended waiting till he was 6 months old so we jumped the gun by a couple weeks. But I decided he was ready. He screams at the dinner table while we're eating, reaching out for our food and screaming until we give him a taste. I've been letting him have few tastes of my green smoothies in the mornings and he LOVES them. So we figured it was time.

I made the amount recommended on the box for a first feeding and he ended up eating that plus two more servings. I expected most of it to end up on his clothes but he was actually really good at swallowing it. His clothes were hardly dirty. He's a good eater. We documented the event with some pictures. Can you tell how eager he is?

Here are just a few more pictures of him:

He hates this rubber chicken. When you squeeze it, it shrieks loudly, and he thinks it's terrifying. My sister's 15 month old hated it too. For some reason the fact that babies are scared of the thing is kinda funny to me.

New Hampshire

Last weekend we drove up to New Hampshire to visit my sister Kashann and her lovely family. They live in an absolutely beautiful area. Everything is so green and gorgeous. The best part is the drive turned out to be less than 5 hours! It's so nice to have family within a reasonable driving distance. They'll probably get sick of me because I plan on driving up to see them as often as I can. :)

Her husband Brent is a dentist. I had a couple of cavities and he fixed them up for me for free. The last dentist I went to told me it would cost $1300 to fix, so I chose to wait until we moved out here and I could go to Brent. He did a great job. Thank you Brent!

With Stephen's busy schedule, it's been difficult for him to spend as much time with my family as we would like, but he was able to come with me this time. We had a great time. Kashann is Super Mom. She has five kids, the first four of which are girls. There is NOTHING this woman can't do. I have always admired her so much. It was fun to spend time with her and learn from her awesome-ness.

Their last child, the token male, accidentally stabbed my upper lip with a fork. Just a couple hours before, Brent had worked on my teeth so my gums and lips were still pretty numb. When the fork and my lip collided, it didn't hurt at all really but I was didn't know at first if it was because I was numb or because it wasn't bad. Turned out to be a small puncture that bled only a little. Kashann and Brent told Marcus, who's 2 and a half years old, that even though it was an accident he needed to apologize. He refused. So he had to sit in timeout. Kashann kept going over to talk to him and try to convince him to just say two words, "I'm sorry" and he'd be let out of timeout, but he was stubborn. He sat in timeout for thirty minutes, sobbing but refusing to apologize. Kashann insisted he would sit there until he did. It was pretty funny actually to see how difficult it was for him to just say those two little words. He wanted out of timeout so badly but simply could not bring himself to say two words that would get him there. He just kept screaming "I didn't do anything!" Finally after enough coaxing he whispered it in my ear and then got a big smile on his face, so proud of himself that he said it. Kids are funny.

On Saturday night, I did makeovers on Savannah, Camille, and Caroline. We had so much fun getting all glamored up. They are such beautiful girls. Of course, we had to take some glamor shots afterward. Stephen took a ton of good ones but here are a few of my favorites:

Jonathan continues to grow up. With Stephen gone so much now since we don't have a piano in our apartment, Jonathan's my buddy all day. We go on lots of walks together, read books (the Hawaii Counting Book is his favorite - he rips off the velcro pieces and sucks on them till they're dripping), go to the library, explore new places around Stony Brook, and he goes with me on my morning run. He's getting a bit more tolerant of tummy time so he's starting to roll over more, but still doesn't seem to see why the skill is useful so he doesn't do it very often. We're trying to help him learn to sit up on his own but he's not quite there yet. The only way he can do it now is with his upper body almost completely bent over on his legs. Yeah, don't think that counts.

He's still spitting up as much as ever. Geesh. I will not be sad when this stage passes. It gets his outfits messy within five minutes of putting them on, which is really annoying since doing laundry here costs FOUR DOLLARS A LOAD. Yeah, you heard me, four dollars a stinkin' load. So he just has to deal with wearing grimy looking clothes all day. He also slobbers constantly and has developed a pretty bad drool rash. I had never heard of a drool rash before so I didn't know what it was at first and wasn't doing anything about it because I didn't know what to do. But I complained about it to a lady in our ward and she told me it was from the saliva that is constantly on his face and neck. So since then we've been careful to wipe him as soon as any drool appears, which I assure you is a full-time job. But the good news is his rash is MUCH better. He's been drooling like this since he was two months old and so for the last three months I've been told from every mother on the face of the planet that he's teething for sure. But I still haven't seen any signs of actual teeth. Just lots and lots and lots of slobber. Case in point:

Isn't he adorable? How can you fault a guy for slobbering when he looks this cute?

Jonathan also spends a good part of his day doing this:

Is it heartless of me that I think this face is just so cute? Maybe it's because it reminds me of the first time I saw him when we welcomed him into this world: Screaming with his face all scrunched up like this and his mouth wide open.

The poor little dude has a cold right now (thanks to his dear little cousin Marcus who's so good at sharing). It's the second time he's had a cold now. Both times it's been nothing serious but I feel so bad for him. His coughing makes it difficult for him to sleep well at night. The last few nights have been pretty rough. He's napping right now though and I haven't heard any coughing. Hopefully he'll take a long nap. He needs it. I do too. So why am I blogging?

One more funny thing about Jonathan: You know that moment when you're dying to sneeze but you just can't quite make it happen, so you look at a bright light which for some reason does the trick? Well, whenever we go outside and the sunlight hits Jonathan's eyes, he sneezes every time. It's totally predictable. He's done this since he was just a few days old. Bright lights also work but not as consistently as the sun. I think it's so funny. Do all babies do this? I'm constantly asking myself this question in regards to many different things. It will be interesting to have a second child and compare behaviors. No, I'm not making an announcement.

A couple more pics of Jonathan: (Click on this first one to see bigger. It's worth it, trust me.)

Here he is with his Daddy

Jonathan a week shy of five months

Doesn't that face just make you melt?

Jonathan is almost 5 months old now! I am loving this age. He smiles and giggles so much and makes the cutest expressions. He rolled over from his back to his stomach for the first time a few weeks ago and then didn't again until this week. Today he rolled from his stomach to his back, which was a first. He loves loves loves to be outside. It's the sure remedy to any fussiness. He loves to be in his Bjorn carrier. So I just strap him to me wherever I go and he's happy as a clam as long he's in the carrier.

He gets very easily distracted now when I am nursing him. It can be frustrating but usually is just really funny. When he hears something while he's drinking, he'll jerk away and look around with a very serious expression trying to figure out what's going on. Or if I sneeze or cough or something, he stops drinking and stares at me suspiciously as if he's saying, "I'm keeping my eye on you.."

He loves it when we sing to him. He just stares up at us adoringly. We caught it on camera here.

So trusting and so precious. He's my biggest fan. Yesterday I was singing to him as I lay next to him on the bed. We were so close our noses were almost touching. He just looked at me as I looked at him and he lay really still and listened. It was such a tender moment. As I lay there, I had a strong impression that singing to my sweet children would be the most meaningful way I could use my voice, more than any prestigious singing engagements on the most important stages of the world. I feel so blessed to be Jonathan's mommy!

Second half of our summer

Finally I have a chance to update the blog! We've been traveling almost constantly this summer and a lot of the time I've not even had access to a computer. In fact, at one point I had not checked facebook for over three weeks. I usually check facebook at least once a day so that was big. It was kind of nice though to not think about emails and messages and such; I just spent more time enjoying the moment.

A lot has happened in the last couple months since I wrote. Stephen has been very busy concertizing (is that a word?) and I've been busy following him around and taking care of Jonathan :) Only once this summer did he go by himself; he performed a Bach concerto with the Jupiter players in Central Park! Apparently it was THE hottest day on record that summer and by the time the concert started at 7:30 in the evening it was still in the 90's. And of course he was wearing long sleeves and black pants (they didn't make him wear a jacket thank goodness). But he said it went better than he thought it would considering the heat and that it was his first performance of this particular piece. I would have loved to be there but we decided to save the money.

My last post was about the first of our two trips to WA this summer. Right after Stephen flew home from NYC, we drove home to WA again for a few more concerts. All of my brothers and sisters came home for the summer and we had a bit of a family reunion that wasn't really planned but just sort of worked out. It was SO great! Regrettably, I missed Ciana and her brood because she came later and by then I was with Stephen at one of his engagements in Twisp.

We all stayed at my Grandpa Fielding's home in Oregon for a few days. This was the first summer of getting together that all of us had children of our own. It was nice to finally be part of the elite parenthood club. Except I thought that once you had kids you would get your own room but turns out that wasn't the case. To be fair though, we all were sort of crammed in rooms. It was fun, but glad it didn't last for more than a couple days - no one slept that well.

We also got to spend a couple weeks staying with Stephen's parents. My in-laws are two of the very best people on earth. I think I am one of few women who can honestly say that I would be more than happy to live in the same house as my in-laws if I ever had to. Don't worry Kathy - that's not gonna happen. But if it did, I really would love it.

Stephen's brother Adam came home from his mission to Ukraine! It was so nice to be home and to be able to spend time with him.

After many successful concerts, we drove home from WA with only two days to pack up our entire house before we left for CA. For another concert. Yikes! Stephen was practicing feverishly to learn to play a Beethoven concerto he had never before performed so I was responsible for packing and cleaning for the big move. Jonathan was not very helpful. But he did sleep longer than usual which helped me to have my hands free to get more done.

Miraculously, we got done what needed to get done and left for Cali. It was a 9 hour drive. With all the road trips we've been on this summer, we've learned a lot of good tricks for keeping Jonathan happy and fed and our stops to a minimum. Don't worry - we never take him out of his carseat. But we only stopped ONCE the entire 9 hour trip, and that was to gas up! He's a pretty cooperative baby.

The concert in Cali went well. Stephen was pretty worried about it, as usual, but he did an incredible job, as usual. While Stephen was busy practicing and rehearsing with the orchestra, I was going on lots of hikes with Jonathan strapped to me. For some reason he LOVES to be outside. Whenever he's fussy, if I just take him outside he usually stops. And since we were up in the mountains (it's called Mammoth Lakes) surrounded by trees and nature, he loved going on long walks with me. It was fun to have a buddy around. But it did make the long hikes much harder carrying around an almost 17 pound boy. I know that doesn't sound like a lot but when you're hiking uphill and at over 10,000 feet elevation, you really start to feel it.

After Cali, we drove home to UT with only one day to finish up the packing and loading before Stephen would drive off for our new home in NY! So we got up early and worked hard until it was done. Stephen made the drive alone, and Jonathan and I flew to meet him in NY. In the space of five days, he drove from CA to NY, bless him. But we all made it safely to NY and we are so happy to be here! It's beautiful! It's so green and the air seems so much fresher than Provo. We are really close to the ocean.

Before leaving Provo, Jonathan had his 4 month check-up and immunizations. Here are his stats:

Height: 27.25 inches; 98th %tile

Weight: 16 lbs 12 oz; 82nd %tile

Head: (don't remember inches); 38th %tile

People often comment on his height when they see him and it's no wonder - he's super tall for his age.

The doctor also said he has a lot of "vocal variation" for four months. She said we must talk to him a lot. We do. And sing to him a lot. Surprisingly, he loves it when I since full-voice operatic stuff to him. He just stares at me really intently. Really cute. He LOVES music in general. Stephen played with some other instrumentalists while in WA and Jonathan was fixated on the other instruments for several minutes at time. I don't think I had that kind of attention span when I was 13. Stephen hopes he will want to play the cello. Stephen keeps trying to think of ways he can encourage Jonathan to want to play it without Jonathan feeling like he's being forced into it. He's been having him watch performances of great cellists on youtube. Stephen reported that he stared and listened intently to Yo-Yo Ma for at least three minutes.

Here are some more pics of Jonathan. These were taken about a month ago.

Speaking of Jonathan, he just woke up from a nap. Better run!

Jonathan's two month stats

I just got back from Jonathan's two month appointment. The doctor said he looks perfectly healthy! I think I already knew that but it was nice to have it confirmed. We are so grateful. Here are his stats:

Weight: 13.3 lbs -- 84th %tile

Length: 24.8 inches -- 96th %tile

Head circ: 15.5 inches -- 34th%tile

He has a small head and a big, super long body. Sure is cute.

The doctor said he's growing really fast! He was only in the 49th %tile for weight at 2 weeks and jumped up to the 84th! And he was in the 85th %tile for length and the 20th %tile for head so both of those have jumped up a lot too. That's really reassuring to a mother who feels like she spends a huge chunk of her day feeding him :) I guess it's working!

We're sure in love with this little guy--

Our trip home

Well it's been an exciting last few weeks! We got back Wednesday of last week from WA. Our main purpose in going there was for a whole slew of concerts Stephen had - Seattle, Chelan, Tricities, Walla Walla, and two different events in Moses Lake. He had something almost every night for a week straight. It's good he handles stress so well.

While we were in WA we were able to spend a lot of wonderful time with family. Stephen has lots of family living in Othello -- his parents, two brothers and their families, plus tons of aunts and uncles and cousins on the Beus side. My parents live in Touchet, about an hour and 15 minutes away from Stephen's parents home in Othello. And my brother Spencer and his wife, Andrea, and their two children (and one more on the way!) live in Tri-cities, which is right between Othello and Touchet. It's so nice to have so much of both sides of our family in the same area. We love going home to see everyone. Going home this time was especially exciting because we got to introduce everyone to Jonathan. He was a big hit. Especially with his cousins who live there. Here is a pic of Jonathan with four of his cousins (Nathan and Heather's kids) -- Colson, Hayley, Parker and Evan -- such cute, cute kids. They couldn't get enough of him. It was so sweet.

We are so blessed to have such amazing family on both sides. While we were in WA, we had Jonathan's baby blessing. We love our ward in Provo but wanted to have our family at the blessing. Stephen gave the blessing, and it was beautiful. Such a sweet experience.

One of our best friends, Nicole, who lives in Seattle drove down to see us in Othello and meet little Jonathan for the first time. It was so fun spending time with her. Here is a picture of her with Jonathan. He fell asleep sprawled out like that while she was holding him.

Jonathan had his first five hour night-sleeping chunk while we were in WA! I wondered if it was just some awesome random fluke, but he's kept it up since then! Some nights it would even be about 6 1/2 hours of straight sleep. I can't even begin to describe what a welcome change that has been. For the first four weeks I was getting up every hour, sometimes every fifteen minutes during a few hours of the night. It really had started to wear on me.

I am now happy to report that last night was the second night in a row that Jonathan slept for a whopping 9 HOURS!!! I haven't slept for such a long stretch since before I was pregnant! I hope it's the start of a new habit for him. I'll try not to get my hopes up.

Before we left on our trip to WA, Jonathan had a photo shoot with a professional photographer friend of ours named Christine Olson. She's amazing. But I don't have to tell you how good she is -- her pictures say it all. Jonathan is 2 weeks 6 days here.

Happy Second Anniversary to us!

Our two year anniversary was on the 26th of April, the day after Jonathan was due. So glad that little guy came early, have I said that before? Anyway, Stephen said he would take me on a surprise date, mostly because we couldn't agree on what restaurant to go to so that way he would just decide and there would be no more discussion. I loved this idea. I love surprises, even if in this case it means I no longer have a say in where we would eat out. So the big moment arrived and Stephen drove us to...

Definitely a surprise. This might sound strange but I was so excited! I am my father's child and I LOVE Chuck-A-Rama. I think my love for buffet in general started way back when Grandpa Fielding used to take us to Roy's Chuckwagon after church on Sunday. Yep, those were the good ol' days. We loved it. Chuck-A-Rama is even better than Roy's if you can believe it. Not so ghetto. But still pretty ghetto, let's be honest. I'm pretty sure we were the only ones there who were not over the age of 60.

Anyway, we had a great time stuffing our faces. Afterward, I vowed I would never eat again, what I usually say after eating out at buffets. I love buffets but the truth is I hate how I feel afterward.

Sorry I don't have a picture of us there to post to document the experience - I told Stephen to bring his camera so we could take a picture afterward to remember the whole affair but he refused when we got there saying that going to Chuck-A-Rama for our anniversary was embarrassing.

During dinner we talked about the highlights of our second year of marriage. Nine months (almost) of pregnancy and the birth of our first child definitely topped the list. Others highlights included me finishing up my bachelor's degree FINALLY, our first professional recital together, going back to Cannon Beach where we had spent our honeymoon, and Stephen's auditioning for DMA programs and choosing to go to Stony Brook in NY.

We had such a wonderful second year of marriage. We love being married to each other and look forward to many more exciting years to come!

A picture of us at Cannon Beach last November. We have lots of fun together :)