Nine month stats:
Height: 29 1/2 inches; 84th %tile
Weight: 23 1/2 lbs; 87th %tile
Head circ: 18 1/4 inches; 77.5 %tile
It's strange to me that he only grew 3/4 an inch from his last height measurement. I feel like he's gotten so much taller in the last three months. Maybe the last measurement taken, or this most recent one was a little off... not sure.
My sister Candice has a 20 month old girl and she weighs 24 lbs, only a half pound more than Jonathan. He is so stinkin heavy!
The biggest surprise is that his head is no longer smaller than average. Gradually, it has caught up with the rest of his body.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
A little bit of everything
I haven't blogged in centuries. I have soooo much to catch up on so I will try to hit the highlights and be brief about it. However, I've never been one for brevity.
First big news that I think everyone reading this would have already heard...We're expecting again! Baby Beus #2 is due July 7th. That makes Jonathan and the new one 14 1/2 months apart! And the craziest part is we wanted this to happen. Not an accident. We felt really strongly about conceiving a second soon after Jonathan was born but didn't know how soon that would be possible since I was exclusively breastfeeding. All my sisters and mom said they never could get pregnant while breastfeeding. But I guess it was meant to be for us! It's only been in the recent weeks that I am starting to get a little concerned about adding a second baby so soon. What did I sign myself up for? Two babies under Nursery age! Yikes!
Oh and btw, we think it's a girl. We find out in two weeks! Stephen is so sure he even wanted to take advantage of some awesome Old Navy deals and start buying clothes for supposed girl baby. I couldn't bring myself to do it! I don't want to get excited about it and then be disappointed if it's a boy because as of now I am equally happy with either.
Stephen and I got new/additional callings this last Sunday. We were called 30 minutes before church starts (it takes 15 minutes to get to church) and were asked if we could come in for interviews 15 minutes before church. I wondered how on earth they expected us to make that happen. But we just sort of threw everything together and scrambled out the door, arriving ten minutes early miraculously. Stephen had an interview with the Stake and I with the ward. We were debating the whole way what calling he'd be getting from the stake and the calling he got surprised us both. He was called as assistant ward clerk. I think that means he'll be really busy, especially since our ward's records are VERY out of date. But we'll see.
My new calling is ward choir director. I think I'm excited about it. The choir in our ward has basically not been functioning for awhile so it may be difficult to get things going again and get people coming, but I'm looking forward to the challenge. I'm also currently the CTR 8 teacher....of 8 kids who regularly come, six of which are BOYS (boys this age are tough in my opinion). I love teaching the class, but it's more work than normal to prepare lessons which will engage them the entire time. So we'll see how this two calling thing goes...especially with pregnancy and new baby, etc. I'm pretty sure I'll need to be at least released from my primary calling as soon as the baby comes. Stephen can't watch a newborn AND a 15 month old for the last two hours of church by himself. But maybe we'll have moved by then....we'll see.
A week ago, we had another snow storm hit our area. We were quite literally snowed in. See for yourself:
I don't really quite know how to describe the irony behind the work of the snow plow. He plowed around the cars, making a nice pathway for driving, but pushing all the extra snow about 4 feet up around the backsides of all the cars, completely removing the possibility of ANYONE going ANYWHERE. The extra snow was even pushed up around all the sidewalks so we couldn't even walk out of our apartment without trudging through 6 feet of snow. It was hysterical. Why he took the time to plow the nice pathway for the cars but leaving the cars totally immobilized by 4 feet of packed snow I cannot understand...not to mention leaving the driver's themselves trapped inside their apartments unable to even get to their cars in the first place.
But it gave us a nice excuse to not go anywhere...particularly for Stephen to not have to go practice :)
Before this post can end, I need to record a few things about our fabulous Christmas with my sister Kashann and her family. They live in New Hampshire, about 5 hours away from us. They generously allowed us to stay at their house for almost two weeks. We had such a great time. One of the highlights for me was sledding with Savannah, Camille, and Caroline. Outside their house they have a good-sized hill to sled down. Unfortunately, the bottom of the hill goes right onto the road. I thought they were all CRAZY for sledding down the hill into the road but they insisted it was no problem since they hardly had any cars come by anyway. It didn't take long before before I, too, had thrown caution to the wind and was having a great time sledding with them!
Christmas morning was terribly exciting. Just the opening presents part lasted close to three hours. Jonathan only got one present -- some wooden blocks. I thought it was silly to spend that much on his presents this year since he doesn't have any idea what's going on. He has been loving his wooden blocks. The game is to see how high Stephen or I can build a tower before Jonathan knocks it down. He loves knocking them down, and we usually don't get past just a few blocks.
As is typical of babies, Jonathan is scared of Santa. It was pretty funny.
These next ones were taken Christmas morning:
Of course, the main thing he likes to do with the blocks is suck on them.
Jonathan is NINE months now. Crazy. He's been learning some new tricks recently. While not yet crawling, he is actually looking like he's close! I never thought the day would come! He gets up on all fours, by himself, and sort of sways back and forth. But so far, he doesn't move forward at all. If I put a toy even just a couple inches out of his grasp, once he reaches for it and realizes it's out of his reach, he just forgets about it and looks around for something he can get his hands on. He does, however, move BACKWARDS with great skill. He'll move all over the place on his belly by pushing himself backwards. I'm not sure if he does it intentionally or not. I think sometimes yes and sometimes no. Sometimes it looks like it makes him really mad because he wants to move forward to something but his body just pushes him away from it and he gets further and further from his destination.
Another new skill he's acquired in the last three days is clapping! He loves to clap! He is SO proud of his new ability. I love it!
Last thing to mention about his developing personality...he loves to laugh.. about EVERYTHING. Stephen even had to take him out of Sunday school because Jonathan was making so much noise laughing at who knows what.
Here are some recent pics of him.
He LOVES to manically pound on the piano keys.
First big news that I think everyone reading this would have already heard...We're expecting again! Baby Beus #2 is due July 7th. That makes Jonathan and the new one 14 1/2 months apart! And the craziest part is we wanted this to happen. Not an accident. We felt really strongly about conceiving a second soon after Jonathan was born but didn't know how soon that would be possible since I was exclusively breastfeeding. All my sisters and mom said they never could get pregnant while breastfeeding. But I guess it was meant to be for us! It's only been in the recent weeks that I am starting to get a little concerned about adding a second baby so soon. What did I sign myself up for? Two babies under Nursery age! Yikes!
Oh and btw, we think it's a girl. We find out in two weeks! Stephen is so sure he even wanted to take advantage of some awesome Old Navy deals and start buying clothes for supposed girl baby. I couldn't bring myself to do it! I don't want to get excited about it and then be disappointed if it's a boy because as of now I am equally happy with either.
Stephen and I got new/additional callings this last Sunday. We were called 30 minutes before church starts (it takes 15 minutes to get to church) and were asked if we could come in for interviews 15 minutes before church. I wondered how on earth they expected us to make that happen. But we just sort of threw everything together and scrambled out the door, arriving ten minutes early miraculously. Stephen had an interview with the Stake and I with the ward. We were debating the whole way what calling he'd be getting from the stake and the calling he got surprised us both. He was called as assistant ward clerk. I think that means he'll be really busy, especially since our ward's records are VERY out of date. But we'll see.
My new calling is ward choir director. I think I'm excited about it. The choir in our ward has basically not been functioning for awhile so it may be difficult to get things going again and get people coming, but I'm looking forward to the challenge. I'm also currently the CTR 8 teacher....of 8 kids who regularly come, six of which are BOYS (boys this age are tough in my opinion). I love teaching the class, but it's more work than normal to prepare lessons which will engage them the entire time. So we'll see how this two calling thing goes...especially with pregnancy and new baby, etc. I'm pretty sure I'll need to be at least released from my primary calling as soon as the baby comes. Stephen can't watch a newborn AND a 15 month old for the last two hours of church by himself. But maybe we'll have moved by then....we'll see.
A week ago, we had another snow storm hit our area. We were quite literally snowed in. See for yourself:
I don't really quite know how to describe the irony behind the work of the snow plow. He plowed around the cars, making a nice pathway for driving, but pushing all the extra snow about 4 feet up around the backsides of all the cars, completely removing the possibility of ANYONE going ANYWHERE. The extra snow was even pushed up around all the sidewalks so we couldn't even walk out of our apartment without trudging through 6 feet of snow. It was hysterical. Why he took the time to plow the nice pathway for the cars but leaving the cars totally immobilized by 4 feet of packed snow I cannot understand...not to mention leaving the driver's themselves trapped inside their apartments unable to even get to their cars in the first place.
But it gave us a nice excuse to not go anywhere...particularly for Stephen to not have to go practice :)
Before this post can end, I need to record a few things about our fabulous Christmas with my sister Kashann and her family. They live in New Hampshire, about 5 hours away from us. They generously allowed us to stay at their house for almost two weeks. We had such a great time. One of the highlights for me was sledding with Savannah, Camille, and Caroline. Outside their house they have a good-sized hill to sled down. Unfortunately, the bottom of the hill goes right onto the road. I thought they were all CRAZY for sledding down the hill into the road but they insisted it was no problem since they hardly had any cars come by anyway. It didn't take long before before I, too, had thrown caution to the wind and was having a great time sledding with them!
Christmas morning was terribly exciting. Just the opening presents part lasted close to three hours. Jonathan only got one present -- some wooden blocks. I thought it was silly to spend that much on his presents this year since he doesn't have any idea what's going on. He has been loving his wooden blocks. The game is to see how high Stephen or I can build a tower before Jonathan knocks it down. He loves knocking them down, and we usually don't get past just a few blocks.
As is typical of babies, Jonathan is scared of Santa. It was pretty funny.
 |
These next ones were taken Christmas morning:
Of course, the main thing he likes to do with the blocks is suck on them.
Jonathan is NINE months now. Crazy. He's been learning some new tricks recently. While not yet crawling, he is actually looking like he's close! I never thought the day would come! He gets up on all fours, by himself, and sort of sways back and forth. But so far, he doesn't move forward at all. If I put a toy even just a couple inches out of his grasp, once he reaches for it and realizes it's out of his reach, he just forgets about it and looks around for something he can get his hands on. He does, however, move BACKWARDS with great skill. He'll move all over the place on his belly by pushing himself backwards. I'm not sure if he does it intentionally or not. I think sometimes yes and sometimes no. Sometimes it looks like it makes him really mad because he wants to move forward to something but his body just pushes him away from it and he gets further and further from his destination.
 |
| He may not have mastered crawling yet, but winking at nine months is pretty impressive. |
Another new skill he's acquired in the last three days is clapping! He loves to clap! He is SO proud of his new ability. I love it!
Last thing to mention about his developing personality...he loves to laugh.. about EVERYTHING. Stephen even had to take him out of Sunday school because Jonathan was making so much noise laughing at who knows what.
Here are some recent pics of him.
He LOVES to manically pound on the piano keys.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Just in time for Christmas: His Two Front Teeth
All he wants for Christmas is no longer his two front teeth. They have already arrived! I had no idea this would be SO exciting. But it is!!! People have been saying since he was two months that he slobbers like he's teething so since then, I occasionally rub my finger along his bottom gums to see the progress. A couple weeks ago, I noticed that there were two bumps along his bottom gums. Then last Friday I felt the bottom front one on the right had surfaced! And then the very next day, the left one did! You can't see them very well yet cuz they don't stick up very far so I'm not posting a pic yet. You know, I'm betting things like this will be less momentous for my next babies. But this time around, I feel like throwing a party!
Thursday, November 18, 2010
More Pictures: Jonathan at seven months
Jonathan's seven months old! It's so weird not to say six months anymore. We took some more pictures of him this last Sunday, the day after he turned seven months. Stephen took the ones of Jonathan and our friend Nicole took the ones of us. She was visiting from Seattle. We really have been needing some pics of all three of us, so having here her gave us the perfect opportunity. Stephen handed her his camera after setting up the settings and said point and click. Some of them turned out really cute! It's nice to have pics together. Thanks Nicole!
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| Still bald as the day is long. |
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| Of course it goes straight to the mouth, just like everything else he can get his hands on. |
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| I was trying to show what Jonathan will look like with hair. Pretty good representation, huh? |
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| Love. this. face. |
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| Jonathan loves being upside down. Looks like we're proudly displaying a trout or something. |
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| This is what he usually does when we go to kiss him. He hasn't quite figured out how to kiss yet. Or maybe he's just ahead of the game -- skipping close-mouthed and going straight to open. |
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Living on Love :)
The other day, it occurred to me how many things we're currently living without. I want to blog about it so I can look back at this post someday and remember the good ol' days.
Since we knew we'd only be here for less than a year, we decided it was best to just sell all our furniture and camp out in a small apartment on campus, instead of spend thousands of dollars moving everything and then spending that all over again when we moved again in 10 months.
Some things we're living without:
Washing machine and Dryer (I have to haul Jonathan and all our stuff once every week and a half to a laundry room in our complex that feels like forever away when you're carrying 50 lbs of laundry and 20 lbs of baby. Oh, and it costs $3.20 cents to do a single load. We usually do three loads every week and a half.)
Dish washer (haven't had one of these since I was a sophomore in high school when we were living on Baumeister Street. We moved into a new house the beginning of my junior year and I haven't had one since then. I am totally fine doing dished without. If I ever had one, I'm sure I'd never want to go back but I guess I don't know what I'm missing. That's good.)
Toaster (for some reason that no one seems to be able to explain to me we are not allowed to have a toaster in our apartment. Fire hazard? Isn't a stove a much bigger fire hazard? Not that I'm lobbying to get our stove banned as well because that is one thing I really COULD NOT live without. Anyway, try living sometime without a toaster. I didn't think it would be a big deal but I guess I didn't realize how much we used our toaster. Kind of annoying. We toast our bread in the oven on broil. As I am writing this, I am sitting next to a lit candle. I imagine if they don't allow toasters they don't allow LIT candles but I haven't heard anything about it and I WILL NOT ask for fear of the answer.)
TV (we've not yet owned a TV in our married life so I'm used to not having one.)
A room/nursery for Jonathan (it's a one-bedroom apartment. We have to tip toe around all the time when Jonathan's sleeping and we can't use the kitchen after he's gone to bed at night -- usually around 7 :30-- cuz the kitchen and living room are basically the same room.)
Crib for Jonathan (not a big deal, he's in a pack-and-play so we can roll it in living room for night time and in our bedroom for day naps)
Some things we're living with:
Sweet little baby Jonathan (It's amazing how much he's completely transformed our lives. He is such a joy to have around...most of the time...also adds much worry and stress into our lives but we're much happier now that we have him.)
Lots and lots of love :)
It would really be nice someday to own all of the things we're currently living without but for now we're doing just fine without them. It really hasn't been that big of a deal actually. We love our lives here in Stony Brook. We're making some fun memories.
Since we knew we'd only be here for less than a year, we decided it was best to just sell all our furniture and camp out in a small apartment on campus, instead of spend thousands of dollars moving everything and then spending that all over again when we moved again in 10 months.
Some things we're living without:
Washing machine and Dryer (I have to haul Jonathan and all our stuff once every week and a half to a laundry room in our complex that feels like forever away when you're carrying 50 lbs of laundry and 20 lbs of baby. Oh, and it costs $3.20 cents to do a single load. We usually do three loads every week and a half.)
Dish washer (haven't had one of these since I was a sophomore in high school when we were living on Baumeister Street. We moved into a new house the beginning of my junior year and I haven't had one since then. I am totally fine doing dished without. If I ever had one, I'm sure I'd never want to go back but I guess I don't know what I'm missing. That's good.)
Toaster (for some reason that no one seems to be able to explain to me we are not allowed to have a toaster in our apartment. Fire hazard? Isn't a stove a much bigger fire hazard? Not that I'm lobbying to get our stove banned as well because that is one thing I really COULD NOT live without. Anyway, try living sometime without a toaster. I didn't think it would be a big deal but I guess I didn't realize how much we used our toaster. Kind of annoying. We toast our bread in the oven on broil. As I am writing this, I am sitting next to a lit candle. I imagine if they don't allow toasters they don't allow LIT candles but I haven't heard anything about it and I WILL NOT ask for fear of the answer.)
TV (we've not yet owned a TV in our married life so I'm used to not having one.)
A room/nursery for Jonathan (it's a one-bedroom apartment. We have to tip toe around all the time when Jonathan's sleeping and we can't use the kitchen after he's gone to bed at night -- usually around 7 :30-- cuz the kitchen and living room are basically the same room.)
Crib for Jonathan (not a big deal, he's in a pack-and-play so we can roll it in living room for night time and in our bedroom for day naps)
Some things we're living with:
Sweet little baby Jonathan (It's amazing how much he's completely transformed our lives. He is such a joy to have around...most of the time...also adds much worry and stress into our lives but we're much happier now that we have him.)
Lots and lots of love :)
It would really be nice someday to own all of the things we're currently living without but for now we're doing just fine without them. It really hasn't been that big of a deal actually. We love our lives here in Stony Brook. We're making some fun memories.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Six month stats and our trip West
Jonathan had his six month appointment two weeks ago but I've not been able to blog about it till now.
Here are his stats:
Here are his stats:
Height: 28 3/4 inches; 97%tile
Weight: 19 lbs 4 oz; 76%tile
Head: 44 cm.; 53%tile
He's a pretty big boy. His head that started out so small is finally catching up to the rest of his body.
Last week, Stephen had three recitals -- one in Canon Beach, Oregon, one in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and another in Seattle. He also did a 3 hour master class, gave a 2 and 1/2 hour lecture for a group of piano teachers involved in MTNA, and taught several private lessons in Seattle. Did I miss anything? Probably, He was very busy, needless to say. And everything went really well. Stephen was told after his recital in Seattle that it was the best concert they'd had and they wanted him back next season.
Jonathan and I flew with him to Oregon and met up with some family who came to vacation and hear Stephen's concert. We only had one full day there unfortunately because Stephen had a competition with a chamber group he's working with (which they won, by the way:)) on the Thursday before so we couldn't fly out till the night before his recital. So we hardly had any time to really enjoy the beach or our beautiful beachfront hotel room or our humongous jacuzzi. Bummer. We made the most of the time we had there though. I got to go on a run along the beach, something I'd been looking forward to for months. I'm really starting to love running. I used to just do it because I knew I should and would good afterwards. But I'm starting to actually crave it. We'll see if that lasts. Anyway, the beach run was AMAZING. I can't think of any words good enough to describe the affect the ocean has on me. The sound and the vastness of it are intoxicating.
One of the best parts of the trip was spending time with my sister, Ciana, and her husband, Dave, and getting to finally meet their baby, Matthew, who was born just 6 days before Jonathan. It was SO fun to see those two little boys together. They are so different, in looks and development. Matthew's basically crawling while Jonathan only recently mastered sitting up. Jonathan seems a lot bigger and somehow more dense than Matthew. Matthew is quite mellow, while Jonathan seems much more high-energy. It was really cute to sit them next to each other and let them play with toys together. Playing with another kid didn't seem to phase Matthew; he hardly looked at Jonathan. Whereas Jonathan seemed more interested in staring at Matthew than playing with the toys. Matthew has four siblings at home so playing with other kids isn't novel to him I guess. It was really cute to see Jonathan trying to figure out what this other kid was about and why he was playing with his toys. Jonathan's always been really observant.
After Canon Beach, Jonathan and I spent the next week in Washington with family. Saturday we celebrated Halloween at the Allreds with Spencer and Andrea and their kids, and Heather and Nathan met us there with their troop. I knew Jonathan was growing but I had no idea HOW big he is until I met Andrea's new five-week old baby, Gordon. Oh my, he's tiny! And he's actually quite big for his age too! It's so hard to believe that Jonathan was ever that little! I got to hold Gordon for awhile while Jonathan was sleeping. I LOVE little babies!
It was fun to hear everyone's reactions to Jonathan. Everyone thinks he looks exactly like his Mama :) It's funny cuz I see a lot of Stephen in him. But I think it's hard to see yourself in someone. I think people know what we look like better than we do ourselves. I know that sounds confusing but I can't think of a clearer way to say it...
Another consistent reaction was that he talks a lot. He really is very noisy. I get this comment SO much -- in grocery stores, at church, from all his family back home, everywhere. Even his pediatrician in Provo said at his four month appointment that he has a lot of "vocal variation". And his new pediatrician in NY said at his six month appointment that he is "very vocal". So I guess it's true. I don't think I would have known this if EVERYONE hadn't told me. He's my first so I don't really have anything to compare him to. The only time he's really quiet is when we're outside. He loves the outdoors. When I push him in the stroller on my runs, he is really quiet and sort of zoned-out. Anyway, everyone thought it was pretty funny how he's always chattering or shrieking. I love his little baby noises :)
People also were really surprised at how much he eats! I started feeding him solids about a month ago and he just can't get enough. I read online that you should feed an infant as much healthy food as he wants, that he will only eat as much as he needs. And the way you can tell if he is full is he'll either stop opening his mouth or spit food out or get really fussy. Jonathan doesn't usually give any of these signals. So I just keep feeding him until I think he can't possibly fit any more in his stomach. It seems like he's gained a couple pounds since his six month weigh-in. He really is a big baby. He wears 9-12 month clothes.
My mother-in-law, Kathy, was so shocked at how such a high-energy kid could focus when I turned on a youtube video of an orchestra or some other classical performance. She said she's never seen an infant so riveted by music before. And she raised 8! While he has a tendency to get pretty loud and hyper about things, he usually mellows out and stares intently at the screen when I turn these videos on. Maybe music will be the thing that helps him harness all the crazy energy he has built up inside. We'll see!
Now we're back home and I couldn't be happier. I love traveling and visiting family, but it's always so nice to be back in my own habitat, where I can cook and clean and take care of my little family.
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