Saturday, February 19, 2011

MJ is Almost Sittng Up On His Own

MJ is five months old and continues to be a happy, smiley baby. He's desperate to turn over. If he's doing tummy time, he can usually turn over, but he hasn't quite mastered turning over from his back.

What he can do better is sit up. We sit him up on the couch so his back is supported and he's able to do sit like that for five minutes or so.

He LOVES CJ's old Thomas chair. Grandma Josie made this chair for CJ. I bought a Spiderman chair at Target and Grandma dutifully converted it into a Thomas chair with some red felt and Thomas fabric. Other kids have been jealous of CJ's chair for years!

Yaya and I like to put MJ in the Thomas chair and he happily sits there for a few minutes. I think he likes being able to sit up and see the room and the people.

More Funny CJ Sayings

CJ continues to inspire me and make me laugh with the things he says.  Most recently:

CJ: Mom, OMG!
Me: OMG? What do you think that means?
CJ: Oh my gosh.
Me: Where did you learn that?
CJ: I dunno.
Me: (to myself) Hmmm... probably should NOT have let him watch Star Wars Family Guy

CJ: Hey mom, look mom, OOPSIES! (dropping his latest Lego creation)

CJ: Can I watch Minute to Win It?
Me: Okay.
after a few minutes
Me: Hey, are those two women on a team? (it's often been family members competing together)
CJ: No, mom, they're RIVALS (with lots of emphasis on the word RIVALS)

Monday, February 7, 2011

What Does a Four-Month Old Do?

So MJ is four months old, actually almost five months old. Here's what he's doing these days:

He gets a lot of tummy time, as much as 3-4 times a day. He's pretty good natured about tummy time for the first few minutes, then he gets tired and starts to complain and put his head down. If we leave him for a few more minutes, he starts to cry.  That's our sign that he's had enough. He gets tummy time on the couch, on his gymini, on the changing pad, on our bed.

He is grabbing stuff, like my fingers, the animals on his gymini, his rattle.

He is batting at things and the air a lot. When he's on his back on the boppy, he just lifts his arms in the air and pats his legs. When he's nursing, he waves his free arm and pat, pat, pats on himself, my face, my chest.

He's starting to babble, not much and nothing intelligible, but he is definitely "saying" stuff.

He just started eating solid foods (more on that in another post). Not a lot, just a couple of teaspoons of rice cereal mixed with breast milk at night.

He sleeps a lot. He sleeps 9, 10, 11 hours a night. He might get up a couple of times and need soothing and reswaddling by me or Maki (mostly Maki), but he goes right back to sleep. He also takes 3-4 naps during the day, usually about an hour after nursing/taking a bottle. He naps before noon, after lunch, in the mid afternoon, and around 8pm, right before his last nursing.


He goes out for walks. Unless the weather is awful, our nanny takes him and our nanny share toddler out for a walk. They go out for hours.


He goes out to lunch. Turns out that he takes a nap right after his noon nursing, so we tend to go out to lunch on Saturday, after CJ gets back from swimming.  MJ usually naps after lunch, or if he doesn't, he's very mellow. We've taken him out a couple of dozen times already and he's always been very good.

He goes shopping. We almost always go grocery shopping as a family during the weekend. Maki puts him in the bjorn and he usually falls asleep.

So there you have it, the life of a four-month old.

Money, Money, Money

This is probably very normal, but CJ is very interested in money.  I think it's because he's figured out that money lets you buy Lego Star Wars kids and cupcakes.

CJ does not get an allowance but he gets stars. Stars can be converted into money. Here's how it works. Every day that CJ is ready for school by 7:45am (meaning he's dressed, breakfast eaten, teeth brushed, pajamas put away), he gets a star. He also gets a star for if he's ready on on time for Saturday morning swimming and Sunday mass. He can also earn extra stars for helping me with special chores around the house (above and beyond his normal chores like helping me bathe the baby). Each star is worth 50 cents.

Here's the rub: if he is NOT ready on time, he not only doesn't get a star, he gets a star taken away. This has only happened once and I suspect it won't ever happen again because he was VERY upset that it happened.

CJ can convert the stars into money at any time. He's pretty much used his star money for Lego Star Wars kits. He's sweetly offered to use his money for clothes and food, but I've told him that money will treat him for those things coz it's part of my job as his mommy to buy those things for him.

Here's a funny conversation from yesterday about CJ's money. CJ badly wants a Lego Star Wars kid that cost $50. He's got $10 in star money, not nearly enough. So he decided to break out the money from his piggy bank to see if he has enough.

CJ from the living room: Mom, can you help me count my money?
Me: No, I'm feeding the baby.
CJ: But I need help.
Me: But you count money all the time at school.
CJ: But we only count a little bit.
Me: So this is the same thing, only more.
CJ: No, this is for Legos.

We're mildly considering buying a new house. CJ, Maki and I went to look at a house, which CJ promptly fell in love with. This is what he had to say:

Me: CJ, did you like the house?
CJ: Yes, can we buy it?
Me: Maybe.
CJ: I'll chip in. I have money.
Me: Yep, you're going to have to if we buy this house.
CJ: Okay, mommy!


Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Happy, Smiley MJ

Maki and I feel incredibly blessed that MJ is a happy, smiley baby.  He started smiling at around 5 or 6 weeks.  His smiles started out as little turns of the mouth, but now he's smiling broadly, laughing, giggling, even shrieking.

MJ smiles back easily when you give him a big grin.  And he laughs if he's being held up in the air, or you use his fingers to point at different part of his body or your face.  He shrikes with laughter when Maki takes his hand and lets him feel his unshaven face. Go wonder.

Here are some recent photos.  MJ usually stops smiling the minute the camera comes out, not because he's shy but I think it's because he gets curious about the device and then wants to stare at it.  So I generally have to move my face away from the viewfinder and give him big smiles so he'll smile back at me.  Generally works.


The boys spend a lot of time together on the couch: CJ playing 
games on the PS3 or the iPad and MJ watching him.


MJ likes being on his changing pad; he lifts his legs in the air, 
watches the ceiling fan and watches the family.



This is new; he's now sticking his tongue out.