MJ is a Lanugage Genius... Sort Of

It's not until you've heard 3-year old conjugate verbs do you realize just how crazy the English language is. We conjugate so many ways, we have so many exceptions, how do we ever learn to speak properly?

MJ is now a confident speaker. He talks non-stop and he prattles on about everything. He also conjugates verbs with ease. But he doesn't always get it right because of the English language's crazy rules.

The cutest thing he does is say: I swimmed, I taked it, I throwed it away, I catched the robber.

In proper English, swim becomes swam. Throw becomes threw. But how would he know when talked becomes talked, walked becomes walked, fix becomes fixed, play becomes played.

MJ also does funny things with expressions. A couple of days ago, he was playing doctor. He went up to me and he said "I'm taking away your temperature." I didn't understand at first until I realized that he was confusing "taking away" something with "take someone's temperature." Maki will often say, "Marco, don't do that or I'll take away your (fill in the blank, train, lego, iPad)." When he learned that doctors take your temperature, he naturally put 2 and 2 together and decided that doctors "take away" your temperature. He even acted it out. He would come up to me, touch me and then pretend to "take" something. Hilarious and ridiculously cute.

He still makes questions out of declarative sentences (I hope I got this one right). I asked him the other day to go to the kitchen to eat breakfast. He said, "Where I should sit?" It should have been, "Where should I sit?" but that's obviously too complicated at this age. He knows to use "where" and to use intonation to indicate a question.

All of this makes me realize just how hard it is to learn a language, much less communicate effectively!

The Funny and Fun Things MJ Says

MJ is 32 months old (just over 2 1/2 years old) and he's talking up a storm these days. He's always talking. He comments on everything. He plays with words, he makes up rhymes, he's constantly in motion and constantly talking.

When he wants to ask a question, he can't quite rephrase the sentence into a question, so he just adds inflection to the end of his sentences. This morning, I was feeling a little under the weather. He asked, "Mom, you feel sick?" When we're outside, he asks our neighbor, "You have a dog?"

He's got an active imagination. Every morning, when yaya (his nanny) arrives, she asks MJ, "MJ, who are you today?" Every day is different. He might be MJ Fireman, MJ Farmer, MJ Doctor, MJ Delivery Man, MJ Policeman. MJ Fireman is definitely his favorite.

A couple of weekends ago, Maki brought home sausage, egg and cheese McMuffins from McDonald's. He asked for the egg. I said, "But MJ, you're allergic to egg." He said, "No, I'm not lergic, I'm just a nice guy."

When we go out for a ride or run an errand, I usually pack what I call emergency snacks, in case CJ or MJ (or I) suddenly gets hungry. When an adult gets a hunger attack, you suck it up. When a child gets a hunger attack, he has a meltdown. So I always have protein bars in the car and other snacks in my purse. I like to pack string cheese, which I call "emergency cheese." This morning, MJ said, "CJ, we have emergencheese!"

When we're out for a walk, sometimes MJ will just play with words. I might say, "look there's a dog." And all of a sudden, he'll launch into a rhyme attack. He'll say dog, bog, log, mog, sog, jog.... and on and on. I think he's playing with words, he's checking out how they sound and feel on his tongue. It's hilarious and very cute.

Bye, Bye, High Chair and Playpen!

Some time in early August, our yaya announced that MJ was no longer using the high chair and playpen. What? How could this be? MJ wasn't even 2 while CJ used the high chair and playpen until he was 3!

The playpen was a great place to put MJ when I was alone with him and I needed to go to the bathroom, if I was cooking and needed him to be safely away from the stove, or if I needed to go upstairs for a few minutes.

The high chair was a great way to keep MJ in his chair during meals, it was easy to clean, and it was a nice, wide surface that MJ could play with.

But yaya was right. MJ wanted to sit at the kitchen island with us. He liked to sit on a bar stool, just like me, Maki and CJ. He also now hated being confined in the playpen. Where he used to play by himself in the playpen, especially after being in the company of others (he liked a little alone time), now he tried hard to pull himself up and out of the playpen.

So on August 11, Maki and I took our last photos of MJ using the playpen and high chair, then we put them away for good. No more baby gear in the house! We gave the highchair to a co-worker and we just tossed the playpen.

I was a little sad about getting rid of these things. It was another sign that my baby was no longer a baby. MJ is my second and my last and I don't have a baby anymore. I have a full on, energetic toddler!

What is MJ Saying These Days?

MJ is clearly relishing his ability to talk and communicate. He was a pretty good signer, which was a godsend when he wanted more of something or he wanted to go outside. Perhaps more importantly, Maki and I think sign language made MJ realize that he could communicate with us and this motivated him to sign and speak.

MJ signed: more, change, mama, dada, please (very popular), bath, music, eat, milk, thank you (very popular), bye bye.

Today, as MJ's verbal skills improve seemingly every day, he's abandoning signing and talking -- a lot.

He calls Grandpa Tak "pa"

He calls Grandma Linda and Grandma Josie "ma"

He calls CJ "ceej"

He calls Goring "yaya"

He knows how and when to use outside, upstairs and downstairs.

Interesting, he never asks for food. He just points at food and says "um." He will ask for "wa" (water).

He's starting to string together words to form simple sentences. CJ gets a little offended because MJ's sentences sound like orders. He likes to say "read books," "sit down" and "come back."

He just loves, loves trucks of all kinds. He likes to say fire truck, dump truck and digger.

He's starting to copy us when we say words slowly or read simple books.

My friends Alyson and Kathleen, who see him every few weeks, say that MJ's verbal skills seem to be increasing by leaps and bounds. I know that this is the age when communication skills really blossom and it's been so fun to watch and help MJ learn to communicate with us using language.

What's MJ Up To These Days?

It's been an incredible couple of months for MJ and for the rest of us. My friend Alyson, who sees him every few weeks, says it's amazing how much MJ changes during that time and I agree. Here are some of the things he's now doing.

He likes to eat on his own. Whenever he can, MJ prefers to feed himself, using a spoon to eat yogurt, applesauce or cereal, or using his fingers to eat pasta, fruit, bread, crackers, etc. It's hilarious when he jams 3-4 blueberries into his mouth, or a handful of pasta. He usually ends up using his whole hand to shove all of the food into his mouth.


He's not only walking, he's running, going up and down stairs on his own (by holding onto the wall, of course), and taking the 1 step in and our of house on his own, without holding on or having to stoop down.

He's still signing, but he's now preferring to talk. He can say soooo much, including: mama, dada, ceej, yaya, froo (fruit), co (cold), wa (water), fire truck, ca (cow), do (dog), meow (cat), ca (car), truck, key, pho (phone), sit, piwo (pillow), fyower (flower), mi (milk), pa (grandpa), ma (grandma), sandy (short for alexander), one, two, bre (bread), blue (usually referring to blue's clues), up, da (down), outsi (outside), dri dri (drive, drive), shz (shoes).

He can get into his car seat on his own, which saves my back.

He seems to understand nearly everything I tell him, including conditional statements, like, "if you put on your hat, I will let you go outside." I said this tonight and he reached for the hat after initially refusing to wear the hat.

He's definitely blossoming into full toddlerhood. His favorite word is a vehement NO and when he's not happy, he proves to us time and time again just how loud he can be.

He loves music. He will bounce up and down on his legs, and shake his head when we have music on. And when I exercise to Everybody Dance, he sits contentedly on the couch and watches me.

He loves his ladybud pillow pet. Santa gave him a mini pillow pet and he just loves it. He won't take a nap or go to sleep at night without it. He calls her BA, which is short for ladybug. He carries BA around all over the house.  I got a back-up BA just in case we have a BA disaster, although we try very hard to NEVER let BA outside the house.

TimehopeAbe tells me that a year ago today, I posted this on Facebook: "It's been an incredible month for baby MJ milestones. In the last few weeks, he started pulling himself up and down, he is starting to hold his bottle, he is cruising a few steps while holding on to furniture and he's signing "more" and "milk." So fun.

MJ Loves Electronic Devices

I guess it's inevitable that MJ loves electronic devices. Just loves them! He likes to play with remote controls, phones,  and iPads.

We try to trick him with toy versions or non-working versions but somehow, he can sense that a particular is not as interesting as the real thing and he figures out what's real and therefore valuable.

We got him toy remotes, iPod and phone. He's entertained for a few minutes and then he tosses it aside.

Maki's dad gave MJ a real, Japanese cell phone that beeps, takes pictures and clicks when you press numbers, but it's not activated so MJ can't make real calls. He's not fooled, he was interested for about 5 minutes and then asked for my phone. Hilarious.

Earlier this week, he shocked me by turning on the iPad, unlockign the slider, navigation to Netflix (he recognizes the red logo) and then navigating to Blue's Clues (it's always in the Recently Viewed grouping). The entire time he's doing this, he's saying, "blue, blue." C'mon, the kid is 22 months old and he's already figure out how to watch his favorite show on the iPad!

Adventures in Eating - My Boys are Foodies

Thank goodness MJ is turning into a good eater, just like his brother. In fact, I think MJ may be an even better eater than CJ. MJ is certainly more adventurous when it comes to food and he likes all kinds of vegetables.

MJ eats everything, just everything. When we go out to a restaurant, I don't bother to bring him any food from home. I just figure he'll eat what we're eating. For Maki's birthday, we went to a BBQ restaurant and MJ happily ate pulled pork, ribs, and collard greens. Tonight, he ate broiled salmon with pine nut couscous. He likes to gnaw on celery and carrots. He absolutely adores fruit of all kinds. Nearly every evening, he'll have half a pear, a bunch of grapefruit slices, a kiwi, a nectarine, or most of an apple.

CJ is still not a great vegetable eater, although he loves broccoli and cauliflower, and he'll eat spinach if it's in lasagna or stuffed shells. He'll eat carrots if they're soft. Otherwise, he's an amazing eater. He eats chicken, beef, fish and shellfish. He loves, loves, loves sushi and all kinds of fish.

MJ loves fruit. He eats fruit with nearly every meal and he likes to feed himself.

MJ loves yogurt. In this photo, he turned into a yogurt face after eating some greek yogurt and doing a great job at feeding himself!

Can't remember what he's eating, but here again is a photo of MJ on his own. Note that he's not in his high chair, which he mostly refuses to sit in these days. He likes to sit at the kitchen island with the rest of the family.

Here's MJ trying to feed himself some Singapore noodles. He managed to twirl some noodles and put them in his mouth, but it proved too challenging, so he resorted to using his hands to grab big handfuls of noodles and stuffing them in his mouth. Singapore noodles ultimately prove too spicy for him.

MJ is Signing!

As with CJ, Maki, yaya and I started signing to MJ pretty early. Starting when MJ was about six months old, we were signing milk, change, more, mommy, daddy, grandma, grandpa, dog, bird, eat, drink.

In late January, I started letting MJ watch the two baby signing videos that we own: First Signs by Baby Einstein and My Baby Can Talk. I didn't do it earlier because we're trying to avoid getting MJ hooked on TV. In this case, I figured a little TV would be fine and it was for a good cause.

The videos really helped because by February, MJ started signing! He started signing around the time he started walking, which I don't think is a coincidence. I think a bunch of things just clicked for him: walking, signing, a few recognizable sounds.

What I realized this time around with MJ is that his signs are incredibly imprecise. With the exception of milk and more, I have to use my imagination to recognize some of his signs, but it's clear he's signing because he's consistent about making the same sign for the same thing. For example, the sign for water is the three middle fingers tapping the chin. MJ takes his index finger and taps the side of his mouth. My guess is that CJ was signing a whole lot more than we gave him credit for but we didn't know it because his hand and finger movements were imprecise.

These days, MJ is signing:

• Milk
• More
• Mommy
• Daddy
• Cat
• Water
• Eat
• Walk
• Dog
• Up
• Change
• All done
• Please 
• Thank you

It's so amazingly useful for MJ to be signing. When he wants more of something, he signs more and we give him more.

He signs please appropriately, as in, he signs please when he wants to play with CJ's Nintendo DS and CJ does not want to let him touch it.

When I remind him to say thank you, he signs thank you by putting his palm to his mouth.

When he's done eating, he signs all done and beckons me to pick him up by raising his arms way up.

Whenever he sees a dog outside, in a book or on TV, he signs dog and tries to say dog (do).

Imagine that, he's actually communicating with us even though he can't really talk yet. It's clear he understand what we are saying to him and signing is a way for him to "talk" back to us.

MJ Started Walking on February 13

On February 13, MJ started walking! He just turned 15 months old when he started walking on his own.

Before February 13, MJ wasn't just cruising, he was walking confidently with help from a grown-up. The weekend before, I decided to give him some help.  Everywhere we went, I held his hand and we walked together. We went to lunch at Kyoto Restaurant and we walked to the car, with Grandpa Tak holding one hand and me holding the other. We walked around the house. We walked around the neighborhood with his push car. I suspected that this help would be enough to get him walking on his own.

Sure enough, the next weekend, he started taking a few steps on his own. He started with just a couple of steps, then more and more. He would take a few steps, then sit down or grab hold of someone or a piece of furniture.  Today, at 19 months, he is a confident walker. He doesn't crawl anymore, he insists on walking everywhere, and he tries to walk up and down the stairs (yikes!).

MJ is holding his bottle!

At around 11 months, MJ started holding his bottle. He's not consistent and he has a tough time when the bottle is about halfway full (then the nipple is only half full of milk and he gets air in his tummy) but he's really doing it.

Sometimes he gets lazy and won't do it, so then we get lazy and just hold the bottle for him. So we need to remember to always position the bottle so he can hold it himself.

What Does 10-Month Old MJ Do These Days?

MJ is 10 months old! Actually, he'll be 11 months old in a few days. He has changed quite a bit and is very active these days.

He is good crawler. At around 9 months, he stopped crawling on his belly and started crawling in his hands and knees, belly off the floor. He is fast and he can wiggle through small openings.

At around 9 1/2 months, MJ started pulling himself up. He can now pull himself up easily and can sit back down on his bottom. He's not yet cruising but he's close and he's trying.

He sits up well. He can sit on the floor and play with his toys. I can give him a bath while he's sitting in the tub.

He babbles non-stop. He has a few words but not really. He says dada a lot. He says yaya when he sees Goring. Goring says he says "tita" when he sees Tita Pressie, another nanny in the neighborhood (tita is aunt in Tagalog) and we use it as a polite form when addressing grown-ups; we use tito for male elders.) He also says nana when he is eating a banana. Occasionally, we'll get a mama out of him.

He is a good eater. No, he's a great eater. So far, he's had: bananas, cherries, blueberries, apples, pasta with sausage and peas, sausage tortellini, rice and smoked salmon, rice and raw salmon, bread, chicken salad, miso soup, ikura, orange chicken. Basically, I give him a little of what we are eating each night, unless it's too spicy, chewy or hard. So far, he loves everything we've given him. In fact, he gets really mad if we are eating and he's not. He complains loudly by saying, "aaah, aaaah" and pointing at the food or at whoever is eating.

We have discovered that MJ has a mild allergy to egg. I made scrambled eggs one night and gave him some. His cheeks turned all red and splotchy. He didn't have trouble breathing and no other part of his body got splotchy, but we're not avoiding egg straight up and only giving him egg in other things (e.g., cooked in pasta, in sauces, etc.) The doctor says he could outgrow this if we give him egg a little bit at a time, starting with the yolk since apparently, most people are allergic to the while part of the egg.

MJ loves to go outside. He starts getting antsy in the morning after breakfast, meaning he wants to go for a walk. He seems to like being in the car and he likes going out for lunch or dinner. I try to take him somewhere outside the house at least once during the weekend, even if it's just to the grocery store.

First Vegetables and Fruits

MJ is now getting 3 meals a day: rice cereal mid-morning around 10am, a fruit or vegetable mid-afternoon around 3pm, and a fruit or vegetable before dinner around 6pm. He's still getting mom's milk 5 times a day: 8am nursing (or whenever he gets up), at 12noon, 3pm, and 6 and 9pm nursings.

Maki jokes that MJ is getting the best food on earth: mom's milk + organic rice cereal + organic baby food. Does it getter than that?

So far, MJ has gotten sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, apples, bananas and pears. He seems to like sweet potatoes and pears the best. He actually didn't like apples at first, but that's changed and he now eagerly eats everything we put on his spoon.

In fact, MJ is clearly very interested in eating. He stares at us when we're eating and he sometimes cries when it's close to his solid food time and he sees someone eating. You know MJ is hungry and ready because he calms down when we put him in the high chair and he's got his mouth wide open when you put the bowl of baby food down on the tray. Fun times!

Adventures in Solids

We started MJ on solid food at the end of January, when he was 4 1/2 months old. Because of the history of allergies in my family, I was hoping to wait until he was 5 months old. But his great sleep pattern was changing again, and he was getting up earlier than usual. He also seemed really, really interested in when we were eating: he would stare intently at us and he would make smacking noises with his lips.

So on January 30, we gave him a bit of organic rice cereal with mom's milk. It was just a couple of baby spoonfuls on rice cereal, but he seemed to like it. The expression on his face was hilarious as he explored the taste and texture, but he was into it.

Oh yeah, to get him going, Maki sat next to me and started eating his apple. That gave MJ the idea and it worked! Good old Maki!

Over the next few weeks, we gradually increased the amount we give him and the frequency.

MJ is now nearly 6 months old and he's getting rice cereal 3 times a day: mid morning, early evening and right before bedtime. He's nursing 3 times a day: first thing when he gets up, when I get home around 6 and before bedtime around 9 or 9:30pm. He also gets 2 bottles a day: at noon and 3pm. So far, so good. In the next couple of weeks, we'll start him on baby food. We started CJ on veggies at first, so I think we'll do the same with MJ.

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.

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.

CJ is Crazy for Legos and Star Wars

CJ is crazy for Legos and Star Wars. He's no longer a Thomas fan; instead, he's now a huge, enormous, gigantic Lego fan, especially Lego Star Wars. For Christmas, CJ asked everyone for a Lego Star Wars kit. He got six kits and he was in heaven. Santa gave him Slave I, Boba Fett's ship.

Did I mention that CJ is obsessed with Legos and Star Wars? Since I'm a huge Star Wars fan, I'm not complaining. CJ has now watched all six movies. We play Star Wars Monopoly all the time. Maki and CJ play Lego Star Wars on the PS3. And CJ makes endless Star Wars kits and ships.

CJ loves his lightsaber! It makes a humming sound, just like in the movies!

Baby Marcus John Gets Baptized

Since everyone was going to be in town for Christmas, it made sense to have MJ baptized during the holidays. Thank goodness our parish priest was able to squeeze the baptism into his busy holiday schedule!

We asked our friend Eileen and my brother Alex to be MJ's godparents and they said they'd be honored to do it. Great! I told Eileen that being a godmother (ninang in Tagalog) is a serious thing with the Filipinos; she's now a member of the family!

MJ's baptism was a small affair, just my family, Maki's family and a couple of friends. The baptism was held on Thursday, December 23rd at 2pm, an odd time for sure, but it worked for us and the priest. The church was beautifully decorated for Christmas so the backdrop for the baptism was wonderful.

After the baptism, everyone came back to our house for a small meal. Goring, our nanny, had made pancit bihon and pancit palabok, two traditional, Filipino noodle dishes. Yum and thank you, Goring!

CJ's First Words and Other Word Things

I'm writing this down only so I won't forget it in the future.

CJ's first word was dada.  His next word was "gabugee" for garbage.  We had no idea what he was saying until we went for a walk one day.  CJ kept pointing at things on the ground and saying "gabugee."  So that's when we figured out that "gabugee" meant garbage.

CJ used to call me "mama jsa" and Maki "dada maki."

He called us mama and dada for a long time, but today, it's mommy and daddy.  Sometimes it's mom and dad.  I miss mama and dada.

When CJ and I would read his "Click Clack Moo" book, CJ would say "sinsincerely" instead of sincerely.

CJ still calls blankets "blankies."

And CJ still calls snuggling with me on the couch "snuggies."

On CJ's first 1st grade report card, he got an "Exceeds Expectations" for reading and speaking. I'm not surprised. CJ is very articulate and it's really fun to have conversations with him. I wonder if it's because he's spent so much time with adults.

Sleeping Through the Night

It's the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  MJ is 2 1/2 months old and last night, he slept 9 hours straight, from 9:30pm - 6:30am.  Straight.  No crying, no diaper change, no bottle from Maki.  He slept 8 1/2 hours three nights ago and we were thrilled.  Maki especially, because it meant he didn't have to get up at 2:30am or 4:30am to give MJ a bottle.

His longer sleep at night is probably because he's a lot bigger, can drink a lot more milk, and has enough fat in his body to carry him through the night.  During his last doctor's appointment, he weighed 14.23 lbs.  He was born 7 lbs., 15 oz., which means he's put on over 6 1/2 lbs. since birth.

During his first two weeks of life, MJ was not putting on much weight.  He lost a bunch of weight right after birth (which is normal); by the time he left the hospital, he weighed 7 lbs., 6 oz.  At his two week check-up, he had only put on an additional 2 oz.  The doctor asked to see him again at 3 weeks to check his weight.  At three weeks, he weighed 8 lbs., 11 oz. so he put on nearly a pound and a half in one week.  The doctor explained that he probably figured out how to nurse effectively and is now able to nurse well.

The doctor also said that pediatricians really like for moms to breastfeed their babies because breast milk is best for baby AND breastfed babies are much less likely to be overweight later in life.  He said that doctors don't worry if a breastfed baby's weight is off the charts because by the time he becomes a toddler, he is very likely to lose the extra weight.  He says doctors think this is because breastfed babies eat until they're full and moms can't stress over exactly how much they're eating (unlike a bottle, where moms might force a baby to finish exactly 3 or 4 oz. because that's what the books say he should be eating).

MJ is now getting both breast and bottle and although he eats every 3 hours, we don't force the amount that he drinks.  If he wants 2 oz. during one bottle feeding, that's what he gets.  If he wants 4 oz., that's what he gets.  When he's nursing, I obviously don't know how much he's getting, but he definitely lets me know if he wants more and when he's done.

I'm just happy that Maki and I are getting more sleep at night.  We need to resist the temptation to try and get some work done after both boys are asleep and just go to bed as soon as we can.

MJ Loves Bath Time!

When MJ was about a week old, I gave him his first bath.  I dug out CJ's blue bathtub from the garage and set it up in the tub in CJ/MJ's bathroom.  I was out of practice giving infants a bath, but it went pretty well.  CJ was very sweet and offered to be my assistant.  He squeezed baby shampoo into my hand and handed me the hooded towel after the bath.  MJ cried a bit and I'm not sure if it's because the whole thing was new, he didn't like the water, he didn't like the noise, or what.

A few days later, I gave him a second bath and that went much better.  I had everything ready (towel, baby shampoo, diaper, footy pajamas, etc.) and I sang bath songs.  This time, he didn't cry, but instead just looked at me intently while I scrubbed his head and body.

In fact, MJ has not cried during bath time since his very first bath.  It seems that, like his big brother CJ, MJ likes baths!  He's very serious during baths; he just stares intently at whoever is giving him a bath but he does not cry.  Of course, we make sure we give him a bath a little bit after nursing so he's calm and full.

My tips for a successful bath:

• Make sure baby is calm and happy.
• Prep the bathtub ahead of time with warm water, baby wash/shampoo and towel. Make sure everything is within easy reach.
• Get your post-bath area ready with an extra towel, lotion, diaper and pajamas; this way, you're not running around, looking for supplies while baby is wet and cold.
• Make sure baby's hair is fairly dry but be gentle when drying his hair. A dry head means he's less likely to feel cold.
• Put baby in a blanket or sleep sack and snuggle with him so he's nice and warm after bath time.
• Sing and talk a lot during bath time. The singing will distract the baby if he's not especially fond of bath time.
• Explain to baby what you are doing, every step of the way. I did that with CJ and eventually, he could understand everything I was doing.