What a cute lil' tush...

Ok, this post is not so much for the people who like to read up on Baby J as much as it is for me and James to remember this story when Baby J starts to date:

So this past week was Christmas. (Merry Christmas to all). The three of us made our way over to Grandma and Grandpa Walker's house on Christmas Eve and spent the next two nights there. Well, the first night we were there, Baby needed a bath. We made our way up stairs, got the bathtub ready for baby bath, and sat her into the tub for some scrubbing.

Baby J loves to have a bath at Grandma and Grandpa Walker's house because they actually have a bathtub and she doesn't have to get clean along with the dinner plates like at home. She splashes, crawls around, and stares at her image in the drain cover. Daddy and I were commenting on how we're not used to looking at her play naked because she's usually just sitting in the sink. Just at that time, baby stands up and we both comment: see, even her butt is cute.

No sooner than we finish that sentence, and baby poos in the tub! We couldn't help but laugh at the irony. We cleaned the place up and resumed bath time, but wow, just wow.

Our Little Singer

Baby J has conquered a new skill today, singing. The three of us made our way to Grandma and Grandpa Walker's house to take care of some much needed laundry washing.

Grandma and Grandpa have this great toy that is a little house of sorts with weird little ball monsters that live in the house. As with most baby geared toys, this one sings songs and teaches colors, number, letters, etc. What great is there is one part of the toy where you pull on one of the little monster things, and they sing songs. (Mary had a little lamb, row row row your boat, This old man, etc...) But rather than sing they take a sound (ba, ma, ga, ta) and only say that sound to the tune of the song.

This is where it gets good: after listening to theses songs, Baby will start to sing the song. It's a bit off tune, but she does it and gets most of the notes. The first song was "Mary Had a Little Lamb." but after a while, I noticed her doing it to all the songs.

American Idol watch out! Baby J is on her way!

"I do what I want"

Imagine if you will: it is a Tuesday evening in the Walker house. Daddy Walker is out of town, leaving Mommy and Baby J to "bond." Baby J is in a particularly good mood this evening and has been playing quite nicely since arriving home from day care. They venture into Baby J's room to change a diaper. Baby J is so good that Mommy can put her down to play with the collection of books on the floor while Mommy hangs up some clothes. It is quite a nice set up.

Some how Baby J manages to wedge herself under the glider in while playing with her plastic star-ring. Hunched over at the time, she is unaware of the situation. Until she tries to sit up. She hits the glider and gives it a dirty look. She hits the glider with the star; nothing. At this point Mommy notices what's going on and sits down urging baby to crawl forward to get out of the way, baby does not move. Mommy urges more, baby hits the glider more, now with her brow furrowed. Grunt. Hit. Grunt. Hit..... GAAAAA! Baby finally moves.

She moved when she wanted to.

Whatever you do, don't smell the food.

My baby really is quite an amazing person. I know, most parents think the same thing about their own kids, and nothing she does is really any great accomplishment that other babies can't do, but every day she amazes me.

As of October 21, 2009 Baby J is mobile. She crawled her first 6 feet solo. It was straight to me, no toys and sadly no Daddy could tempt her, but Mommy on the other side of the room was just the right amount of motivation. She put out a cautious hand, then a knee, hand, knee... flop... repeat. It reminded me somewhat of the end of Grease when John and Olivia are dancing on fun house platform: up and down, up and down. But she made it and was utterly proud of herself! Flash forward 2 weeks and she's all over the place: except the kitchen. Its the oddest thing, but she gets to the line where the carpet ends and the tile begins, puts both hands on the tile and is frozen. For a while I was planning on helping her overcome this phobia, but then I realize keeping her out of the kitchen is a good thing!

Another major milestone of our lives is finger food! Baby J is now a master of finger food... if you count half of the food going in mouth and half in lap a master. She can pickup a puff and on occasion shove it in her little mouth. Half the time is' already dissolved and is stuck on her hand, but no worries. She's also taken to small carrots, peas, cooked apples, etc. It our little ritual: Mommy cleans the kitchen as she gradually gives Baby J things to munch for dinner. Gets us over the bored/tired/cranky evening times. :-)

So tonight Daddy is working the poles for elections which means Mommy and Baby J are home alone. We were doing our usual nighttime feeding ritual and I decided to turn on some music (they say it makes her smarter, we'll see).

Picture this if you will: baby in highchair in kitchen. In view: baby toy area of living room including baby rock-star mirror that plays music. Not in view: tv. The music I turned on was from the classical station on the TV. Baby is eating, having a good time trying to introduce carrot to mouth... and then the music comes on. She stops, looks at the rock-star mirror... it's not on... what?... why isn't it on?... she looks some more.... it's still not on.... Eventually I had to take her out of her chair and show her the TV just to get her to resume eating. I personally found it hilarious.

Thats what I'm talking abou though. She's so smart to know that music comes from the mirror; enough to be confused when the lights weren't on with it. And I know it's common place for you and me but for her, she's made that connection for the first time, and it's amazing to watch.

So, I will enjoy every new moment my daughter experiences and smile every time I see her little teeth show though. I just won't smell the baby food.

World of Wonders

There really is something awesome about babies. Every day they encounter something for the first time. Now, I've never been the sappy type of person, but when it's your baby, you get completely enthralled in the new experiences with her.

Tonight was another one: It was a regular nightly routine; baby had dinner and was taking her evening bath. Now, usually her bath goes like this:
1.baby sits and attempts to pick up the floating toys
2.when successful she eats the toys
3.when unsuccessful Mommy pulls baby's face out of the water and/or catches head
4. wash and dry.

Well, today we did our usual routine, but then I realized that baby was happy and we had some time. I decided to refill the bath and let baby splash around a little more. This presented something new for baby, she's never been IN the sink while the water was filling up.

The water turned on and "OH!"... she didn't know what it was. She tried to grab it, but she couldn't. It turned off, she tried to find it but couldn't. She grabbed the faucet, maybe she could make it come by trying to chew on the faucet. No, Mommy thwarted the attempt. No one knows when they will meet again, I'm sure Baby J will be ready to yet again try to catch the running water.

First Family Vacation

Well, summer is over, but the Walkers finally got to get out of town and take our vacation. It wasn't a long one seeing as Mommy has very few vacation days (according to work, those first few months with Baby J were my vacation). We were lucky that Jim has a wonderful Aunt Liz with a wonderful husband, Troy. Liz and Troy happen to have a house in Ocean City, MD and were gracious enough to let us use it for a weekend.

That weekend was this weekend. I took off half a day from work and we loaded (and I mean loaded, babies have way more accessories than adults) the car with our belongings and made the trek out to MD. I can't say we didn't anything mind-blowing, but that's not what vacation is for. We just enjoyed being in a new surrounding and showing Baby J new adventures in the world.

Saturday we took Baby J. to Assateague Island National Park. (Apparently they have wild horses, I had no idea!) It was a bit overcast, but nice. We hiked around the island and the beach and Baby J was able to feel the sand between her little toes for the first time. Hopefully she'll have many more adventures to the beach in her future. There really is something majestic about the ocean.

Six months, oh my!

Well, it's come and past. Baby J has reached the half a year mark! All is well with Baby J. She is in perfect health as of her check up this week. Beyond the 95% in all measurements. What does that mean? That I'm buying 18mo. size clothing for my 6mo. old baby. But she still looks adorable in all of the outfits. :-)

Baby J is busy moving about. She can sit up, roll all over the place, push herself into sitting... she hasn't quite mastered crawling yet, but she manages to get around nevertheless. This has been quite a month of firsts for Baby J; she has started eating "solid" food. So far she's loved everything we've given to her (except for my one attempt at home-made baby food pears).

Here's her stats:
Weight: 21lbs 6oz
Height: 28in.
Head: 18in.