It's Been a While...

OK, so some people have been on me to update this blog (you know who you are) and while I've been very busy and feel like I never have time to do it I agree that it's about time. In fact I'm disappointed myself because now I don't have a nice blog from the last few months to look back on, and I feel sad that my little guy is getting so big too fast. In any case, I'm going to try to make up for it and keep updating this with more devotion than I have done previously, but we'll see how it goes.

So let's see -- what's new? Well, since the last post which was way back in November (!) quite a bit has happened. JJ traveled with Mom and Dad to Virginia to see Grandma and Grandpa Hohner for Christmas, and he got to meet Uncle Eric, Aunt Lucy, Uncle Fred, Aunt Andi, as well as his Hansen 2nd cousins. He was extremely well-behaved on the airplane as usual and impressed all of our fellow-passsengers who I'm sure were expecting him to cry the whole time.

It was the day we were traveling on the plane to Virginia that JJ went from hands and knees to sitting up for the first time. We were sitting in the airport, delayed, and JJ was playing on a blanket we brought along. He had been going on his hands and knees for quite some time, rocking back and forth and I couldn't figure out why he always went up into a downward-facing-dog kind of yoga position, but when he lowered himself to sitting from that position for the first time, I understood what he had been working on all that time. Then, after we got to Virginia, on the day before Christmas Eve JJ had another first -- he crawled for the first time! Grandma and Grandpa were very happy to get to witness this miletone. He was slow at first, but by the time we got home from our Christmas trip, he was becoming an expert.

Since then so much has happened. JJ is walking all the time now. He took his first steps at about 9 1/2 months but then didn't do too much more of it for a while. I was at work the evening he took his first steps, and when Jeremy told me on the phone that he had just done it, I begged him to take some video and post it on Facebook so I could log in and see it right away. Ahh, the beauty of modern technology. So even though I didn't get to witness it myself, at least I got to see it moments later.

JJ had his first birthday party on June 6th. Unfortunately it was cool and rainy so we had to have the party inside. Since our house isn't very big that made for a, shall we say "cozy" experience with the guests. But everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. JJ had fun making a mess with his birthday cake, but didn't really seem to enjoy eating it all that much. I guess he's just got healthier eating habits! JJ got lots of wonderful gifts from his friends. I'm still working on the thank-you cards; we'll see if they ever get done...

Now that he's 13 months he's been walking almost exclusively for the past two months or so, although he does enjoy crawling from time to time. He's also babbling non-stop, and I'm amazed at the complexity of his baby babble. He uses every diphthong and consonant combination known to man (except for those that constitute English), and if you didn't know better you'd swear he was speaking a real language -- just one you don't understand. He says "Momma" and "Dada," and he can almost say "cat" and "dog." I think he's really close to starting to talk for real, but so far it's mostly just babble.

His latest trick, which I think is pretty neat, is pointing to things. He will point at something in front of him or across the room if he wants it, but he also points to pictures of things he recognizes. If we're reading a book and there is a cat in a picture I'll say, "where's the cat, JJ?" And he'll point to the cat. The first time I did that I thought it was just a coincidence, so I tried with a couple of different pictures that included cats, and he always pointed to the correct animal. He can also point to a picture of a dog, an apple, a ball, and a duck. The ball really impressed me, too. We have a book called "I'll Teach My Dog a Lot of Words" and in it it has a picture of a dog catching a little red ball. I asked JJ to point to the ball, and he did! I was impressed, but then again, he's my son so just about everything he does impresses me.

Also, JJ did what I asked him for the first time yesterday. He was standing near a book that was on the floor, pointing to it and I said, "Do you want Momma to read the book to you? Bring the book to Momma and I'll read it to you." And he looked at me, and then looked at the book and then back at me, and he brought the book over to me. I was surprised, because I wasn't actually expecting him to do it. He's done similar things several times now. It's like he's becoming a REAL person!

In other news, I quit my job back in June so I could be home with JJ full-time. We're still adjusing but so far it's been nice to be able to play with him in the mornings instead of rushing around to get myself and JJ ready to go for the day. We're still working on getting into a nice, productive routine, but that's ok. We'll get there.

That's all for now... I will add pictures when I have time!