Adventures in Babysitting

Last week I had the opportunity to watch a good friend's daughter for a few hours in the afternoon/evening at our house. Naturally I jumped on the opportunity, partly in order to help my friend as she has helped me in the past, and partly because I knew that JJ would enjoy the company, but mostly just to see what it would be like to have two little ones in the house, and whether or not I could handle it. Ellia is 10 1/2 months old, so when we have another child it will be impossible for JJ and the baby will be that close in age, but it was good practice anyway. Ellia also has a harder time, in general, being away from her mom. But she's been to our house many times before and she's familiar with both JJ and myself, so I had a good feeling about how things would go.

When Mara dropped Ellia off, she stuck around for a bit, to get Ellia settled. That seemed to work wonders, because once Mara left, Ellia didn't cry one bit. I was very happy and impressed, and while I can't deny that I was sort of proud of myself for this, I know that I had very little to do with it. I was just very happy that Ellia was comfortable in my care. JJ was asleep for the first hour or so of Ellia's visit with us, so that was pretty easy on me. We played for a while and it was refreshing having a little girl around for once. Once JJ woke up, the real fun started.

I didn't want to leave Ellia alone downstairs, so I carried her upstairs with me to get JJ. When JJ saw me walk in the door to his bedroom with another baby in my arms he practically crawled out of the crib -- literally! In fact, if his legs were a little longer or if I hadn't just recently lowered the crib mattress, he WOULD have climbed out. He started whining and crying a little bit, jealous that another cute little baby had made her way into my arms. He wanted his mommy, and he wanted her all to himself. I decided that a diaper change in the midst of all this jealousy would be near impossible, especially since JJ has been really bad for diaper changes in general lately. And I considered putting Ellia in the crib for a few minutes so I could cuddle with JJ, but I knew that would probaby start her crying and I didn't want to ruin the positive trend we had going so far. So I reached into the crib with my free [right] arm and slid JJ onto my right hip, with Ellia still on my left. I carried the two of them down the stairs, into the living room, and then stood there, thinking, "now what?"

I considered putting them down, but with both arms occupied there was really no safe way to do that. So I very carefully lowered myself to the floor and sat with both kids still on my hips. At this point, I could safely put them on the floor, but every time I made any sort of move at all, JJ clung tighter to me, indicating that he did not want to be put down. Again I considered releasing Ellia, but I was nervous that she would cry at seeing me hold JJ, and regardless of what her reaction would have been, I needed a free hand to put either of them down. So we sat there, the three of us, JJ resting his chubby cheek on my right shoulder and Ellia cuddled in my left arm, for about ten minutes. Finally JJ lifted his head up and pulled away from me, ready to brave the living room on his own, and he started playing with some toys. I finally let Ellia go as well and the two of them had a blast playing together.

The rest of the evening went well, and Ellia only got a little bit fussy when Jeremy came home, because she was unfamiliar with him. But soon enough she got used to his presence and we all enjoyed eating together. So now I have renewed confidence that I can handle two. I know it was only one day, and only a few hours at that. And I know that there will be difficult days once we have two children in the house, but it was a good experience to have the two of them here, and honestly, it was easier than I thought. Plus it made me feel pretty good that JJ was so jealous of Ellia over me, despite the fact that it worries me how he will react with a little sibiling in the house someday.

Secret Passage - July 15th

This has been a really great week so far, and since we're already at Wednesday night I'm willing to wager that the positive trend is going to continue for the rest of the week. On Monday JJ and I went to Cool Waters, the public pool and mini water park here in Greenfield, just down the street a few miles. We met with my friend Erin and her 6-month old Riley. JJ had a blast walking into and out of the water over and over and over again. He was quite a handful, since he just wanted to walk everywhere and didn't want to hold my hand at all (dangerous when we're wading in water up to his waist). He was a little apprehensive of the big waterfalls in the pool because they were so loud, but otherwise he did really well. I think that next year will be even better.

On Tuesday I went to the gym and left JJ in the capable hands of the Kid's Clubhouse caregivers at the WAC. I finished my workout and returned to pick him up and saw him sitting at the table for snack time, eating some Goldfish snacks and looking quite content. Then he turned around and saw me and instantly started full-fledged crying: sobs, tears and all. One of the women brought him over to me and when I asked how he did the rest of the time he was there she informed me that he would have little two-minute crying fits and then they would distract him with a toy or a book and he'd be fine for a while. So he was on-and-off, which isn't terrible, since he was able to calm himself down without the need for the ladies to have me paged. But he's been really clingly lately and I think that's why he had such a hard time. I'm really hoping that he improves because I hate the fact that he has a hard time at all when I'm not with him.


In other news, JJ did something really cute yesterday. Our kitchen, dining room and living room are arranged all in a row, opening into each other. I have a gate sectioning off the kitchen from the other two rooms so that JJ is confined to a safe area where he can do whatever he wants with his toys and I can still keep an eye on him from the kitchen. Between the dining room and kitchen there is a row of cabinets with a countertop above and JJ loves to play with the cabinets, opening and closing the doors and pulling out some placemats and cloth napkins I have down there. Normally they're full of pots and pans that are too heavy for JJ to lift, but last night I was using the big pot that takes up most of the end cupboard and JJ decided to take advantage of that. While I was busy making dinner I heard the normal sounds he usually makes -- babbling to himself and opening and closing cabinet doors in the dining room. Then I heard something I don't usually hear when he's playing like that in the dining room: tiny footsteps just behind me. I turned around to see what was happening, and there was JJ, in the kitchen with me. He had taken all of the placemats and napkins out of the end cupboard, crawled through the cabinet, and opened the door to enter the kitchen since the big pot that usually blocks the way was gone. He created his own little secret passage. Pretty cute. I grabbed the camera and snapped a shot of the proud JJ just after he came through. then I convinced him to go back where he came from, through the cabinet, and I got a couple of shots of that, too.

Tomorrow it's back to the gym, so we'll see how that goes. And on Friday we'll be going to the Betty Brinn Children's Museum downtown with a couple of friends and their kids. I'm pretty excited because I've been waiting for JJ to be old enough to enjoy something like this, and I think he's right at that age where he can start to do that. I would love to bring my camera to take some pictures but I'm not sure if they allow photos to be taken, not to mention that the only camera I have access to right now is pretty big and cumbersome, and not something I want to have to lug while I'm chasing JJ around the museum. So when I get to writing about our trip, my words will have to suffice.

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!