Finally an update!

Finally, a blog post!!  Here is a link to pictures since we brought John William home from the hospital in late August.

Oh, where to start?  We’ve had such a nice few months since John William was born!  Burke had 4 weeks of paternity leave and spent so much wonderful time with Elinor.  For two weeks, he took her to daily swim lessons in the afternoon.  In the mornings, they went to the park, for walks, and to OMSI and other fun places.  His last week off, we all took off to Oceanside to GrandJan’s house.  GrandJan joined us the first half of the week and Miney and Jake the second half.  We had a wonderful time, especially Elinor, who just couldn’t get enough of the beach.  The week after Burke went back to work, Aunt Jennifer came to visit.  We all went to watch the swifts at Chapman school and to Sauvie Island to a festival where we went on a hayride, listened to music, picked out a pumpkin, and watched rescued barn owls be released into the wild.  We’ve been hanging out a lot at home but have really been enjoying a beautiful Indian Summer and gorgeous fall color.  I return to work the week of November 29 and am very sad about that, but I know that once we get back into a routine with me working 2 1/2 days a week, it will be fine.

Now onto John William!  The big thing about John, well, is that he’s big!  At his two month appointment a couple of weeks ago, he weighed nearly 17 pounds and was 25 inches long!  To put that in perspective, Elinor did not weigh 17 pounds until she was 9 months old and wasn’t that long until she was 6 months old!  Obviously, he is a great eater.  His sleep is sometimes good, sometimes not so good.  He’s gone as long as 7 hours at night without waking up, which is nice when it happens!  John loves to look at our faces and talk to us.  He has a great voice and a beautiful smile!  He doesn’t seem to like the car so much, and when he gets mad, he gets MAD!  He has just started having enough neck strength to face out in the Bjorn and I think he likes that a lot.  He is starting to watch his hands and bat at toys a bit, and like his sister, he loves the black and white toys (cow and zebra) and the baby stim-mobile a whole lot!

Elinor continues to change and amaze us with every passing day.  She is most certainly a talker now and hardly ever uses sign language anymore.  She can pretty much repeat anything we say and often says 4-5 word sentences, such as “Daddy likes mustard too” and “Elinor get off the bed”.  She often mispronounces words which is normal for this age.  One of our favorites is “oppopus” instead of octopus. She knows her colors and most of the letters of the alphabet, and she loves to count, but gets a little hung up on the 4 (1..2…3…8!).  She is very physical and loves to climb and dance. She still loves music and recently has been asking for the Beatles! Unfortunately she has discovered the television which I must admit, despite being determined to withhold TV until age 2 as per the AAP recommendations, has really come in handy when I am dealing with two children who both have immediate needs!  She brings us the remote and says “esame eet” (Sesame Street) and then puts our finger on the button to push and says “Mommy push that one”!  She had already discovered Mommy’s iPhone months ago and, very scarily, can manipulate it to find the apps she wants.  Yikes.  She is still a sweet, loving girl but has been getting into a little bit of trouble from time to time, so we are STILL reading discipline books and trying to develop a repertoire of techniques that will work.

The only reason I have gotten this post written at all is because John has decided to nap for a very long time today after falling asleep in his car seat on the way home from the playground this morning.  Unfortunately, Elinor has decided NOT to nap during her normal time, and I am listening to her talking transition to crying, so I’d better go figure out what is going on.

I hope to do monthly updates from here on out!

Love to all of you

Julia

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