Last week Julian was sick with a stomach flu that, by all accounts, is plaguing the land from coast to coast. One of the many unfortunate consequences of this (aside from the 10+ times I got puked on) is that he had to skip his first "Waterbabies" class. But, thanks to the magical healing powers of time and jumbalaya, his strength was up enough to hit the pool this week.
Since I had just had some highlights done, and didn't want them to immediately turn green, Chris was the designated swim partner. I felt really guilty about this until I saw the four other mothers sitting by the side of the pool while their husbands got in the pool with the tots. I managed to catch the photo above before I got kicked out of the pool area to stand behind a glass wall waiting area. Dad reports that Julian liked being in the water, but not necessarily the swimming part. Next week I'll get in the pool with him and he'll be doing his flip turns in no time.
In other J-Wow news, our little Goldilocks got his first haircut! Stylist was Mommy, and the primary objective was to tame the mullet. The kid had started to grow some dreads, and people were beginning to ask him to go around back. I think I did an OK job, and thankfully the hair that was left on his head started to curl again. Here you can judge for yourself:
Our goal is to get back to doing this every week or two, so if we have any friends left that read this look for it this year!
Some additional New Year's Resolutions for 2011. It's going to be another busy year!
Chris 1. Resuscitate the lawn. 2. Explore the region more. 3. Get my knee fixed up and rehabilitated so I can get some more running in this year. 4. Take J to visit Washington (the state, not the federal district). 5. Resuscitate the golf game.
Mel 1. Grow an herb garden 2. Yes, it's a cliche, but....get more exercise. Actually, any exercise. 3. Spend more time in my resuscitated backyard. 4. Clean/organize the basement and garage.
Julian: 1. Walk. 2. Grow another tooth, so my one is less lonely. 3. Face forward in the car. 4. Perfect dance moves. You can see on my way with this one:
I should hasten to add a couple things about the allergies. 1) He came up clean for celiac disease, so good news there. Bring on the wheat gluten. 2) The pediatrician thought there was a good chance he'd outgrow these things, including the egg.
This allergy stuff is an evolving situation that we're just trying to manage and keep an eye on at this stage. It's not like we just found out that we'll have to have the Secret Service clear a two mile radius of any trace of peanut before Julian can go there. Hopefully, he'll be eating peanut butter frozen custard in no time.
It's been awhile, so this post has a lot of ground to cover. We thought Julian was going to take over the updates, since he has the most free time, but he had some excuse about not yet being literate and so I guess I'd better just get back to it.
Since the last post, we took Julian on his first camping trip. We had fun "roughing it" with our friends Stephanie and Todd (pictured below). We camped out at Cunningham Falls State Park, which is apparently near this guy's vacation home. Julian seemed to enjoy hiking and sleeping in the tent, but he passed on the S'mores.
We were slow about putting away our camping gear, which was a good thing because shortly afterward we got the opportunity to go "camping" in our own house. Thanks to two storms that blew through the area, we found ourselves significantly without power twice in the course of three weeks. That means that our freezer and refrigerator are sparkling clean, having been cleaned out twice each. We've also gotten more use out of our basement, since it is by far the best place to be when one is AC- and fan-free. Rain is forecast for tomorrow - keep your fingers crossed that the power lines in our neighborhood manage to stay up for once.
We have also learned that J is allergic to eggs. After a minuscule bite of some egg yolk, the boy turned as red as a lobster and was covered in hives. Also vomiting. All made a fun Fourth of July for mom and dad. After a traumatic experience with a blood test we've learned that he's got a strong egg allergy and mild allergies to milk, soy, and peanuts. Sadly, this means I have to cut out all these things from my diet while we wait to see an allergist and further strategize. Yes, this means no ice cream. Yes, I am sad. Chris mentioned the other day he may also cut out ice cream in solidarity. How sweet! I am writing here in a public forum so that he is forced to stick with it.
Crawling! J used the break from all that annoying electricity to perfect his crawling. Once the lights were back on we got some videos of his ever-improving technique. (Note: we know it looks more like he's swimming than crawling, but he's getting pretty fast at "slithering" around like this and technically it still counts as a crawl.) Here are some videos of our super cute boy, who is no worse for the wear after all of our adventures/misadventures:
Also, he's getting to be a good drinker.
In cat news, Morrie bagged his first bird. Looked a bit like this. When I pulled up into the driveway after work he was so proud to come and show me. Ah, the joys of the outdoor cat.
Julian and I had an outing to a splash park with some of the other mothers/babies I've met using the lactation room in my building at work. It was fun to get all the babies together, since they are all within a year in age. In this photo J is surrounded by girls. He's been working on his skills.
Finally, I wanted to comment on an anniversary that falls on today - it's been 10 years since Chris and I first met during orientation at CU. It is simultaneously hard to believe it's been that long, yet hard to believe it's only been that long. Check out this picture from that infamous day:
If you look right at the center of the photo, you'll also catch a glimpse of Adam G., who has previously starred in this very blog. This week Adam is again in CU orientation, this time as a new law student. Good luck Adam!
Hola amigos. We finally got our act together and got some videos posted on the ol' blog. J is trying out more and more "words." I got a couple videos of him making funny noises. He's also starting to get the hang of feeding himself. I emphasize the word "starting." He kind of picks stuff up, and then shoves his whole hand in his mouth and hopes for the best. You have to admire his perseverance. We'll keep the camera trained for things like crawling....
Yes, we've been slackers. Things in the Trainer-Downey house have been pretty hectic of late, and we have been slow to post news. Rest assured, we have been taking plenty of pics and videos of the little guy, but there is a big bottleneck at the editing and posting stage. We should be posting things soon.
Here is a teaser: motorboat noises, swimming, more advanced rolling, dropping things from his high chair, sliding at the park....
Hey! Julian decided that the added mobility from rolling over outweighs his dislike of being on his belly. He now readily rolls from his back onto his tummy, and is quickly realizing that he can roll his way into trouble. Here is a clip of him doing a roll (although he's already getting faster than this).
He's also getting more and more interested in looking at himself in a mirror, just like his mom. (I kid, Melissa, I kid!) I got an indescribably cute video him playing with the baby in the mirror, including clapping his hands at him. I put it on YouTube so people could view it in a larger format (to see it bigger still you can right-click on the video and select "watch on youtube,"):
Since our last post, Grandma and Grandpa Downey (Julian's grandparents, not mine) came out for a visit. In addition to BBQing with my new BBQ (my parents and Melissa forgot that my birthday is in June, so I got my present in mid May), we hung out with Julian and we drove down to Mount Vernon. It's never to early to get the boy exposed to US history. He's going to wish we never moved to DC. Anyway, despite the name there was no mountain at Mount Vernon. It was pretty nonetheless. As you can see, it took a lot out of J and Grandpa. We had a really nice visit even if it was too short.
I know it's only been a few days since the last post and that we've conditioned our loyal readers (all 2 of you) to expect updates on a more geologic timescale, but we had a fresh dose of cute this weekend. Our friend Carrie and her boy Ethan came by for a few hours on Sunday, so JD got some quality dude time. Ethan is 6 months older than Julian and did a remarkable job playing with him. He voluntarily "shared" his toys with Julian, and other than almost sitting on him was impressively gentle with the younger boy. I didn't get a picture or video of it, but Ethan even took a few wobbly steps for us. Anyway, J was really cute interacting with the other baby. He tries to put literally everything in his mouth, including other babies. You can see him reaching for Ethan in one of the pictures here, and when he got a hold of him the mouth was not far behind. I put a few more of these pictures on the Picassa page, so check them out if this isn't enough of a cute fix for you.
I also put up a video of Julian playing with one of his flash card thingies that have become a favorite "toy." We got them from our friends Kevin and Becky and use them to distract him when doing things like changing his diaper. They have a picture on one side and little facts on the back. I don't really expect him to learn what a mountain is by chewing on a card with a picture of a mountain on it, but he likes looking at the pictures and turning them over to look at both sides. You can see from the video how good he's getting at both sitting and at manipulating objects (and at trying to eat them).
Hello all. Since our last post we crossed the 6 month barrier (on April 13). I can't think of any major developments to report, just steady progress. The most notable things I can think of are 1) he has really improved on his sitting up skills and 2) he is getting more and more adept with his hands. He can now sit, if you set him up, more or less indefinitely. For example, he was up for a good 15 minutes today when we were playing outside. As for the hands, he rotates objects around to look at them from all angles and passes them back and forth between his hands. He's getting strong enough that he bears watching most of the time, lest he pick up a plate from the table or pull a beer-I mean soda-bottle out of your hands.
He's gotten a little more "dramatic," for lack of a better word, as well. More laughter when he is happy and bigger fits when he's not. I think he's just got bigger thoughts and feelings in that little brain of his and he's got to express them bigger. I also wonder if he isn't starting to get more aware of who people are and who he doesn't know. Don't get me wrong, he's still a charming little extrovert, but he seems to lose it a bit more easily when mom and dad get out of sight.
The photos show him getting ready to get shipped to Timbuktu, hanging with Grandpop Trainer, and sitting in the yard today in a Zags hat, looking an awful lot like his Grandma Trainer (in my opinion anyway). Those Grady genes are strong. There's also a video of him goofing around in his jumper toy.
Since last time, J has added a few more culinary delights to his repertoire, including green beans and bananas. We've got some carrots in the hole, ready to go. Zucchini, too, if Melissa can figure out how to cook it...
Aunt Danielle and Uncle Adam (Gianola) came out for a visit last weekend, and among other things we got to go down to DC for the Cherry Blossom Festival. A nice time was had by all. We had really nice weather and got some nice outdoor pictures. The one on the left was a big hit with the grandmas, so I thought I'd post it here. When we were indoors, Julian put on a nice little dance for them in his bouncy jumpy thingy (first video).
Early this week Julian discovered he could "blow bubbles" with his lips and tongue. He got excited when we reacted and started doing it back to him, and we managed to get a video of it. Pretty darned cute!
I also have that same video on YouTube if you want a larger view.
Julian continues to increase his culinary repertoire. He has now expanded from rice cereal to sweet potatoes, apples, and sweat peas. So far, he has happily eaten whatever we have given him. Some of it even ends up in his belly.
He's also become quite the ham for the camera. As you can see, when Melissa attempted to video him playing with his otter, he was as interested in the camera as he was the toy. He still doesn't like playing on his belly. He insists on rolling onto his back even though he has a perfectly good tummy to play on.
The second video shows off his sitting up skills. In case you're wondering, the off-camera sound you hear is the lightsaber app on my iPhone. He seemed to enjoy it almost as much as I do. The force is strong with this one.
Raising little Julian is quite an adventure, and we want to share the special moments with all our friends and family. Check back often to see photos, videos, and stories of our little guy. And the occasional commentary on our new life here in the Old Line State.
Last week Julian was sick with a stomach flu that, by all accounts, is plaguing the land from coast to coast. One of the many unfortunate consequences of this (aside from the 10+ times I got puked on) is that he had to skip his first "Waterbabies" class. But, thanks to the magical healing powers of time and jumbalaya, his strength was up enough to hit the pool this week.
Before: The wild mane
Why am I making that face?
After: It's subtle, yet effective
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