(Nearly) 5 Month Update!

Here's our growing boy lately...sitting up like a champ. He is doing really well with his balance and will be on his own before we know it.

CRASH! (We think this is a "Jake face")

This little monkey boy is rolling all over the place. He has mastered the belly to back, and back to belly moves, and is a wee bit happier about laying on the floor to practice. He'd still rather be sitting up though, bobbing back and forth. Speaking of bobbing, we got him some swim trunks, but no floaties yet. And one day soon we will be trying out the giant bathtub next door also known as the pool. Mace tells J it's loads of fun!

Jalen loves to watch Mace. He pets him, rides him, pulls his ears and fur, and tries to eat his nose.

This is for Denise! The Johnny Jump Up is becoming a success--in limited amounts of time. For the most part, he puts one toe on the ground and spins in a circle, but there is occasional jumping involved.

And finally, Jalen spent a few hours Friday with a babysitter while I went and checked out a new salon where I will be working part time. I will take him to see Christi and her son, Declan, on Thursdays and Fridays, and Daddy will hang out with him on Saturdays. The report was that he did awesome on Friday, squealing, eating cereal, playing in the Exer-saucer, and napping, and Mommy did pretty well too! The new salon is downtown, and I will be booth renting and in charge of my own schedule, starting this week. I am optimistic that all will go well!

Jalen found his toes

It didn't take long for J to get ahold of those little piggies. He's got some monkey toes that climb anything he is near. He is loving his rice cereal and getting much better at swallowing, and we are getting much better at feeding him! He also started laughing this past week. He was giggling a little at Daddy when they played peek-a-boo at bath time, but when we had our garage sale Saturday, he loved playing peek-a-boo with our friends Katie and Grace. We hadn't ever heard a full blown chuckle like that before!

4 Month Birthday

On Mothers' Day, one year from the day I found out about him, Jalen turned 4 months old! He surprised me with a personally signed card and a rose from our flower bed. He is such a good little boy. We decided that this milestone should be celebrated with some yummy rice cereal. Jalen has been trying out his high chair for the past week or so, playing with his toys on the tray since he enjoys sitting up straight so much. You probably guessed that he had no problem sucking down a bowl of cereal in no time - the part that ended up in his mouth anyway! Hopefully, he will continue to be such a good eater and not be picky like his Momma was. Family dinners, here we come!

We traveled back home this past weekend for Aunt B's college graduation. Way to go Bri Jo! Jalen stayed with his Nan and Mamaw so they could spend some time spoiling him. This is him in Uncle Jake's Cardinals hat, and testing to see if his hair is edible.

4 Month Check-Up

Jalen went to the doctor yesterday for his 4 month check up. He is 25 1/4" tall and weighs 15lbs 9oz. His weight has gone down to around the 75%, his height still holding somewhere up around the 90%, and his head size still at 50%.

We've got a squealer!

And for Jalen's next trick...

He will sit in his bouncy seat, getting his legs going in a rhythm that threatens to launch him across the room into the tv he is squealing excitedly at! J has found his voice, and it is a loud one, as some on the other end of the phone have heard! He has a high pitched shriek that seems to say, "You are so cool Mickey Mouse!", or "Wow! I love this polka-dot pattern on my changing pad!" Or maybe its, "Hey, did you people forget I'm here?"

To update the what-does-he-think-about-Mace question...he thinks now that it might be a good idea to try to grab Mace's snout and chew on his wet nose. Of course, anything that he can manage to get in his mouth is fair game to be chewed. He also smiled at Mace the other morning.

And soon enough he will be sitting up all by himself. Just because he doesn't now isn't because he doesn't want it bad enough. He's kinda ticked off if he's laying down or reclined, because dang it, there's just so much more to see when you're sitting up straight. (Or leaning forward folded in half like a peanut butter sandwich).

Last weekend I took Jalen downtown to Market Square and we played in the water fountain. He was oblivious to the older kids who kept splashing him with cold water as they ran through, but that's ok because he's gonna be one of those big kids one day running over everybody else!