Keeping in Teutsch

 John Hayden was 10 months old yesterday. (He wouldn't sit still for a picture unless I gave him the camera case, so this was the best picture I could get.) Here's his monthly update:

--He weighs around 23 lbs., so he hasn't really gained much recently.
--He's still eating his baby food good and still getting 24 oz. of formula a day. He likes his Cheerios and banana puffs, and will eat some table food, but eats his baby food better than it.
--His diaper and clothing sizes haven't changed: size 4 diapers, as well as 9-12 month pajamas (although I put him in 12-18 month ones as well even though they are a little big) and 12 and 18 month clothes, although his 18 month stuff fits a little better.
--He's still sleeping great and finally is taking some naps at daycare, but it's still a little hit and miss with that. Some days he'll take a good nap there and other days not. He naps great at home...in the swing (although we don't turn it on). He won't nap in his crib and considering he's not far from a year old, we need to work on getting him out of the swing for naps.
--John Hayden has gotten fast crawling on his knees, pulls up on everything, gets into everything, and can be quite destructive. He's cruising a lot and has even started letting go and standing alone for a few seconds. And in just the past few days he's gotten more control while he is standing alone and instead of falling down, he will squat down. He can also walk with his walking toy. He definitely says "ma-ma" now along with "da-da" and "ba-ba," but doesn't say it as much as he says "da-da." Oh, and he shakes his head no, but he's been doing that for a couple of months now. He has almost got the waving and clapping down, but not quite there yet. He's got 7 teeth now, and one more he is cutting. He's super happy and laughs a lot, and he's still great to take out to restaurants (which is shocking considering he won't sit still any where else...even in the bathtub).Oh, and the other day he was peeking underneath the bathroom door and banging on it, wanting Matt to come out. I thought it was pretty cute...and funny!

Walking behind his toy.

He loves mirrors. (We were in a shoe store.)

Since John Hayden gets monthly updates and Juliette never has (since I didn't start the blog until she was much older), I figured an update was in order. Now, reading through the Q and A with her and the Juliette-isms, you probably feel as if you know her pretty well, but I wanted to touch on some things that I'd like to have as a reminder--a snapshot, I suppose--of how she was at this age.

Juliette at age 7...

...dances like no one is watching. Everywhere. Anytime. Whenever music is playing. And she doesn't care if someone is watching. At least once a week she wants to show you a dance that she made up.


...reads at what is probably a 4th grade level. (She's in 2nd grade.) At the end of 1st grade, she was supposed to be reading at an H or I (they use a letter scale) and she was reading at an N.

Reading on vacation.

  ...is an amazing big sister. She's a huge help and loves to make John Hayden laugh. The other day after saying the blessing at dinner, she said, "Thank you, God, for making John Hayden chubby" and then told us his chubby cheeks were so cute.

...can do long addition and subtraction in her head up into the thousands, although she says she likes addition better. Now, the higher you get, it takes her a little longer (maybe a minute), but adding in the tens (such as 45 + 63) she can do fairly quickly. She just started asking us to call out "number sentences" last week, so I'm still in awe since I didn't realize she could do this.

...is a prayer warrior. And she knows the power of prayer (since she prayed on her own--without knowing we were wanting a baby--for God to put a baby in Mommy's tummy and a month later there was one). Ask her to pray for something or someone, and she will pray at every meal and bedtime every day until you tell her she doesn't have to anymore. It's not unusual for her to pray at her own prompting for a sick friend or teacher. When Matt and I comment that we are done having kids (which is usually said when I'm giving baby stuff away that John Hayden has outgrown), Juliette tells us that she's going to pray for another one, and I tell her that's okay...we're good!

...requests to listen to Radiohead and other bands like them all the time. When it comes to music, she's definitely "cooler" than I am.

...chews or sucks on the ends of her hair. Maybe it's a nervous habit...I don't know...but it drives me crazy!

...finally learned to ride her "big" bike (that she got from Christmas last year) a couple of weeks ago. She's been so afraid of falling off of it that she refused to learn. Matt tried to teach her, but has zero patience for those kind of things, so I taught her, running along beside her, feeding her compliments and motivating lines about how she can do it. The next day, Matt took her out riding and she took off way ahead of him and did an awesome job riding all over campus. The day after that, they went out again, and, of course, she fell and skinned her knee and has made excuses for not wanting to get back on it again. In teaching her to ride her bike, I can't help but think about our different parenting styles--me, running beside her, within arms reach to prevent falls, Matt, hanging back, letting her suffer the first fall, but both of us encouraging her to get back on again.

...dislikes the color yellow, a lot!

...talks like a teenager sometimes. She told Matt the other day that something was "cray, cray" (crazy).

...still curls up in my lap (with her legs hanging off) to cuddle.

...has a pretend class that she teaches in her room every day after school.

...likes her downtime and gets upset if she doesn't have time to play in her room every day.

...still can't tie her shoes. She's left handed and I'm convinced it's causing the problem.

...loves the Crayola aisle at Target and would hoard markers and crayons if I let her.

...doesn't like softball as much as we wish she did. In fact, she says she's probably not playing again this next year and that Matt could just coach other people's kids. When Matt told her he couldn't coach if she didn't play, she said, "Well, I might play if you go easy on me and hard on the other kids." Haha!

She might not like to play, but she sure looks cute doing it!

 ...says the funniest things and most of the time she doesn't realize she's being funny!

...is like a fish in water. She LOVES to swim and has gotten really good at it. So good, that I no longer feel the need to harp on Matt to stay so close to her in the water. (See parenting styles comment above. It would apply here as well. Haha!)

Getting ready to go swimming in Galveston on vacation.

 ...is a thrill seeker. She loves fast rides and would go on a roller coaster if we let her.

At the Boardwalk in Bossier.

 ...will leave us sweet little notes sometimes. I especially love this one that she gave to John Hayden (well, she technically didn't "give" it him, since he would have promptly eaten it, but you know what I mean):

...is detail-oriented, just like her momma! If Starbucks doesn't put the swirl of chocolate on the top of the whipped cream on her mocha frappuccino (yes, she drinks them in moderation), she notices and gets upset with them. The elevator button on the top floor of UL's library that is pointing up instead of down annoys her (just like it does me). And she can describe the clothes and hair of someone that she saw only briefly in great detail.

...is long legged, tans super easily, and has long eyelashes. I envy her! Haha!

...always wants to take a picture with the mannequins at Old Navy. Always! Matt has quite a few pictures of her with them through the last few years on his Facebook.

Juliette's 7th birthday was on Saturday and we celebrated all day long...mostly with food! Matt got donuts and kolaches that morning for breakfast; for lunch Juliette wanted Chick-fil-A; and then there was pizza and cupcakes at her party, followed by dinner at a local Cajun place (where they surprised her with a brownie and ice cream  for her birthday). Here are pictures of her birthday party. (I've got one more post about Juliette for this week that I didn't get posted this week, so check back in the next day or two for it.)

All the kids that were at her party, minus one little boy who was hiding in the back.

John Hayden got to play in the "under 5" area. He wasn't so sure about it.

One of Juliette's friends from 1st grade.

Matt got in to play with John Hayden.

Singing "Happy Birthday" to Juliette.

Blowing out the candles. (I forgot to bring the real camera so I had to take pictures on my phone which is why some are fuzzy.)

The "birthday throne" that the kids get to sit on to open their presents.

Juliette got quite a few little handwritten notes along with her presents that were so sweet.

This picture was taken at the restaurant after her party. When Juliette was visiting Matt's parents a few weeks ago before school started, she asked his dad to take her to Office Depot (she loves that place), so he did (and bought her a few "office supplies."). Anyway, he got her a gift card to Office Depot. She was thrilled!

Every year, I also like to do Q&As with Juliette. When she was smaller, they were funnier, but then she got kind of serious about answering them (which comes with age), so I've added in a few new questions at the end of the normal ones in order to spice it up a bit. If you want to read the other Q&As with her, you can see them here and here. (Looks like I forgot to do them last year!) 

What did you do today? I went to school and I liked it, spent time with my family, and ate stuffed crust pizza.

What did you play today? At the first recess I played soccer with my best friend.

What's your favorite food? Stuffed crust pizza, Chick-fil-A's chicken nuggets, Goldfish.

What's your favorite game? Toy Story (PlayStation) and Animal Crossing (3DS)

What's your favorite thing to do? Spend time with my family, play school, art, dance, and read.

What makes you happy? When John Hayden starts laughing, when school begins, and when school ends.

What makes you sad? That I have a new class and don't have a lot of friends.

What's your favorite movie? Toy Story 3 and Alvin and the Chipmunks Chipwrecked

What's your favorite TV show? Shake It Up

What's your favorite animal? Giraffe

What do you want to be when you grow up? A teacher (said enthusiastically!)

What's your favorite book? Junie B. Jones

What's your favorite color? Pink

What's your favorite toy? Dollhouse

Where's your favorite place to eat? Chick-fil-A

Who's your best friend? Madison

What's your favorite thing to do outside? Play soccer

Where's your favorite place to shop? Justice

What's your favorite candy? Tootsie rolls

What's your favorite flavor of ice cream? Chocolate chip cookie dough and chocolate

What's your favorite cookie? Oreos

What's your favorite fruit? Applesauce

What's your favorite vegetable? Broccoli

NEW ONES:

Why do you like being a kid? Because you like get to like have fun and do fun stuff and adults have to like take care of chores and all that. (clearly channeling her inner Valley Girl with the use of all those 'likes')


What advice would you give your parents?  Don't have any more arguments for the rest of your life. (She interprets every single disagreement or conversation in which we aren't talking all lovey-dovey as an argument. She told Matt the other day that when she gets married she is never, ever, ever going to argue with her husband.)

What is something funny that has happened to you? I wore two pairs of shorts all day long the other day and didn't know it. (True story!)

What do you love most about John Hayden? That he's cute and chubby and sweet and I love how he laughs.

What was the nicest thing you did for someone? There was this kid on the playground in kindergarten and no one was playing with him so I decided to play with him.

What do you think you will be doing 10 years from now? I'll start studying harder and start looking at college.

What is your favorite thing to do in the summer? Go on vacation.

What does Mommy and Daddy do for a living? They take care of us; Mommy works at UL Press and Daddy works at the school across the hall; Mommy gives books to people and boxes them up after she gets the phone call and then she mails them; Daddy teaches classes that are in college.

Favorite subject? Math

What would you do with a million dollars? I would spend it on toys and I would pay for your dinner.

In honor of Juliette's birthday week (she turns 7 on Saturday), this week on the blog will be all about her (because, let's face it, John Hayden has been a blog hog these past 9 months, not that it's his fault). Anyway, first up is my favorite thing that I do every year: Juliette-isms! In case you missed them in the past, click here, here, and here.


January 1, 2013 - Juliette wanted to hold John Hayden before I put him to bed and he started crying, so she gave him his pacifier and he fell asleep in her arms. She told Matt, who is sitting beside her, that "he needed to listen and be good with him like her." Haha!

 John Hayden is 9 months old today. (He looks SO much older in the picture above, but this was the best picture I could get of him since he doesn't like to sit still and pose for pictures! I don't think he actually looks quite like that normally.) Here's his monthly update:

--He weighs 22.5 lbs. and is almost 29 in. long. That's in the 90th percentile for weight and the 75th for height.
--John Hayden finally eats baby food now! Woohoo! In an effort to avoid another trip to therapy, earlier this month, I decided to decrease the amount of formula he was getting in a day to see if his adversion to baby food was actually an "I'm full on formula and don't want anything else" problem. And it was! (Or my experiment just happened to coincide with him deciding he liked food.) Now he gets 6 oz. of formula in the morning, and 6 oz. at bed time, but only 4 oz. other times during the day (typically 3 times) for a total of 24 oz., which is the minimum babies need at this age. Mid-morning he eats oatmeal mixed with fruit, at lunch he eats a fruit, and at dinner he eats a vegetable. Although a lot of babies will eat more than one container of baby food at a sitting, that is all he wants and the doctor said that was completely fine. (Oh, and those are Stage 2 containers.) He will also eat baby puffs now as well as Cheerios (he loves those and he can feed them to himself now), so now we have a way to keep him happy when we go out to eat (although, he's been a great baby to take out to eat so far!). We've all been praying for him to eat like he's supposed to...so glad for answered prayers.
--He is still in size 4 diapers, as well as 9-12 month pajamas (although I put him in 12-18 month ones as well even though they are a little big) and 12 and 18 month clothes. Size wise, he hasn't really grown much at all in the last month.
--And, another answered prayer: Baby is sleeping good now!! (And just my luck he'll start waking up again since I'm bragging on him.) Anyway, though, this entire month has been bliss between him finally eating baby food and sleeping through the night without waking! And, right now, he still takes two naps a day (usually 1 1/2-2 hrs each time) but we've started him back in daycare, so that might change. He went for a half day last Friday and didn't want to go down for a morning nap, and yesterday he sleep for less than an hour in the morning. Hopefully, the newness of being back in daycare will wear off quickly and he'll get back to a good nap schedule as he was quite fussy yesterday evening when I got home.
--John Hayden can crawl traditionally now, although he still army crawls as well, but he's definitely getting faster on his knees. It's funny because he slaps the floor with his hands (not graceful at all) when he's crawling, so you can hear him coming if you are in another room. He also has gotten really good at pulling up to standing, even pulling up on some of his bigger toys, and he's cruising on the furniture a little bit as well. I'm positive he'll be walking before his first birthday! Aside from "da-da," he definitely says "ba-ba" and he knows what it means. He'll start crying if you say something about a "ba-ba" and don't produce said ba-ba for him, so I have to say "bottle" or spell it. Sometimes we kinda hear "ma-ma" thrown in there, but he pretty much just calls everyone "da-da." He knows that "sister" means Juliette and has been pointing her out in pictures this week since she has been gone to North Louisiana visiting our parents. And, he's pretty good at mimicing the sounds of certain words we say, almost to the point that it sounds like he is repeating the exact word, but we know that is probably not true. We like to think he is, though! He's still practicing waving. I thought for sure he would have that down by now, but I guess he's been too busy working on those gross motor skills instead of his fine ones. Oh, and he gives kisses now...wet, slobbery, open-mouthed kisses on the cheek! And on command as well. It's the best, but he's very selective as to who he gives them to (mostly gives them to Juliette and me). He's also cutting his top middle four teeth (all at once!), and although I still have to wrestle him to keep him on his bottom in the bathtub, he's gotten better about not hanging off the side of the changing table (only doing that every few days now instead of every.single.time!). He's starting to climb (into and onto things) and he's into EVERYTHING. We put up the pack-n-play in the living room (although we have absolutely no room for it) just so we could corral him some and catch our breath every so often. He went to the beach for the first time this past month (and sampled some sand) and he got his first haircut (we hated to get it cut, but it was just too long; I still comb it over to the side because he looks too much like a little boy and not a baby when you comb it down). He's definitely keeping us on our toes, but it's such fun...and he's such a happy, smiley baby (except when it's a stranger--then he gives the "stranger danger" stare).

Getting into the DVDs.

Getting his hair cut.

He loves water!

With Juliette at the beach in Galveston.

Eating sand.

Checking out the water with my dad (PawPaw) at the beach in Galveston.

He climbed into our super classy, makeshift toy box.

In the ocean with Daddy.

Feeding himself Cheerios in my office.

John Hayden was 8 months old on Saturday (we were out of town, so just now getting to write this). Here's his monthly update:

--He weighs around 22 lbs. I can feel it in my shoulders...haha!
--He still eats 6-7 ounces every 3ish hours. Still doesn't like baby food, table food, any food. I don't know what to do with this kid...hope he finds his appetite for solids soon or the doctor will send us for an evaluation with a therapist at 9 months to make sure it's not sensory issues or something like that.
--He is still in size 4 diapers, but the other weekend, literally overnight, he completely outgrew his remaining 9 month and 9-12 month clothes and we had to go on a shopping spree. I bought a combination of 12 month and 18 month stuff and everything fits much better now. (The outfit above is a little big, but Daddy dressed him!) He can still wear the 9-12 month zip-up pajamas from The Children's Place (I love those things...the designs are SO cute), but that is the only thing in that size.
--Sleep sucks...as usual. (Sorry for the "language," but that's how we all feel about it.) Juliette has started praying for John Hayden to sleep good at night. I'm not sure if I should laugh or cry about that! He goes to sleep fine...he just wakes up most nights around 10 or 11 and it's extremely hard to get him back to sleep in his crib. Most nights he ends up in bed with me, where he then proceeds to wake up at the crack of dawn (around 5) and wants to get up for the day. Some days I get lucky and he sleeps until 6. And some very rare days, he'll sleep all night in his crib with hardly a peep and not wake up until after I've gotten out of the shower. Insanity is often described as doing the same thing over and over and hoping for different results. That definition perfectly describes our efforts at sleep training. (Before anyone offers advice: we've tried it all. He's one stubborn kid and we can only do cry-it-out [or more like fuss-it-out for him since he's not straight up crying] for about 10 minutes before we risk waking Juliette since they share a room.) He was taking naps good, but as of today, he can shimmy himself out of the swing--where he's been taking most naps--and Matt found him on the floor beside it twice when he should have been sleeping. (The swing is a low one that is almost on the ground, so he basically just crawled out of it...can't fall, thankfully!) You know it's getting frustrating when your husband starts Googling sleep training ideas and reading the baby books. (He NEVER did that with Juliette.) Until John Hayden decides to sleep better, I just have to remind myself often "this too shall pass." One day. Probably not any time soon, but one day.
--John Hayden has gotten super fast with his army crawls and is now venturing to all rooms in the apartment (which really doesn't take much effort on his part since the place is so small). Last week he started taking a few traditional crawls very slowly, but he hasn't gotten good enough to crawl across the room or very quickly, so he just does a few and then plops down on his belly and takes off in an army crawl (he's super fast like that) . Matt swears he said "ba-ba" for his bottle the other day, but I'm not convinced it was in reference to it and haven't heard him say it. He is trying to pull up ALL the time now, but he isn't strong enough yet to get on his feet. He can pull up to his knees, though. Since he can sit up good now, we're not using the baby sling seat for baths and he loves getting to play in the water. He got to go swimming for the first time this month and loved that as well. And, I've noticed him practicing waving a couple of times, but I can't get him to do it in response to my waving. I imagine he'll be developing more of those fine motor skills in the next month or so. He's a busy body and some nights I'm sweating by the time I've given him a bath (that involves sitting him back down on his bottom every few seconds while trying to bathe him) and then literally wrestled him to get his diaper and pajamas on. So far, he has done great at restaurants sitting in a highchair, although he prefers to turn himself practically all the way around and people watch instead of looking at us. He might not be a good sleeper, but he is definitely a happy, giggly baby (and that helps ease the frustrations with his sleeping habits!).

Some pictures of this past month:

First trip to the library.

Juliette reading to John Hayden.

First Fourth of July.

With Matt's parents.

Four generations on Matt's side of the family.

John Hayden liked Zoe and kept trying to pet her, however, he didn't like for her to lick him and that was what she did when he got close, so it was a love/hate relationship. I made Zoe sit still to take this picture...she doesn't look very happy about that, but John Hayden looks excited because he thought he was going to be able to get a hold of her collar!