8 Months and on the go!

I had written this all up and was literally about to publish it, and my curious little son wanted to "touch" the pretty green button on the computer tower......the POWER BUTTON!!! ARRRGH! Oh well, gotta love him!


Anyway............here I go again......

Busy does not even begin to describe Luca these days. He has been crawling for 9 days now and is becoming quite mobile. The linoleum took a day to figure out, but he has that mastered, now, too. I now have 3 shadows- my own, Luca (who is pleased that he can find me when I leave the room) and Hope, (who has always been right at my heels wherever I go).

Luca has discovered a new favorite activity- pulling magnets off the fridge. I think that it must be his favorite thing to do because he will be playing in the living room, and suddenly will drop whatever he is playing with and head into the kitchen, straight to the fridge. After he pulls the magnets off, he "flicks" them across the floor and chases them and does it again. This provides lots of entertainment for the both of us!

It really makes me wonder what he thought before he could crawl. Now you can see that he sees something and just goes for it. When he wasn't mobile, did he not care, or did he just not realize that he could actually maneuver himself over to it? Did he always want to play in the kitchen and just had no way of getting the message across? Or is it simply that it is a new and exciting thing that he has discovered? Interesting...

On Sunday I was very excited that my friend Tasha stopped by. Tasha and I went to Augustana and U of A together (we are both teachers- neither of us are teaching right now...Oh, the teaching profession!). I hadn't seen her since just before Luca was born so it was a real treat! I had been really looking forward to visiting with her.

Luca was standing without support here with Tasha looking at a book that she brought him. Ok, so not TOTALLY without support becasue he is leaning on the ottoman, but he did quite well, and stayed there for about 5 minutes. On Monday, he actually pulled himself to standing while playing with one of his ride-on toys! Dare I say that the crawling stage may not last too long?!?

Luca just loves to be mobile, and is into everything, as you can see from these pictures...


He really likes to find the doorstop and play with it. Unfortunately for him, Mommy can only listen to the wonderful sound that it makes for so long before he is being led to another (less annoying) toy. :)


Here are Luca's 8 month pictures. It is getting increasingly difficult to get a decent picture of him, as he just won't sit still long enough. But here are the best ones....





I am so glad that I decided to do these monthly photos. It is so fun to look back on how much he has changed! (In case you are interested, I think that the second post in August 2006 in the archives is his 2 month pictures, and I have been posting them every month since, if you want to have a look and compare for yourself.)

Here is a funny picture that I took this morning. Once in a while, Luca gets his legs going too fast for his arms and does a face plant. I was trying to get a picture of him crawling, and he did a face plant just as I was taking the picture, kicking his legs up in the air. The angle that the picture is taken at makes it look a bit more severe than it actually is... (He didn't hurt himself, in case you are wondering!) So, here is our little "super baby"!

More videos

To see more videos of Luca, go to:

http://s171.photobucket.com/albums/u293/johnsonjanicelynn/

The password is Luca Graham (it is a private album, that's why you need the password).

One video is him eating applesauce- apparently it was quite sour! The other is him laughing at a pop bottle lid being dropped on the table. Funny kid!

Video

Go to this site to see Luca crawling. THe password is Luca Graham

http://s171.photobucket.com/albums/u293/johnsonjanicelynn/

Wow, Miraculous!

Check out this article. Amazing!


The world's most premature living baby, born at 21 weeks and six days, is headed home after spending four months in a neonatal intensive care unit, Baptist Children's Hospital in Miami announced.
"It was hard to imagine she would get this far. But now she is beginning to look like a real baby," the baby's mother, Sonja Taylor said.




No baby born at less than 23 weeks was previously known to have survived, according to the University of Iowa, which keeps a record of the world's tiniest babies.

"Even though she's only four pounds (1.8 kilos) now, she's plump to me," Taylor said.

When she was born on October 24, Amillia Taylor weighed just 280 grams (10 ounces) and measured 240 centimeters (9.5 inches,) slightly longer than a ballpoint pen, the hospital said.

Doctors said the baby girl is now thriving and well enough to be cared for by her parents at home.

She did suffer a laceration on her head at birth, but healed quickly from the wound.

"She's truly a miracle baby," said William Smalling, a neonatalist at the Baptist Children's Hospital.

He said caring for Amillia in the past month was like navigating uncharted waters.

"We didn't even know what a normal blood pressure is for a baby this small," Smalling said.

The baby was delivered via C-section after attempts to delay a premature delivery failed. She was breathing without assistance at birth and even made several attempts to cry.

The American Association of Pediatrics indicates that babies born at less than 23 weeks of age and 400 grams in weight are not considered viable.

"It may be that we need to reconsider our standard for viability in light of Amillia's case," said Smalling. "Over the years, the technology that we have available to save these premature babies has improved dramatically. Today, we can save babies that would have never survived 10 years ago," he said.





Feb 19 3:52 PM US/Eastern Taken from www.breitbart.com

(I borrowed this from your site, Uncle Jim. I thought it was too good to not share!)

Crawling!!!!

Well, he's done it! Luca has figured out how to crawl! This morning he just got up and went, and was moving all day. He is quite pleased that he is able to move around and get the toys that he wants!

Part of me is so excited for this milestone, and part of me is a bit sad. It's amazing how fast he has grown and changed. It is so hard to believe that in just over 4 months, my baby will be a year old!

I would love to share video of Luca's first successful attempt at crawling, but I don't know how. If anyone knows how to do that on blogger, let me know.

We went for a toboggan ride this afternoon. The weather was gorgeous, so we walked to Northcott to see Grandma and Auntie Megan while they were on their lunch break. It was so nice outside, and Luca fell asleep in the toboggan on the way home.

Happy Birthday Dee!

Today is Dee's 26th birthday! I know that it will be a special day for her, as she received the most wonderful present 8 days ago!

Dee, I hope that you have a great day and may the coming year be filled with laughter and love. It has been so special to be around for the last 8 birthdays. My how we have changed since 1999! :)

Love Jan

More pics...

Here's Luca's picture that was in the Ponoka News in a special feature of "The Babies of 2006". What a cutie!

Adelynn!

We were very excited to go and meet Adelynn on Thursday. She is such a beautiful little miracle! And when I say little, I am not kidding! She seemed so little compared to Luca now (obviously) and when he was born. He was 2 whole pounds bigger, so we never saw him when he was as little as Adelynn is. She is just over 6 lbs and is so petite (like her mom). She has TONS of brown, thick, wavy hair. If it doesn't fall out, Dee will be putting bows and pony tails in there in no time!

Luca was quite curious, he wanted to touch her whenever he was close enough to her. It was interesting to watch, because he has always been the youngest baby. He likes to touch the other kids at playgroup, too. Soon they will be playing with eachother! Here are some pictures from our visit.

Luca likes to stand "by himself" now. Here he is looking out the window. (Don't worry, Chris is actually right there to catch him...)

Luca has also figured out how to give kisses and he loves doing it. As lovely as this is, these kisses are probably ones that really only Mommy and Daddy can really love- they are a bit sloppy! Gotta love those big open mouthed kisses, though!

Have a Happy Family Day long weekend! Chris is headed to somewhere near the NWT border for about 4 days, so Luca and I will be spending the long weekend alone for the most part. On Sunday we will be having dinner at Pat and Joanne's. Tom is home from Ottawa for a visit! :)

So I was bored...

I decide to update Luca's profile, partly because I noticed that it said he was 250 years old for some reason....If you are also bored, have a look. :)

Who is so cute?

I don't really have anything to post, but here are some cute pics from the last week or so.

Luca is getting better, and we are getting some sleep finally. Yahoo!




Hanging out with Grandma on her birthday


















Luca and Grandpa just chillin'
























Future employee???















All tuckered out













You talkin' to me?

Congratulations Dee and Layne!!

Dee and Layne welcomed their baby girl, Adelynn Isabelle yesterday evening! She was 6 lbs 10 oz and came at 37 weeks. (Dee had already had preterm labour issues earlier in the pregnancy). Layne says both mom and baby are doing well.

I am just DYING to see her. I hope Luca gets better soon so we can go visit!

Dee and Layne- Congrats! We love you and are so excited that your long-awaited little darling has arrived safely.

Luca's going to be famous!

So, I forgot to mention in my last post that Luca is going to be famous! Next week's edition of the Ponoka News will feature "The Babies of 2006" and of course, Luca's picture will be there! So, if you have access to the Ponoka News (I think Rimbey does) on Wednesday, February 14th, be sure to pick up a copy! For those of you that can't get it, I will scan it and post it sometime next week.

Luca is sick AGAIN. Sigh. It has been about 6 weeks now that he has been getting better, then catching another strain of a cold. Right now he has a very wet, barking cough and a runny nose. Of course, this means no sleep for anyone in the house. Oh, Joy! I am getting really tired of this cycle. The only way I know how to stop it is to stop spending time with those that are always sick, too. Unfortunately, this might mean dropping out of play group for a while....

Well, off to sterilize some toys to try to kill the germs.

Sigh. (yes, again)

A busy few weeks...

Ok, So it has been a while since I have updated, so this might be a bit long. I will try to break it up into smaller parts for those of you with short attention spans. :) (Mostly Chris, who often tells me my posts are too long to read!)

Playgroup

Luca and I have been attending playgroup for almost a month now. Luca loves to go and interact with the other kids, and it is nice for me to get out, too. Last week I was nursing Luca in a room off the main room at the centre, and they started singing "Old MacDonald". Luca was immediately finished eating and squirming around to try to see around the corner to be a part of the music. I took him to the play room, and all through the song he was kicking his legs and "singing" along. It was great to know that he is actually stimulated by being there.

We are now finished our baby sign classes. It was a 3 week course, and I was sad to see it finish. But, I have gained some very useful signs and am trying to use them consistently with Luca. It seems as if he is beginning to understand them, although he of course is not able to produce them yet. I am even slowly introducing Chris to them as well! ( I have a picture to put in here, but I need to scan it first....hopefully tomorrow. Keep watching for it!)

7 months!

Luca is now 7 months old! I can't believe it some days! He has 2 teeth, is eating solid food (well, mush, anyways!), and is trying his hardest to crawl. He is able to get up on all fours, but can't quite figure out how to get his arms and legs moving together. A few times he has figured out how to move his legs, but not his arms, so he ends up doing a face plant. It is quite funny to watch, but after a few tries, he gets frustrated. It won't be long, though before he is on the move and into everything!

See my 2 teeth!?!?








So Close to being on the move!




Luca is great at scooting backwards, but manages to get himself stuck quite often! It is too funny!






When he can't get where he wants to go, he gets quite frustrated!

Luca had a cold earlier in the month that didn't really go away. He would seem better for a few days and then it would return. So, I took him in to the doctor and he was given antibiotics for a likely sinus infection. After about 2 days on the antibiotics, he was good as new! It was such a relief to have my smiling, happy little boy back!

At the end of January, we went to Okotoks to visit Chris' mom and Nona. Luca was a hit, of course. Although Nona wasn't feeling great that day, she delighted in visiting with Luca. It was a nice afternoon.

A Baby Shower for a Wonderful Friend

The past few weeks I have been very busy planning a baby shower for my very good friend Dee. (As well as attending playgroup and sign classes). Dee and I have been friends for about 8 years, since our first year at Augustana. We both stood up for each other in our weddings, and recently Chris and Dee's husband Layne have been working together. (I guess not so recently- about a year and a half ago Layne started with Rigwatch).

Jessica and Donovan came over a few days before the shower to help me do some baking- Donovan had the best job of all!





As well as the shower, I also decided that it would be a good idea to attempt to make a Memory Quilt for her although I had never made a quilt before. I sent squares to everyone invited to the shower, and had them create something and return it to me. After collecting all the squares and arranging them, it actually only took me about 3 hours (over 2 evenings) to do all the sewing. It turned out really well, and I was so excited to give it to Dee and Layne.


The shower was this past Saturday, and there was a great turn out- about 20 people! I hosted the shower at Dee's house in Airdrie as I thought that this would be easier for her. It was a great day, and she was given some wonderful gifts. And I was pleased that her and Layne liked the quilt. It was such an honor to be able to throw her a shower and to be a part of such a memorable event in their lives.


Dee and Layne with the quilt and Dee and I (and baby Adelynn!)

Well, that's about all the news for now. I will try not to take so long to get another post up. It's amazing how fast the days go by now, though.....