Jamison at 14 months

 

Our little monker is getting to be such a big boy!  He still has plenty of his baby chub, but he is by far our biggest kiddo at this age.  I’m not sure how much he weighs right now, but he’s probably around 25-26lbs.  I am switching him over to his 24m/2T clothes because the 18m ones are getting a little tight already.  I’ve started putting him in little shoes/sandals, especially when we’re camping, to protect his little feet.  He’s still not walking independently but if you give him his push toy, he’s pretty much running.  He CAN walk by himself, but he’s just nervous still and will only take about 5-6 steps at the most before he drops down on his butt and crawls.  He loves to use his push toy though and I have some great videos of him just flying around the house with that thing.  He probably does 4 miles a day in the house with it.

He’s only drinking around 15 ounces of organic milk now, but he lets us know if he’s thirsty.  We typically stick with milk or water for him.  He will point to his mouth when he wants a drink and he can drink out of a water bottle by himself pretty well at this point.  He can also drink out of cups with help and straws and sippies are no issue for him.  He’s pointing a lot now if he wants something to eat and you can’t eat anything in front of him without him wanting some of it too.  We didn’t start the  other two out with Oreos quite this early, but he sees them eating them and of course he wants some too.  He does this adorable thing where he’ll reach his hand up in the air towards what he wants and then open and closes his fists like “give me some of that”.  So cute.  He LOVES blueberries and can put those away like crazy.  But he eats pretty much whatever you put in front of him, although he’s learning that if he doesn’t want something he puts it in his cup holder on his tray instead of throwing it on the floor.

His naps are usually 2-3.5 hrs in the afternoon and he sleeps 11-12 hours at night.  He’s SUPER easy to put down for naps now and doesn’t even want to be rocked before we put him in bed anymore.  We’re still working on night time, but he’s getting better with that as well.  I’ve started putting him in size 5 diapers overnight so he doesn’t wake up quite as soaked.

Jamison is such a good baby.  He’s VERY easy to have around and is pretty go with the flow for the most part.  He travels well, and he’s just happy to be a part of whatever we’re doing.  He loves going for bike rides with his (although wearing the helmet is not his favorite at all), and we just got a baby seat for my bike (and a bike for that matter) so he really enjoys riding back there.  He likes it best when he can see Daddy or one of the other kids though, or he thinks he’s getting left behind.  Mark and I always say what a distraction he is because you can’t help but sit and watch him when he’s awake.  He’s just so happy all the time and loves to grin every time he looks at you and he’s adorable in pretty much anything he does.  He loves pushing cars around and making noises for them and he LOVES to be chased, usually by Mark.  He gets so excited every time Mark gets home from work and doesn’t want Mark out of his sight from the minute he gets home from work until the minute he puts him to bed.

I have a 3 step ladder in my closet and I’ve gone in there to find J on the middle step, which isn’t good.  And I’ve stood there with him while he’s climbed all the way to the top step by himself.  He’s a determined little bugger.  We had him swimming this past weekend and he is fearless in water.  He loves splashing and putting his face in the water, which is fun, but scary too.  He didn’t like the infant life jacket we had on him because it put him on his back so we’re going to try a puddle jumper with him to see if that is better for him.

He has said mama a few times (finally!!!) and has said babo for bottle.  I think sometimes he blows kisses when he wants me because I tell him all the time “mama loves you” and typically when I say that he will blow kisses for me.  He LOVES it when you scream at something or pretend to be surprised.  That really gets him giggling.  And he loves pushing all the buttons on the printer and ripping paper out of it and throwing it everywhere.

 

 

Jamison makes us so excited for #4 to join us.  If they are half as easy and fun as he is, we’ll be doing good!!

Yosemite

We went on a camping trip to Yosemite in June.  I don’t know what I was envisioning when I thought of Yosemite, but it was better than I ever imagined.  We didn’t stay in the park, but some day we’d love to stay in the park and next time we’ll try to take our bikes.

 

We visited the little historic area first.  The kids loved watching the horse drawn wagon go through the covered bridge.  And we liked looking in all the windows of the old cabins to see how they lived way back when.

 

Then we ate lunch at the hotel.  It reminded me of the one in Dirty Dancing a little bit.  I would have been neat to see at actual room.  The food was decent and the huge porch was so neat.  I’d love to have a porch like that some day.

 

 

Lastly we drove up to Glacier Point.  I don’t know what I was expecting but it was beautiful and breath-taking.  We took TONS of pictures.  This is just a few of them.

I have to say, as beautiful as it was, it is terrifying taking young kids to these places sometimes.  Mark and I are constantly making sure we have all 3 of them with us and no one is near a ledge.  And then they want to look over ledges and we have death grips on them.  I know the odds of them falling are slim, but accidents happen and it gives me nightmares, that’s for sure.  I don’t know what we’ll do when we have 4.  I guess we’ll both wear the younger two and each take charge of one of the older two.  And if Mark isn’t around we will stay home.

 

We ended the day getting ice cream at the top and J loved doing “so big” on the way back from our walk.

 

The second day we decided to go down to the valley and it was equally as breath-taking as it was up on the cliffs.  There were rather tame deer around and we hiked through a few meadows and then to the Lower Falls after lunch.

Next we decided to do a hike to Mirror Lake.  I had to pee so bad but the map showed that there were bathrooms along the trail so we headed out.  Turns out the trail forked and what we thought was a large loop wasn’t.  There was the “trail” side of the river and the “road” side of the river and both lead to Mirror Lake but they didn’t connect unless you swam across the river.  I was very tempted since the bathrooms ended up being on the OTHER side of the river.  Grrr..  I was not a happy camper.

Jamison cashed it in on a short part of the hike.  Overall, he really is a great little traveler.  I wish they made Ergo’s for adults.

We saw a bobcat on the trail, along with a couple deer.  The stupid guy was basically chasing the thing and I couldn’t get a picture without him being in the shot.  Idiot.

 

 

 

Yosemite was beautiful and I feel like we didn’t see all of it.  We’d love to go back someday and take advantage of the many bike trails they have in the Valley.  The Valley was about an hour and a half from our camp ground so that made it a bit interesting with the commutes, but it was a great trip and we hope to be back someday!