Parent Milestones

As usual, I have much to say and little time to say it. Hopefully I'll get to some of these posts in my mind over the break.

But for now:

Tonight we gave Jo his fifth Chanukah present (we've given him a little one each night -- thus far a package of socks [hey, it's a Jewish tradition], a light-up singing dreidl, a rubber ball, and a set of teething keys). It was two maracas, one red, one purple. He recognized them from his music classes, and his whole face lit up as he grabbed them and started to shake.

I want to see that look on his face, again and again and again.*

Here he is rocking his maracas.



*That's how kids get spoiled, isn't it. Oh, dear...

Jo's First Chanukah

Yes, Jo is over a year old, but since Chanukah falls later on the "secular" calendar than it did last year, this is his first Chanukah. Co was wishing for a little Chanukah present last year, but Jo chose to make his appearance the day after the last night of Chanukah.

I really shouldn't be up this late posting, but there are so many milestones and amazing moments every day, and so little time to record them in any way. (Though we do take tons of pictures and that helps.) I still need to post about Jo's first birthday party, and put up the video of him roaring like a lion. He seems to have his first baby word "Ra-ra" for "lion" (roar roar).

Anyway, his first night of Chanukah was wonderful and I just have to share it. He's been sick and cranky, and he fell asleep suddenly and unexpectedly in my arms at 7, before we lit candles. I was disappointed, but mindful that you do not ever wake a sleeping baby. He woke on his own less than an hour later, however, and we lit the menorah (really a chanukiah). I am not sure whether he likes the candles, the blessings, or both, but he always breaks out in a huge smile when we light candles on Friday nights and tonight was no exception (he loved that there were three blessings!). I can't wait 'til there are more and more candles on the menorah, I think he will love it!!

Here he is with his very own menorah, a gift from his Gaba. [That's my mom: 2-year-old Nephew S. has dubbed her "Gaba." She loves it so much that we are all keeping that as her name to the point of correcting Nephew S. when he correctly pronounces "Grandma." Mom says it's like a combo of Grandma and the Yiddish "Bubba," which is what she, and later my sister and I, called her own grandmother (we were lucky enough to know two of our great-grandmothers).]

One Year

The tickers say it all: our little Jo is one year old.

We've been telling each other, and Jo, his birth story since last night. ("One year ago today Mommy was drinking castor oil!")

I need to do a full post about his birthday party (which was last weekend), but for now, some one year notables:

*In the past few days, Jo has started to say "buda buda buda buda" all the time. We are not sure what it means, though yesterday I heard from the bathroom," Yes, I am washing your buda buda buda."

*In the past couple of weeks, Jo has gone from standing accidentally (taking his hands off of whatever he's holding to clap, but not noticing) to standing very intentionally and grinning at his accomplishment. He has almost taken a step a few times. Stay tuned.

*In food news, we've been wanting to take the step where we just give him whatever we're eating, but been too nervous somehow to actually do it. Last night we gave him a piece of challah, however, and he chowed down. Stay tuned here, too.

*He has become more eager to repeat words he hears; his daycare providers are delighted that he repeats "light" and "night-night" and are convinced that he repeats names, too. He definitely says "bye-bye."

*He flirts with everyone on the train -- the older Asian and Russian women probably love him the most, but the sullen teenagers, the weary middle-aged men, the well-coiffed businesswomen, they all smile at Jo. Yesterday I was sitting next to a man who by all outward appearances was a drag queen. Jo reached out, grabbed his arm, smiled charmingly, and said, "Da-da!" I don't think the man heard him (i.Pod), but he was charmed by the baby.

Here's a picture of Jo with his smash cake. More to come:

Ma-ma

Jo can say "Mama," and I think he means me. It's fine if he calls us both Mama at first (Co is Mommy), because it takes longer for kids to learn to say "Mommy." But for now, he does seem to be looking at me when he says it.

We did a lot of planning and talking about what he would call us. But I was unprepared for the magic of hearing my name in his sweet little voice.