This week Jonas is: starting his third solid food meal of the day with fruits (avocados will be his first fruit…unbeknownst to me, until recently, avocados are a fruit and not a vegetable); figuring out how to push down the rooster on top of the barn on his farm animal exersaucer to start the music; enjoying playtime sitting up; continuing to follow and attend the bounce of a conversation with uncanny alertness; becoming really deft at rolling from back to front and from front to back and pretty much just getting all-kinds-of-some mobile; working on with what looks like a yoga pose (downward facing dog)/the beginnings of the army crawl; and giving us a few glorious 8 and 10 hour nights of sleep…here’s to more of that.

Jonas enjoyed his first trip to the beach (St. George Island, Florida) with Mommy and Daddy, MeMe and Papa, Great Aunt Jean, Aunt Julie, Cousins Jordan and Dylan, and Aunt Jeanne and Mr. Eric.  🙂

Here are a few pictures with more to come…

Here is the latest and the greatest in the world of Jonas Benjamin Seyfried:  helping Mommy and Daddy out by leaning forward to have his bib snapped on or off AND to get out of the shoulder straps of his car seat and jogger stroller; figuring out how to put his uni-directional pacifier in the right way (it’s amazing how his wheels are always turning); scratching to explore different textures; trying out a new vegetable (green beans); attempting to strong arm the spoon away from whoever is feeding him; sampling cold water in his sippy cup; talking, humming, and singing himself to sleep; skipping out (more often than not) on his third nap of the day; having the time of his life playing peek-a-boo in his crib; starting to protest when we leave the room and when he drops a favorite toy; and making signs on his own for “milk” and “eat”.  

I am having the hardest time putting my heart into words for this post.  So, just know that I’m still working on it…

Thank you with all of my heart to the most blessed team of family and friends who gave the priceless gift of time and of themselves in taking care of my precious little Jonas while I was away at work: my dear husband, Tom; my mother-in-law, Jackie; my mommy, Connie; and my friend, Julie.  A picture is worth a thousand words…I am forever indebted to you.

Jonas is just so cute in his sun hat (on loan from the Paccassis) that I had to share two pictures.  🙂  

Twenty-nine weeks finds him trying out a new vegetable (peas…he doesn’t seem to be a huge fan and makes the shiver face but he still eats them), LOVING walks outside in his stroller, showing off his sense of humor (he belly laughed tonight after he raspberried out a mouthful of rice cereal and watched it shoot across the high chair tray at me), adding new and interesting moves to his crawling skills set, getting ready to head to the beach for the very first time, and welcoming Mommy home not only for the summer but full-time.

You know you could not say no to a salesman this darn cute!!

I was blowing in Jonas’ face and he would fall over like it was a huge gust of wind knocking him down.

Here is a picture of Jonas and Nate.  Nate is the son of Jeff Chandler, who is Tom’s business partner.  Jeff and his precious wife, Michelle, threw the coolest birthday party EVER for Nate’s 3rd birthday at the Genesis Auto Brokers warehouse, complete with a homemade race track for the little ones to ride around on, amazing car-shaped cakes for the kids to decorate, and a full-screen showing of the movie “Cars” projected onto a giant wall for young and old to enjoy.  It was a great way to kick off the summer.  🙂  

Recent developments for our little man include:  rolling over from front to back; sitting up (not leaning back) in his bouncy seat, stroller, and car seat; working on his crawling skills; bouncing around like a pinball in a pinball machine in his pack-n-play; making his second sign with prompting for “eat”; moving up from 2 tablespoons to 3 tablespoons of rice cereal and vegetables at his morning and evening meals; adding squash and carrots to his repertoire of vegetables; being really serious about his big boy meals by letting us know with an intense grunt when he’s ready to eat and when it’s been too long in between bites; pounding his chest with both fists like Tarzan; exploring different textures with his hands; continuing to perfect the art of the raspberry; debuting what seems to be his first consonant/vowel combination, “nay-nay-nay-nay”; and becoming more and more alert to and aware/observant of his environment (to my delight, he just noticed the monkeys on the feet of his “go bananas” sleep-n-play). 

It has been a very eventful week for Jonas, full of transition and big boy things seeming to happen all at once…he: rolled over for the first time (back to front); officially graduated from a swaddle to a sleep sack; greeted his first Mother’s Day with an out-of-character, not-so-easily-consolable bout of fussing that ended up being the culmination of his biggest and longest growth spurt yet and tipping his Mom and Dad off to the fact that he was just plain old hungry, hungry, hungry; started solids with his first bowl of whole-grain rice cereal; said goodbye to his dear friend Dreemer; exhausted his Mommy’s store of extra breastmilk in the freezer; weighed in at a whopping 16 pounds and 13 ounces at his 6 month checkup; experienced his first taste of vegetables (sweet potatoes, homemade by his Aunt Heather) as part of his second solid food meal of the day recommended by his pediatrician; began discovering a new favorite sleep position (an extreme form of side sleeping that looks like it wants to be tummy sleeping soon); made his first sign, without prompting, for “milk”; gave many squnched-up-nose smiles with the most endearing pattern of open-mouthed breathing when he felt full of love for something or someone; launched headlong into teething; and uttered, more than once, what we’re wondering might prove to be his first word…”hi”.

Tonight we laid to rest my dog Dreemer. I got Dreemer almost 14 years ago when she was just 8 weeks old.

Dreemer was a loyal and faithful friend everyday of her life. She was a friend to everybody she met. Those that know Dreemer and know me will understand that words can not express how special she was, and how much she meant to me. Letting her go was the hardest decision I have ever had to make, but I know the time was right. Dreemer’s love was probably the closest thing to God’s love a person could experience. In her eyes I could do no wrong, even when I did. She was always joyous to see me, whether I had been gone a week or an hour. She gave me everything she had to give, right to the very end.

Dreemer,
You will forever be in my heart, and a part of who I am. I hope to honor you by loving unconditionally, the way that you always loved me. I pray that your spirit never leaves me, and that when I come home, at the end of this journey, you will be there waiting for me. I know that your body no longer hurts. I know that you have the energy and vitality that you had when you where young. I know you are happy to see your best friend Siva. I know she is happy to see you. Watch out for me, watch out for Jodi, and please watch out for Jonas. Thank you for holding on to see me enter this new stage of my life. I am glad you were able to meet my son. I am even more glad he was able to meet you. There will never be another like you. Your work here is complete, go run, go swim, chase Siva around the yard. Thank you, God Bless you.

PLEASE CLICK THIS PICTURE FOR MORE PICS OF DREEMER

Jonas rolled over for the first time tonight!!! (Click picture for video) First rollover

Jonas hit a major growth spurt this week, and he’s been tanking back the milk and putting away some serious daytime and nighttime z’s. When he’s not eating or sleeping, he’s all about pinching and grabbing (pretty much everything), and he’s discovered his first favorite toy…bunny.

Twenty-five weeks finds Jonas sitting…on his own.  If he gets tickled, though, it’s all over with…but he’s smiling and laughing all the way, as he’s tipping over backwards or falling over sideways.  He’s so cute with his the-world-seems-different-from-here look on his face, leaning forward and grabbing his toes.  He cracked us up tonight on our early evening walk around the neighborhood by sitting in his stroller just like that…leaning headlong into the world.   

Grandma Jackie, Tom, Jonas, and I went to Ellington Agricultural Center last weekend to take pictures. This was Jonas’ first time sitting on his own (well, almost) for a photo shoot…

The second picture is the one we were going for and initially the only one I was going to post on the website…but, in the end, I just had to include the others…I mean, how cute is he…with a handful of mulch on the way to his mouth and with his trying-to-figure-this-out look, staring at the ground…and look at that belly.  What a funny little guy!!!

The latest Jonas developments are:  being successful most of the time at putting his pacifier in his mouth all by himself;  pulling a 9 hour night (it was stand alone, yes, but still…we know he’s got it in him); finding his thumb and sucking on it backwards; continuing to eat like a champ (I can’t wait to see how much he weighs at his 6 month check-up); making a very understandable spit out/shiver face when he takes his liquid vitamins with iron; making his first sign (with prompting) for “milk”; showing more and more strength when it comes to sitting up on his own; coming really darn close to rolling over; working on his crawling skills by getting his knees up under him during tummy time (he’s still figuring out how to not do the otter thing with his arms); reaching for Dreemer; pinching and grabbing anything and everything in sight; and enjoying his outdoor walks.