The Jarnigan Family: April 2010

Our little angel is 10 months old! I know I say this every time, but I cannot believe how quickly time has gone by. It seems like yesterday when he was a newborn. Quite often, Brandon and I reflect back to when he was just born when he could do nothing but eat, sleep, cry, pee and poop, and the best of all, just cuddle with us in our arms. People would tell us, "this time is fleeting! enjoy it while you can." (like every moment in a child's life). At the time, we seriously thought it would never end! The endless nights, no schedule to think of, constant feedings, basically no life outside of the house, this new being in our lives that we had no idea what to do with and we thought that the smallest mistake will ruin him for life. That all seems like such a distant memory and we sometimes even laugh at ourselves now at how unknowlegeable we were about babies in the beginning, but still somehow managed to have this amazing little boy who is developing the sweetest personality. I am so lucky to be able to spend every day with him and witness every new discovery he makes. I never take that for granted.

Here is a list of a few new things he is doing lately. He does new things every single day, so these are just a few of the highlights.

*Waving- when you say hi or bye bye. He will wave. Sometimes it takes a couple of tries. But we wave bye-bye to Daddy every morning before he heads off to work.

*Clapping- When we say. "clap your hands" or "yay" he will clap.

*Opening cabinets- He's discovered them and loves to open and pull everything out. It's time for the locks. Our toilet is next. He's discovered it and likes to bang on the top, but hasn't figured out yet that he can open it. He knows that the lever on the toilet makes a neat sound, but he can't pull on it hard enough to flush yet...soon enough.

*Ed knows the sound of the door. And whenever Brandon comes home, Ed races to the door and pulls on Brandon's pant legs wanting to be picked up with this big smile on his face. It's the sweetest thing ever! It's like he really missed him!

*Pointing- He loves to point at objects and have us name them for him. He points, looks at me and I say the word, then looks at Brandon and he says the word, then Ed tries to say the word. It always comes out as "Da" but he is trying so hard!

*Vocabulary- He can't speak any words yet, but he sure knows some! Here are a few of the big ones...no, boat, all done (he also signs this), bath, dog, eat, Hailey, Daddy, and Mommy. His all time favorite word is sprinkler. We have them in every room of our apartment and he loves to point them out to us all the time. If we ask him where they are he will point them out for us. We aren't sure why he is so facinated by them. Maybe one day he will tell us. :-) When he babbles, he really thinks he's saying something and it always seems very important.

*Dancing- I know we have posted some video to the blog of him dancing, but he has gotten better. He now puts his shoulders into his dancing moves. So cute! We'll have to get some more video of that. Makes us laugh every time. I caught him dancing to the beat of the washing machine/dryer the other day.

*Teeth- He now has 4 teeth. His front two uppers came in last week.

*He loves to have us read to him. It has to be board books or he will rip the pages out, but he loves to sit in our laps and listen to us read. He also enjoys turning the pages. He will also sit and look at his books by himself. So sweet when I catch him doing it.

That's all the biggies that I can think of right now. Like I said before, he is constantly doing new things. He's soon going to be walking. He pushes things around our apartment all the time (chairs, trash can, his stroller, remotes, and sometimes believe it or not, his toys!)We go to the park almost every day (weather permitting) with Gabriel and Nora and have the best time. He still eats grass and dirt while were there (yummy!). Now, he's added chasing pigeons to his game (even yummier!). He wants to be anywhere but on our blankets. I can't wait until he's actually walking (sarcasm). He'll probably try to go swimming in the river or something. He's a mischievous one. Always gotta keep Mommy on her toes!

Here are a few recent pictures.