Sweet Baby Jones

My baby boy is half-a-year old TODAY!! (And already reading, too!)

Some Jones-oriented updates:

• He is sitting up really well now, and looking like a big boy when he does! However, when he wasn't sitting up so well, we got into the habit of putting a boppy behind him in case he were to fall over. Needless to say, he thinks he'll always have a pillow to catch his fall and has taken to throwing himself backward when there isn't one. :( It's SOOOOO sad. We can't decide what to do: keep putting a pillow behind him so when he throws back, it'll break his fall, or quit putting it back there so he'll stop throwing himself backward? (Mom is for the pillow, dad is for the lesson -- go figure.) :)
• I realized the other day that this is the first month in which I've been wearing somewhat normal clothes by noontime (though I often am unable to shower till evening). Previous to now, I was almost always sporting my signature black nursing tank-top, a pair of brown pajama-type pants, and my favorite red headband -- and I mean always. It feels nice to be out of my pajamas before noon, makes me think I have a smidgen of control over how my day looks. (Ha!)
• Our little traveler has survived two long road trips: one to St. Louis to visit the Allens and one to Little Rock to visit Aunt Tracy. He will have his first plane ride next month when we fly to Colorado Springs for some pre-field training.
• I've had some "mom moments" during his last feeding of the day, when he's calm and falls asleep still sucking (at other times, he's a gymnast-feeder, flailing about and pulling me along with him -- not fun). Sometimes I just hold him and cry, thinking how fast these months have gone; I picture him as a twenty-year-old and feel this ache in my heart, knowing he won't fit into my arms then like he does now. It's so strange that watching him grow is so very exciting, all the new things he does -- but at the same time, it's more difficult than I can describe to think he will not be a baby forever.
• I recently remembered that I am not just a mom, but a wife also. I know this seems silly, because I do live with and wake up to my husband, but the learning curve for early motherhood is so steep that I forgot I should probably be learning how to become a better wife along with how to mother Jones. My poor hubby. :(
• Jones whined for a toy yesterday, which is not exactly a proud development -- nonetheless, it is noteworthy. :P
• In sleep, Jones has become very touch-and-go, but I think a lot of it has to do with how much we've been traveling and away from home. We've been trying to be better about having nap and bedtime routines, so that even when we are not at home, he feels as if something is familiar. However, he is still waking up multiple times each night. I've discovered that Jones is a "high-need" baby -- he seems to be the happiest baby on the block, but if he starts getting cranky, he is CRANK-YYYYYYY. Thus, if we don't put him to bed within his 10-minute window, he has a hard time settling in and ends up waking up every 45 minutes to an hour, till about 3am. Yes, this is indeed frustrating. We keep telling ourselves that babyhood is the shortest time of his life and that this, too, shall pass. It's not working quite as well as we'd like. :)
  
• Still only two teeth -- he seems to have been "teething" forever, biting my shoulder, drooling like a faucet, and waking up multiple times in the night. I hate all this guessing stuff with babies! :P
  
• I so rarely have the moments of quiet reflection I thoroughly enjoyed in college. I haven't written a poem in who-knows-how-long. I remember skipping class in the springtime to just sit outside, listen to music, and enjoy the sun for a few hours. Perhaps in reminiscing (it is fall, you know, which always makes me think of school), I've decided to take whatever time Jones will give me during his afternoon nap for this sort of thing -- reading, sipping, staring, thinking, writing, listening, being. (Although I am limited to my front porch as an outdoor venue. Oh well!)
  

And what update would be complete without a string of pictures? :) I really should post these more often.

Playing in his absolute favorite toy, the jumper. We need to put some video up soon. He LOVES jumping! :)
Chillin' on mom's back, like Zambian Aunt Beaks told us to do.

At his baptism, with is best soft-mo to date.

Family pic after the baptism.

The *cutest* picture ever! Dad eating Jones's feet. :)

Hankerin' for one of daddy's Blue Moons. (We appropriately said "no" after taking out the camera and sharing quite a few laughs.)

Another soft-mo smile. :)