Gymboree

AJ just finished his 12 week session at Gymboree this week. For those of you who don't know what Gymboree is, it's basically a big room with padded things to climb on, in and over, and in the classes we sang songs, played baby soccer, had "parachute time" and encouraged climbing and reaching on the equipment. When we started class, AJ was about 6 1/2 mo old and was only sitting up and beginning to creep...in the last few classes, he was crawling all over the place and I had a hard time keeping him on the mat for the songs! It's been really cool to watch he and his classmates reach these milestones. These are some pictures that I took after his last class.

Now that Spring is almost here, we are looking forward to getting outside again to play. To keep busy through the Spring, we are signed up for Tot Spot, an organized playtime at our local park through the Park District (starts at the end of March). Until then, we will set up Pillow Mountain, the pop-up hut & tunnel, and hop over to the museums, library, and friends' places. And we'll blog more about that later!

Mr. Mischief

AJ has been getting into everything lately, and I have to really keep up with him to keep him out of trouble! He loves this mirror in his room. He smiles at and speaks to himself in his own baby language, and also likes to wave "Hello" to himself. All this fun comes at a price though!! The mirror rotates around to little shelves and baskets on the other side and when AJ pushes on one side, the other side moves forward. So, since he is freestanding lately, when he pushed on the mirror for balance this week, the other side swung around and smacked him in the face! Ouch. A few tears and (hopefully?) a lesson learned. Since this picture was taken after the incident, it seems no harm was done and he still loves the mirror as much as ever.

As you know, AJ loves to play in the cabinets. It keeps him busy and is relatively safe, and when he's busy I can cook dinner, clean the counters, etc., but I did ask my mom this week how old he has to be before I can teach him to put things "away"! Here is the island cabinet BEFORE




and AFTER

So Much Fun!

My friend Tiffany Soo came over this week with her new baby (3.5 mo.) Lydia. I am used to AJ playing with older kids, or at least his own age, so it was cool to see him interact with Lydia. We put her in his excersaucer and he was showing her the ropes (nice, since he no longer wants to sit in it himself, now that he's "on the move"! And look at those cheeks! Isn't she so cute? Well, we definitely enjoyed having Tiffany and Lydia over (and I was especially happy that Tiffany was kind enough to bring me a Shamrock Shake!! I love this time of year!!) and we're looking forward to our next playdate. I'm sure Lydia will be rolling over like a pro in no time. We'll have to get her together with our neighbor friend Ashwin, since they share the exact same birthday! You can check Ashwin out on the Long's blog (through the link to the right).

Later that afternoon, AJ was playing with my necklace and figured out how to get it on and off by himself. He was very proud, so I grabbed the camera and caught some big smiles. I love those big, happy grins!

Valentine's Day

Happy 1st Valentine's Day, AJ! This is the cute e-card that AJ sent to some friends and family members. I had big plans to make little cards with red heart doilies for his cousins and each of his friends...hahaha! You see how far I got with that!



We had a fun and busy Valetine's Day. After playing and having a big breakfast, AJ took a 1 1/2 hr nap (his second this week, and that's pretty long for a weekday, though he takes two 2hr naps for his dad on weekends!) After waking up, we went next door to play and have lunch. AJ loves playing at his friends Kaya and Ashwin's house because they have a world of toys that are all new and exciting to him. His friends Zola and her newborn sister Zadie were also over with their mom, Sarah, and it was nice to see everyone. We went home for another nap, and then headed out to Gymboree's "open gym" which is code for "everyone and their brother run around and hoard colored whiffle balls". AJ loves it. This time he accomplished a new task and climbed up the padded stairs to reach the coveted blue whiffle ball! Hooray! It was a good time. On the way home, we picked up Daddy from the El stop and headed home for dinner. This year, AJ received a valentine from each of his grandmas, including his Great Grandma, Marcella. He loved them all and on his way to his crib for bed, we told him he was our favorite little Valentine. :)

Pillow Mountain

Yesterday AJ and Leonard (his stuffed lion) went climbing on Mt. Pillow. On the climb, he found a ball with a rattle and bell inside, and put it aside to bring home. He realized that mountain climbing is a high-energy sport, though it was no sweat for Leonard, who beat him to the top in record time, and found a soccer ball on his way!


AJ loved the climb but thought coming back down was way easier because he leaned onto his side and ROLLED down. Fun! Maybe he will visit the mountain again in a few days if Mommy feels motivated...

After catching his breath, AJ decided to practice pulling up and cruising along the furniture. He's great at pulling up, but the cruising is a new skill and needs some fine tuning...two days ago, he leaned so far for a toy without moving his feet that he fell over. Of course I hid my amusement, and he was not upset by the tumble...and got right back up to try again. Go AJ!


Here he is at the TV console, looking at the picture frames that he cannot reach (yet!). He loves to pull himself to a stand here, and you can see how pleased he is with himself. It's just awesome to see his face light up when he realizes he can do something cool. This is the first place he tried to cruise, and now he also works on cruising along our couch and along his toybox, motivated by the toys he sees but cannot quite reach.

Book Worm

We are happy that AJ's book collection grew a bit over Christmas, and we're also happy to see him enjoying his expanding library as well. The shelf in his room is low on the wall so that he can reach the books himself and pull them down when he wants to. (when he clears off the shelf, the room looks like a tornado hit, but it cleans up fast enough...hopefully as he gets older, he'll also put books ON the shelf, not just take them OFF! hahaha)


AJ really loves to be read to, and lately he is also into looking at books on his own.He opens and closes the books, and is pretty good at turning the pages of his board books. He likes us to read the books that rhyme or to show him the ones that have parts to touch and feel, but when he chooses books to read himself, they are usually the ones with lots of pictures. It's not hard to see why!

Another growing pattern is that he no longer is easy to distract on his changing pad! Whenever we try to change his diaper or get him dressed, all he wants to do is wiggle or roll off the pad and try to crawl away! When we first noticed this trend, we moved the changing pad onto the floor and Andy converted the old changing area into a full-on closet. But just being on the floor seems to have made the process more difficult (but, yes, it is more safe).

Sometimes when AJ's determination outweighs my own, I just give in and let him crawl away half-dressed. It's a funny sight and makes me laugh, before I haul him back to finish the last legs of the PJ's, etc. He's always cracking us up!