JoMo's BIG Week

It has been a very BIG week for me!

All week long I’ve been getting much better at sitting up on my own. I still can’t get into a sitting position by myself, but if someone puts me there, I can sometimes stay there a while now without toppling over! It makes it easier to play with some of my toys. I’ve also been waving “Bye-bye” to people. It makes Mommy and Daddy and my departing friends really happy. I have also learned to stand up and hold on to the side rails of my cot [crib] when Daddy helps me up.

Another skill I've started working on is drinking from a cup. The doctors keep telling me I need to drink more water and juice for my digestion (more on that later), but I don't really like them as much as the milk I get from Mommy. Mom and Dad tried using all kinds of funny cups with lids called "sippy cups" and tried bottles, but I just pushed them away. Then this week Mommy started helping me drink from a cup just like them, and I think that's pretty cool! I even took some orange juice from a box with a straw: Mommy squeezed the juice into the straw to get it started and then I just kept at it for a few sips, but it's hard work!

On Monday I learned to say “Dada” and “Daddy” for the first time. Mommy thought that was really cool; she was so excited that she sent Daddy a text message about it on his mobile phone.

On Tuesday I went to my swimming lesson. I’ve been taking them for about 6 weeks. This time I swam under the water twice in quick succession, which is supposed to help increase my lung capacity for longer swims, like maybe the English Channel one day! Here I am swimming on the surface with the instructor, Claire, just before I go under the water, but mostly I swim with Mommy (that's her head in the way...) and sometimes on weekends Daddy gets to help me practice.

On Wednesday I went to the doctor for a checkup. While in the waiting room, I was playing Patticake with Mommy and surprised her when I actually said “Patticake!” while clapping her hand. Well, I was trying to say it, and it sure sounded crystal clear to Mommy! Mommy then did lots of errands around town while I relaxed in the stroller. We went to the Wednesday Market for fruits and vegetables and other odds and ends. On the way to a big store, we stopped to listen to a man making really pretty music with a funny shaped instrument. I thought it was really fascinating. I guess I stared and smiled a little too intensely, because he kept laughing at me! Later I took Mommy to the pool along with my two friends Julia and Amanda and their mommy. It was the first time the two little girls had been to a pool and we had lots of fun splashing and floating about. Later in the day, I also shook my head “No” when Mommy was trying to get another spoonful of food into me.

On Thursday I spent most of the day filling my nappy [diaper] after weeks and weeks of inaction in that department. Mommy kept smiling and telling me what a good boy I was. She didn't used to smile when I filled my nappy like that! The strong medicine (normally only given to big kids) that I’d been on for a few days finally worked. I won’t say anything more about that, other than Daddy was surprised to come home to a full nappy pail after emptying it the previous morning!

On Friday I had a really big adventure. Mommy and I went to London to see Uncle Bill. He flies great big airplanes (Daddy calls them triple sevens or something like that) for American Airlines and he gets to come see us every couple of months or so. We went and saw some pretty pictures by a man named Constable. Before we went in, we had a nice picnic on the grass outside the Tate Britain galllery (see how well I'm sitting up!)

On Saturday when Daddy was leaving for work, I said “Bye DaDa.” He was really chuffed about that! So was I. After Daddy got back from work, our friend Auntie Jacqui came over and brought a great big bag of cherries. Mommy and Daddy sure liked them. Daddy took the stones out of some and chopped them up real small for me. I did not quite know what to do as I have only eaten smushy food so far. Daddy put them in the spinny, choppy machine and made them smushy and tried to feed them to me that way, but I was too busy looking at Auntie Jacqui to be bothered. Finally Auntie Jacqui fed the cherry mush to me and then I ate it. I got it all over the place though. If anyone knows how to get cherry juice out of my clothes, please send an email to Mommy and tell her the secret! [ed. note: Apparently boiling water works pretty well....]

We watched England play football [soccer] in the World Cup (well, parts of the game), but they got beat by Portugal. Wimbledon was on at the same time and we kept switching the television back and forth from it to the football match until it was over. Then we just watched Wimbledon and finally someone from the UK did well. Auntie Jacqui sure was cheering when Andy Murray, from Scotland, beat Andy Roddick from the US. Mommy kept saying she was rooting for "Andy."

I also learned to reach through the end rails of my cot and grab a Kleenex box. I have almost figured out how to lift it up and over the top so I can bring it inside and play with it. Lucky for Mommy that it is an empty box or I could have made a BIG mess with Kleenex. I love to chomp my gums on paper and cardboard. I don't have any teeth yet, but that hasn't stopped me from eating part of a page out of one of my board books already.

Well, that’s all I have time to write down for now. I have to get cleaned up to go to a wedding. This will be the second one I have been to!