Joren at 7 months old

Joren turned on this month. He has been an absolute delight. I know I always say that, but now I mean it even more. He's such a smiley kid. He is so easily pleased. He rolls and scoots and turns all over the place. He is actually interested in toys. He cries now when he can't reach something he wants. He will spend tons of time figuring out his toys and playing on the floor.

He loves to practice standing. He loves his exersaucer and his jumper. He started sitting with no trouble mid June. I love this stage when they can start holding on to you when you are walking around with them. He digs in fingers into my arms and holds on tight. It's so cute.




Eirik is a great big brother.
My very first campout July 25th- 8 months old! I got 10 mosquito bites on my head this night! What were my parents doing??
The food at the campout was not that good. Ick...
On this day I fed him some yummy food in our backyard. He got his first two teeth on the bottom in the third week of July. It was not an easy week for him. The poor kid was in a lot of pain, but now he's back to his happy self and super happy about the new things he can eat. He's not a picky eater, and he's excited to try anything. I was nervous to give him cheerios before he got his teeth and so I put it off for a long time. Imagine my surprise when I gave him a handful of cheerios for the first time and in about 1 minute he had eaten every one of them, dropping none! I didn't even realize he could pick up small objects with such dexterity yet. More please..
Oh, you wanted to see my silly face??
Here's another one of my silly faces. You like it?


His hair grew in super red this month. Everyone comments on it! I guess only 2% of the population has red hair so he's a special kid. I love his birthmark on his leg too. I hope he grows up to like it. It's pretty prominent. This is Paul's shirt from when he was a baby. Since Joren's middle name is Paul, it's perfect.
but he didn't think so.
Joren rocked on his knees for the first time on his 8 month birthday. I think it will be a while before he crawls still. He is pretty content watching everything. He makes cute noises all the time and has a very high pitched squeal he uses to communicate. He's not a big crier at all. He will lay in his crib for a long time before he really wants to get out. I have to listen for him on the monitor so I don't leave him up there too long.
He's just wonderful. We'll keep him.

LADIE'S MAN

We had a play date with Eliza. Joren liked it. :)

Joren tried his first rice cereal on 4/ 14. He grabbed the spoon right away and was more than happy to have the experience although he didn't much care for rice cereal. I wouldn't like it either.
I wish I knew how much of Joren's great behavior is based on how we have parented him and how much is just his adorable, chill personality. I wish I could go back and be less uptight with how I babied Eirik. I wonder if it would have made him more chill. But I sort of doubt it. Little J is just super content. He will sit and suck his binky for hours and as long as he can watch us, he is happy.
He learned to roll over yesterday and practiced doing it over and over again all day long. He is almost sitting and loves to stand and hold on to things. He's very focused and easy to read. He's SO fun!

"J" Bird- 4 month update

Joran is now 4 months old! Wow. It's gone by so fast. This baby is an absolute delight. He is rarely fussy. He sleeps a ton. He is steady as a rock. He loves to stand up for long lengths of time. It's almost like you can see himself concentrating really hard to push himself to the limit. He loves to be in his jumper for short bursts. He is soo patient with Eirik while he is malled and pestered and presented with one horse after another. Eirik likes to help change Joren's diaper and unzip his clothes and give him his binky. Joren smiles all the time and is working on learning to roll over and creep. He loves his binky. He has super rolly polly legs which work well to keep him very steady. The best of all is that Joren is a WATER BABY. I have never seen a kid take to water like this little fish has. I'm thinking about sewing him a speedo so I can video his super excited face as he lays in the tub, just his little face sticking out, legs kicking, arms splashing and body totally floating. He loves it. He cries when I take him out even if he's been in there for 1/2 hour. I have started letting him lay there without holding his head because he's so confident.
Another funny thing is that he has incredibly loud burps. Man size burps. It's amazing. He's had a pretty consistent schedule for about a month now and is starting to go to sleep in the same room as his brother now. He still wakes up at 12 and 5 to eat, but we're in a good groove. He's so chill. If I had had him first I would have been totally freaked out having a kid like Eirik second. What a difference. I just wrap Joren up, give him his binky and leave the room and he goes right to sleep. There is no fretting, crying to sleep, incessant rocking and singing and all the other mumbo jumbo we went through with Eirik.....yet. I hope that didn't just jinx us. Eirik keeps saying, "baby brother Joren, hurry grow up so we can play." He's growing fast, and they are going to be best buds. Yeah!