Keeping Up With the Jones': 10 months today!

It's been over a month since I last updated our blog and so much has happened. Sorry this is a bit of an overload of info...

Harrison has gone from pushing himself backwards to turning that into sitting up on his own. To get anywhere he would push backwards, sit up then propel himself towards the object or destination, land on his tummy and start all over again. A week ago he decided that was enough of that and started crawling. Nathan and I were amazed because he went from not crawling to crawling at the professional level. It looks like he has been crawling for months and he is fast. He is so curious and excited about everything. I was at work the day he began to crawl so Nathan sent me a video. Once I got the video I called Nathan and said, "oh no, this means we've officially become parents". With crawling means teaching/correcting. We are working hard to teach him what he can and cannot touch. It's a lot of work and takes a lot of consistency but our goal is to be able to take Harrison over to a friends house and not worry about him breaking their things. We want to simply say no touch and expect him to obey (I know, it sounds idealistic but I read a stat in a parenting book that you can expect it %20 of the time from a 10 month old and as he gets older that percentage increases by %10 each month). Right now he gets the idea but it will take us a long while to trust him. He is a strong willed little man so this should be fun... For now we are watching him like a hawk and correcting him when we see him touching or grabbing at something he shouldn't. We have baby proofed most of the house (for safety) but we've left a few things around for teachable moments to occur. It's exhausting but I guess this is what the next 18-25 years will be like. We don't mind. The hard work of parenting pays off in the end.

Going for his books. He LOVES his books. LOVES them!

Harrison has six teeth now. When mom was here at the end of May he was getting the two side top teeth (weird order) and now he is getting the two middle teeth. He's going to have a full smile in just a few weeks. I think I'll miss that little bottom two teethed grin.

He is working hard on pulling himself up now. Once he conquers one thing he goes right to the net. Never several things at a time, everything in order. I still believe that in between sitting up on his own and crawling he needed to perfect the pincher grasp and babbling in sentences. Every week there is one thing that's new and he works at it for that whole week. Funny kid.

Harrison LOVES to eat different small pieces of food now. He'll still eat the food I've pureed but prefers small bites of cantaloupe, watermelon, banana, grapes and string cheese. I think we might try chicken this week. He needs some more protein in his diet if he wants to get big and bulky like his dad ;). He is also mastering the sippy cup. Still 5 bottles a day on top of half a sippy of juice. We did experience one chocking episode, it actually happened yesterday but the baby over the arm thing really works well! I'll be sure to cut the pieces smaller from here on out.

He drinks his bottle all on his own now.

Harrison is a good fit thrower, I don't know where he gets that from :). If he wants something an can't have it a small war of the wills breaks out especially during diaper changes. The nice thing is the whining has stopped now that he can crawl (there was a lot of it).

Bentley now has competition with his toys. Harrison is constantly playing tug o' war with him. Bentley loves it and I'm always hoping Bentley wins so that the toy doesn't end up in HJ's mouth.

We've moved Harrison to a toddler car seat about a month ago. He likes it a lot more. Now when we try to put him in his infant car seat he fights us and whines in the car. I think it's because he can see out in the toddler seat since he's more upright.

We've been to our pool a few times now. Harrison loves being in the water. Of coure we aren't letting his go quite yet. He's definitely a Jones kid though, rather be by a pool then anywhere else.

(Thank you Ezra and Zion for my swim suit!)

We traveled to Oregon for the fourth of July again this year. Traveling was SO much easier this time! Now that he can be entertained the whole time or soothed it's easy to sit there for two hours. I'm sure it will get harder as he wants to move about more but this trip was actually fun. I have a new rule now though, no traveling with babies under the age of 6 months. So friends and family, the next baby means you'll have to come see us :)

The fourth is always a lot of fun in Seaside. I believe I've posted about it in the past. Same story. This time though mom stayed home and watched Harrison while Nathan and I got to watch the fireworks with my grandparents, uncle and the Kustura/Kolber/Poe family. We also got to see my sister and meet one of her friends the day before. Nikole loves holding a kissing Harrison when she sees him. My family absolutely ate Harrison up. They loved seeing him.

The outfit below is very oregonian. You'll notice the U of O (the Ducks) jumper along with the eskimo hat and soccer like shoes. Now he just needs bottom frayed jeans, a t-shirt, rain jacket and sandals with socks and his Oregonian attire would be complete.

We tested out the scooter. We might show you a video eventually that is quite compelling about the power of a scooter.

Harrison watching the parade with dad and great grandpa.

It was chilly.

My grandma was in the parade.

Harrison's reaction to the parade. Harrison's reaction to GGMA in the parade.

You have to laugh! He is SO expressive!

This aint no average small town parade. We got marchin bands, yes we do.

I absolutely LOVE this picture, frameable!

When we got back from the fourth we ran into a bit of a hiccup in our selling preparation. As you all know we have been working to clean our house and fix everything up so that we can put it on the market. Our goal was July 1st. That got pushed back (it's hard to get everything done quickly with a little guy around) and then it was the weekend after we got back from the trip that we hoped to list it. Well, our refrigerator hose sprang a leak and warped our kitchen hardwood floor and some drywall underneath that in the garage. Tomorrow will be one week without a kitchen floor. We can still use the appliances but it's difficult. They are in the middle of the room and some of our cabinets and counter top has been moved. It looks like we will be moving out for four days when they start on the floors because of the fumes. Hopefully they start soon and this can all be done with.

This little tube causes a BIG mess.