It is a regular old Christmas miracle

that our son who has an un-ending amount of curiosity and energy has absolutely no interest in either the Christmas tree or the presents underneath. Seriously, what is wrong with this child? I delayed putting up the tree and the only pressies underneath are from friends and family because I just knew I would be yelling "Jax, get out of the tree" a gazillion times a day. I am happy to admit I was wrong ... the tree might as well not be in the house.

New York City at Christmas

We recently returned from a nearly week long trip to the big apple. It was rather exhausting but in a fun sort of way. We saw the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall. The kids were all enchanted. Jaida's favorite part was when the Rockettes dressed as reindeer pulled Santa and his sleigh across the stage. Jax enjoyed all of the appearances of Santa Claus. We visited Fao Schwartz where both kids picked out a toy to purchase and Jaida was able to dance on the piano featured in the movie Big. Jaida and I ventured to the American Girl Place where Jaida picked out a new outfit for her Bitty baby. We spent time in Rockefeller Square and watched the brave people try to ice skate. We also braved Times Square at night which was an adventure. Generally, we did A LOT of walking. It was rather difficult as it was very busy and the stroller just got in the way. Poor Jax ended up strapped into his stroller most of the trip but he did enjoy running up and down the ramps in teh hotel lobby a lot. ;) It was a fun trip but we are all really glad to be home and are looking forward to Christmas.

The last molar

is finally through. This is his lower left one year molar.

A toothy little fellow

Jax has been very busy cutting teeth along with other general mischief. The week before Thanksgiving we noticed he had two brand spanking new molars. Both of his upper one year molars popped through with little fanfare. Yesterday he had a rather cranky day at daycare and when I looked in his mouth I saw a brand new lower one year molar on his right side and his lower right lateral incisor FINALLY came through. His other lower one year molar is VERY close to popping through ... I would say in the next day or so. The ear tubes must be doing what they are suppose to be doing because he has had bit of snottiness with all these teeth but no ear infections. If I was superstitious I might feel the need to knock on wood.

Less than thrilled

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Originally uploaded by gias_kids.

At least he didn't start screaming immediately. He did like the jolly old guy from a distance though.

The frog prince

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Originally uploaded by gias_kids.

Jax LOVED everything about Halloween. The walking around, collecting of candy, socializing, and staying up late ... he had a blast.

Would you like to see why I am going pre-maturely gray?

Jax was a little bit too quiet this morning ... look where I found him. Is it bad that I left him there to go get my camera? When he realized I was standing behind him he started yelling "mama, I did IT!"

Liberal use of the word it

Jax's new favorite things to say are "I got it!" "I did it!" and "What is it?" It might be the cutest thing I have ever seen or heard when Jax successfully does his shape sorter and then yells out "I did it!" all the while clapping like crazy for himself. Jax also says "Hi Nancy" now.

A boy with a touch of OCD

Jax is having a hard time with this whole Autumn thing. On the way from the car to the porch he spends his time stooped over picking up the leaves and trying to place them carefully back in the bushes where they clearly belong. It should be interesting when all the leaves start falling. ;)

New words

Jax now says "what is it" (said in the highest voice he can muster) whenever he sees anything he likes or wants to touch. He says night (for night night) . He says fishies and horsies. He says daddy (add-eeeeeeee). Very cute.

GOT IT!

I have been trying (in vain) to get Jax to say Thank You when someone gives something to him. Will he say Thank You? Of course not. Instead he shouts out GOT IT! and grabs the item. It is cute ... for now.

The boy LOVES to dance

Photos

Today I made all of the kid's pictures on Flickr available only to people I deem as friends or family. I might make them public again after the mess with Orkut gets straightened out but until then you will need to email me so I can make you friends and family so you can view the photos. I don't mind doing this so just drop me a line. Email is in my profile.

A painstakingly sloooooooow process

but Jax has another tooth ... his seventh to be exact. He has not been whinny or clingy or even had that bad of a runny nose. He is also sleeping just fine ... thank you very much! The only two clues were his recent need to chew on all of us and the drooling ... good godzilla the drooling.

This was number 2 tooth on the lower right ... (lateral incisor). If Jax is anything like Jaida I imagine all the nasty teeth to cut (cuspids and molars) are going to show up sometime this winter and will unfortunately likely result in ear infections ... oh well.

Jax is saying several new words ... trees (tees), boys (as in Hi boys! said to his daycare friends with much exuberance), bus, sister (sisser), Kaiko (kai kai kai KO!), and cat. Such a fun stage!

We appear to have a biter on our hands

Can't say that I am really sure what to do about it either. Especially seeing as how Jax thinks it is freaking hilarious when I reprimand him for biting by saying "No Bite". Just my uttering those two words usually results in him laughing hysterically, grinding his six little teeth and then coming in for another nip.

He has given us all a few little *love nips* in the past. Not hard bites ... really just enough to startle if we were not aware of what he was up to. Also, they usually happened during any sort of rough play like wrestling, etc. Recently though he has started biting out of frustration. It usually happens when Jaida has taken one too many toys from him or I am trying to wrangle him into his clothes (something he absolutely hates). He has attempted to bite the other little guy at his daycare several times. Dillon is bigger and a bit grabby where toys are concerned which really exasperates the issue. So far though Dillon is a bit too fast for Jax to catch so there have been no bad biting incidents.

The other morning Jaida was sitting at the table eating her bagel for breakfast. She didn't realize the squawking Jax was doing was because he wanted to share her bagel. Next thing she knows he reaches over and chomps on her elbow. Thank godzilla he only has six teeth or he might have done real damage. He did leave a nasty looking bite mark on her arm and broke the skin a bit. She screamed bloody murder and he thought that was SO funny. The hysterical laughter was like rubbing salt in a wound.

I can't figure out what to do. For now I just try to avoid him getting into situations where I know he is likely to bite. I also calmly but sternly say "no bite" when he does bite. I also try really hard not to smile which is really hard because he is so evil and thinks it is so funny. I am hoping this is just a phase he will outgrow ... and quickly!

Enthusiasm

I love that Jax just oozes enthusiasm. Everything is exciting. Even the way he speaks is filled with enthusiasm. Everything seems to end in an exclamation point. As he pets the cat he says oft! (soft!) in a big, grasp and excited voice. As he throws stuff away (which to all of our detriment he loves to do) he throws the object with great force into the can while yelling bash! (trash!). As he tries to give Kaiko loves he squeals with much excitement oggie! (doggie!) which sends a visual chill up Kaiko's spine as he braces for impact. :) So much fun.

Not sure why they like him so much

especially seeing as how rough he can be with them. Maybe they know he means well and will eventually grow out of the need to man-handle them. They look out for him ... even when he is sleeping.

Doggie!

This is Jax's new word as of yesterday. It is said often and with much enthusiasm while he points at Kaiko.

The boy LOVES corn-on-the-cob

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Originally uploaded by gias_kids.

A few new things for Jax. First off he loves corn-on-the-cob. During our labor day picnic he pretty much consumed his own weight in corn. He cried when we eventually took the gnawed on cobs away from him. :)

Jax is at the beginning of a language explosion. He said a few words early on but then just started grunting a lot. He has added one or two new words to his vocabulary each day since Sunday. He now says (clearly) mama, dada, hi, Jaida (yaeda), cheese, sit, trash, and Nancy. He also says a few other words that aren't so clear ... Kaiko and cup are two that really are more of a sound than a word.

14 Months Old!

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Originally uploaded by gias_kids.

Jax is getting to be such a big boy. Jax celebrated his 14th month birthday by escorting his sister off to the first day of pre-k. He loves getting to walk out to the car every morning while holding Jaida's hand.

The many faces of Jax Rhea

Jax can go from this ...















to this ...















in about 30 seconds flat.

Is it too early to be having tantrums?

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Originally uploaded by gias_kids.

This is what Jax does now if he does not immediately get his way. Oh by the way there is usually a fair amount of screaming and screeching and peeking up to see if we are paying attention while he is in this position.

The MOST conservative first hair cut EVER

Jax has been looking a tad bit shaggy lately. Personally, the shagginess didn't bother me but his hair covering his pretty eyes did bother me a bit. So, it seemed like the appropriate time for a first hair cut. I do not like the look of crew cuts or buzz cuts or whatever they are called on toddlers ... makes them look too grown up, I think. We had our good friend MB give Jax his first cut and a very conservative cut it was. She trimmed the straggly pieces that fell in his eyes and the frizzy bits in the back but left all of his cute curls (or devil horns as we refer to them) around his ears and neck line. Pretty cute kid if I do say so myself.

Jax playing with his friend Christian. See the shaggy hair.

Jax getting his hair cut. He sat so still and when MB was finished she told him he is beautiful and he just softly stroked his hair. :)

His after hair cut picture. He looks so cute.

Giddy Up

This last Christmas Santa brought Jax a rocking/bouncing horse as his *he will grow into it* gift. It appears that he has grown into it and he thinks it is the coolest toy ever. The funny thing is that Jax cannot sit on the horse until his cowboy (Woody) hat is on his head. How does he know at such a young age that cowboys and horses go together? I suppose that maybe Jaida told him or maybe it is the fact that he did it once and we all laughed ... who knows? Anyhow, Jax goes and finds his cowboy hat and puts it on his head and then while walking to his horse he can be heard saying "iddy up up up" over and over again in almost a whisper of a voice. It is so cute!

Figuring out the walking thing

Jax is amazingly cautious with his walking which quite honestly is surprising since he is fearless in so many other ways. It is hard to describe how he walks without a visual but here goes ... He sort of walks with his knees slightly bent and feet pointing outward (think duck), his back straight and arms held slightly up and out for balance and then he takes these teeny little steps. Think Tim Conway in some of his old man skits. He has great balance and now walks all over the place. He no longer crawls at all. Just Wednesday (8/15/07) he finally figured out how to get up onto his feet in the middle of the room ... does a power lifters squat lunge action to get to his feet. ;) He can also now stop mid-stride squat down and pick a toy up and then stand back up and keep moving. He just looks so happy to be up and walking. Yesterday he actually walked (barefoot) through the grassy yard to the play set so he could swing. This is a HUGE accomplishment since up until ... well yesterday ... he thought grass was pure evil and would have no parts of being set down in it.

A VERY odd faery princess

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Originally uploaded by gias_kids.

I swear Jaida's room is like wonderland to Jax. He loves to sneak in there as often as possible since Jaida normally gives him the boot and closes the door behind him. She has all sorts of fun stuff in there that he loves to get into. He shrieks like a maniac when we finally have to drag him out of there.

A scary resemblance

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Originally uploaded by gias_kids.

Does Jax look a bit like a tiny Elton John or is it just my imagination?

The book of Jax

I spent a small amount of time organizing all of my blog entries into a nice little published book for Jax. This book contains all blog entries (plus pictures) made during my pregnancy up until Jax's first birthday. I plan to do one of these for each kid. Seeing as how I detest scrapbooking I figure this is the next best thing. :)

Jaxon is now officially a walker!

It is rather amazing he waited this long before finally letting go. He was physically capable of walking a month or so ago. I suppose there were several factors at play ... first being I have never in my life seen such a fast crawler. I think he just didn't want to slow down to figure out the walking thing. Secondly, why bother ... everything he wants he can get to by crawling and climbing so I suppose he felt no rush. Finally, letting go can be so scary. Anyhow, last week I told Joe that Jax would walk this weekend. I don't think he totally believed me. Jax just had a look about him. He was so stable and very confident and brave in his movements and just looked like he was starting to toy with the idea.

Saturday Jax took a few excited steps between Joe and I. These usually started out with Jax walking and ended with him lunging at his target. Then yesterday (8/5/07) Jax let go of the table and walked to me ... I would say maybe 6 or 7 steps. He practiced all day. He fell a lot and quite hard at times but it didn't seem to rattle him too much.

It is quite funny to watch him walk as he starts out slowly but then as his target approaches he gets really excited and moves way too fast and sort of loses his balance. When Jaida started walking she was very sure footed and deliberate with her movements. She rarely fell and had excellent balance. When newly walking she looked a lot like franken-baby ... all stiff legged and arms out for balance. Jax on the other hand looks like Clyde the Orangutan when he walks. He walks super wide legged and sort of tips from foot to foot in a crazy sideways motion all the while carrying his arms straight up in the air ready to body slam his intended target as soon as possible. It is simply hilarious to watch. Unfortunately, it is impossible to watch him without cracking up which makes Jax laugh and then fall over. The look of pride on his face says it all. He is just so happy when he reaches his target that it is hard not to be happy for him ... even though ultimately this just means more work for Joe and me. :) I will try to get a short video clip this evening and link to it.

Poo under the fingernails

Why (oh why?) does my sweet son poop SO much? Seriously, I wonder if there might be a little something wrong with him as it does not seem normal for such a large volume of poo to come out of his squishy little body so often. This morning I thought I smelled something foul so I grab Jax and hoist him up and go to grab the top edge of the back of his diaper so I can sneak a peak. Sure enough the poo had migrated up the back of the diaper to the point where I had the better part of three fingers submerged in poo up to the first knuckle. It really is a shame as I had just toasted myself a nice bagel which was sitting in the kitchen waiting for me. There is not enough antibacterial hand soap, fingernail scrubbing and hand sanitizer to make me want to use that hand to pick up my food for quite some time. blech!

Baby Loves

Jaxon has recently glommed onto one of Jaida's baby dolls ... to the point that Jaida has now officially relinquished custody of the baby doll to her brother. Baby's name is Pix which is apparently short for Pixie. Jaxon loves this baby doll so much that if we even mention baby doll by name he performs a hard target search of the playroom until Pix is safely in his arms. Just about every morning Jax finds Pix and then does not drop him/her until we get to daycare. Nancy said Jax rarely plays with Pix while at her house but at home ... all I can say is do not get between Jax and his Pix or there will be much screeching. It is very sweet to see how loving and nurturing Jax can be to this baby doll since he can be a little brute in so many other ways. :)

Sixth Tooth

Jax is the proud owner of six teeth and a slightly runny nose to boot. His left upper incisor finally came through. All the same teething symptoms so we knew it would be any day. I don't know if poop can possibly smell any worse than the stuff that comes out of poor Jax when he is teething. Just nasty .... plain and simple.

Jax was also the victim of a biting ... by his sister no less. See Jaida's blog for details on this. He is fine ... doesn't even seem traumatized or anything.

Hi Dada

Jaxon LOVES to talk on the phone. This morning he brings me the phone and holds it up to his ear (upside down) and says "Hi Dada" while pointing at his mouth with the other hand. I called Joe at work and asked him to speak to Jax. I hold the phone up to Jax's ear and in the tiniest sweetest little voice he says "hi dadadada" with a BIG smile on his face.

Big Time Wrestling Moves

Jax loves to body slam stuff. That stuff includes food on his booster seat chair tray, his toys, us, the cat ... oh the poor cat. Anyhow, he straightens his back raises his arms above his head and then flings his entire upper half onto his target with wreckless abandon. This has resulted in Jax having bruises on his face from landing on hard objects such as a toy, the floor, my knee or shoulder, etc. He has slammed Jaida and the poor cat several times as a sign of affection. They don't seem to feel the love though. ;)

FIVE teeth

Jax is now the proud owner of five teeth! Do I have the world's slowest teething children or what? Jax has been a bit out of sorts the last couple of days. Also didn't sleep well the last two nights even though up until that point he had been sleeping 12-14 hours straight in his own bed and in his own room each night. Add to that a tremendously snotty nose and some REALLY nasty poops and I was pretty sure something was going on with his teeth. Yesterday I noticed his right upper tooth right next to his front center ones came in. What is that tooth called anyhow ... an incisor? The other one should be in in about a weeks time I would guess.

Cousins

This is Jax and his little cousin Mattie spending some quality time together. Jax happily slept through the entire thing otherwise he likely would have ended up sitting on her head, pulling her hair or in some other way torturing her and she would not look so happy. :)

Happy 1st Birthday to Jax!

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Originally uploaded by gias_kids.

Yes ... hard to believe our little guy is ONE year old.

Jax shared his birthday party with his sister. They each got a cute clown cake. Jax wasn't so into the fondant icing but once he got past it to the cake part he was double fisting he was cramming so much in his mouth. I think Jax had lots of fun watching all teh older kids run around like maniacs.

Jax is VERY close to walking. I think he can do it but just has not decided he wants it bad enough yet. He can stand unassisted and will walk while holding our hand. I think part of the problem is he crawls so fast that he doesn't want to slow down enough to figure the walking thing out. :)

Jax had his one year check-up and is now 21.5 pounds and a little over 31 inches long ... so overall tall and skinny. He also has a gigantic noggin. :) The only problem is Jax seems to have developed reactive airway disease and a bit of triggered asthma. The doctor does not think this is going to be a long lasting issue but it just needs some attention right now. So for the next 3-4 months Jax is taking nebulizer treatments of Pulmicort twice a day. This is just to stabilize his respiratory tract and then he should be able to go off them. At first he hated the treatments with a white hot passion. Then his dad started doing funky chicken dances to entertain him while he was in gas mask mode and now I think Jax might just look forward to his meds. Although not sure how much is getting into him when he is laughing hysterically. ;)

Our big guy

Well Jax is nearly a year old! Where has the time gone? I have to say I am loving that he is a tiny bit more independent. Jax is still quite the snuggle-bug even with his new found independence.

A few updates:

Jax can cross crawl ... you know the official way of crawling. He has been crawling since he was very young but because we have hardwoods through-out the house he never really felt the need to get all the way up on those knees.

Jax is scarily close to walking. We are not rushing this AT ALL. I love his little baby side.

Jax talks a lot. He babbles constantly. He says mama, dada, yaeda (Jaida), og (dog), ity at (kitty cat), up up up (all strung together quickly), in and out, this, that and something that sounds a lot like Hi

Jax is such a wonderful little guy. So full of spunk but just has a really sweet sensitive side also.

This is the face of BIG trouble!

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Originally uploaded by gias_kids.

Eek! It has been SO long since my last update. Life is crazy busy and I feel that I am barely keeping my head above water most of the time. We are fully enjoying life and all these early days with little Jax ... hence the lack of blog entries - there is simply no extra time.

Let me give the quick update on boy-wonder. He is doing everything your typical 10 month old baby should be doing plus some. He also did almost all of it shockingly early. He is trying to put me in an early grave ... I am convinced of it. He started crawling at about 5 months old. In typical Lamela-Rhea kid fashion he still doesn't cross crawl as there is no need for it ... we have hardwoods so the commando crawl/belly shimmy works out very well. Shortly after he figured out the crawling thing he also decided to master pulling up on EVERYTHING ... nothing is safe. sigh ... Then came cruising which at this point he is an old pro at and actually runs along the surface of the furniture while barely (if at all) holding on. He also LOVES to climb. Jax takes anything vertical as a personal challenge. He worked out (much to our chagrin) that he can push an upside down laundry basket around to use as a step stool to get to all sorts of places he shouldn't be. Did I mention that he tries to climb the stairs every chance he gets? Must.Invest.In.Baby.Gates

Shortly after he worked out all the physical stuff he started saying dada ... surprisingly this word seemed to be linked to Joe and the dog very early on. Now he says something that sounds remarkably like "Hi DaDa!" when he sees Joe. He also says mama ... for the longest time only when he was crying but now he says it whenever he wants anything. Jaida swears he says a version of Jaida but I am not totally convinced. Jax started on solid food at about 7 months old. While he does love to eat and really loves solids he does not seem to have the voracious appetite that his sister did at the same age. He loves anything cut into bite-sized pieces and enjoys feeding himself and the dog. He still nurses like a champ ... mostly morning and evening at this point except on weekends when he makes up for missed milk during the week. He hasn't really worked out what to do with a sippy cup except throw it across the room. Mostly because we have not given him many opportunities with one. Jax waves hello and squints when we ask him to wink. He claps his hands and loves to applaud himself for a variety of tasks done well. He also likes to play pat-a-cake and the bumpy horse game. Generally, he likes any game that involves him being thrown about in a variety of directions. Jax also LOVES his sister. He studies her every move and generally just wants to do whatever she is doing. Jaida takes this in stride for the most part and loves to procclaim "look mama Jaxie is learning from me". Lately though, Jaida has become a bit more aggressive in taking toys from Jax or bossing him (can't say I blame her as he is into all her stuff). When Jax has something that he thinks she might take he throws his body on it and starts growling when she so much as looks at him. It is pretty funny but does lead to a fair amount of noise in our house. Oh did I mention that she has several nicknames for Jaxon ... Jaxie, happy Jax and Jaxie-Bo.

Jax is the sweetest little guy. He is a total wild child and a little dare-devil but he is also such a tender soul. He seems to get his feelings hurt easily ... like if Jaida raises her voice at him. He loves to snuggle and gives the best hugs and kisses to all of us. He has a temper also. It is amazing to see the flare-up so early. If we take something from him that he really wants he has no problem letting us know. If he wants to be held and we put him down ... he just melts into one big Jax puddle in the middle of the floor. Jax is also a baby that generally just needs/wants mama a lot. I can't say this bothers me at all. ;)

Jax is now a little over 10 months old. He has followed the same growth curves most of his short life. Generally he has a noggin in the 95%, height in the 90-95% and weight in the 65%. There was one month right before he started solids where he totally fell off the weight curve but as soon as he started getting more calories from the solids his weight picked right back up. This period also happened to coincide with a big increase in his mobility. Jax has (like his sister) suffered pretty terribly with back-to-back ear infections. I am reasonably sure there was one infection that just never completely went away since November 2006. In March of this year we had tubes put in his ears. Made a world of difference. He had one slight ear infection since the tubes but it didn't really cause him much discomfort.

Now that Spring has finally sprung in the DC area we are having a lot of fun spending more time outside. We are looking forward to many weekends spent touring the city or lounging at the beach.

The new and improved Jaxon Rhea

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Originally uploaded by gias_kids.

I am just testing out the link between my flickr account and this blog. Please bear with me.