Jalen said his first word!!!!

Tonight Jalen said "ma ma"...yay!!!!! I don't know if he knows the meaning of what he said but it seemed like as soon as he started to crawl he would say "ma ma, ma ma" It is very clear though and so weird to hear it come out of his mouth. Now he thinks he is something else and is just talking away trying out other sounds. He is also crusing pretty well now and cruised the length of our coffee table but if he sees me sitting there, he tries to let go and reach out for me. If you hold out your hand he can take a few steps holding on with one hand but as soon as he gets both hands, he takes off. He also stood by himself today a couple times, only for a few seconds, but still impressive to me. Jalen also has another odd TV favorite...drum roll please....The Golden Girls! Not so much the show but he is glued to the opening song and just stares at all the "grandmas" and as soon as the song finishes, he flaps his hands and pats them on his legs and giggles. So in recap, Jalen loves Wheel of Fortune, Family Fued, Price is Right and now Golden Girls....Sesame Street and Baby Einstein do nothing for him :o)

Below are some pictures of Jalen with his pj's half way on...he thought it was funny to have his shirt stuck on his head.

Happy Birthday Aila

Aila turned 1 year old and we celebrated with her tonight at her Princess Party. Here are some pictures from the night...my battery wasn't charged so I didn't get any good ones of the birthday girl eating cake or opening presents, so see Vanessa's blog for those :o)

Aila (1 yr) and Jalen (9 mths)

Precious little heads...Jalen's produces quite a glare!

Baby Caelum having fun with his Nana

Jalen holding Aila back from something...probably a toy he had his eye on

Jalen Playing in his Pack-N-Play

9 mth happenings

Jalen is a little over 9 months now and had his 9 mth check-up today. He is very healthy, 19lbs and 7oz and 28 1/2 inches long. He is right on track with height but still in the 25th percentile for weight. No concerns though because he is growing as he should, just smaller than the average population, no big surprise with me and Jason being his parents, not the biggest people in the world! He loves his pediatrician and we are all sad that we have to leave him when we move to OK, hopefully we find someone just as nice and patient.

Jalen has been eating rice puffs and doing great with them so I gave him some dehydrated yogurt chips and he loved them. I decided to start giving him small bites of avocado and bananas and he loves being able to eat like a big boy so much now, he is starting to refuse being fed the pureed baby food. Tonight I gave him peas and again he was so happy so now I need to start thinking about foods I can cook at home and chop up for him to eat...any suggestions?

Jalen sitting in his toy tub one morning

fast asleep after a day with the photographer

"are you talkin' to me?"


getting in mommy's diaper bag to find more toys

a little monkey butt

loving to walk up and down the halls with mommy


more of Jalen's great facial expressions

Jalen's Stylin'

Thank you Julie for my stylin' polo and matching jacket...it's still a little big on me but I did wear the polo to my playgroup today and got lots of compliments, this is before I dumped my sippy cup filled with water on me and mommy had to change me into a dry t-shirt :(




Working on my pose for GQ Baby

Some pictures from today

This is Jalen's face after me yelling "NO" to him trying to pull the dog bowls over, he then proceeded to laugh after I said No as usual...I don't know what I'm going to do with him!

Trying to pull up onto the dog bowls

looking innocent before turning quickly to pull the bowls over

Jalen checking out his new toy

Pulling up onto mommy's legs while taking pictures


Sitting on his new toy, he hasn't really figured it out yet but soon he'll be scooting and walking all over with it

Notice the shorts grammie, they actually fit him and they're 18 mths...they're big but they do fit and he can grow into them

Happy 9 Month Birthday Jalen

Our little man turned 9 months old yesterday! We cannot believe how fast time flies and looking back to see how tiny he was just seems so surreal. I have taken pictures of him in his personalized chair every month since we brought him home and below are the pictures in order from a couple days after coming home up until tonight...enjoy :)

5 Days Old

1 Month Old

2 Months Old

3 Months Old

4 Months Old

5 Months Old

6 Months Old

7 Months Old

8 Months Old

9 Months Old

Jalen Spinning on the Floor

Jalen was sitting on the floor playing this evening and just started spinning on his butt, round and round and then he'd stop, play a little more and then spin again...it was so cute and I got the tail end on video...enjoy!

Mary's Visit

Well, we have had a busy week and the near future is not looking any less busy for us anytime soon! Mary was out here since Tuesday evening and we had a great time, she even taught Jalen to do "high five" and he now does it with both hands, he gets so excited and proud of himself after he does it too. He is starting to wave hi and bye too, it is not every time but here and there he does try to squeeze his hand and flap his arm. I took Jalen to the doctor's because he was really congested, rubbing his eyes more than normal, sneezing and coughing so I thought he might have allergies. The doctor said he sounded and looked good and to just continue the cool mist humidifier and saline nasal spray with suctioning to work out the congestion. He is getting 2 more bottom teeth in and wants to bite everything, and it hurts!!! We bought him a t-shirt that says "beware, I bite", I'll get a picture of him in it soon. He now weighs 18 lbs 14oz and is still in the 25th percentile, so all of you who think he is chubby, he is, but he is still smaller than 75% of the population his age. He is crawling more and more too but still prefers to belly crawl in between. His crib is now at the lowest setting it can be and he can pull himself up on our legs and his stroller too in addition to his crib. He loves his exersaucer and jumps in it so much we might have to try the Johnny Jump Up again soon.

Because of his teething, he is not napping well and is getting up sometimes in the middle of the night to nurse so I am very stressed out right now with trying to study for boards and having no time to do it. It also doesn't help that Jalen only wants me to hold him when I am in the room and that Jason still cannot really help a lot due to his restrictions from his shoulder surgery. I also found out that I have a herniated disc between L4-L5 and a bulged disc between L5-S1 which explains my bad back pain the past few weeks but that is not helping the situation either. I did finish my presentation at school on Friday and will be graduating next Saturday...1 more week until I am Dr. O'Neal to some of you :) After that I "just" have my boards to pass and then I can start working in OK, keep your fingers crossed.

Saying good-bye to Auntie Mary

Yay high-five


After 2 hours of swimming on Friday



Crawling around and laughing at the dogs


Playing on the laptop

Mary and her new best friend (that she thought would bite her head off at first)

I will try to keep up with updating the blog as much as I can, it will have to be late at night when I can't retain PT info anymore but need some outlet to decompress before bed.