Justin's Crew

Here are some photos from Justin's first week of childcare at Sharita's ("Mrs. Rita's") house. In all, the week went great and it seemed like Justin enjoyed himself while spending time with his new buddies. From youngest to oldest, the clan consisted of Aurora (6 weeks), Justin Alexander aka Baby Justin (3 months), Big Justin (11 months), and DJ (23 months). Aurora was only hanging out with them while her childcare provider was on vacation, so usually it will be just the three boys.

As you can see from the fourth photo, Justin has switched his hobby from blanket wrestling to feet grabbing. That's pretty much all he wanted to do over the past week. V says I cheated on this one since I've been trying to give him his feet for about a month now. But of course it wasn't until I left him alone and forgot about the feet thing that he started to show interest and began perpetually swiping at his limbs. It started with the knees on Monday, and it seemed like he got stronger and more flexible each day. By Wednesday he was grabbing his toes consistently, and by Friday (unfortunately I missed it but) V witnessed what was probably the first dip of a toe in his mouth. With all the constant grunts, strain and struggle it was pretty comical how hard he had been working all week to get one of his feet in his month. If nothing else, he was determined! So now that he has accomplished his goal and knows what they taste like, we'll have to wait and see if his interest wanes or not (I doubt it).










Watching DJ and Big Justin motor around still hasn't inspired him to crawl yet, but he is enjoying his tummy time way more than usual and is also propping himself up higher than before. It also seems like the consistency of a daycare schedule has improved his sleeping patterns. Granted, he stopped waking up for a middle-of-the-night (i.e., around 2am) feeding at least a month ago (yes!)... but he's never been this accurate. He's asleep for the night by 8pm as usual, and sometimes as early as 6 or 7. But this past week he was unbelievably precise about waking up for his AM feeding at 4:30AM on the dot. I told V that I think we should check underneath his bed... "I think the boy has an alarm clock in there." He is still getting his 8-hours-plus, but the weekend has thrown him off a bit. We'll see what happens once Monday rolls back around.

In other news, Justin's teething process is becoming more obvious. Still everything goes to the mouth, and now he has started biting down on the nipple of his bottle to try soothing the pain. The only thing that has struck us as odd throughout this whole process is that it seems like his BACK teeth are the ones that are coming in. The gums there are white, and if given a finger to chew on, this is the only area where he likes to smash down for comfort. Of course it would be absolutely bizarre and against all logic for his back choppers to surface first. But as I told V, nothing surprises me with this boy. He's so unusual that it would almost make sense if his wisdom teeth came in first.