History of the J Man

Thanks to everyone who sent us a holiday card this year.  They are lovingly displayed on our mantle.  We send our letter via email last year though and I don’t think we can go back to paper now.

In case you haven’t seen it yet or in case your spam filter got a hold of it, I’m posting it here as well.  Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to all!

12/30/2010        

Greetings!

I hope this letter finds you happy, healthy and staying warm after the holidays.  With Hanukkah so close after hosting Thanksgiving this year and then Christmas after that, we’re slow getting this letter out, but hopefully it will find you before 2011.

Our biggest news from this year was the birth of our 2^nd son, Elliott Cameron Diehl.  He was born May 10, 2010 around 3:00am weighing 7 lbs. 7oz.  He was very easily and happily born at home, as planned, in under 5 hours. His big brother Jonah slept through the whole thing.

Jonah is 3.5 years old now and just started preschool down the block from our house.  It’s a new school with a class size of 7 and he loves it.  In fact he was unhappy about having to take a week off for the holidays.  He’s playing a lot, making new friends and learning things in the process.

Elliott is 7 months old now going on 3! He sits on his own and can pull himself up to standing to cruise the furniture but doesn’t crawl yet (he uses a commando crawl on his belly to get around).  He also doesn’t love baby food instead preferring to feed himself with his hands.  Through it all he’s a happy, smiling baby who loves to watch his older brother. 

This past July we went on our annual trip to Michigan with Julie’s parents, sister and brother-in law.  Elliott wasn’t sleeping all that well yet but Jonah had a great time catching minnows off the pier, going on a boat ride, picking raspberries, and just generally getting to run around a lot outside.

Chris’s family didn’t make it up to Michigan with us this year but we visited them over the 4^th of July weekend at their new home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, instead.  We watched the fireworks from a boat on Lake Geneva and Jonah loved them.  He said they were like “magic” as we watched.  The captain later told us he had a better time listening to Jonah watch the fireworks than watching them himself! 

Next July we are planning to once again have both sides of the family up in Michigan.  By then Elliott might be walking, so we’ll need the extra hands!

Chris and Julie are both doing well as they adjust to life with two small boys.  Chris is still commuting to Schaumburg from the city but loves his job, so we make things work.  Julie has been contracting with Cisco Systems now for about 18 months and continues to enjoy the work and the perks and challenges of working from home 100%. 

Our condo was on the market until shortly before Elliott was born last year but did not sell.  We may try listing it again soon because we’d still like to move to the suburbs to be closer to work for Chris and to have more space (like a back yard) for the boys and Bianca.  Ideally, Jonah will be able to finish out the school year here then start somewhere new next fall, close to our new house in the suburbs.  Keep your fingers crossed for us or send potential buyers our way! J

Wishing everyone a wonderful New Year!

Julie, Chris, Jonah, Elliott & Bianca Diehl

For whatever reason, Jonah decided to nap INSIDE his mesh dirty clothes hamper today.  Doesn’t look very comfortable to me…

Elliott has hit quite a few new milestones lately.  First off, he’s finally started sleeping better. He may still get up at night but at least now he tends to do 6-7 hours at a time at night instead of just 4.  Last night he even slept from 8:30-5:30am then went back down until 7:00am.  For him, that’s really good.  And for me it’s wonderful.  We’ve been trying to put him down before he’s really asleep so hopefully he’s learning that he can fall asleep on his own.  That and I think the solid food is helping him feel more full.  It’s to a point that if we are siting at the table eating he thinks he should be too.  I had been getting away with 1 or 2 meals of food for him per day but this weekend I think we officially started him on solids 3 times a day.  Not an easy task when I have to get everyone up and dressed in the morning in time to get Jonah to school.  Thank goodness his school is so close.  We can leave the house and be there in about 2 minutes. 

Ok, so Elliott is eating more and sleeping better, those are both new.  And he’s been pushing himself up on his arms and scooting backwards for a while but just this weekend he actually started commando crawling forward.  That was new!  I tried to catch it on film but once I got the camera he stopped performing. 

I was really happy to see that forward movement because I was beginning to wonder if he’d crawl at all.  All the kid wants to do these days is stand.  I don’t think he can even get him self into a seated position but he can pull himself up to standing on the furniture.  Then once he’s up there he’s getting better at cruising from furniture to furniture. I am in NO hurry for this kid to walk but it seems he’s well on his way.  Take a look at the video.

Elliott Cruising from Julie Diehl on Vimeo.

We have other friends who’s kids talk early.  Elliott babbles but, like Jonah, I think he’s more intent on the physical development at this point.  We’ll see.  I am really hoping he learns to crawl first though and doesn’t just start walking at 9 months or something.  I’m also hoping the sleep habits are a continuing trend.  Right now it’s a bit to early to tell. 

The first couple nights of Hanukkah have come and gone and so far I’ve done ok with gifts for the boys.  Jonah’s gift the first night was a play tent with a new tunnel. From the photos below it’s hard to tell who’s having a better time with it, Chris or Jonah.  Jonah has even slept over night in his tent and napped in it twice so far.  I wonder if he’ll ever let me take it down…

The second night he got a sit-n-spin but that wasn’t as impressive I guess.  Jonah has also had a good time opening and playing with the 2 new baby toys that Elliott got.  Elliott is just happy with the paper and boxes or to sit and watch everything that his big brother does.

Elliott is sitting well enough on his own now that I can finally get both boys in the bathtub at once now.  I’m still not certain on how to get each of them really clean since they are used to laying down to get their hair washed but we’ll figure it out.  They both look so happy in there, don’t they?