J-O-S-I-A-...N?

After Josiah was born, we received his Social Security card from the government. 6 weeks later, Jesse pointed out that Josiah's name was misspelled on the card, and instead, was "Josian". I can understand how an "Hh" looks like an "Nn" whether capital or lowercase- in fact, it took me 6 weeks to even notice the mistake myself (and only because Jesse pointed it out)- but I thought the government would be a little more careful with matters of someone's personal identity. It has taken us nearly 5 months to correct this error. The holdup has been that I have to get Josiah's birth certificate as a proof a identity and then take it to the Social Security office to request a new SS card. The birth certificate is held at our local vital records office (about 15 minutes from my house) for a matter of months before it is shipped to another town, 2 hours away. I thought this time period was either 1 or 3 months, and trying to find the time to load Josiah up in the midst of doing daycare, while having the money to purchase the birth certificate and wait in line at both government offices was something that seemed like too much effort. So, I kept putting it off until I figured that the certificate had been shipped off and now would have to be mailed (also costing more money).

When it came time to file our taxes this past week, though, I realized that we may run into some problems with reporting Josiah's birth. We can get about $1000 tax credit for having a baby, but we have to report Josiah's name, birth date, and SS#. If the IRS tried to verify this information, they would discover that the name we reported does not match the name paired with that number. Therefore, they could deny us our tax credit- some money we could REALLY use right now- a chance I wasn't willing to take. This was enough motivation to gather my things and trek down to the Vital Records office.

Once I made it to the office, proceedings went quicker than I imagined. Also to my benefit was the fact that they hold on to the certificates for 6 months before sending them off, so I could pay the fee and have it handed directly over to me rather than paying more and having it mailed. However, the REAL difficulty came in discovering that the misspelled SS card was not the fault of the SS office, but of the hospital. So, I would have to call the hospital, have them fix the error, wait for the state to approve the change, have the vital records office make a new birth certificate, and then take the birth certificate to the SS office where we could get hid card finally corrected! So I did call the hospital and they submitted the change easily, but I am in the process of waiting of waiting for the state to approve it (hopefully by today).

I realized, though, that in the government's eyes, I have been calling my baby the wrong name for the past 5 months! Now, I know that I can call him whatever I please, but it was still an odd thought to realize that he has had a different identity since birth.

I also could probably get away with pretending that my baby's name is Josian and filing my taxes under that name, but that could cause a lot more problems when next year rolls around and I have to try to show that his name was changed. So, I am sitting patiently (kinda) waiting for the approval so that I can take the next steps in the whole process.

In the meanwhile, my baby is now 5 1/2 months old! I am REALLY enjoying this age. He has so much personality now and is so interactive.

 

Josian (just kidding) is now:

• rolling all over the place! You set him down on the floor and he instantly flips over. That combined with the constant kicking and scooting allows him to move from one end of the room to the other. He'll roll and scoot his way over to the nearest thing that he can put his mouth on.
• still toothless, but I think he could get teeth soon. He has been drooling nonstop for 3 months now and chews on everything that comes near his face. He's had days of low-grade fevers, but I don't even see the beginnings of a tooth. I know it can take quite awhile, so we'll see.
• laughing and smiling at everything and everyone! Everyone says what a happy baby he is. That is truly an answer to prayer. Jesse and I prayed every night when I was pregnant that Josiah would be happy and healthy. It was really important, especially to Jesse, because he had experienced some babies who seemed fussy all of the time. God did answer our prayers. We joke, though, that we forgot to pray for a baby who doesn't spit up so much. So we will be sure to include that in our prayers next time :-)
• as I just said, STILL spitting up all of the time. It's become a trademark trait. We joke that if you get spit up on while holding him, it means he's initiated you and, therefore, likes you. We also say that he marks his territory wherever he goes, because he's sure to spit up on you, on your carpet, on your furniture, everything! We just try to be prepared at all times. I take 3 pairs of extra clothes for him (and he could use more probably) and I carry 3-4 burp cloths in my bag! We know that he's not lactose-intolerant or has acid reflux. He's just a spitty baby. I was too apparently. (What goes around, comes around!)
• grabbing at everything. He is particularly fascinated with people's mouths and hands. When you hold him, he reaches out and grabs your lips and sticks his fingers in your mouth. I think he's fascinated by how it works- same with your hands. He pulls at and rubs your fingers and sticks them in his mouth too. He also sits in his jumperoo and plays with all of the toys. It amazes me that he doesn't just slap at the toys, but truly interacts with each one. He spins it if it is supposed to spin. He grabs the ones that are for grabbing. He pulls on the ones that are meant to be pulled. When he's in his carseat, I have a toy that hangs from the handle too. He is always grabbing at it as well. Furthermore, the other day he was laying on the floor on his belly and I put a rattle next to him. He leaned over and picked up the rattle, then was playing with it on his belly. Then he flipped himself over onto his back and continued to hold the rattle. When he dropped the rattle, he turned to his side and picked it up and went back to playing with it. I LOVE watching him grow and learn.
• eating solid foods. I don't do it everyday, purely because of time, but a few days a week he will eat a vegetable/fruit at lunch time, and maybe eat rice cereal before bed. He definitely shows all of the cues for being ready for solid foods. He sits up well, assisted. He watches you eat and grabs at your spoon/fork. And he seems to like most of what he eats. His tongue-thrust reflex is still really strong, though, and he hasn't learned how to use his tongue to push his food back very well. So, it makes eating awkward, but he likes to do it. So far, he has had green beans, peas, squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, and bananas. He's eaten it all just fine. I think his biggest problem is that he wants the steady stream of food in his mouth at all times, so he gets really impatient in between bites.
• sitting up with help. But he gets so excited about grabbing something that he falls over quickly. I tried putting him in a bumbo and it helped sit him up even better, but all he wanted to do was lean over and put it in his mouth.
• sleeping inconsistently. Rolling over has made sleeping really difficult. He tries to bury his face to go to sleep, so he instantly flips over when you lay him down. We've both had colds this past week, so he has trouble breathing too, which makes him not sleep so well either. I've also always used a boppy pillow and propped up a bottle to get him to sleep, but now that he's flipping out of the pillow, I'm trying to develop better sleeping habits. The problem arises in the fact that he's not used to sleeping in the wide open bed AND he's getting quite accustomed to using a bottle to fall asleep. I still think he can fall asleep without the bottle, but it's fairly standard. So, in the past weeks, Josiah has been going to bed at midnight-1am, waking up every 3-4 hours, waking up crying and needing a bottle to get back to sleep, and not sleeping his normal 10-12 hours total. I know that he isn't necessarily hungry. He's just really upset. But all of the previously-mentioned factors combined makes it hard to soothe himself to sleep. I tried to break him of all bad habits at once and we're both getting pretty sleepless night. So, I've decided to still give him a bottle if he's not falling asleep, but to not have him in the boppy pillow. Now, he's getting used to sleeping without the pillow and just in the bed, and then I'm hoping to wean him off of the bottle for sleeping. So far, this morning, he did fall asleep without the bottle but only slept for a short while before waking up inconsolably. So I gave him a bottle then and he's now asleep. I decided long ago to not stress out about how many hours he sleeps or what time he goes to bed, as long as it's working for us. But I would like him to go to sleep by 10 at the latest, and I also don't like that he's waking up crying so much. I went to check on him earlier, and he was tossing and turning, crying and whining, but with his eyes shut. I know he's trying to get himself to sleep, but it's hard to listen to him cry that much and know that picking him up isn't going to help. I liked it better when he was sleeping 7-8 hours at a time before waking up, and was waking up smiling. I'm hoping that the sickness has something to do with our difficulties and that it will mend itself...
• reaches for me when I go to pick him up out of bed or his jumperoo. He also cuddles with me. He just completely relaxes and lays his head against my chest. I also think he hugs and kisses me. When I hug him, he leans more into me and squeezes his arms. And when I kiss him, he opens his mouth and "kisses" me back. He hasn't had any separation anxiety or turn away/fuss when anyone else tries to hold him which I am happy about. I read that this can happen at this age, but I think it'll make things more difficult if he does, so I don't want him to do that.
• "talks" quite a bit. Aside from squeals and whines and other noises, Josiah has started making a couple of consonant noises. His main one is "aah-da-da-da-da", but we've heard a "ta" sound occasionally too. If I encourage him to say, "ma-ma", he just smiles really big, but doesn't even try to mimic it. 

I have more to update, about Jesse's schooling and my daycare and other blogging ideas, but since this is pretty long, I'll end it here. If you want to see more pictures, I am still doing my "Project 365" blog. I update it at the end of every week. And I post TONS of pictures on Facebook. Just request me as your friend on there.