Jersey #5

Jersey #5 is my easy-going baby. He is my reward for surviving the unsocial challenges of Jersey #3 and Jersey #4. He is friendly. He is social. He is smiley.

And he is a TANK.

Jersey #5 is a BIG boy. He was born a regular size, and quickly grew from there. He is by far, my largest child. He measures taller and heavier than any of my other children, at any stage of development. His growth runs along the 95 percentile curve for both height and weight. If he continues this trend, we expect him to be well over 6 feet tall in adulthood. The boy is large.

Jersey #5 threw me off course, because he absolutely refused to breastfeed. Refused. He nursed once at birth, and never again. I was convinced that I could over come him. I had already nursed 4 other children, for crying out loud, so I knew what I was doing. The nurses at the hospital were convinced that they could rile him up to help him latch on. The only thing we succeeded at doing was taking a very mellow baby and getting him to scream until his voice was hoarse. I pumped breastmilk for him and continued to coax him to nurse for weeks. Then one day it struck me that he was otherwise always content, mellow, and easy going.....but a split second after I put him to the breast, he would scream. I decided to give up my determination to breastfeed and settled for very mellow, happy bottle-fed baby boy.

I continued to pump breastmilk for him until my supply went away. The pump is just not as good as the baby. My hearty eater would respond to the sound of the breastpump. If he was sleeping, he would wake up when he heard the pump going, and would demand his bottle. The Referee would tend to him and give him the pep talk that if he would just cut out the "middle man" he could have his meals right from the source.

Feeding Jersey #5 became a family activity. We all found it fun to hold him and feed him his bottle. He loves to eat. It was even more fun the day he started eating cereal, because everyone took a turn to spoon feed him. Granny jokes that the reason he is so big is that he has so many people to feed him!

Like his big brother, Jersey #5 was just not content with baby food in jars. We quickly moved to pureeing everything in sight, including meat. He was so good with texture, so young, that we quickly moved away from puree to just squashing food with a fork for him. He has always had a hearty appetite. And he was the happiest well-fed baby.

Jersey #5 is also my most physical child. I am guessing his size plays a role in this trait, because he is accustomed to everything and everyone moving out of his way. He is heavy and he is strong.

He was very young when he started pushing and hitting when things did not go his way. He tested the limits of everyone else's physical strength, which was new to me. I was stunned the day he walked up to me in the kitchen and kicked my leg. He did give a little "hi-ya" as he kicked, so I told him that he was banned from watching Daddy's Tae Kwon Do class.

It did not help that all of his siblings ran from him. He started swinging toys around and throwing them across the room at such a young age, that by the time he could pick up a baseball bat or a stick, and walk with it, all of his older siblings would run out of the room to get away from him. We actually had to teach the older kids to stand their ground with him (and remember their own size), so that we could train him out of being a bully. I had never heard of such a parenting requirement before I had to experience it. Now that he is a toddler, we are finding it easier to start teaching him proper technique for hitting and kicking, as if he were a martial arts student. He likes the praise for practicing in the air, and leaves his siblings alone.

Part of the problem is his great size and part of the problem is his bull-headed personality. Jersey #5 is more than stubborn, he is bull-headed. He does not take the time to work out the details. He just barrels through life. He throws a fit before he thinks about how an obstacle could be easily moved out of his way, and save him the frustration. He does not redirect easily. A tantruming bully....now that is a force to reckon with.

Thankfully, Jersey #5 loves attention. He took to the concept of giving hugs as an apology for his bully behaviors so well, that he is now more of a lover than a fighter. If he hurts one of his siblings by accident, he wraps his arms around them as soon as he hears the word "Ouch!" Since he weighs as much as Jersey #4 already, sometimes his hugs turn into tackling her to the ground. So, there is still room for improvement.

Jersey #5 is our comedic entertainment. He will repeat any behavior that earned a laugh. He giggles and laughs through the day, especially at the sight of his meals. When I looked over the pictures that Granny had taken while the kids stayed with her, I noticed that Jersey #5 was eating and snacking in almost every picture. It takes a lot of food to fill a tank.

Jersey #5 takes after his big sisters in that he is friendly, social, and enjoys meeting new people. He is a quiet kid...and he is not clingy....so I really have to keep an eye on him or he will wander away as things catch his attention, because he does not worry about having me in sight. Jersey #5 is a little Romeo who always stops to smile and wave at the little girl toddlers he sees.

At 21 months old now, Jersey #5 is right-handed and counting 1-5. He is our little parrot who repeats everything he hears us say. I especially appreciate his "Yes Ma'm" obedience right now. It helps me know that he is actually complying with my requests because he nods and says "Es A'am." I know it won't be long before he leaves this phase of compliance and moves into another phase of testing limits, so I am enjoying it while it lasts.