ONE

One. Our little baby boy is one year old today! Where did the time go? It's flown by, but at the same time, bringing him home from the hospital seems light years away. He's grown so much and learned so many things in this past year. He's fastly becoming a little boy. I know I skipped the 11 month update (but I do have pictures!) so I'll do a long, in-depth update on him at this momentous milestone.

First, basics:

Eat, Sleep, Poop

Well, that's how it was the first couple of months, except he cycled that every 3-4 hours. Now, he gets 2-3 bottles a day (one in the morning, one mid-day, and one right before bed). He's currently on formula now but we'll probably try to ween him off and get him on whole (cow) milk soon. We'd like to get the official ok from his pediatrician before doing that though, and his 12 month check-up isn't till the end of the month. He does love drinking from his sippy cup though. He loves drinking water and is starting to like milk. We've only tried juice (watered down) a few times but he seems completely happy with water so that's fine with us.

Eating - this little guy can eat! He's quite small for his age but the little dude can pack it away. His favorite food continues to be bananas, but give him any fruit and he'll kill it. In fact, we can only give him a few pieces at a time because he'll pick up a handful of the fruit pieces and shove it in his mouth and ask for more, even though his cheeks are packed and he can barely open his mouth to chew. Other fruits he loves are peaches, blueberries, pears and watermelon. He also loves bread, crackers and graham crackers. Loves anything with cheese, especially mac and cheese. He seems to really like things with a lot of flavor, which I guess shouldn't be surprising because that's the way we are too - we like bold flavors. For the most part, we give him whatever we're eating. We just chop it up small for him. Like this week, he had BBQ chicken and roasted potatoes, chicken tikka masala, and last night we had spaghetti with meatballs. He also started on the school lunch this week as well. We're just supplementing some of the things because he can't quite eat everything yet. Like he can't eat carrot sticks, so we pack a small portion of steamed carrots and peas (which he loves!) for him as a vegetable side dish for lunch. Eating has never been a struggle for us and he seems to love almost everything we give him.

Sleeping - Depending on the day, he takes 1 or 2 naps a day. He usually takes 2, but there are some days where he'll only take 1. I imagine that he'll be down to 1 nap in the next month or so. He goes to bed around 7:30 - 8:00pm each night (again, depending on how many naps he gets). Lately, he's been going to bed by himself without any fuss at all. We give him his bath, brush his teeth (which he loves to do!), read books, give him a bottle, kiss him goodnight and lay him down in his crib with his paci and his bear blanket. And that's it! He might play around in his crib for a little while but usually within 20 min, he'll be asleep. It's been SO nice. We found out the trick was to only crack the door so he couldn't see you. That way, we could peek in to check in on him but he couldn't see you. In the past, once he saw you, he'd fuss until we'd pick him up and then we'd end up rocking him to sleep. Now we know it's better to not be seen at all. He wakes up around 6:15-7:00am, which means no sleeping in for us - ever. On the weekends, we've been bringing him into bed with us once he wakes up and he'll sit between us, crawl around and play. It's nice having that quiet time in the morning.

Poop - Won't comment much on this except that since he eats so much fruit, it's never a problem.

Developments

• No walking but cruising. He started cruising on Memorial Day weekend. He doesn't cruise much because we don't have that many long pieces of furniture. He mostly cruises along the coffee table or over by the hall cabinets. He does love to push his little car around that can walk behind. Loves it. He'll push it all around the house and he'll get mad when he hits a wall. He'll bringing it back and keep banging it against the wall/furniture until we come and help him turn it around. Then he's all smiles as he's barreling down the hall at full speed. He also loves walking while you're holding his hands. We've been working on just holding one hand this past week but it really depends on what mood he's in. Sometimes he'll do it, sometimes he won't. He loves when we hold his hands to walk and he kicks a ball around. Loves it! He laughs out loud when the ball goes really far. He is so proud of himself!
• ****I wrote this post on his actual birthday but am only getting around to posting it now. Anderson has begun taking his first steps! He started on Tuesday, July 14 and is practicing a little every day. I know it's only a matter of time until he is running around!
  

• He doesn't stand on his own too much, but can for a short period of time. He used to hold on to something to pull himself up to standing, and then let go. Now he seems to want to just go straight up, stand, hold it, and then come back down when he feels like he's had enough.


• Words - he says mama when he specifically wants mama. He says dada but I'm not sure he's said it directly to Wilson yet. He rambles it a lot though. He says "nana" for banana. In fact, I've shown him a picture of a banana and asked him what it was and he smiled at me and said "nana"! The other morning, he was able to say "beah" for bear, but I haven't heard him say it since.


• He's able to point at a few things when we ask him "where is _____". He's able to do "Where's your head?" "Where's the fan?" "Where's the tree?" He'll also point and go "eh, eh, eh, eh" (that whiny voice) when he's trying to communicate what he wants. We're currently working on "Where's your belly?"


• He'll only kiss inanimate objects now. When he was younger, he'd readily give you all the kisses you wanted. Now, he'll only kiss toys or books. Not people :( He'll only kiss people when he kisses a toy first. When you do ask for a kiss before giving him a toy to kiss first, he'll just lean in and hit you with his forehead.


• He's been really into books lately. He'll pick out a book and hold it out to you as if he's asking you to read it. One time, he got a book from the bookshelf, crawled all the way to the kitchen and brought it to me to read. And he'll (most of the time), sit in your lap and listen to the whole story. He still loves turning the pages and almost seems to know when it's time to do so. His favorite book by far is currently "Engine, Engine Number Nine." And every night we read "The Crunching, Munching Caterpillar" and once we get it out, he immediately reaches for it and gives the Caterpillar on the cover a kiss.
  


• He just learned how to turn on and off the lights/fan with the light switch. Now he wants to do it all the time. The first thing he does when he wakes up and we pick him up out of his crib is point to the light switch.

Personality

Anderson is a happy, funny, cuddly little guy. He loves to laugh and play. He loves playing with water. At school, they have water day every Wednesday and he loves it. He splashes in the little pool they have out and is fearless in the water. He's made the other babies cry when he splashed them. But he doesn't care if you splash him. He might rub his eyes a little to get the water away but he'll splash you right back - harder! Anderson's a little ham too. He loves going "phwwtt!" with his tongue and "blow bubbles" (aka spit). He does this a school and makes the other babies laugh and laugh. If he finds out something makes you laugh, he'll keep doing it over and over. Sometimes, he'll share his snack with you, but sometimes it's only a tease. For example, he'll be eating a cracker and he'll hold out a piece as if to say "you want some mommy?" I would say 70% of the time he'll hold it out, let me take a bite, smile and then take his bite. But sometimes, he'll hold it out, wait till my mouth is wide open and I'm inches away and he'll pull it back towards him and squeal with laughter.

He is starting to show a little temper though. If you take something away from him that he really wants, he'll sit there a cry and cry. We usually try to distract him with something else since we don't want to give in and let him think he can get his way all the time. But for the most time, he is such a happy child. We've been really blessed with what we think is the most perfect child and we both love every second of being a parent. I don't think either of us could imagine how much we'd absolutely love being a parent and we couldn't love Anderson more. This past year has definitely been a whirlwind. It's been the most challenging thing we've ever done but the most rewarding as well. Anderson is such a wonderful, beautiful child and I couldn't imagine loving him anymore than I already do. But I know that more he grows, learns, and his personality develops, I'm going to love him more and more each day.

I haven't gotten around to taking his official 12 month picture yet, but here are a few pics of his First Birthday party we had at our house this past weekend. Unfortunately, there aren't that many since both Wilson and I were busy hosting, taking care of Anderson, or visiting with our guests. It was a nice little party and it was really fun seeing all the kids play together. No one cried and it seemed as though all the little kids got along really well.

The birthday banner I made especially for the occasion

Trenton, Gabby, Anderson and Xavier playing around the cooler.

We're all singing Happy Birthday to Anderson and he's looking around not knowing what is going on. I have to hold it out for him because he'll grab it as soon as it hits the tray.

Anderson sticking his finger in frosting for the first time

Mmmm......yummy. Me like!

This cupcake is pretty good mama!

Here is Anderson trying to "share" his cupcake with me. Such a sweet guy.

Playing with the cupcake topper I made (with Wilson's help). Don't worry, I only let him play with it for picture purposes and promptly took it away once I got a good picture. I wanted a picture with "1" in it so I could remember it was his 1st birthday.

With the few people remaining, we tried to take a group picture of the kids, but they weren't having it. They are all so mobile now, none of them wanted to sit still. But you can see Anderson's birthday present from us in this picture - his own little chair. He loves it and climbs in and out of it. Sometimes he'll even sit and look at a book in his chair. (In the picture with Anderson is Collin (Left - who just turned 1 yesterday) and Matthew (Right - Wilson's cousin's son who is 15 months)

10 Month Update

Oh my goodness. Where do I even start?! Things happen so fast these days and things change every single day. I guess the biggest news is that 2 days shy of his 10 month birthday, the little guy started crawling. He has a little car that he can ride on, or walk behind and he was trying to get to it. He was reaching for it when Wilson decided to move it just beyond his reach. And then....he just went for it! No struggle, just crawled! Now, he is everywhere. And I mean everywhere. He does not sit still. He is always on the move. Sometimes he crawls normally, meaning both knees on the ground. And sometimes he does this crawl/walk where he crawls with one knee and then walks with the other. Wilson calls it is Gollum crawl. (Gollum from Lord of the Rings)

Here are other observations/thoughts/developments:

• He can pull himself up to standing quite easily now. In fact, we've had to lower his crib down to the lowest standing because we found him standing up in his crib, peering over the edge one morning.
  
• He is so much happier now that he can move. He's always been a happy baby but he is just loving his new found freedom. One of his favorite things to do is to crawl over to the coffee table and take down all the magazines off the shelf.
  
• He's a clapper. He loves clapping. Seriously loves clapping. One time, I was helping him walk by holding his hands and wanted to get down on the ground. Why? To clap.
  
• He loves to laugh and smile. Even at strangers. He's quite the flirt.
• He's letting us spoon feed him again without a fight but still loves to feed himself. One of his new favorite snacks are Baby Goldfish. It's for him but I see dad sneak in a couple (okay, handfuls) at snack time too.
  
• Loves to throw balls (or anything) and then chase after them.
• Also loves to hold two objects (one in each hand) and knock them together. Each time he does it, he looks up at us for approval, which we gladly give him, and then laughs in delight.
  
• Now that he's crawling, he goes for Sammy quite a bit. Unfortunately, all he wants to do is pull on his tail which isn't the smartest thing to do. So far now, we've had to keep them apart. It used to be us yelling at Sammy to leave Anderson alone. Now, it's the opposite.
  
• He's starting to get quite ticklish
• Very vocal and talkative. He definitely says Mama and Dada, although he will babble dadadada throughout the day even when Dada isn't around. We also think he knows "dog" since sometimes when he's sees Sammy, he look at him and saw "daw".
  
• Loves trees and is completely fascinated by them, especially when the wind blows and they move.
• He's growing more hair!!
  
• And lastly, as I said before, he is on the go now. Constantly. Always on the move.

Here are a series of pictures for his 10 month update. It's getting really hard now to take a decent one of him on my own.

8 and 9 Month Update

I know I've been a little behind in updating the blog but I really hope to make it up in the next couple of days. I have been taking his monthly pictures though and intend to post as many pics as I can. Anyway, on to the update.

A lot has happened in these past couple of months. Our little baby is turning into a little boy! He seems to have suddenly grown so much in these past few weeks. I think the best way to recap all that has gone on and he's accomplished is to break it up...

Here are his stats real quick. At his 9 month well-baby appointment (which was actually 5 days past his 9 month birthday) he weighed in at 17lbs 6oz and 27.25 inches. Still a small little guy but still mighty cute.

First, here is his 8 month picture:

And a series of his 9 month picture:






As you can see, he can't sit still anymore. He is always on the move, or at least trying to move. He doesn't crawl yet but is trying. He can get on all fours and rocks back and forth. And then he either lunges towards something (usually we try to put one of his toys just out of reach so that he'll have to work to move to get it) or he'll just fall onto his belly and roll over. He's really close now and I can tell that one day, he'll just figure out to do it and amaze is.

One thing he is really good at is standing! The boy has always wanted to stand since he could hold his head. Seriously. It's quite possibly his favorite thing to do. And now he can pull him self up to standing if you're holding his hands. When he's lying on the floor, we hold out our hands and say "Anderson, hold on to our hands." Then he grab them while we pull him up to sitting position. Then, he'll pull your hands so that they are above his head and pull himself up to a standing position! He's really proud of himself every single time he does it and smiles and laughs. When he falls down, he'll just grab your hands again, put them above his head and repeat the process. Once he got mad at me because I wanted to clap instead of helping him stand. Just recently (meaning the last few days) he's been able to take a few steps while standing. He doesn't do it all the time but he's beginning to understand the concept of moving his feet while standing. He can't pull himself up to standing while holding onto other stationary objects (ie coffee table, sofa, etc..) So far it's only while we're holding his hands that he's able to do it. He seems much more interested in standing/walking than crawling. Who knows? Maybe he'll be one of those babies that skips crawling and goes straight to walking.

Okay, if there's anything he likes better than standing, it's eating. This boy LOVES to eat. Seriously LOVES to eat. He's still eating purees but finger foods is his real love. We started finger foods around 7 months with the puffs. Then we moved on to crackers only because I got so frustrated feeding him purees one night that I gave him a teeny tiny bit of my multi-grain cracker that I was snacking on before dinner. Well, he loved it and we haven't turned back since. He is quite the self-feeder. He's very good at it if I say so myself. Of course it took awhile for him to figure it out and get it into his mouth everytime, but at 9 months and 6 days, he's a pro at it. He would rather eat finger foods than purees so we're really trying to find and make different foods for him to eat. Stuff we've tried and he's loved are puffs (of course) bananas, avocados, pasta, mac and cheese, grated cheese, carrots, tofu (either plain or dusted with crushed crackers), graham crackers, turkey-apple meatloaf, sweet potato pancakes, peaches, bread, egg yolk, and today we tried cottage cheese. He seemed to like it but I think the jury is still out. Oh, he also tried so raspberry frozen yogurt.....and, uh, he liked it. He usually doesn't like cold things and usually scrunches up his nose, but then he tasted it and thought, Wow. Cold things can be yummy! We are constantly looking and searching for other finger foods that he can eat because 1) he likes it better than purees and 2) it gives us time to eat too since he's busy feeding himself. He still gets most of his veggies through puree but I think we're going to try and find some veggies he can eat. Here's a pic of the boy at work eating some cheese



Did I mention how happy Anderson is when he eats? He is always smiling, laughing, talking, screaming, and kicking his legs when he eats. He truly, truly loves food. Just like mommy and daddy ;)

When he was 8.5 months old, he finally cut his first tooth. It wasn't too bad but he was mighty cranky for a couple of days. Soon after, he cut his second tooth. Both are on the bottom. No more goofy toothless smile :(

Hmm...what else is he doing? For some reason, he's gotten into hitting himself on the head. No idea where that came from. He also shakes his head as if he's saying "no, no, no". I don't think he actually knows what "no" means, but when we say No, no, no, he'll shake his head. He likes to spit, which is real fun when you're trying to feed him purees. LOVES to drink water. We tried with the sippy cup but we just didn't have the patience so he just drinks from a cup. He love playing with balls. He'll pick them up and bang them together (something my mom taught him). He can even play catch with you! He can throw the ball towards you (he's really good if you're playing with the O-ball) and if you throw/roll it back, he'll pick it up and throw it again. He can also kick the ball (another thing my mom taught him). Just this past weekend, he learned how to high five and wave bye-bye. He's not waving every single time we do it, but he's good at the high-five.

All in all, the past couple of months we've seen him grow so much. We're having so much fun with him and are head over heals in love with our little guy. He is so happy and smiley and such an easy going baby. I can't believe 9 months has already passed. It goes by so quickly. My little baby is growing up to a little boy. But, at times, he still is our little baby


I'm sure there is so much more I can say about him and who he is but I think I'd be here forever.

7 Month Update

It really does go by fast. Our little guy is 7 months old! As you can see in his monthly picture, the biggest new thing is that he can sit up on his own. He's still a little wobbly at times. If he reaches too far to the left/right for a toy, down he goes. Sometimes he gets a little too excited, throws his arms in the air over his head, and down he goes. But no worries. Once he's on the ground, he'll just roll with it.



There's been a lot of talk about his hair (or lack of it). He's got my hair. It won't come in for 2 years, but once it's in, he'll have it for life. And lots of it. We've also had a few inquiries of whether or not we cut it. That's a no. But in the past couple of months, we've noticed that he's grown quite a bit! Relatively speaking of course. When you have almost no hair at birth, any hair is a lot! In fact, we've even taken a picture of it as proof. Here it is, in all it's glory. His little tuft of hair. Before you know it, he'll be asking daddy for some hair product!



Unfortunately, this past month he's been plagued with illness. He's had a cold and ear infections. Two ear infections to be exact. (But I'm not convinced that the first ear infection really went away.) This past weekend, he had just been diagnosed with an ear infection and given a course of antibiotics, but they weren't working and his fever was skyrocking. So our pediatrician advised us to go to Urgent Care (it was a Saturday) to get him checked out. After testing for influenza and his oxygen levels, they concluded that his antibiotics weren't working and we were given a new prescription. So far, it seems to be working out. The nice thing is that these medicines are tasty and he's more than willing to take them. In fact, he even cried once because there was no more medicine left. (I'm pretty certain that these antibiotics are more sugar than actual antibiotic.) Unfortunately, because he has been sick for...the past month, he's lost weight and is looking pretty skinny. Hopefully, he'll kick this ear infection and cold pretty soon and starting bulking up again.

Another big milestone is that we've started him on puffs! Those puff cereal for babies that dissolve in their mouth. We started him a week ago and he loves them! We break each piece in half because he's not quite ready for a whole one and he does great with them. The first time he tried it, he wrinkled his nose as if to say "Mama, what IS this?" but after a few seconds, he broke out into his toothless grin and opened his mouth for more. We've given him a whole piece a handful of times but to play it safe, we're still giving him half pieces. One of the times we gave him a whole piece, it didn't quite make it into his mouth all the way and it looked like he had little baby fangs!



Don't worry. He learned how to push the rest of it in with his hand. Ah, there we go...



He's also starting to interact with Sammy a little more. For the most part, we've kept Sammy at bay because all he wants to do is give the little guy kisses. Anderson is so intrigued with Sammy. He finds it hilarious when Sammy follows us around (while we're carrying him around the house). He even wanted to share one of his toys with Sammy one day when they were both playing on the ground. Too bad mommy wouldn't allow it. They do seem to have a lot to chat about though.





And here's one more pic just because I think it's so cute



All photo for this month's pictures (except for the monthly picture) was taken by Wilson.

5 & 6 Month Update

I realized that I have slacked and completely missed Anderson's 5 month update. So, we'll have to combine his 5 and 6 month update.

I did remember to take his 5 month picture:


And his 6 month picture:

Is it me or did he grow a lot this past month?! I didn't think he did but looking at these two pictures, I can really tell the difference. There's a slideshow at the end of this post from 1 month to 6 months! (It might take a little while to load)

His 6 month stats:

Weight: 16.1 lbs (25th percentile)

Height: 25.25 inches (10th percentile)

First off, I'll have to say that this has been such a fun age for us. We've loved every minute of the 5-6 month age so far. He readily responds to you and he's such a smiley, happy guy. He'll smile at almost everybody and will laugh out loud. It's so great.



Eating:
He still has milk 4-5 times a day and has two meals - breakfast and dinner. Breakfast is usually a fruit with some rice cereal. Dinner is usually a vegetable. So far we've tried apples, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, avocado, bananas and pears. Apples and sweet potatoes are a big hit! He makes a face when first tastes avocado but he keep eating it. I think he just needs to get used to the taste for the first couple of bites. We think he might be allergic to bananas and butternut squash so we've stopped feeding it to him. His face gets red and blotchy but it goes away in a couple of hours. I think we'll try it again when he's a little older. We just started pears and he seems to really like it. He's recognizing when food is coming and it's so funny to watch. His eyes get really big and he'll stretch his arms out and sometimes gives a little yell as if to say "Gimme!" He also loves chilling in his high chair. He's also pretty clean eater; we rarely give him a bib anymore.

We're trying to give him some juice and water but it's really hard to try to teach a child to drink from a cup (or sippy cup). If we give him the sippy cup, he readily holds it and puts it in his mouth but ends up just chewing on the spout. We've tried just letting him drink out of a cup but it ends up all over his shirt rather than in his mouth. If anyone has tips/advice, I'd gladly take it!


Personality:
Like I mentioned before, he's a pretty happy kid for the most part. When we wake him up in the morning, he'll take a minute to stretch and think about what's happening, and then he'll break out into a big smile. It seems pretty easy to make him smile since he'll pretty much smile at anything and everything. He laughs out loud too and it's just about the best sound in the world.

As I mentioned in the previous post, he started rolling from his back to his tummy on Christmas day. A real accomplishment! And in just two short weeks, he's become an expert roller. So much so that I think we'll have to spend some time this weekend babyproofing our house. He'll roll all the way across the room if we let him. And he came dangerously close to rolling into our fireplace the other day (hence, we need to babyproof). He'll even roll to get a toy every now and then. He's very close to sitting up on his own. He can do okay if he puts his arms out for balance but he doesn't stay there for too long. We can see him trying to sit up more so I know he's working on it.
He still puts everything in his mouth and loves looking at himself in the mirror. He also loves being thrown up into the air (this is quite a workout since he is 16 lbs now!). He also likes "flying" - we put him in flying position and we fly him around the house.

Oh, and he is a BIG talker. He talks quite a bit and is sometimes very loud. Sometimes he'll sigh really big before going on and on, almost as if he's saying "I had it really tough today. Let me tell you about it..."

Here are some pics from Christmas:

I haven't been able to experiment with my camera that much lately, but here is a pic I took while trying to work on setting up different shots and poses. You can see how enamoured he is with himself in the mirror.

4 months!

Anderson has been 4 months for awhile now but I wanted to make sure I did a 4 month update before he turned 5 months. They grow so much now that I don’t want to forget what happened and the new things he did. It’s such a fun time right now. He’s really interacting with you. He laughs and smiles all the time. He LOVES his jumperoo and goes crazy in it. We’ll often put him in the jumperoo while we eat or do dishes. He doesn’t like to be left alone for too long and will start whining and crying. But does he stop jumping? Nope. He jumps despite his tears. Usually what happens is a mixture of laughter and crying while he’s jumping. It’s pretty cute. And once he sees someone’s face, he’s back to all smiles.

At 4 months we had another well-baby visit and got his stats:

Weight: 14lbs 5oz (40th percentile)
Length: 23.75 inches (10th percentile)
Head Circumference: 41cm (20th percentile)

So he didn’t grow that much, but no one expects him to; again, it’s not like his parents are all that tall. His weight is right on track and he’s packing on the pounds.

Anderson at 4 months: (I realize to non-parents, this is utterly boring but believe me, when you have a child, any new thing they do is BIG news and the most amazing thing you’ve ever seen.)

• He’s playing with toys now which is really fun. He’ll actually grab and reach for things. I guess he doesn’t really play with them per se. “Playing” is him trying to shove everything in his mouth. His favorite toy by far is his “O” ball since it is so easy to grab. He’ll even hold this with both hands. But since it’s a ball, he gets really frustrated that not more of it can fit in his mouth.


• He’s constantly sucking these days. Sometimes it’s his fingers, sometimes it’s just his thumb. Sometimes he’ll try to get his whole fist in there. He’s always making himself gag but doesn’t seem to learn (and more importantly nothing has come up from this).


• He can switch hands! A lot of times he’ll be holding one toy in one hand and sucking on his fingers in the other. Once in awhile, he’ll decide that he wants to suck his other hand and put the toy in the other hand!


• He sits up very well with support. He can sit in his Bumbo and “play” with his toys.


• He still loves to read books.


• His favorite song is “If You’re Happy and you Know it”


• When lying on his back, he can roll onto his side easily. He’s thisclose to rolling onto his back. I think he can do it. I think the issue is if he wants to do it.


• On the morning of November 22, 2008 he rolled over for the first time from his tummy to his back. He had done it a couple of times before but I think they were on accident. This time, he really did it on his own and continues to do so. Of course, this makes getting in tummy time difficult because he knows how to get out of it but it’s so fun to watch him roll over and over again.


• Sleeping is still the same although we are trying to ween him off swaddling. Only one arm is swaddled now.


• He’s not a very good napper, sleeping only 20-30min at a time. Sometimes he’ll surprise us with an hour nap but it’s rare.


• We’re not starting solids until he’s 5 months but he did get a little taste of a mashed banana on my finger and seemed to really like it. We held up an apple to his mouth to see if he wanted to suck on it. Uhh….he did not.

Last but not least, his monthly pictures:


Anderson watches football with Wilson and Sundays. Of course he roots for the Chicago Bears!


And him doing the thing he loves to do. Putting toys in his mouth:

Three Months!

It's hard to believe but our little guy is already 3 months old. Officially, he turned 3 months on Oct. 9 but I was so tired and exhausted I didn't get a chance to take his 3 month picture till today. In looking back at his 2 month picture, I can't believe how much he's grown!

As a refresher, here he is a 2 months:
And here he is at 3 months! (I really tried this time to get the same position and ratio so that you can actually see growth. I'm looking at it now and I still need to do a better job at cropping)
I'm not sure if you can really tell from these pictures, but trust me, he's grown!

We haven't officially weighed him at the doctor's office, but I have weighed him on a baby scale and he's around 12.5 lbs. It's always hard to measure his height/length since he's always squirming around but our best estimate (which is measuring him 5 different times and taking the average) is 23.5inches. He graduated out of his 0-3 month clothes about 2 weeks ago and is filling in his 3-6 month clothes quite nicely.

As far as developments/new habits/likes/dislikes, there's been a lot:

• One of the biggest changes is that he's now moved into our room to sleep at night. Not in our bed, but he sleeps the bassinet of his pack n play at night now. Before, he slept in his nursery, either in the swing/glider chair or crib. When my parents visited, he slept in our room due to sleeping arrangements and found that he slept better. We're guessing that he knows we're there and feels safer. So, he's been there ever since.
  
• He's even developed a nighttime schedule! He goes to bed around 8:30pm, wakes up for a feeding between 12:30-1:30am, then again around 5:30-6:30am. Then it's up to him if he wants to wake up for the day or go back to sleep. If he does go back to sleep, then he'll wake up between 7:00-7:30am. This also means that we're getting sleep! We're still tired each day because the sleep is still broken up, but it's a lot better than what we were getting before.
• A couple of weeks ago, we decided that he was old enough to start learning some things. Some people are lucky that they have babies that were born knowing how to soothe themselves and fall asleep themselves. Not us. Ever since birth, we've been rocking and holding Anderson to sleep for naps and during the night. Putting him to sleep was not a problem. It's just getting him to stay asleep. It would take 5-10 min. to put him to sleep but then we'd have to hold him for another 20-30min. before we could put him down or else he'd wake up and we'd have to start the whole process over again. Even after 20-30min, it wasn't a sure thing that he'd stay asleep. You can imagine how frustrating it is when it's 2am and you've spent the last hour trying to get him to sleep. Most of the time, one of us would just end up sleeping with him on our chest. Anyway, we decided that he should start learning to fall asleep on his own. To our surprise, he took to it right away! We wait to get the "sleep cues", put him down, give him a pacifier (which he only just started taking), put on his Jazz lullaby CD (which I love and would definitely recommend) and pretty soon, he's off to la la land. Naps are a little tougher and he doesn't stay asleep for too long. But at night, he's been sleeping longer because he knows how to put himself to sleep. And if he does wake up and needs help, a little shushing and a belly rub later, he's back asleep. This has seriously changed our lives. Half of my day would be spent either putting him to sleep, or holding him while he slept. Now that I rarely have to do this, I've had much more time to do other things around the house.
• He LOVES looking at himself in the mirror. LOVES it. He can go from an all out bloody murder wail to a smile once he catches a glimpse of himself. It's pretty cute. Then he'll turn away, bury his face in your chest, then turn back to the mirror to see if he's still there. And again, he'll smile and laugh at himself.
  
• I am sure that we, his parents, are the only ones that find this funny, but he's now developed a "poop face." It's kinda this sneer and is sometimes, but not always, accompanied by a little grunt. Ahh...boys will be boys.
  
• He loves looking at lights, which is why I sometimes find him staring at the TV if I'm not careful.
  
• He loves music. Sometimes we'll just sit together in the morning and listen to songs on my ipod.
  
• The one thing I think he hates the most, is his car seat. Sometimes he's fine in it, but most times, he's not. We've tried almost everything. We have a mirror that plays music in front of him for entertainment, we've put a blanket to block out extra stimulation (some kids get overstimulated and can't handle it), loud white noise. We've ordered a convertible car seat and will see if that does the trick. Cross your fingers for us!

I'll end with some pictures we've taken of him recently:

Two Months!

Anderson is 2 months old today! We went for his well-baby visit and got his stats:

Weight: 11 lbs 1oz (35th percentile)
Length: 22.5 inches (35th percentile)
Head Circumference: 37.5cm (10th percentile)

He's growing well and everything looks good. He's a little on the small side but he's very well proportioned. He's happy and healthy and that's all that really matters. He also got his first set of shots which he took very well. It did make him sleepy for most of the day, but if that's the only side effect, I can live with that.

So what is he like at 2 months?

• He loves being upright, either sitting or standing. Of course we help him. He's also fine chillin in his boppy. He actually hates being held like a baby unless he's tired and wants to go to sleep.
• He loves being on the changing pad. Which is weird because earlier, he would scream bloody murder if he touched that thing. You would think we were physically harming this child, but we were just changing his diaper.
  
• He's also really starting to like his baths!
• He loves clapping hands (we help with this) and singing songs.
  
• He loves playing "Tour de France" (bicycling his legs to help develop muscles)
• And of course, he smiles and laughs and coos. This is by far the best thing. I only happens a few times a day, but you live for this moments. We even have video of it!
  

This slide show didn't really turn out the way I wanted to, mainly because I realize that the 1 month picture is much tighter, thus making him actually look bigger than his 2 month. Oh well. I still think it's kinda cool. I'll do a better job next time at being more consistent.