Funny Cousins, Hesitant Dogs and New Tricks, oh my!

As we approach your 5 month-iversary far too quickly, each week brings new fun, new friends and new feats!

First off...every week just before SHARK WEEK, it's COUSIN WEEK here in Dallas. This used to be called Nephew/Niece week, but since you're here and they're YOUR cousins, it's now called COUSIN WEEK.

Every summer more and more of your Uncle Dana's and Aunt Mendi's children come up to Dallas to spend time with Mimi and Pops, go to art Camp and hang out with their Uncle Aaron and Aunt Holly. This year, they got to hang out with their Aunt and Uncle...AND their cousin!

So, in reverse order, you got to chill with Holden:
Cuddle with Grayson...

Goof with Griffin...and play with Haley!

You really were fascinated by this small contingent of your first cousins. They all really love you and delighted in making you smile and laugh! Cousin Week will only get better and better!

But, of course, no matter how much you love your cousins, they simply can't compare to your four-legged friends. This week you finally got up the courage and motor skills to go after your dogs. You love these critters a lot and just stare at them, mouth agape, smile plastered on. When the dogs are playing, you are watching. When the dogs are near, you're interested. When the dogs want to lick your face, you open your mouth up wide for a kiss. We really need to work on the last one.

But, we caught a really sweet moment on camera as you got to pet Toby for the first time (by your own volition). It was really sweet for you. Probably not so sweet for Toby.


You pet him...

You grab him...You see him...
You WANT him! (He's smartly skeptical)
Toby did really well with this encounter. They really do seem to like you...but they really shouldn't pass judgment until you start crawling.

This week was also filled with some awesome new sleep habits.

First, check out these moments that your Grandma caught. This is a new sleep technique that you've mastered called the "chillax":


The "chillax" is often performed while napping in the swing:
And, of course, everybody's favorite which you just started this week was the "Ostrich":




There was also a great sleep move I witnessed called the "teeterer"... in which you are sleeping on your side...and then lose your balance a little and almost roll to your back, but you flail your arms and legs to catch you back on your side. Then you fall asleep again on your side and lose your balance a little and almost roll to your back...rinse and repeat.

You also had some waking feats as well! Namely, you found your feet.

I was so lucky to be there for it! This was, by all accounts, your third feet finding mission. The other two occurred during diaper time, and really complicated things. This was photographable and less complicated. But still quite an accomplishment!

Check it out!

No feet:

Oh hey, those are my feet!
These are MY things on the bottom of my legs? They're pretty bendy...
I will try to rip them open and see if there's milk inside.

Nope...no luck. I give up. These suck.Oh hey...what are these things at the bottom of my legs? I like them! I will grab them!

I will wiggle them all over the place! a LOT! I WILL CATCH YOU!

We counted...all ten toes were accounted for after this incident.

You also had some great moments with Grandma, who got to babysit with you a bunch this week. (And one day, I'm going to get her to write a blog entry too! I know she can do it!)

She caught you really really REALLY smiling:
And fighting a T-rex (which shows some serious dexterity!)

Speaking of dexterity though, you really surprised me with a major leap forward in your hand eye coordination. You've been grabbing things you want for a while now, and manipulating them too. You even started doing this "I see it...I grab it" thing that's really cool. Except at dinner. On Sunday we had dinner with all your cousins and Mimi and Pops at a Japanese restaurant. I was eating and had you in my lap.

In a split second you had reached forward, grabbed my Bento Box and were pulling it toward you. Luckily, your Mom reached out with lightning reflexes and saved both you and me from getting majorly teriyaki'd!

So, Cousin Week was an astounding success! Next week will be even more of a challenge! We're going to the Beach...to stay in a house...with ALL of your cousins! Including two you haven't met yet! (And your Aunt Deborah and Uncle Keith!)

So get ready for some more adventures, some more cousins and more developmental milestones! (just as long as they don't involve you and me covered in teriyaki sauce!)

What's in Store: Grocery Carts, Country Roads and 4 Month Checkup

Your Mom and I (and the world) have a lot in store for you! And some of the things we have in store for you actually involve the store.

Which store? You may ask.

Well, you've been to lots of stores: Target (at least 2 times a day on weekends as long as your Mom is deciding where we go), Kohl's, even Home Depot. But the one store you haven't been to yet is THE store...the grocery store.

We just didn't know how one person could push you in the stroller and push the grocery cart...or if we put your car seat in the grocery cart then there'd be no room for groceries. But, we finally had a perfect opportunity, and the right tool (thanks to Aunt April) to put YOU in the grocery kart! And though you were a bit wobbly, and it still took two people, you really seemed to like riding around in the grocery store.


What else did we have in store for you? Your first trip to Great Grandma's house. Actually, we wound up going to your Great Aunt Nessa's cabin instead, but you get the idea.

Out in the country, you got to hang out with Great Aunt Nessa:

Grandma:
Your Second Cousin Kaelyn:


(who went to give you a kiss but accidentally head butted you...and then pretty much lost interest in you and gained more interest in your green chair)

And your Great Aunt Chrissy:

And then it was on to nap time...
Apparently napping with grandmas is the thing to do!
And then when you woke up you got to hang out with Great Grandma...


and Great Grandpa and your cousins Devon and Jenny and Great Uncle Phil too. You did great out in the country. I think being loved on by all your relatives suited you just fine...

And you had more in store for you this week as well. You got to spend part of the days with Mimi and Pops and Grandma (that's right, Nita has officially chosen 'Grandma' over 'Nanneh'...for now). And when babysitting, Pops likes to, among other things, go for long Wii walks with you:

but sometimes he gets a little crazy... look out!

And that brings us to yesterday. Your Mom and I knew what was in store for you. And we weren't too happy about it. You, however, were none the wiser about what was coming. We let you have as good of a morning as possible, which included taking goofy pictures with Daddy.

(Don't worry, we're both clothed: one in a diaper, one in shorts. Which is which?)

Oh yeah, quick side bar: you started sucking on your bottom lip this week as well. And as you can see in the picture, it's a trend that's gaining momentum!

Back to reality: At 9:30 a.m., we packed up, put on brave faces and went to see the Doctor for your Four Month check up.

First things first, they weighed and measured you. Your Mom guessed you would be 16 pounds. I thought 16.5. Uncle BJ guessed 4 pounds, but that was an uninformed guess, to say the least.

But in Price is Right rules, he won, because everyone else over guessed!

You weighed in at 14 pounds 6 ounces!

This is by no means giant...in fact as a friend pointed out, her 3 month old son weighed 16 pounds and could theoretically eat you (which I don't think is a good idea). But, it's a great weight to be at! You're at the 50th percentile for weight. And, I dont' recall the exact height, but you're around 25 inches tall...putting you around the 70-75th percentile for height (You were 25 1/4 inches tall!). Tall and skinny! Just like... no one in the family. That's odd. Maybe you'll break the mold!

You were really in love with the butcher paper they put on the exam table and you wouldn't hold still. You wiggled and squirmed and tore and chewed and drooled. You tried to eat the Doctor's hand while she was checking your heart beat...but, in your defense, it WAS within reach! You were having a grand old time at the Doctor's.


A grand old time, that is, until the nurse came in to give you your four month shots! I had to hold you down while the nurse gave you three shots in your leg muscles and you cried and cried and wailed and I even saw you squeeze out a single tear! It was horrible...for us.

When the shots were done and I could pick you up, you immediately stopped crying. Then your Mommy fed you and you seemed to feel better immediately!

Although, the baby acetomenophin we gave you probably helped too.

The rest of the day was a blast, and you and your Mommy even got to take twinsy naps together...with Toby at your side.
But what's in store for you now? You'll like this news, maybe. You've doubled your birthweight (and then some!), so the Doctor said you were ready to start trying solid foods!

Up to this point the only thing you've ever eaten is Breast Milk! But now... now you get veggies and cereal and fruit, oh my!

What will we start with? How will it go? How many bibs will we go through? I guess we'll have to find out...there's a lot in store for all of us!

But, the creatures who stand to gain the most from the new developments are the ones who stand just under 1.5 feet tall... with all the food dropping that's going to start happening soon Toby and Preston will definitely have something to wag about.

Fourth & Fireworks: Finding your Voice and your Toys!

This week you celebrated your First Fourth of July! Not that you'd notice, or anything, because we didn't go to any fireworks shows or anything. But next year, I promise, we'll go to fireworks; we normally go every year! But, since it was raining and also since we didn't want to keep you out until after midnight, we decided to do a more low-key friends-of-july event instead.

At said event, your Godmother took some more amazing pictures of you doing some tummy time and exercises and playing! Here are some of my favorites!

Even though we didn't go see a fireworks show, we got some amazing, surprising fireworks from you the whole week after all.

First of all, you have become a really active little boy! You can roll over with ease now, and are routinely doing it in your sleep. But imagine my surprise when I went to get you on Monday morning and you were laying in your crib, face up, with your head at the opposite end of the crib as we put you down in! That's right: you were placed in bed with your head on the left side of the crib, and you woke up with your head on the right!

At first I figured that your Mom just put you down in the other direction after feeding you in the middle of the night. But, the lady, she did protest. You moved around all by yourself!

That means that you rolled over on your belly, then scooted around about 180 degrees and then rolled back onto your back!

How's that for a firework?

Oh, not enough for you? Well, even though you were showing signs of 'talking' as much as 2 weeks ago, this week you really seem to have found your voice, making all sorts of cute noises, cooing, screaming, ahhing, oohing, mimicking and almost-laughing! You make your Mommy and me smile so much when you make these noises! It's even better when we have a 'conversation' - and you back-and-forth with us!

Now, of course, taking a video of you talking is almost as difficult as taking a clear picture of the Loch Ness monster. You make all these noises to us and when the cameras are rolling, you clam up! But, with some clever misdirection and patience, we were able to capture a decent conversation!

To make it even better, this week we decided you were old enough to be on your own. Kind of. While your Mom and I are doing work during the days, you do work too: you play in your pack-and-play all by yourself! Rolling, and playing with toys and chit chatting; hanging out on your tummy, going after your favorite toys and just chillin'!

You really love hanging out in your pack-and-play!

You've also developped a bit of a crush...on this Baby Einstein Band Turtle. The deal is when you squeeze one of his limbs, he plays one of four parts of a song- the percussion, the strings, the vibes or the brass. And when you hit his tummy, he plays all four parts in unison...making a whole (not yet annoying) tune.

Occasionally in the past you've shown signs of activating the turtle's melodies, but this week you really seem to realize what your doing. Almost like a causal relationship has been identified: if I mash this green thing, it makes noise!

Who knows if you know that or not; but I do know that you seem to like this toy a lot (most of the time!) And that yesterday in the play pin you were having a ball activating the toy over and over again!

Like I said before, Band Turtle has definitely risen in the ranks to become one of the favored toys. And that's super cool that you can even show preference! But, Crinklephant (Or Ella Finkle) (the blue crinkly elephant), is still up in the pantheon of interesting toys too.

You took a nap with Crinklephant on your lap and when you woke up you looked around a little and saw the little blue toy on your lap and immediately started manipulating it, grabbing it, tugging it and, yes, trying to eat it.Your dexterity has improved so much! Yesterday you were playing with a plastic ring toy and just feeling every bump and rotating it (and trying to eat it), and occasionally the toy would slide out of your hand and, like an over-large bracelet, slide all the way down your arm. You protested. You got a little fussy...you could no longer play with the toy! So we would take turns going and helping you get the toy back into your little hands!

Needless to say, it's incredible to watch you develop so much and so quickly! Those are some good fireworks, right: preference, dexterity, vocalizations, associations, oh my!

But, we know you're still our sweet baby too! We're not ready for you to grow up quite yet!

And that's why, the grand finale, is just an explosion of all that you love right in your face. And for you, that grande finale of the Fourth of July Fireworks has to be a MILK FACE!!!!!!!!!!!