Cereal!

At Evan's 4 month doctor appointment, the doc told us that we can start cereal any time we'd like. I was guessing he'd say to wait until 6 months since that seems to be the common guidance right now. Nope. He said to do cereal for a few weeks then start adding veggies and then fruits. By his 6 month appointment he should be eating cereals and all fruits and veggies.

Because I had heard so much about a belly full of cereal and sleeping through the night, I was more than eager to give it a try. We made our first attempt on Monday night. The box said to mix one tablespoon of cereal with 4-5 tablespoons of milk so I did just that. Ha! I was essentially feeding him ever-so-slightly thicker milk on a spoon.

At first, he just made faces and gave us looks like, "Why the hell are you putting this in my mouth?!?"  And he was keeping very little of it in his mouth.

I tested the temperature and it was just lukewarm, so I popped it into the microwave for 5-10 seconds. That made it a little warmer so I hoped he'd like that better. He's very picky about the temperature of his bottle so it made sense to us. His reaction to that was... wow, just wow...hard to describe, really. It was like that spoonful of cereal was the worst, most scorching hot thing to ever pass his lips. He thrashed around like he was dying. I'm not kidding, it was not hot in the slightest. My child, the drama queen.

So, we let him sit in his chair while we ate dinner and that (apparently) hot-as-lava cereal cooled. When we finished dinner, we gave it another go. A few more terrible faces and he started to warm up to it a little. By the time we made it halfway through the bowl, he was holding his mouth wide open and fussing for more if we didn't get the spoon back to his mouth quick enough.

Talk about a quick turnaround!

We now have two more nights under our belts. We thickend it up significantly and he's still doing okay. He still makes terrible faces even though he's awaiting the next spoonful with a huge gaping mouth.



nom, nom, nom



Oh, by the way, the whole belly full of cereal and sleeping through the night stuff? Total crap!

Month Four

Dear Evan,

Wow. What a month! (Do I say that every month?) Your forth month of life started with Halloween, ended with Thanksgiving and everything in between was a whole bunch of sick. Yep, first me and you, then daddy, then all three of us. Lucky for us, daddy and I were far more miserable and whiney than you. For that reason, there is no slide show for this month. After all, snot and boogers and crusty eyes don't make good pictures.

For Halloween, we dressed you up as Stewie Griffin and took you to work to show you off. Everyone loved you... or at least "ooooh"-ed and "aaaaah"-ed for our benefit. And, they laughed because that was a seriously good costume for you! We took some of their candy on your behalf. Thank you.

"Stewie" and Tracy

Your development this month has been amazing. (And, it's sort of amazing what we think is amazing. We adults really take the little things for granted!) You've started reaching for things and grabbing everything. And it all goes in your mouth! You hold things, like the rattle, in front of your face and inspect them....put them in your mouth... study them some more... rinse, repeat. Daddy likes to think you're trying to figure out how they're constructed and how you'll take them apart and put them back together. I think he's giving you a little more credit than you deserve, but who knows.

You're a pro at standing on legs and sitting on butt. In fact, you seem a little irritated at laying around these days. You're much happier in some sort of sitting position and "standing on legs" is a good way to make you stop fussing. You seem to like the challenge. You're really enjoying your boppy seat now that you can hold your head up. That's good because pretty soon your butt and legs will be too chunky to fit in it! You're really beefing up!

Standing on Legs

Your vocalizations are crazy. You talk and talk and talk. We always stop whatever we're doing just to listen to you talk. Unfortunately, I occasionally have to stop sleeping! just to listen to you talk. I'd prefer if you'd keep the talking down between the hours of 11pm and 5am. Your voice cracks us up. Sometimes it's sweet and smoothe like butta, and other times it's raspy like you've been smoking a pack a day for about twenty years. Probably the best development of all is the laughing! It's still a little hard to get it out of you but we finally got more than a little chuckle. Nothing makes me happier than hearing you laugh.

Tomorrow is your official 4 month check-up (ick, shots!) so I'll come back and update your current weight and length. I think your weight is somewhere around 16 pounds though. Edit: You weighed in at 17lb, 4 oz and your height was 25.75 inches. You've gained almost 10 pounds and over 5 inches since birth! That's amazing!

We had one photo shoot this month in preparation for Christmas pictures. I haven't quite gotten what I want yet, but I did get some serious cuteness.

Thanksgiving was a real treat. You visited West Virginia for the first time. You've heard about the place and, of course, cheered on the football team, but never visited.

You did very well, all things considered, on the drive to and from. The three days there were a little stressful for you (and therefore, us) but you put on a good face and everyone got to see at least a little bit of smiley, happy Evan. Most people got to see some of cranky, crying Evan too. You got to see your Grandma Janet, Grandpa Mike, Grandma Barbi and Grandpa Ed again.

Grandpa Mike, Evan, Grandma Janet

Grandpa Ed, Evan, Grandma Barbi

And you got to meet your Grandpa Herschel and Grandma Connie for the first time.

Grandma Connie, Evan, Grandpa Herschel

You also got to meet lots of aunts, uncles and cousins, including your Great, Great Aunt Dot! We love Aunt Dot and I'm happy you got to meet her.

I'm so glad you got to meet so many new family members. They all love you so much!

Grrrr... I'm four months old!

What up, homes?  

And now for another exciting month...

Love,
Mom

One Year Ago...

One year ago, I got some news that would change my life forever-- the second line on the pregnancy test. That seems like an eternity ago and at the same time, it seems like it just happened. Overall, I think it worked out okay. ;)

Doing it on Purpose

It's funny how the little things become so big when you have a baby in the house.

"David, look! He's grabbing that on purpose!"

Evan has recently started reaching/grabbing/touching things on purpose. We went through this with smiling too. Did he mean to be smiling, or was that just gas?

Suddenly, the play mat has become very interesting. He'd always lay under it but now it's like it's a whole new world under there. He watches the star, like really watches the star. He bats at the earth rattle and grabs onto the...uh...swingy plastic things. It's awesome to watch him enjoy all these things.



Touch




Grab




Stare



For Your Viewing Pleasure

I'm working on Christmas pictures this weekend. Here are some test pictures that actually have nothing to do with the actual Christmas pictures. They're just too dang cute not to share.

And this one is a bit of hint, but seriously! Look at those man boobs! This kid is out of control.

_____ in mouth

This is, hands in mouth, toy in mouth, everything in mouth.

Evan has started the phase that will last...what? Four years or so?

Everything. Goes. In. Mouth.

Hands in Mouth

Toy in Mouth


His hands are gross and slimy all the time.

Shiny Hands... Shiny with spit, that is.

The most entertaining part of it all is that he inspects everything first. But, his arms are short and his head is big which means he's always going cross-eyed while doing his inspection. I haven't gotten any good cross-eyed pictures, but don't worry. They'll be posted.

Careful Inspection

This is a milestone. It's a good thing. But, I'm not exactly excited about having to keep things away from him for fear of them going in his mouth.