March 30, 2015 by Stephanie

All the Barf

When you start introducing solid foods to your kids, you worry about allergies and their reaction to it.

Well we had our first negative reaction to solids last night, at least we think. George did not respond well to the broccoli and cauliflower we had for dinner. We had thought they were good foods because they basically have little handles for him, but apparently everything else about them George was not a fan.

I woke up to George crying at about 1am. I figured he had just lost his pacy so I went in there to go searching for it. He has a glow in the dark pacy just for these occasions so I can find it without my glasses in the middle of the night. (He has a tendency to throw the pacy out of the crib so the glow in the dark quality is a must.)

Well I wasn’t able to find it, and I felt under his neck to see if he had rolled on top of it. Instead of finding a pacy, I stuck my hand in baby goo. I thought that George had just spit up some as he sometimes does so I turned on the light to find a burp cloth, but to my dismay I saw George swimming in green baby barf.

Seriously, it was like the scene out of Pitch Perfect where they all had fallen in the vomit. Thinking about the picture of it, I honestly don’t know where the bed of barf came from in his tiny body. So. Much. Of. It.

I woke up Tom because this was clearly a two-person clean up job. Tom stripped the baby and took him for a bath because it was all over George, and baby wipes just weren’t up for that challenge. I took the clothes and sheets and ran them under the sink to get the major chunks out.

Fortunately, we double up the sheets and mattress pads on George’s crib just for occasions like this. I was able to strip off a layer and have a clean sheet waiting for us. This was awesome that I didn’t have to try to wrangle a clean mattress pad and sheet on the crib mattress at 1:30 am. For other parents out there, if you don’t do this trick, I highly recommend the double sheet method! Now I can just worry about laundry tonight when I am much more awake.

We finally got him all cleaned up around 1:30, and George was just happy as a clam. He was so excited to have his parents up and thought it was play time. He was just giggling and laughing away. He had no fever and no diarrhea so there wasn’t much more we could do at this point. As soon as we laid him back in his crib, he was fast asleep again.

I, however, was paranoid for the next hour basically getting up every five minutes to make sure he wasn’t drowning in puke.

I probably fell asleep around 3am only to hear George coughing again.

You got it. He had thrown up again.

Luckily this time, he managed to keep it contained to just his onsie and just a little on the sheet. Wipes to the rescue this time! I changed him again though just so he didn’t have cold wet clothes to sleep in. I cuddled him up-wright on my chest in the rocker for about 30 minutes to make sure he was ok. Back to the crib, again fast asleep, around 3:30.

He threw up again after I nursed him this morning at 5:30, and it is the saddest thing to watch. Then he did it once at the babysitter, so now we are home trying to get Pedialite to stay down for him.

Needless to say, we will not be giving him broccoli or cauliflower again anytime soon.

Tom’s reaction to the barf: “Well George, that may not be the most someone in our family has puked, but it is surely the most per square oz. That was just all the barf.”

Crosby got up with us to make sure everything was ok. He sat patiently watching his boy get taken care of. He was such a caring big brother.

This was Tom’s conversation about Grace once we got back in bed.

Tom-“Oh I am sorry Grace. Don’t let us bother you.”

Me-“Did she even get up?”

Tom-“No…Well yes she did when you let them outside while I was washing George. Then her diva self just crawled back under the covers. And now she is hogging the bed like she can’t be bothered…. Come to think of it, we should have let the dogs clean that up.”

Me-“Eww gross. That’s all we need is all of them barfing.”

Tom-“Well at least the dogs clean it up.”

Me-“I guess. Anyway, can you please turn her because I surely do not need to sleep with Gracie butt in my face after all that.”

The conversations that happen in the wee hours of the morning…

The doctor has us monitoring George for now. They are worried about dehydration right now since he hasn’t kept anything down. So we’ll see how this afternoon goes with the prescribed Pedialite. Since he has been throwing up everything, they aren’t convinced that it was the broccoli and cauliflower. It may be a GI bug that he just needs to work out of his system. This is the first time he has been fully sick, so I am in full mom freak out mode knowing there isn’t much I can do besides watch to make sure he has wet diapers. Although besides the throwing up he is not acting sick.

I wish I felt like this when I was sick…

Now he is mocking me congratulating myself yesterday for his naps by protesting them vigorously today.

George this is a sick day, not a snow day. We must rest!

I feel like we have truly been inducted to the Parent Club now since we have been doused in baby barf. Ahh the glamorous life of parenthood.

March 26, 2015 by Stephanie

George-7 months

Weight: 15 lbs and 15 oz. He is in the 11th percentile for weight. His height is 25.75 inches, which is also the 11th percentile. His head circumference is 44.5, and is in the 80th percentile. He doesn’t look disproportionate, but his head is huge.

Health: He had an ear infection this month. He didn’t really seem any different or fussy, but we found it at his 6 month appointment. He just got the all clear yesterday! He had a really runny nose around that time too, but it hasn’t seem to bother him too much.

Diet: He is only nursing one time a day now. I said goodbye to the pump before our trip this last week. I don’t know how long I will breastfeed him for his morning feed, but it probably wont be much longer. He was still at 50% breastmilk until this past Monday. I am glad that I took the entire month to wean him off because it has meant I have had very minimal pain. I have had no engorgement by only cutting out a few minutes out every couple days. (It has been great wearing real bras and dresses this week since I didn’t have the pump attached to me at all!) This kid and food though. If you didn’t see on Instagram, he throws absolute fits when there is food around and he isn’t eating. We cannot eat in front of him and leave him out. It’s both funny and obnoxious at the same time. He will scream when we get to the end of a bottle or bowl of food. He knows that when we put an his SnapBib that it is time to eat and he starts grabbing at everything and whining until we have the food in front of him. So at least he has a good appetite. He has tried a lot of new things this month: bananas, cantaloupe, kiwi, apple, mango, pizza crust, ice cream, eggs, oatmeal, crackers, and tomatoes. He didn’t like the cantaloupe because it was too slippery, and he couldn’t keep it still. He liked it if I held it for him. The tomato however he did not like at all, but there are some adults that don’t like tomatoes so that wasn’t too surprising. He eats solid food three times a day: oatmeal for breakfast, veggie for lunch, veggie or fruit for dinner. He does purees a lot through the week, but he is getting better at holding the spoon on his own. He can’t figure out the dipping part so as soon as it is gone off the spoon he will drop it on the floor unless I am quick enough to catch it. We do a lot more exploring of solid solid food on the weekends, but he does have real oatmeal (not the baby stuff) every morning now. He prefers the purees because he knows he gets the food faster. He gets really frustrated if he sees the food in front of him and can’t figure out how to get it to his mouth. Plus I think he may just expect us to put it in his mouth still at this point. It is really fun watching him explore food. It is also making me rethink what we eat too so we ensure that he is eating healthy from the get go.

Clothes: We are mostly in 3-6 month clothes, but there are some 3 month and 6 month items he is in. He is still a size 2 diaper. He can fit into size 2 and 3 shoes depending on the brand.

Sleeping: This is still a work in progress for us. It seems like he changes every day. We are trying to get into a routine but again he can’t decide when to be awake and when to be asleep. We have found the key to getting him to take naps. We have to take one with him. Not ideal, but on the weekends we take full advantage of sleeping more through the day. He is doing better sleeping when we put him down at 7:30pm. For the past week he has stayed asleep until we wake him up for his 10pm feeding. Our problem now is that he either wakes up every couple hours during the night or will be up around 3am for the day. Either we have to feed him again or we bring him to bed with us to finish out the night. However, last night he slept through the entire night on his own for the first time in months! The night before he was up every 2 hours, so I will take any full night we can get. We do the same things each night, so I am not really sure why his behavior is so unpredictable. Also, we are able to have him sleep on his belly at home now, but that means he rolls in the crib. A couple nights ago I found him with his arm through the bars playing with the baby monitor cord.

Likes: Oogaa teethers! He actually likes a lot of his toys. One of his other favorites is a small blue stuffed elephant with bungee legs. He is grabbing things a lot better now so he actually turns wheels and shakes things. He is mesmerized by my hairdryer. He loves his feet. George loves seeing his dad come home. He also loves the two little girls that go to the same babysitter. He just giggles and smiles at them when we get there every day. So cute! He also likes pens. He holds them really well when he isn’t trying to eat them. He drew on paper for the first time this weekend.

Dislikes: Socks. He will pull them off as soon as I put them on. Ending a feeding session. He HATES when I try to wipe his face clean. He will throw back his head and yell in a rage at the wipe touching his face.

Milestones: He has rolled over from his back to his stomach just one time. He can hold a bottle on his own. He sits up really nicely. However, he wants to stand more than sit most of the time. In fact just yesterday, he was sitting on my lap facing me and he pulled himself up to a standing position by pulling on my jacket. He has no inclination to crawl but this kid wants to stand on his own! He also took his first big road trip to NC this past weekend. He met many new friends, and he was the best little wedding date.

Quirks: He is talking a lot more. I feel like everyday he has a new squeal. If he is sleep cranky, George will pull my hand to cover his face and put his hand over mine. He does this a lot in the car when I put his pacy back in. He just grabs my hand and holds it over his face. It looks like I am trying to smother him, but I swear it is his soothing mechanism. (and that I am not smothering him)

We parents are: doing ok. We have 3 more weeks until the Academy is over so we are going to be happy about that. I do feel a sense of freedom not having to pump anymore. I have sooooo much more time in my evenings now that I am not pumping at night or cleaning the bajillion pump parts. I have actually gotten to watch some of my TV shows live! It has completely changed our nights. Tom and I sat on the couch together last night (on a weeknight) for the first time in ages. This is a game changer.

The dogs are: tearing up our couch, but that is a story for another day. They are so sweet with George. I have found Crosby laying in front of the crib a couple times. My emotions couldn’t handle that sweetness. George thinks they are the funniest creatures. He just laughs and laughs at them. I just love watching them interact.

George’s personality is definitely coming out more and more. He is such a sweet sweet boy. Most of the time he is all smiles. It is so fun to watch him learn and grown every day. It is so hard to believe though that he is closer to being 1 than he is to being 0. Crazy!

February 26, 2015 by Stephanie

George-6 Months

Weight: Right under 14 lbs. He is still pretty lanky but he is definitely getting longer. We will get updated measurements next week at his 6 month check up.

Health: He is doing pretty well; no health concerns as of late. He is full on teething now. Still no teeth, but I feel one on the top trying to make an appearance.

Diet: This has been a big month diet wise! It is the last month he will be primarily fed by breastmilk. We are going to start the weaning process next week. He still is mostly fed with breastmilk with one formula bottle right before bed. We do have formula on hand for when we are out an about on the weekends though. He is really difficult to nurse right now, so when we are going to be away from the house it is just better to feed him with formula. When I do nurse him, he will only latch for a minute, then yank himself off and scream. Then latch for another minute before he pulls himself off in a fit again. It is a cycle that goes on for awhile. He will only get about 5 minutes of actual latched on feeding (even though the whole experience may be about 20-30 minutes) done before he is screaming so hard that we are both in tears. The real kicker is that he will then be hungry again in an hour or so. This has been going on for the last two months. So doing this out in public is not ideal. This behavior paired with the fact that I am barely scrapping by with making enough milk for him throughout the day (with extra pumping on the weekend and nights) is why we will be stopping our relationship with breastfeeding this month. Some days I feel really good about this decision, and others I feel really guilty. But the reality is, it is just not working for us, and we are both pretty miserable about the experience. On the plus side, we started REAL SOLID food this month. George could not be a bigger fan of real food. He attacks it with such ferocity. We have done a combination of purees and the Baby Led Weaning approach. Right now he is much more favorable of the purees. His pincer grasp is not the greatest, so feeding himself usually ends up with more of it on the floor. He does grab it (after sufficiently smashing it into the tray) and attempt to bring it to his face. He usually drops it before he can knosh on it. When he does get the food pieces to his mouth, he usually spits those big pieces out more than he does with the puree. So we are experimenting with both the puree and whole foods. He is getting a better grasp on holding a spoon for himself though, but he doesn’t understand dipping it in the bowl to get more. So I dip it and then he takes it from me to put in his own mouth. He honestly just tries grabbing the bowl itself and tipping it into his mouth. My mom got a great video of this and shared it on Facebook, but I can’t figure out how to save it for myself. He growls at you if you don’t get him food fast enough, which then turns into crying if you are really slow. He just wants the food now! He is also known to lick it off his bib once we are done with what is in the bowl. This kid LOVES eating real food. So far we have tried sweet potatoes (his first real food), peas, pears, squash, bananas, carrots, mashed potatoes, french fries, and pizza sauce.

Clothes: We are still in 3 month clothes and size 2 diapers. He is definitely growing so we may be into 3-6 month range here soon.

Sleeping: Sleep is a funny thing right now. George refuses to take naps at home. At the babysitter’s, naps no problem. Actually, he will take naps with us, but only if you are holding him for the entirety of the nap. We aren’t good at the transfer to the crib part so we always wake him up. And once he is up, he is up. So I guess it should be a testament that he doesn’t want to miss anything while at home and loves snuggling in our arms. But it poses a real problem on the weekends when the no napping means he is cranky or that we have to hold him all day. We have tried a lot of different things to get him to nap, obviously none of them seem to work. So suggestions are welcome at this point. As far as bedtime, it has been interesting this month. I had several suggestions over the course of last month with the nap/sleeping through the night situations that he needed to go to bed earlier. He was going to bed around 9pm and getting up at 4am, with very little napping throughout the day. So we tried the earlier bed time, and are still trying it. We feed him around 6:30, give him a bath, then put him to bed around 7:30. Like clockwork, he never sleeps longer than a half hour. Only two times in the past few weeks has he stayed asleep longer. At first we tried consoling him to sleep for the next TWO hours. We would take turns every 15 minutes trying to get him back to bed. We are silly parents, obviously this was not working. So the last week we have been still putting him to “bed” at 7:30. But now after he wakes up from the only nap we ever can get him to take, each of us will take one turn to try to get him to sleep before we let him stay up with us. And he seems pretty content and calm staying up until that last feeding that we do around 9:45. And now he has been staying asleep from 10pm until we wake him up at 5:30 am. It is one of those things that we have to follow his cues instead of worrying about doing what the books say. My only concern for his sleep is on the weekends when we fail to get him to nap. During the week this process seems to work just fine, and he seems happy with the amount that he is getting.

Likes: He is generally a really happy baby. He loves to watch us dance, and he will laugh so hard at us being silly. He likes it when you bicycle his legs. He gets a kick out of it, pun intended. Basically any funny noise you make at him will make him giggle. George loves to be in the baby wrap so we spend a lot of time with it. He has several toys that he loves now, his favorite being this plastic ball thing. FOOD. He loves to stand. He would rather be doing that than sitting. Speaking of sitting, now that he is able to sit up more, baths are a little easier for us all. He is starting to like it more because he has more room to kick his feet around in the water. He loves to munch on his own feet too. I swear his foot is in his mouth a majority of the day.

Dislikes: Naps. Being alone. Not getting food fast enough.

Milestones: He rolls from stomach to back on both sides. He has not rolled from back to stomach yet, but he is flailing around a lot so I think it will happen in the next week. He does roll to his sides, just not completely over. While he is on the floor he will scoot himself around in circles whether he is on his back or stomach. He seems pretty content not being mobile and does not show any signs of wanting to move forward or backwards. No rush. He will move when he is ready. He is ready to sit on his own now though! He sits unassisted for a a few minutes. He also likes to bend all the way forward like he is doing the butterfly stretch and then bend back to a seated position. It is like he is mocking me with his flexibility.

Quirks: He gives neck hugs now. Best moments of the day. The night my grandma died, he held my face with his hands for the first time. I was leaning over him, and he just reached up and put his palms on my cheeks like he knew I needed it. I cried big fat ugly tears all over that sweet face. He likes to hold my face a lot now. He makes all kinds of humming and squealing noises now.

We parents are: ready for the academy to be over. Tom is itching to get on the road with the police department, and I am itching to have my husband back. I am also in shock that this little fella is 6 months now.

The dogs are: have bad cases of cabin fever. So we have been having some behavior issues. They do however love to help clean George at dinner time. They are interacting a lot more. It is really fun to watch them play together. Watch this video for some surefire giggles of George trying to eat Grace’s nose.

It’s hard to see how much they change from day to day. You forget how small they used to be.

January 26, 2015 by Stephanie

George-5 Months

How has it been 5 months?

Weight: 14 lbs and 24.25 inches. He is in the 7% for height, and 2% for weight. His head, however, is in the 58% at 42.25. (Which explains why we have a hard time getting his head through shirt neck holes. He also doesn’t fit into any hats except the one that I crocheted for him, and it stretches a lot.)

Health: He still has problems going #2, but the doctor said it was nothing to worry about at this point because there is no blood in it. She said he may just be a gassy baby. Other than that he is a happy drooly baby!

Diet: He is still mostly on breastmilk. We have a bottle of formula before bed. This month has been really hard breastfeeding wise. I know that I am not making enough. I am still barely making enough even with pumping during the formula feed. Most days I have one pumping session that I get less than an ounce, and most others are not much more. George eats at least 4 oz per feeding. Watching my supply basically start to dry out and having to pump/feed almost every 2 hours, I have decided that this will be our last month breastfeeding. Unless something drastically changes, I plan to start the weaning process once he is 6 months old. It has become more of a burden and it is taking too much time for what I am pumping. Or not pumping. I don’t feel like it is fair to keep pushing both of us to do this when it obviously is not working well. It just makes for one un-happy and guilty mommy. (George could care less as long as there is something in his belly! He is a mess otherwise.) I have tried all the tricks so believe me there really isn’t much more that I can do to increase my supply. Some women just aren’t able to breastfeed because of the supply, and their bodies never adjust to the demand. Despite my best efforts, I happen to be one of those women. I feel like there needs to be more out there for women who try but cannot make the supply. I feel that it is very polarized: either you formula feed or you are an expert breastfeeding with supply galore. It has been very stressful and hard to find material out there for those in the middle. I think there is also a lot of negativity for those who stop “early” too, so I want to say power to all moms for however long you try. Breastfeeding is not an easy journey, and I don’t want to feel guilty for stopping now. So we will happily make it to 6 months. We plan on starting our solids adventure around then any way, so we feel that it is the perfect timing to end our breastfeeding journey. There is a huge weight lifted off me now that I know there is an end in sight. While I am glad that I was able to do it, it is a struggle that I am happy to know will soon be over. I will say cutting holes into my sports bra has helped tremendously while pumping. It makes things much easier to do both at the same time hands free. So that was an improvement this month. We did try rice cereal this month, and he HATED it. We have tried both spoon fed and bottle fed, and he did NOT want to have anything to do with that rice stuff.

Clothes: We are still in 3 month clothes. I wouldn’t be surprised if we are still in them next month either. We are in size 1 diapers right now. By the end of this week, he will be in size 2. And that is mostly because I don’t want to go buy more size one since I know he has almost grown out of them, and we are down to our last stack this week. He also started wearing shoes when we go out on the weekend. It makes him look like such a big kid!

Sleeping: I think he is going through some sleep regression. We have a pretty good routine for bed time. I read him a story and lure him to slumber. Then he wakes up, and Tom has to take a crack at it. It usually takes us about 30-45 minutes to get him to actually be asleep. Unfortunately, he has started waking up around 4am, wide awake and hungry. It’s that awful timing that if I feed him and get him back to sleep I have about 30-45 minutes to sleep before I need to start getting ready for the day. So we end up just staying up. We tried switching his bedtime to 8 pm earlier this month and that just didn’t work for us. It took us even longer to get him to sleep and then he was getting up at 2 or 3. So his bedtime stays at 9pm for now. He is really funny about naps. He definitely gets cranky and will fight going to sleep. The only way we have gotten him to sleep for naps is by having him lay perpendicular to my stomach so his face his buried in my arm and then you have to pat his butt. Works every time. He also will only sleep on his back here at home, but at the babysitter will only sleep on his stomach. Weird kid.

Likes: He has really started playing with his feet this month. (This picture was the first time I saw him try to put it in his mouth though.) George is constantly holding them and trying to pull off his socks. He has started splashing during bath time. I am not sure if he likes it because he is always startled by it, but he will keep doing it. He likes to grab the hair at the nape of my neck and pull it like it is a handle. I never have a full ponytail anymore. He has to either have his hands or a pacy in his mouth. He loves to talk now, so he loves hearing you babble to him. He likes to stand more than sitting. I swear he will stand on his own before he actually crawls. His legs are so strong. He likes when I babywear him, so if nothing else works to soothe him in the carrier he goes. He still loves holding our hands. He LOVES Larry the parrot on VocabuLARRY. He will be screaming, and then when the show comes on, he stops and smiles in amazement.

Dislikes: Not being able to see you. He is more aware of his surroundings now, and knows when you have left him alone. He hates to burp and for feeding time to end. It is quite comical for us, but he acts like he is being tortured. If there is not a nipple (of any variety) in his mouth he screams this horrific scream. So we have to have a pacy ready for after feeding so we can calm him down from the feeding being over. I am not sure if he doesn’t like diaper changes, but he doesn’t want to sit still during them. He tries doing back bends when we change his diaper, or he has to monkey hang on my arm.

Milestones: We heard his first real laugh this month. He also rolled over for the first time. He looks like he wants to crawl; he pushes his butt up like an inchworm. He just doesn’t go anywhere forward, but he turns himself in circles. He can grab things now, but he doesn’t really know how to control it once he has it in his hands. He sort of can get his pacy back in his mouth if you count him chewing on the plastic part instead of the rubber part. He is trying to sit up. He looks like he is doing crunches trying to pull himself into a sitting position on his own.

Quirks: He hums himself to sleep. It is so cute. He attacks his pacy like a lion going after his prey. He will still lay newborn style when he is laying on your stomach. Never too big I guess to snuggle up tight.

We parents are: still trying to figure out a good schedule. Things are good, but Tom’s schedule isn’t the same from week to week, so that makes it somewhat difficult to have things consistent. It has been nice to get back in the gym consistently. om was sick this last week, so that was a little rough pulling double duty so George wouldn’t catch whatever Tom had.

The dogs are: loving him more and more. George has started noticing them a lot more. He laughs at them now and reaches out to them.

December 26, 2014 by Stephanie

George-4 Months

This month was a big month for little man!

Weight: 13 lbs and about 24 inches.

Health: He still looks like he is in pain sometimes when he goes number 2. Other than that though, he seems pretty healthy. He doesn’t have quite the issue with spit up any more. It happens a couple times a day, but it is usually small dribbles and mostly is only when I breastfeed him. He has his 4 month check up after the holidays so we will see what she has to say about him. We are seeing someone new, so hopefully we like our new pediatrician as much as our one in Clarksville.

Diet: He has six feedings a day. Five of them are breastmilk, and the last one of the day is formula. As I described in my pumping experience, we had to add formula to the routine because I was not making enough breastmilk. Thank you for all the advice and support I have received over the past couple days. I have a few things I am going to try to hopefully increase my supply and my productivity at work from some of the wisdom shared with me.

Clothes: We are sitting pretty in the 3 month range. Some 0-3 month items are getting too snug and some 3 month stuff is too big. We are not even close to fitting in 3-6 month stuff.

Sleeping: This has been all over the place. I usually read him a bed time story and rock him to droopy land. Then I put him in his crib where he generally falls asleep. Then about 15 minutes later he has lost his pacy, and he starts crying. Tom will then repeat the rocking and talking him to sleep. At this time for the most part, he falls asleep for the night. Occasionally, he doesn’t make it all through the night, and Tom will attend to him. (I will be honest that I haven’t heard him stir before 4:30 myself. I am in my own sleepyland.) There have been a couple nights where he ends up in bed with us or I fall asleep with him in the rocker because he just isn’t having the solo crib life. He does sleep a lot at the sitter’s, so I am not really sure if that is affecting his sleep at night or not. She tries waking him up but he puts on his cranky pants and refuses to stay up.

Likes: He LOVES his pacy, but this kid needs to learn to put it in his own mouth. We are always chasing that thing because he spits it across the room. You think I am exaggerating on the “across the room” bit, but sadly I am not. I think he thinks it is a game that we are playing. And seriously, someone please tell me where the Pacy Abyss is. We are always losing them… He loves talking with his Daddy. They are just too much cuteness together! We discovered the Baby First channel this past week. He watches a couple shows in the morning while Tom and I get ready. He will sit and coo back at the characters. It is so cute to hear his giggles and Oooos to the little animals on the screen. Our favorites are Tilly Knock Knock and VocabuLARRY. These are the two he responds to the most, which is perfect that they are right when I get ready. They are only 10-15 minute clips so they are perfect for that 20 minutes that I need to get ready for the day. And I then sing the songs for the remainder of the day…

Dislikes: He hates being burped right now. He will shriek when we try to do this until we put the bottle back in his mouth or give him his pacy. He is getting better at tummy time. He can lift his head up like a cobra yoga pose. But after a minute or two of lifting, he is done and will let you know it. His tummy time is funny though because it seems like he is lifting his rear end up more than his head in a superman type fashion, like upside down leg lifts.

Milestones: He can hold his head up on his own now, and he sits up pretty well if propped up. No more slouching here! He is really getting more chatty. Both Tom and I usually have a chat session with him a couple times a day. We also had to take him out of church a couple weeks ago because he decided it was a good time to test out his new sounds with his dad. He stays awake more in the car too and will coo at the music on the radio. He started doing raspberries and humming this last week. You can tell he is really learning how to use those chops more and more. He doesn’t really laugh yet; we get giggle chortles right now. I think a full on laugh is coming soon though. His smiles are really just the best. He smiles at me every night when he realizes it is me picking him up from the sitter. (I have to hold back tears of joy every day.) He met soooo many people this last month from his great-grandparents, to old friends, to people at work and church…he was Mr. Sociable this month. He also met Santa and was unimpressed. This may not be a milestone to others, but this is huge in our household: We don’t cry anymore at lotion!!! My eardrums are being saved, and George is actually smiling now when I lather him up. We are fairly certain that he may be teething. He has been a little crankier than normal and is a hot drooly mess.

Quirks: He smiles with his pacy on. Any pair of pants he wear (no matter how long they are) end up being short on him. He wants to be a summer baby all year round. He will stick his hand up your short sleeve when you are holding him and hold onto your shoulder.

We parents are: making it. This month was a rough one for the Whitener parents. We had a lot of stress on our plates, and well it was just a hard month for us. George was not the root of any of it just to be clear. Both Tom and I are routine people, and it has been a little awful without some continuity from day to day. And it is just a busy time in general with the holidays pulling us in a lot of different directions. Oh yea and we moved into a new house and both have new jobs. But we are bouncing back and getting more settled every day. I just need to let go of some of my control issues…Tom started his new job this week so it is so great to see him so pumped and excited again.

The dogs are: four this week! If you follow me on IG, you can see a lot more of their relationship with George blossoming. Grace is just in love with him, and she tries to shower him with kisses anytime she can. (Or she is trying to help clean up George drool.) George also reached out and pet Crosby for the first time the other day. I will just be over here melting away from all the cuteness.