My Big Boy

The monkey is 4 months old today and has gotten huge! He's practically a boy. We're guessing that today he weighs 13 pounds even, making him twice his birth weight.

While he's still a huge fan of the ceiling vents, he's broadened his horizons and formed a strong friendship with the cord attached to the monitor. That cord is within reach of his changing table (which continues to be his favorite place in the world) and he likes to pretend it's a lasso. He spends a lot of his time naked and the vast majority of his sleeping time swaddled. His head almost always leaves a sweat spot behind. He's taken an interest in toys and has become ridiculously grabby. I've got little claw marks all over me from where a baby thought it'd be an awesome idea to go for a handful of my skin. If my hair comes near his hand, he pulls it with all of his might. When not grabbing things he likes to keep those hands in his mouth--both at the same time if possible. Oh, and they definitely go in there immediately after either puppy succeeds in licking them--because of course. At about 5 or 6 every morning he likes to scream/sing. It's a joyous noise that sounds a lot like a scream. He's got a smile that melts hearts. Is ridiculously charming and can't even talk yet.

Handle with Care

This is a picture of Amy, me, and Megan taking a shot of Mama Juana, a liquor from the Dominican Republic rumored to boost fertility. A year after this was taken, Amy and Megan were pregnant and I had just given birth. Just sayin...

Over-Sharing

What were you doing at 3:30 this morning? I know what I was doing. I was sitting up in bed clapping and offering words of encouragement as my baby boy made his first real poop in 5 days.

And then I poked his father and told him he needed to be changed. His father argued with me making the same argument he always makes at night and apologizes for the next day, "you're already up." I slept for some precious minutes and then I am not really sure I slept again as the little monkey was up screaming about every 30 minutes after that.

Maybe the curry I ate last night was a poor choice after all.

Developments

My baby has taken to occasionally sleeping in his crib all by himself. Previously all naps occurred on one of us, in the Bjorn, or sometimes swaddled on the couch. We had a friend over for dinner Saturday night. I swaddled him and nursed him down. He stayed asleep in his room for five hours. Kenny and I both had hands for 5 hours, and it was bizarre. We were serving corn on the cob and I was sure one of us was going to have to cut it off the cob for the other. I only checked on him about 10 times. Yes, we have a monitor. No, I do not trust it. Yes, I stand there and watch him until I can detect his chest rising and falling and I am sure he is still breathing.

Further calling into question Eli’s maternity, he is totally a morning person. He wakes up around 6:00 and begins his calisthenics. He kinds of looks like he’s marching or cheerleading—but laying down. He spends a good 10 minutes smiling and flirting with the air vents in the ceiling as they are hilarious. Eventually he will decide it is time to go walk his puppies and will pitch a fit until Kenny shows up with the Bjorn and leashes.

I’m in no way biased, but I am pretty sure my baby is way advanced. He’s got the neck strength of a wrestler. He has been successfully flipping over for a few weeks now. He can do front to back and back to front. When he does back to front he can’t quite drag one of his arms out of the way so he gets pretty upset about that. He can also stand with a little bit of support. I credit the months of preparatory kicking he did in the womb. Those legs came out strong and he hasn’t stopped kicking or flailing since.