5 Months!

Can I just begin by saying how much I love my son? The beginning of his life was definitely a little rough for me. I think I had the baby blues a little bit, partly because it was so cold outside and I couldn't take Andrew out there, and partly because he had reflux and I had no idea what was wrong with him.

Well, he'll be 5 months old tomorrow, and I would like to chronicle some of the things he has done over these last 5 months:

-He was born! December 30, 2008

-He sleeps through the night, and has for at least 2 months now.

-He had his first ear infection already. :(

-He loves to smile, and has shown it to us daily since he learned how.

-He's gained lots of weight, grown like crazy, and his head got HUGE!

-He had two rounds of immunizations, poor soul.

-He rolls over both directions!

-He discovered his feet.

-He's tried vanilla ice cream already. And he liked it. :) (Don't worry. It was only a drop!)

-He learned how to coo with us.

-He discovered toys! And he loves them. All of them.

-He can move things to his mouth... which is somewhat worrisome. Haha.

-He can almost sit up by himself.

-He figured out how to blow raspberries!

-He started solid foods, and we know he doesn't like the rice cereal or green beans, but he really likes carrots and bananas.

-He has his first tooth through the gums (I discovered it today)!

It's just amazing what he can do and what he's done. I can't wait to see what the rest of this year holds for us!

Speaking of Andrew though, he still hasn't gotten on a sleep schedule. I was reading some ideas on how to help him do this, and maybe I'm just thick-skulled, but I can't read Andrew for my life. Earlier today, I saw him yawn, and I thought, "Oh, maybe he's tired!" so I proceeded to take him to his room, rock him for a few minutes, and then put him down in his crib. He screamed. Poor little guy. He did eventually fall asleep (I was right!), but he only stayed asleep for 30 minutes. That's how long all of his naps have been today. Any ideas on how to read your baby for tiredness, or also any ideas on how to keep them asleep longer?

Hahaha

So I know I just updated, but I looked at my friends (the Boizelle's) blog and saw that they had done this thing that makes a baby picture from your and your spouse's pictures. Thank heaven for genetic variation, that's all I have to say!

Here's "David":

...and here's "Megan":

Cute!

So Andrew is getting really big. I took a picture of him the other day so I could compare. Take a look:

This picture was taken when he was almost 2 months old. Now take a look at this one!

I just took this one the other day. He's totally filled out that chair. If his legs were straight, they'd be dangling off. He's so tall, so chubby... He's just big.

We've started giving him fruits and veggies. He's not a big fan of green beans, so we're going to wait a few weeks before giving him that again. At first I thought he really liked sweet potatoes, but that was until I fed him bananas. He's in LOVE with bananas. He was opening his mouth for the next bite, and was trying to get the spoon in his mouth when I was wiping off his face. I can't wait to see if he likes any other fruits! Here's a picture of him with green beans on his face:

"Do I like green beans? I don't think so!" says Andrew.

On another note, one of my old room mates from my freshman year, Lara, came and visited me about a month and a half ago. I told her my woes because at that point Andrew was starting to grow into 6-9 month outfits, and we only had like... 3 outfits in that size at the time. Apparently, her mom loves to sew and make baby outfits for people, so she asked her mom to make Andrew some clothes. We got a package in the mail yesterday, and she had made/bought a full little box of clothes for Andrew! The outfits are SO CUTE! Here's a picture of him in one of the new outfits:

The picture's a little fuzzy, but he wouldn't hold still.

She also made him two stuffed animals - an elephant and a giraffe. I have a feeling that the giraffe will be the love of his life. Haha. He grabs for it and bites its nose and everything already! Yes, I see love. Here's the giraffe and elephant:

A big thanks goes out to Dianna, Lara's mom, for making and sending us all this great stuff!

.mov

So. This video of Andrew laughing from my camera is being very frustrating. It won't upload to the internet anywhere! Is it because it's a .mov file? What kind of file does it need to be to upload to the internet?

PS. Our internet is being stupid. Again. So maybe that's the problem. I haven't been able to check my email at home for the last several days. It's very frustrating. Anyway, if any of you have any idea how to help me with this fun little video I have of Andrew laughing, please help me!

Before Midnight

I went to the public library yesterday because I had to return a book, and decided to go in. I have a list at home of a bunch of books I wanted to read eventually, but I forgot it, so I just looked around for a little bit.





I ran into a book that I knew was on my list, so I checked it out. It's SOOO good!








As you can tell, it's called "Before Midnight: A Retelling of 'Cinderella'". I got it at the library yesterday afternoon and finished it last night. It's just that good. But then again, I'm the kind of person who gets into a book and will finish it as soon as I can to the exclusion of other more important things...



Anyway, I highly recommend it. Next up:








I've read it before, and initially it kinda creeped me out because of how obsessed Bella and Edward are with each other. I owned the book so I could read it, and I actually sold it. Yeah. You're probably thinking, "Are you nuts?" if you're a Twilight fan. Anyway, I checked it out again because my mother-in-law convinced me that the rest of the books are very interesting, and now I want to read them. But since I don't really remember what happened during the first book, I have to read it again. Maybe I'll like it better this time?



What I really want to read is this new book by Shannon Hale that I saw they're selling from Deseret Book:





It's called The Actor and the Housewife. If you want a description of it, click here. It sounds kinda interesting, and everything by Shannon Hale that I've read so far I've really liked.

Now, if Andrew would give me more time to read...


Speaking of Andrew, we took him in for his 4-month wellness checkup at the pediatrician's yesterday. Finally. He's almost 4 1/2 months! Oh well. Anyway, they measured him as always, and he weighs 18 lbs 10.5 oz! He's in the 95th percentile for weight! He's also in the 89th for height (26.5 inches), and in the 97th for head circumference (17.5 inches)! I'm not surprised about his head, because it's always been really big compared to other babies, but everything else... holy smokes. My kid is a giant. I like to say that he's going to be a football linebacker some day, but considering the size of his parents, I'm seriously doubting that would really happen. Haha. They also gave us the go-ahead for solid foods (aka rice cereal), but I was surprised when they said we could start him on fruits and veggies. Hurray! We gave him some sweet potatoes yesterday and he LOVED it. I tried giving him pears today, but he was kinda reluctant with it. That's alright. I'm just happy he doesn't have to nurse all the time anymore!


That's all I wanted to say.

Laughing

Andrew in the last couple weeks has discovered how to giggle a little bit. He does it when we lift him in the air or when we play with him a lot and he's really happy. I have a video of it from my camera, but it's been loading for like... 10 minutes with no progress, so I'm just gonna give up on that for now.

Andrew's been pretty fussy lately. Either he's longing for more solid food (we haven't given him any in several days), or he has another ear infection - which would be sad, or he's teething - he's been drooling a lot, or he's still trying to get over his cold... This is the one sad thing about him not being able to talk. I don't know what's wrong or if it's anything to worry about. The last time he was really fussy, I just thought he was doing it for fussiness sake, but he had an ear infection! I'm glad his next wellness checkup is on Monday. He'll get checked out then.

Nothing new has been happening. Jason and I are celebrating Mother's Day today though because we're having another couple over for dinner tomorrow night. Jason's gift to me is 2 hours without Andrew to do whatever I want. The sad thing is, I have no idea what I want to do! I mean, I could do some laundry in peace, but who wants to do that with 2 free hours? I'm actually thinking about being a nerd and going to the public library and checking out some books I've been wanting to read for forever. After the two free hours to myself, Jason and I are going out to dinner. To a sit-down restaurant. We haven't done that since my parents were here. And before that, I don't even remember. Haha. Yay for Mother's Day.

The weather is finally getting nicer here, which is awesome. It's been kinda chilly these last several days, and I've been keeping Andrew and myself inside most of the time because of it. The stroller is going to be busted out in the next day or so! Hurray! Anyone want to go on a walk with me and Andrew?

2 Videos

This week has passed by pretty quickly. Going to school and taking care of Andrew would do that, though! It's pretty nuts.

Andrew hasn't rolled over since the one day he did it. I think he figured out that when he rolls over, he ends up on his tummy, and decided he didn't want to be on his tummy! Haha. He's a funny kid. Also, he's had a cold this week, so he's been pretty fussy. Taking care of him like this isn't so fun, but he'll get over it soon enough. I think.

Anyway, the purpose of this entry is to post two videos of Andrew. The first is of him standing up (with help, of course), his new favorite activity. The second one is of him having his first bites of rice cereal! Hurray!