That Mysterious Place

Oliver is just about 4 months old. He just had a check-up this morning and is by all accounts a happy healthy baby. In fact, he was all smiles and giggles until his vaccinations, and he returned to a good mood shortly after those.

I thought I'd go into some physical detail about the back of his head – an area he will rarely see for himself, and then only with the help of hair stylists and paparazzi photos.

A: Blond hair coming in! Both Jenny and I were blond babies and the doctor agrees that Oliver seems to be shaping up to be a Blondie too. At least while he's young.

B: "Stork Bites" or vascular birth marks. I've read that those on the back of the neck may not go away with age, but they're usually covered with hair. Maybe Oliver will decide to shave his head some day and show these off.

C: The Tail. This little patch of hair was originally a bit longer than the rest and it has grown the most as he's gotten older. With a little time and effort, this could be a great little mullet.

D: The Bald Spot. This is from laying against the car seat, sleeping, or lying on his play mat. Now that he is holding up his head and developing the strength to sit up on his own, this should disappear. If it doesn't, we'll just have to work on a life-long "comb up" technique to use that tail below for additional cover.

E: The "Faux Hawk". He woke up with this one morning and we thought it was funny. Now I can't help but encourage the look with a little spit and finger combing.
-Keith

An Unexpected Visitor

In this video, Oliver gets a visit that neither of us expected. His reaction is pretty funny.

Little Lamb, Who Made Thee?

I'm constantly amazed at how hi-tech baby toys are. We went shopping a few days ago. Jenny has had her eye out for a certain traditional wooden children's toy -- the kind that's been around for centuries. We had to search it out among aisles and aisles of plastic multi-colored gadgets that blink, vibrate, & play music or animal sounds. We already have several such toys in our house, but the cranky luddite in me always rises when I'm confronted by so much gadgetry. The greatest minds in human history did not hear classical music from their stuffed animals! Lights did not flash on their playmats! Their chairs did not vibrate! Brilliant children once grew up without a single AA battery!

So I had mixed feelings about the lovely stuffed lamb that Oliver's grandmother gave him. It’s about his size and comes with 4 buttons on the back that play synthesizer versions of the following sounds: a heartbeat, whale song, rain falling, and ocean waves crashing (ironically, it makes no lamb sounds). We tried turning it on and setting in on Oliver's lap. He didn't mind, but the thing seemed to smother him, and I thought the whale song sounded a little creepy so the lamb went back on the shelf.

Flash forward to last weekend, where Jenny and I were still contending with our most prolonged parenting dilemma yet -- sleep. You see, from the day he came home from the hospital, we've been practicing the “family bed” plan, with Oliver asleep between the two of us. We're not thrashers, and it was a good way to feel he was safe and close -- not to mention it made frequently feeding him easier those first months. But getting him to sleep has always involved us rocking and bouncing him, and most often, he's ended up asleep ON TOP of one of us, and we'd do our best to sleep beneath him, feeling more and more like letters beneath an ever heavier paperweight.

As time went on, it became clear that none of us was sleeping well and we made the decision to finally move him to the crib. We really expected it to involve a lot of fussing and thrashing, but it didn't. It seems Oliver needed his space, too. We got him to sleep and gently placed him in the crib, in a sleep positioner (which we call “the taco") that keeps him comfortably on his side. And to lull him to sleep, we brought in the lamb, whose gentle synth heartbeat lulled the baby to sleep. It worked surprisingly well!

We're not close to sleeping through the night yet, but this is another step forward for all of us. Thank you, little lamb.

Oliver's giggle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLZNYSsgN_E

This is an experiment with posting video via Youtube.

1-2-3-4 Flip! Better than your average turtle

Last Friday we reached a big milestone; Oliver turned himself over, from his belly to his back.

For most of my life, my reaction to such news from others was to think, "Ummm... So what?" but as we watch each stage of our child's development, this is a biggie. Tummy time has not been his favorite; at most, we'd get 5 minutes of him squirming on his stomach before screaming in rage and frustration. But recently, he's shown the neck strength to pull up his head and look around. He's made it up on one elbow and turned in a half-circle. All this gave him the confidence to keep working on it.

I felt him getting closer and closer and starting videotaping his progress. When he finally got there, he paused for a long time on his side, thinking about where to shift his weight.

This is the first step in a new chapter of having to watch him closer. No longer can we just sit him down and expect him to stay in the same place. This is why the baby seats and changing pad all have restraining belts. Oliver will soon be on the go!
-Keith

Three months old and time for daddy day care

It's been a few weeks since we updated this blog. Mainly we've been in a busy transition. Between the time Jenny returned to work and the time I'm taking off from work, we've had Jenny's mom staying with us and showering Oliver with tons of attention. Today is the first day of my 5 weeks leave, and with Kim here for a few more days, I'm going to take advantage and get a few things done (like update our blog!).

Oliver is growing quickly, both in size and development. We haven't had him on a scale since December, but I'm guessing that he has doubled his birth weight or more. He now spends a lot of time babbling, and a couple times a day we can get a really great giggle out of him by blowing raspberries on his neck or stomach. Sometimes he just laughs when we laugh (see photo above). For a couple weeks there, he was obsessed with blowing spit bubbles (see photo below), but I guess he got tired of that.

He is readily grabbing at toys we dangle in front of him. That started at the beginning of this month when he used a two-handed claw approach to just pinch together whatever was in front of him. Now he's articulating his fingers and grasping. Still leading with his left hand, too. Another thing: when he gets excited he kicks his legs a lot. So when he's propped in his bouncy chair, it looks a lot like he's dancing.

More updates to come!
-Keith