Week 16

16 weeks - that means Matt's 4-month birthday is fast approaching...

We had another fairly quiet week, although Matt was busy with more of his growth spurt. In between snowstorms we managed to make it to two playgroups, where Matt met even more new baby friends. He should be quite the social guy, but often at playgroups he prefers to look at the moms and ignore his adorable buddies, some of whom have grabbed his foot or blown raspberries at him to try to get his attention. He'll be more interested in the kids soon enough, I suppose.

Playing with blocks for the first time

Such a silly monkey!

Hanging out in his jumper

Beware of "Grrr"?!

Holding onto a frog is serious business

I was noticing that Matt was primarily rolling to one side when he decided to roll to the other side and show me I was silly even to think I needed to worry about it.

Multi-tasking, Matt-style: holding onto a hippo in one hand and batting a toucan with the other

Forget Olympian: the weekend before last Matt switched his future career interest to opera. He was super excited about his newly discovered vocal range and has been enthusiastically practicing his arpeggios and scales, although fortunately for both feline and human ears alike his enthusiasm settled down after a few days. Still, I decided it was best to skip this week's baby movie; we stayed home instead and watched the Olympics, where noise-making is much more acceptable. After a few smiles, you can hear a small sample of Matt's new noises, although these aren't as impressive as the ones from earlier in the week.

Hooray! Spring Training is underway!

That apparently has inspired Matt to put the "gym" in his jungle gym. One-armed pull-ups with an elephant, anyone?

Week 15

This week was a quiet week for us. With Matt's growth spurt in full swing and two more snowstorms we weren't able to do much, so it's a good thing we didn't have a lot planned. We did make it to our moms' club's Valentine's Day party on Friday, which was a lot of fun, especially since we met another birthday buddy for Matt, a girl born the day before him. With so many baby friends, Matt is poised to be one outgoing kid.

I don't have much to report in terms of our activities, but I do have some photos to share.

Who could resist picking up this adorable baby with a plea like that?

Awesome!

Since the end of last week Matt has been sticking his tongue out a lot. He'll stick his tongue out when someone does that to him, but he prefers to grin in response.

Here is a video of Matt with his stuffed bunny, although as you'll see he's not as interested in hugging it as he was last week.

Who's cute as a button?

Another thing Matt has been doing since last week is rolling from his back onto his side and back again. He started doing this in his crib (of course - why not try out new movements in a place meant for sleeping?), but he loves doing it on a blanket on the floor or his play mat, with or without holding onto one of the toys.

Ah, sleep.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We wish you a happy Valentine's Day!

Future Olympian?

Athlete Profile - Matthew
Team: Baby
Age: 3 months, 1 week
Sport: Competitive eating

Week 14

This past week ended up being a busy one for us, after all.

We started out by attending our moms' club's infant playgroup on Monday. Matt and his birthday buddy are no longer the youngest members: this past week an eight-week-old, a six-week-old, and a two-week-old baby joined us. Matt now has so many baby friends, and still more babies are joining our group! Even though there are five elementary schools in our town, at this rate he'll surely know at least one kid in his class by the time he starts kindergarten.

Tuesday and Wednesday we stayed at home, thanks to the weather. We wouldn't have done much anyway, as Matt's three-month growth spurt hit (as it has been doing intermittently). He spent most of Wednesday sleeping, actually, getting ready to grow some more.

Thursday we met up with a friend and her baby for another baby movie. I agree with her that our babies (who are two weeks apart) are at a difficult age for watching movies in a theater setting: they no longer are content to sleep most of the time, as they were when younger. They are alert so much more, and they are now aware enough to want to watch the movie - not what the doctor ordered. At the same time, they are unable to move anywhere on their own and can find it challenging to entertain themselves, so they require a lot more attention from us. Needless to say, watching a movie without a remote control handy is tricky! We were surprised to see a couple of people without babies at the showing, but at least they didn't complain, unlike the woman at the last baby movie I attended. Perhaps the baby-less attendees didn't mind missing a few lines of dialogue now and then if they were as disappointed as we were in the movie selection. (Note to movie chains: don't pick baby movies with themes and scenes that are guaranteed to upset new parents. A convict holding a family hostage, depictions of pregnancy loss, and babies dying are not what moms want to see when they've managed to wrestle their little ones out of the house, through cold, snowy streets, and into a theater…) We may start doing our own baby movies at home instead!

Friday we went to a Valentine's Day cookie party hosted by a member of our moms' club. The main activity was for toddlers and preschoolers to decorate cookies - and by decorating I of course mean plopping on loads of neon pink icing and dumping sprinkles all over. Matt and the other few babies didn't get to participate this time, but they seemed to have plenty to do being cute. I don't blame Matt for feeling overwhelmed once the bigger kids dragged out the noisy toys for their parade through the host mom's house, however, especially since our house can be very quiet and Matt is the main noise-maker. Anyway, I had a good time talking with the other moms, getting to know a few who aren't in our baby group.

Saturday we had our friends over with their baby. Our little guys allowed us to play a few games in between pauses to wipe drool off of their adorable double chins. We had to be strategic with our game choices; anything that required two hands from all participants or too much to remember if we had to take a break for a diaper change or baby feeding was out. If we make our game afternoon a recurring event we'll be able to draw up a good list of baby friendly games.

Sunday we enjoyed a quiet day at home, catching up on the Olympics. That may be how we spend most of the coming week, as we don't have much planned and Matt's growth spurt doesn't seem to be over. I won't mind, as we have been busy and could use a slower week.

Now onto the good stuff, the photos...

Matt is continuing to work on grabbing and touching things. In addition to his toys, he now likes to get his fingers on his books, including his touch and feel book from his one set of grandparents and his copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. He has started to "help" me turn pages.

But he still likes to hold fingers most of all.

Cuteness overload alert: here is Matt hugging a stuffed animal. He was feeling the different textures of this bunny, a gift from his other set of grandparents, when I asked him to give it a hug. Much to our surprise, he did! Aw... I had been having him "give himself a hug" after diaper changes, a game someone suggested to make that time have positive connotations. I'm impressed at how Matt is not only remembering words he has heard but also associating some meaning with them. I'm curious to know how much he was able to make the leap from hugging himself to hugging something else and how much was a coincidence. In any case, it was such a sweet moment.

No one comes between Matt and his bunny!

I got Matt a jumper. He's still on the young side for it, but he loves standing, "walking," and "jumping" so much that within a few weeks this may become one of his favorite toys. (It better! He's not getting any more big toys until he gets a bicycle - for outside. Baby stuff is taking over the house, and we should keep the toys from occupying every room before he's even able to distribute them everywhere on his own.) Here he is thinking about what he wants to do on his new entertainment center.

Taking it for a test drive

Reaching for the parrot

Worn out, so good night!

Happy 3-Month Birthday, Matt!

Today Matt is three months old. He has come so far from the newborn we met last November. He has nearly doubled his weight (he weighs seventeen pounds now) and added a couple of inches to his length / height. His vision and awareness of himself and the world around him have increased dramatically, and his hands now reach out with a purpose. He no longer thinks diaper changes are torture, and he cooperates with clothing changes (which on some days are frequent). And he interacts with people, large and small, smiling and making an increasing number of sounds.

Parenthood still feels a bit surreal. I'm learning when Matt reaches each new milestone with the joy comes a new challenge; for example, not long after we delighted in Matt's ability to hold onto objects, we realized that means Matt can grab anything, which will soon include my ponytail and our glasses, and can bring things to his mouth, as he's already doing with his links and "keys."

In honor of Matt's three-month birthday, I've officially retired all of his clothes for sizes less than six months. Sadly, even the six-month clothes might not last much longer; Matt has already outgrown about half of them! Several local moms with older boys have helped me out with more than enough hand-me-downs to get us through the rest of the season and well into summer, plus we've gotten a lot of great items from family and friends. I wasn't originally planning to need winter clothing in 6+-month sizes and 12+-month clothes for the summer, but now we're prepared.

Our three-month-old silly monkey

Week 13

After staying at home during week 12, we were back to being social butterflies this past week.

Monday we ran a few errands and went over to meet someone who wants to plan regular get-togethers where kids play while moms work on projects. Unfortunately the almost two-year-old and almost three-month-old didn't let us get anything done this time, but fortunately we made new friends with whom we'll go for walks when the weather improves. For the first time Matt interacted with someone other than an adult. At first the two boys didn't know what to think of each other; the toddler was jealous of the attention the baby was getting, and the baby was ignoring the toddler. But then Matt and the little boy took a long look at each other, and when the toddler started imitating Matt's "talking," Matt burst into a big grin. The two were fast friends after that.

Tuesday we went to our moms' group's infant playgroup, hosted by the mom of the baby who's one day younger than Matt. Matt was a little cranky, probably because we threw off our new routine. Still, he did take a good look at all of the babies there, who ranged in age from almost three months through eight months. And we got a glimpse of what our future will probably be like: the one six-month-old boy was very large for his age, just like Matt is, so now I have a better idea of exactly how big he'll be in three months. Jon and I better ramp up our strength training!

We had a chance to go out Wednesday, but Matt needed a day of rest, so we stayed home. I apparently had worn him out the previous few days because he was zonked during his naps. He must have needed some time to process all of his new experiences! I know we both appreciated not going out into the bitter cold, too. Matt takes after me: he does NOT like being cold.

Zzzz...

Thursday we met our local moms' group at a local coffee house. Matt was only one of two babies there, so I got a chance to chat with moms who have older kids and who are very involved in activities and committees around town.

Friday we went to another baby-friendly movie showing. This particular theater shows more independent films, so this week we saw some Oscar-nominated shorts - not my first choice, but the real attraction was being able to meet up with Jon for lunch afterward for our first meal out as a family. We would have enjoyed the outing more if things had gone more smoothly. Matt was so interested by everything - he loves looking at the restored Art Deco decor, and I don't blame him - that he got overtired and cranky. That wouldn't have been a problem except someone without a baby who was super serious about her Oscar nominees managed to get into the showing. She became increasingly annoyed that babies were doing what babies do, glaring and even jumping up to ask parents to take our fussy babies outside. (Note to moviegoers: if you don't want a baby to "ruin" your movie experience, don't go to a movie showing designed for parents with babies!)

After that frustrating experience we enjoyed a quiet day at home on Saturday. Sunday we took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather and went for a walk in the local state park. The path was muddy and slushy, but it was nice to be outside after so many weeks of bitterly cold weather. Matt got to see lots of other people and some dogs, and he saw his first horses, too.

Now onto some photos!

Chubby cheeks meet their match: gravity.

Here is Matt sucking his hand, as mentioned in last week's post. Notice he's not really sucking anything, other than maybe his knuckle. You may or may not be able to see the grin behind that hand. Such a silly baby...

Matt's hand-eye coordination, fine motor control, and grip have been noticeably improving. A few weeks ago he started holding onto our fingers with a purpose, but this past week he has broadened his interest and ability in grasping things. Here he is playing with a set of "keys."

And here he is playing with a set of links. (Excuse the burp halfway through.)

Which team are we rooting for?

During tonight's Major Sports Event, Matt would like to offer a reminder of where this household's loyalties lie.