7 months

We started feeding you baby foods towards the end of 6 months. I didn't buy too many prepared baby foods this time around. I decided it would be better to just make them at home. We still started you out on all the regular baby cereals. And here you are giving these little puffs a try. Pretty much the same reaction Marcelo had the first time.

Also, you can now sit up by yourself.

It's Alive

Peter has spent the first half of his first year conducting a scientific study, which has involved mostly observation. Now, he's ready to run some tests on his environment. To inaugurate the occasion he decided to have an impromptu laughing fit.

It looks like the laugher is working.



(From Ray's [too old] cell phone)


(And I was going to post a boring video of his new "Jumperoo" in which he slowly and quietly discovers bouncing).

This month ... you got a bath

"When I grow up I want to be a super hero."

--super hero music: "super disgusting, Super Disgusting, SUPER DISGUSTING..."

"My name is Super Disgusting. I will disgust you with my bodily functions."

Eyes

I don't think your eyes will ever be this blue again. (5 months, not 6)

5 months

Well, I won't lie. Your 5 month post passed me by. (Luckily, we can just insert it here in the right place in the blogosphere timeline). But it wasn't too eventful, so we'll just take the time now to recap a bit.

So, I don't have a super cute close up portrait of your crystal blue eyes and your dreamy eyelashes. The truth is, month five was kind of like baby puberty and it appears you were transitioning from adorable baby to brute baby. You'll see how this turns out in post: 6 months.

During month five, you learned to roll around your crib and grab things like your binky and you've learned to pull down all the fishies from your mobile. I guess, there's not a lot else to do in there when you wake up. Before you discovered you could go anywhere you wanted in there, there was a lot of banging on the crib bumper with your feet and some occasional wailing over getting your arm stuck under your body with no space left to roll out of it.

As evidenced by these pictures, you spend quite a bit of time in some kind of holding contraption like the swing, rocking chair, or hand-me-down bouncy chair.  We tried the Bumbo which was quite popular with Marcelo but you're not too fond of it.  You only last in it about 5-10 minutes before it displeases you to be in it.  As a result, you've gotten quite good at pulling down the dangly toys on the swing and making the music play.  Sometimes, I fear that the weight of your big head will overwhelm you as you swing and cause you to topple over the little tray onto the tile floor, but alas, this has not happened.  (Yes, this is why I had to take anxiety medicine in my mid-twenties).

"Yeah, this is pretty easy, really. To tell you the truth, I'm kind of bored with it. What I'd really like to do is recreate the Louvre with lego blocks but they won't let me play with those yet."

You've been pretty slimy this month as we've decided there's not much need in bathing babies. Sometimes I have to scratch the crud on your scalp but you're pretty much self-cleaning for the most part.

Marcelo has decided that as it appears that you no longer pose a threat to him, he might try to play with you sometimes. Here's a cute photo of him as he notices me noticing him.

Many times, this is the look on your face. You look so bored, I worry that we are not providing enough intellectual stimulation for you.

But it usually only takes a few silly words or some tickles for you to give this face.

You are quite without issues, so there is not much to say about a happy baby. That's the way it goes. The nice ones always go unnoticed. One thing of note this month is that we transitioned to full formula feeding. We had to switch to an expensive "Sensitive" formula for a while but now everything is on course with our favorite Costco brand formula.

Oh, and I may as well include an example of a pathetic attempt to have your father take a portrait of us.  This is how they usually turn out and then I delete them.

But I guess, we'll just have to settle for this one.

Pre cut hair condition

Before getting your first baby hair cut at 5 months, I snapped some pictures to document the state of your natural baby hair do. Although, you have some fly-away long hairs going on through the center top of your head and the stylin bald-mullet combo in the back, I gotta say, your hair was pretty good compared to this ... and this [Marcelo].

4 months

Here you are four months old. Didn't I just right the three month post yesterday? Again, I have no pictures of you this past month. You and your fellow cohorts have managed to take up almost all my waking (and non-waking) time with the many chores of being a mom. I sit here now on the bed, much too early in the morning because I've given up trying to go back to sleep after your morning pre-dawn feeding. You continuously pummel my left arm with your legs while spitting out your binky every twenty seconds only to demand it back immediately. You're not too keen on going back to sleep in the morning either. Sometimes you do. Sometimes you don't. Sometimes you just like to make me think you might so you can keep me preoccupied with starting a task and calling me in to sooth you back and forth for a couple of hours.

At some point in the day, usually in the evening you end up taking a solid nap. Usually too solid and I have to wake you up to feed you. In fact, as a result, you've cut your feedings down to 4-5 times a day. We continue to supplement with formula here and there about 8oz per day and we are reminded how much more toxic things come out the other end when you have more formula. It's certainly a deterrent from formula feeding. Must produce more milk.

At Omi's house

As of the past week or two, you have been sleeping in your room in your own crib like a champ. No transition issues at all. Some say, I'm lucky that way. I don't know. It's probably just that I'm kind of a hard a** that way. Actually, I would have let you stay in our room longer, but one night, Ray alerted me to the fact that half your body was hanging off the moses basket so I thought best to put you in the crib rather than sleep with one eye open.

On June 3rd, you hit one of the first major milestones of infancy -you rolled over. Of course, laying on your tummy is generally not much fun at this age. It requires that you use all your strength to pick your face up off the floor so you started complaining right away. Something much more fun is bouncing like a mad man on the bouncy chair. You kick your left leg in and out like a Jane Fonda aerobics video from the 80's and you get the bouncer going at full speed. Sometimes, I'm afraid it's going to spring you right out of there like a trampoline.

You've been spending more time lounging outside with us on this convenient shaded chair which Marcelo didn't get that much use out of.

Even though you don't mind hanging out on your own for much of the day while I perform all those aforementioned mommy duties, there are times, you sing me a constant song of sweet whines and complaints telling me, "I just want to be held, mommy". I come and get you, you give me a great big smile and you snuggle up close on my shoulder. So sweet.

I knew this would happen. I didn't think it would be so soon. Your sister's influence has convinced you to run away to the Circus with her. I'll miss you.

-o-o-o-o-o
4 month Well Baby Checkup:
You got a LOT of vaccinations and complained very little. The next day, you got a fever and cried in a painful way that I had not heard before. It's the kind of thing that gives you a pain in your stomach while you consider all the possible things it could mean. Ugh. I don't like this part.

You are a tad underweight, under average anyway.
You are long.
Your head is almost average.