New Tricks

Joseph is doing so many fun and exciting things these days. He discovered his feet a few weeks ago and just loves to grab those toes. It's so cute!

He also thinks he can sit up, although this maneuver always ends in a face plant eventually!

He's also starting to get around more. We can put him down on one side of a room and he will roll his way across to the other side. He still only rolls to his right though, so if he comes up against an obstacle in that direction he gets stuck! He really wants to crawl and he certainly gives it his all. Just today he figured out how to get up on all fours without any help!

Then there's this: yoga baby! (Seriously, this is one strong 4 month old!)

One really precious thing is the way he lights up when he sees his sisters. They are shining stars in his baby world.


It doesn't get any better than that :-)

Does He Look Like Me?

Me at birth:

Me at 4 months:

Not sure how old I am here:

We don't have any pictures of Larry as a baby, so it's hard to compare. What do you think?

Cider Vinegar? Buttered Popcorn?

For those of you who have had breastfed babies, you know that their poo has a distinctive smell. It has always smelled familiar to me somehow, kind of like cider vinegar. Then a good friend of mine said she thought is smelled like buttered popcorn. She's so right! Anybody else have another description to add? This is going to sound strange, I'm sure, but I actually like the smell. I will miss it once we start feeding Joseph solids, and that day is coming all too fast. He is now 4.5 months old! At his last checkup he weighed 16 pounds and was 26 inches long, still near 80% in all areas. I am absolutely loving this phase of his babyhood. Every moment is a true treasure that I want to tuck deep in my heart to savor forever.

The Miracle Blanket Lives up to Its Name!

I've written before about our struggles with Joesph and sleep. Some nights we would be up as many as 5 times. In fact, we had one of those nights just two days ago. I suspected that he would stay asleep longer if we could figure out how to keep him in his swaddle, but at 4 months and 15 pounds, he's a strong boy and he can work his way out of most swaddles. So I turned to the Internet and discovered something called the Miracle Blanket. Parents rave about this swaddling blanket. After reading about it for several days, I decided it would be worth the money if it worked as everyone claimed. In an act of bravery, I took 3 kids to Buy Buy Baby to get my hands on what I hoped would be my ticket to more rest. We brought it home, washed it and set it up for night time. At bedtime last night, I went through our regular routine, placed my drowsy little boy in the blanket and wrapped him up good. He promptly drifted off to sleep without a peep...no pacifier, no white noise. Time: 8:00PM. The next time I heard from was, drum roll please, 4:15AM, more than 8 HOURS later!! I then fed him, re-wrapped him and put him back to bed. He went back to sleep until 7:20! This is the first time we haven't had to put him in the swing around 5:30 to keep him asleep/resting until 7. By all measures, last night really was a miracle, and I can't even begin to describe what it feels like to sleep for the first time in 4 months. Thank you, Miracle Blanket! Here's to many more good nights together!

(My only regret is that the instructions say not to use it for more than 10 hours a day, so no naps in it. I tried the sleep sack this morning and he woke up still tired after only 40 minutes. The instructions also say it's for newborn to 14 weeks, but that's not going to stop me!)

The Future According to Julie

The other day we were talking about being a baby so I said "Julie is my number 1 baby, Melody is my number 2 baby, and Joseph is my number 3 baby!" Julie immediately asked, "where are number 4 and number 5 baby?" "Um...well...not here yet!" was my reply. Upon further inquiry, I learned that both future babies will be boys, number 4 will be named Jared and will grow inside of Mommy, and number 5 will be named Jesus and will be adopted. There you have it! The future according to Julie :-)!