4 Month Checkup

Nicholas went to the pediatrician this morning and seems to be doing better about the shots than he did last time. At least so far--we'll see if he has a cranky afternoon. The pediatrician is in general quite happy with him, although what we thought was heat rash on his left arm is apparently eczema. But some cortisone cream should help with that. The doctor wants us to wait to start him on any cereal for another 2 months, which I think Nicholas would be disappointed about if he knew, but I'm actually happy to postpone on the trouble, mess, and expense of real food.

Here are his stats:
Weight: 17 pounds, 11 oz
Height: 25 inches (although the nurse's markings seemed off to me, so I bet 25 1/2 or 26)

Our big little boy!

Chatterbox

On Sunday evening after everyone had left and even Joe was out to dinner with his family, Stacy and I were sitting in the living room while I fed Nicholas. After eating for a few minutes, he stopped eating, looked up at me and started "talking" . . . and talking . . . and talking. I don't know how long he actually kept at it, but it felt like 5-10 minutes and he wouldn't let me get a word in edgewise.

I couldn't understand the words obviously, but his tone and the expression in his eyes clearly conveyed that he was filling me in on things that were really big, that he was sharing something that was fascinating. My guess is that he was saying, "Mom, you'll never believe everything that happened this weekend." It actually reminded me of when I would ambush my mom in the kitchen and talk a mile a minute the entire time she was making dinner. And with how quickly I sometimes talk, I bet I was about as comprehensible as Nicholas.

Interestingly, he has been more talkative than usual ever since then as well. Is he remembering more things he wants to tell us or did being around people talking constantly for a few days just encourage him to talk?

Nicholas' Baptism

We had a busy weekend, with family and friends in town for Nicholas' baptism. Between the level of activity, the shortage of naps, and the colds we're all still fighting, we're worn out, but it was a wonderful weekend and great to spend time with everyone. Thank you to everyone who came in to help us celebrate this special day in Nicholas' life.

We were so busy spending time with all our visitors, organizing for his party, and trying to sneak in enough power naps for Nicholas to avoid code red meltdowns that I didn't really have time this weekend to reflect on the significance of the event. Thinking about it now it feels sort of anticlimactic. I guess because it doesn't seem like much has changed.

The best definition I have ever heard of sacraments is that they are the recognition of something that has already taken place internally rather than a tranformative procedure. I like this definition a lot because they point to the process of transformation that we as humans have a role in, in connection with God. We can't do it on our own, but neither are we completely passive objects. And so, in that sense, Nicholas' baptism was the official welcoming ceremony even though he has been a member of the church family from birth (or at least when we started taking him to church at 5 weeks old).

Just as importantly, as a welcoming ceremony, his baptism was just the beginning. It is important to us to give him a strong foundation in a religion. He may change which religion he practices later in life or decide he does not want to practice any religion at all, but we hope to provide him with a foundation he can turn to. The baptism was the easy part.

And now I'll stop reflecting and get to the real reason you check this blog . . . pictures.

Here is our beautiful little boy in the baptism outfit my mom made for him:

From Baptism Weekend

And here he is playing and happy before the baptism started:

From Baptism Weekend

Then Deacon Ed poured the water on his head and Nicholas decided the day had gotten a lot less fun:

From Baptism Weekend

Outside of the church with his parents and godparents:

From Baptism Weekend

At the church with Grandma Kathleen and Grandpa Dan:

From Baptism Weekend

Joe's entire family came in for the baptism!

From Baptism Weekend

Believe it or not, these are only a small fraction of the great pictures from the weekend. You can see the rest of them (and a couple hilarious videos) here.

4 Month Update

We go to the pediatrician on Wednesday, so we'll post his new measurements then, but for now here is a glance at where Nicholas stands at 4 months:

• His big accomplishment this month was learning to fall asleep on his own. I know this doesn't sound like much, but in infant world it is a pretty big deal. He has been going to bed betwen 7 and 7:30, about an hour after his last meal and after either a walk or bath and then a couple books. Some nights he goes down completely silently but more frequently he fusses for a few minutes before realizing we aren't going to come get him and he might as well just go to sleep. And the occassional night he screams bloody murder for 15 minutes.
• He has now learned to suck his thumb and uses this skill to put himself to sleep. This has also become a pretty good sign to us that he wants to go to bed. If he sucks on his thumb rather than chewing random fingers, he is sleepy.
• Ever since learning to suck his thumb Nicholas has little use for the pacifier. While we are very glad he won't be the 3-year-old with a pacifier, his thumb is in his control and he only takes it when he wants it, meaning we more frequently have a screaming baby in public who we can't quiet.
• Nicholas now loves to stand up. He obviously can only do so with someone holding him, but he wants to be standing constantly. He often refuses to bend to sit down, wanting to stand instead. Since he hates tummy time so much, we're wondering if he'll skip crawling.
• He loves "swimming" in the bath and seems to be a natural at it. He has figured out floating on his own and if I hold him either on his back or tummy, he pulls his legs up and kicks. Unfortunately he has no understanding of breathing out to keep water from going in or even holding his breath, so when he puts his face in (which he tries to do even when I'm trying to stop him), he chokes on water.

As you can see from the length of this post relative to his other updates, he isn't all that different than he was a month ago. Time has started going quickly. But I look back at pictures of him as a newborn and it is hard to believe that it is the same baby.

From Nicholas - Month 4

Our little "peanut" is getting so grown up!

Trip to the Aquarium

From Nicholas - Month 4

Stacy and I took Nicholas to the aquarium this morning, with mixed results. Unfortunately they don't allow strollers, so there was no way to give him a break and a little nap, which means we only got to stay about an hour. In the future I might take the stroller and check it and then walk around the lobby for 20 minutes when he needs a nap. Or something.

Since we only stayed an hour it wasn't worth the $50 we paid, but I think for a year it will be worth the extra $50-$150 (depending on the package) for a membership to be able to go for the rest of the year.

Nicholas enjoyed looking at the fish in the tanks. I think to him it basically was the same as watching TV--all sorts of brightly colored things moving around behind glass--but it seems somehow better for him. He enjoyed following the moving fish and dolphins around the tanks with his eyes, but he didn't quite understand the concept of glass. At one point he tried to reach out and grab a jellyfish! Silly boy.

From Nicholas - Month 4

The End of the Streak

Just ahead of Nicholas's big weekend (everybody is coming into town for his baptism), my body has decided it's a good time to let a cold bug in. Excellent. It thus ends our string of good health (save for Sarah's problem, which wasn't an illness really). I am grateful for the following:

1. We went 17 weeks without any of us getting sick, which is pretty remarkable, and means that Nicholas's immune system is up and running strong before he got exposed to anything.
2. I was the one who got sick, as opposed to Sarah or Nicholas ... though we'll see how that holds up over the next few days.
3. It's only a cold. No fever, no aches, no nausea, and I'm over a day and a half into being sick, so I'm pretty sure that—at least for the moment—I don't have swine flu.

Being sick has meant some adjustments the last day or two: because of the upcoming weekend, I'm resting more than I would otherwise with a cold, and I'm trying not to get Nicholas germy. The latter is more difficult than it seems, given that he now likes to put everything in his mouth. I can keep my hands away from his hands, but if I need to dress him, I have to grab his arm ... and he's taken to chewing on his arms, corn-on-the-cob style.

So we'll see. Mom, Dad, Uncles and Aunt: we hope you find a healthy baby (and healthy parents), and not a cranky germy one. But no guarantees.

UPDATE (9:42pm): Yep, Nicholas has the cold. Should make for an interesting night.

Apartment Living

There are things I really like about living in an apartment. It is convenient to be able to just call someone when anything breaks. And it is great not to have to mow the lawn or rake leaves! But I've been thinking a lot over the past few months how much simpler life with a newborn would be in a house.

For one, it would be great to have the car directly out the front door and not have to lug his carseat up to the third floor, especially when I also have groceries or other things. It would also be nice to be able to do laundry without needing both of us home, an uninterrupted 4-hour block, and rolls of quarters.

But really what makes me dream of a house is the noise issue. Our neighbors are great, don't get me wrong. In fact, between good neighbors and pretty thick walls, this apartment is about as quiet as an apartment can be. (Nothing like our apartments in the city where Joe and I could talk to each other through the floors/ceilings.) However, Nicholas' nursery is over the stairwell and so when people open and close their apartment doors or walk up and down the stairs late at night, it startles him. And the girl next door practices the piano in the room that borders his nursery. And some of the kids play in the grass in front of the building, meaning outside our windows. And none of them are doing anything wrong. If somone was playing the piano at midnight or people were screaming in the hallway, I could complain, but playing the piano at 7:30 in the evening is perfectly reasonable and closing your apartment door when you come home at midnight is necessary. But both make it hard for Nicholas to sleep.

And then there is the noise within our apartment. When he is in bed we are basically isolated in our room because it is the only place far enough away and with a door to muffle noise. Tonight I didn't get around to eating dinner before he went to bed and almost had cereal because I was scared to use the microwave or toaster oven. (Luckily I realized that if I used the oven function instead of the toast function on the toaster oven it wouldn't make the stupid ding.)

What is bringing these thoughts to the front of my mind right now is thinking about this coming weekend. We'll have a lot of company in town for his baptism and there is no way to have people over while he naps, unless we want to pile the whole extended family into our bedroom and mandate whispers.

Ah, the joys of apartment living.

Parish Picnic

We just got back from our parish picnic, where Nicholas was remarkably well behaved considering that it was during his normal naptime. Our parish picnic really is just a picnic, rather than the festivals some churches hold under that name. But we have a strong affection for it because that is where we met our church friends 2 years ago, weeks after we joined the parish.

We were planning to wait until after Nicholas took a short nap before we went to the picnic, but he refused to go to sleep, so we figured we would just go for a little bit. But he was so wonderful that a little bit turned into 3 hours of fun!

Here he is, quite content to hang out with our church friends:

From Nicholas - Month 4

After about an hour of hanging out and being agreeable, he got fussy and we decided to head home for him to nap. As we left, I said, "unless he falls asleep before we get to the car, in which case we'll be back." We took the long route to the car and put the shade over the stroller and sure enough, 10 minutes later we were back at the picnic.

Nicholas only stayed asleep about half an hour, but it was long enough for us to get our hats handed to us in a game of bocce ball. It was also long enough, apparently, to recharge his batteries and buy us another hour or so at the picnic. This made Joe particularly happy because it meant we stayed long enough for him to judge the dessert contest, something he has been wanting to do since our first picnic.

Nicholas didn't get to eat the desserts, but he apparently knew something cool was going on because he watched Joe taste them in rapt attention:

From Nicholas - Month 4

And since other people were holding him a lot, I got a chance to play with the camera some. I've started playing with the great zoom function on our camera recently. I'm not a good photographer, but every once in awhile I get a shot I like a lot.

This is my favorite one from today:

From Nicholas - Month 4

Even though he isn't smiling, I like this picture a lot, I guess because of the natural light.

One of the couples we are friends with has a grandson almost exactly Nicholas' age and talking with them today reminded me of how lucky we are with Nicholas. Their grandson still has a lot of the sleep patterns and quirks that Nicholas had as a newborn but that he grew out of months ago (because, yes, he is now old enough that "months ago" is possible). Thank you, my darling boy, for sleeping in your crib, going to bed at a reasonable (and downright glorious) hour, and learning to suck your thumb to fall asleep. And thank you for giving us some time today to chat with adults and even play a little.

On another note, happy birthday Uncle Andrew! We're sorry we couldn't see you today, but feel better soon and we'll celebrate when we see you next.

History Lesson

I realized this week that it's almost exactly a year since we found out that the baby was a reality, went to the doctor and got it confirmed, and scheduled a first appointment with an obstetrician. Yes, it's also when we began our diabolical plot to hide that fact from everyone for several weeks until we got past the danger zone. But everyone found out, right?

At that point, we knew nothing (sometimes now we feel like we know less). We scoured books and blogs. We studied the week-by-week analyses on obsessive parenting websites. We got very excited. We got anxious and nervous. We counted pennies. We counted weeks. We read more books. "We" tried to get certain people to eat more fruits and vegetables.

And we had no idea how much our lives were about to be turned upside down.

Oh, one other note: Peanut wouldn't get its name until several weeks later. For the first few weeks, we just referred to "Baby." But that seemed silly, and we didn't at that point know the gender (that would be a later diabolical plot), so it was hard to come up with some other moniker. Then we went for the first sonogram (at 9 weeks) and saw this photo:

From Peanut's Blog

At that point in development, a baby is 50% head and 50% body, with a little indent between them. You know, like a peanut. So we decided that was a good name for the baby in utero. And I think we both imagined it would be a good nickname for a little girl until she turned 5 or 6, but oh well (I just feel bad for Cashew and Macadamia). We love Nicholas anyway. And he's not the same person as Peanut.

Raising Himself

I know I'm biased, but Nicholas is amazing. His recent awe-inspiring thing is beating us to the punch on things we intend to teach him. A few recent examples:

• Pacifiers. We had worried about how we were going to wean him off the pacifier, but he has already started. In the last few weeks the pacifier has ceased to work magic. If he is calm and tired he will sometimes take it, but if he is upset, he just screams around it. I know this is good in the long run, but it means I can no longer feel safe taking him places since I have no magic bullet.
• Bedtime. Nicholas has decided to push his bedtime up. The first couple of times he was acting really tired at 8, we resisted out of fear that he'd think it was a nap and wake up at 10 ready to go. But then we started putting him to bed then and he stayed. And the past few days he has started insisting it was bedtime a little after 7. Well, we're finally starting to learn, so it only took 2 nights of this before we began putting him to bed then. These dissertations may actually get written after all if he keeps this up.
• Falling asleep on his own. Remember how a couple weeks ago I wrote about our goal to eventually get Nicholas to start going to bed without nursing himself to sleep? You guessed it--he beat us to it. A few days after that, before I had gotten up the courage to actually try this, he was fighting me as I tried to feed him before bed and then started sucking his thumb when he came off. Aha! I get it now, you want to go to sleep. Okay, let's see how this goes. And go to sleep he did. He has now done this 4 nights in a row.

And so I'm tempted not to worry about things we'll eventually need to break him of because he seems to be one step ahead of us. At some point he'll need to stop sucking his thumb to go to sleep and stop napping in the swing (yeah, I know I said we were going to start enforcing naps in his crib, but even though he now falls asleep there, he won't stay asleep longer than an hour, and we all need him to take longer naps than that), but for the time being I'm just going to sit back and wait for a cue from him. He seems to know what he's doing.

Sometime soon I need to write a post on one of the days when I'm frustrated, lest you think Nicholas is an angel. Really there are days when I meet Joe at the door, hand him the baby, and threaten to catch the next plane to the Caribbean. Although even on those days I have to admit that he is absolutely adorable.

See?

From Nicholas - Month 4

He's Mobile . . . Sort of

We've written repeatedly about how desperately Nicholas wants to be mobile. Well, he now sort of is. I say sort of because I don't know if it counts when you move yourself unintentionally. He has always been able to scoot a little while lying on his back by kicking and has definitely moved around some in his crib. But he is now strong enough that one good push gets him 3-4 inches back.

He has been moving himself while on the changing table, getting close to the edge, but today when I leaned down for a few seconds to look through the drawer of pants for an appropriate pair he scooted himself so far and so quickly that when I stood up his head and entire upper body were hanging off the edge of the dresser. Yikes! Luckily he was completely unfazed, but I think he would have continued happily scooting until he actually fell off, at which point disaster.

The other time he has been scooting a lot is when we put him on his playmat. I was in the kitchen for a couple minutes the other day and heard him crying and went to see what was going on and he was pushing his head into the TV cabinet! Seriously, how do you babyproof against a baby ramming his head into things while scooting backwards?! Tonight we had a pillow against the TV cabinet and his inflatable cruise ship blocking the sharp edge of the futon. We moved him back onto the mat a few times, because he can only really move backwards, with a little side-to-side twist, which means eventually he ends up under the futon if we don't move him back.

From Nicholas - Month 4

If you look closely you can see one of Nicholas' socks at the bottom of this picture. That is where he kicked it off from the position where we set him down. And you can see how far away he got before we decided to move him back . . . again.

First Visit to Storyville

Our friends had to postpone because they are sick, but Nicholas and I went to Storyville as planned. It is an awesome place, although Nicholas is still too young to get a lot out of it. But for kids ages about 1-3 it may just be the coolest place ever. Basically it is like a children's museum, with a bunch of play centers and toys, but with books spread all around as well. And because it is part of the public library, the whole thing is free!

There is a "baby garden" with a bunch of toys for him and board books, which he had a mild interest in, but he kept seeing the toddlers walking past the fence and each time would get excited and kick his legs in earnest. So we left the baby garden and spent most of the time walking around watching the "big kids" (ages 18 months-3 years) play in the play kitchen, play garden, play grocery store, etc. It felt a little voyeuristic, but the other parents seemed to understand that he just loved watching big kids and not be too creeped out by it.

From Nicholas - Month 4

This picture exemplifies Nicholas' experience of Storyville. He was somewhat intrigued by sitting in this chair that was his size, but then he caught a glimpse of a 2-year-old running by as I took the shot, and wanted to get up and go play with her. As his shirt says, "Here I go!" And boy did he want to go!

We only stayed about half an hour because by then he seemed overwhelmed and was starting to get fussy. He wore himself out trying to take everything in and so fell asleep on the way home and is currently still soundly asleep in his carseat.

And so even though he is too young to do much there, I think we will go to Storyville a lot this winter. He learns a lot watching the big kids play and then is so tired he takes a good nap. This seems like a win-win. And maybe by next spring and summer he'll be able to start playing some with those big kids.

Outings

Nicholas seems to be getting bored of our apartment and his toys. It is understandable since it is where he spends most of his time, but this creates new challenges for us. He seemed to really enjoy our outings to the fair and Ft. McHenry and he loves going out for walks in the Baby Bjorn, but on days that we just hang out at home all day he gets really cranky.

And so we're trying to come up with more outings. The catch is that they have to be places where we can stay in motion a lot and where noise is permissible (this is why church and restaurants are difficult). For these reasons outdoor places are great, but pretty soon it will be getting too cold to be outside with him as much. We're also looking for places that are free or cheap, or have memberships that pay for themselves after a couple visits.

There are some of the D.C. museums that would probably work, but being an hour train ride away from home makes me nervous because if he has a meltdown we have to torture other people for a long ride. But almost everything in D.C. is free whereas the stuff in Baltimore is expensive.

One of the things we're contemplating is getting a membership to the aquarium. Nicholas is too young to really understand what he's seeing, but there should be a lot to see, it is indoors, and walking around there sounds much more appealing to me than doing laps at the mall 4 days a week. I just wish he'd let me sit still long enough to watch the dolphin show. But, who knows, by March he might.

On Wednesday Nicholas and I are going to Storyville with 2 other babies Nicholas' age (and their mothers), which is basically a mini children's museum in a branch of our public library. Apparently they have a section for kids under age 1 that has mirrors in the floor and other fun things to see and explore. We've never been, but it sounds fun. And it's free!

Joe has also suggested apple picking, which sounds like fun. (Mom and Dad, want to go apple picking in PA or western MD some weekend?)

Anyone have any other ideas for outings?

Learning to Float

I accidentally filled the bathtub too high tonight, but it was a fortuitous mistake because Nicholas loved it! At first he was not particularly happy because when he kicked around he couldn't splash since his legs were deep under water. But then he figured out that he could lift his whole torso up to the top of the water and really kick up a storm. And this was apparently the coolest discovery ever! I had my hands under his shoulders so his head wouldn't go completely under, but he was lying back, basically floating, and kicking and splashing like crazy.

At his size the bathtub is as good as a swimming pool, but without the hassle of sunscreen. Score!

Smiles!

To help get you through another Monday morning:

From Nicholas - Month 4

Are you smiling yet?

Just be glad his name isn't "Eli"

As promised earlier this week, Nicholas in his new New York Giants garb:

From Nicholas - Month 4

True, it's a little bit big for now, but he'll have room to grow into it in time for the crucial December games, and, if things go well, for the playoffs in January.

Explaining the World Around Us

I meant to write this post yesterday, but I was away much of the day, so it never got done. But here goes.

Over the last three months, I've thought about Nicholas growing up, and trying to explain to him the world around him. Simple things, like what the grass and the sun are, more complicated things, like the infield fly rule. Since January, I've looked forward to telling him what it was like to stand out in the cold and watch a Presidential inauguration.

It will be hard enough someday to explain to Nicholas was it was like to be alive on September 11, 2001.¹ How I heard about the attacks—and that my first thought was that it couldn't possibly be true. How I spent 90 minutes trying to get his grandparents on the phone, at the same exact time as everyone else either in New York or with relatives there, just to make sure they were okay. What it's like to realize that something you've always taken for granted as part of the landscape just isn't there anymore.

But I also realized yesterday that at some point we will have to explain to Nicholas that there are Bad People in the world, and sometimes they do Bad Things. I don't think I'm intelligent enough to even broach the topic of why anyone would do such a thing. There's just no answer that truly makes sense, to explain what would make someone want to murder 3,000 people (actually, I suppose the hijackers hoped they would kill even more) and take out landmark buildings. It will have to suffice for him to know that such things happen, that we move on, that we don't succumb.

That day will be a moment, one among many, in which the cocoon peels away just a bit, and he becomes just a little less protected. That's a sad thought right now. I mean, there is a part of me that looks forward to seeing him make his own way, and confront the world. Maybe he will even make some lasting change in the world—who knows? But I just hope we can shelter him from the bad long enough that he's strong enough to handle it.

¹ I also find it somewhat bewildering, because the event reinforced a sense of community, that we now have a member of the family whose first long-term memories of anything will come some 12-14 years after 2001.

Figuring it Out--Update

From Nicholas - Month 4

Remember two months ago when I posted about how Nicholas was not physically able to pull the string on the toy attached to his chair? Probably not, so you can read about it here. Anyway, yesterday he did it! It has been awhile since we've made that toy make noise, so I think he was grabbing the string just because he grabs at things more than consciously to make noise, but he did it 4 or 5 times, so pretty soon I think he will understand the connection, if he doesn't already. Watch the boy wonder at work.

Portraits

We took Nicholas for his first formal portraits today. And he did pretty well, for the most part. Unfortunately he woke up too early this morning, so by our 10am appointment he was already pretty tired. Between being tired and not quite sure what to make of the photographer, he was willing to smile, but not give any of his patented grins. But for the same price as sitting fees for the 3 of us we could get a membership that waives sitting fees for 2 whole years, so we of course did that and some day this winter when I'm desperately looking for an activity, maybe I'll go let the photographer entertain him for half an hour and see if we get any better shots. :) And in the meantime I am of course second-guessing myself on what we ordered.

Rebellion--Update

From Nicholas - Month 4

This is the only way Nicholas would consent to eat from a bottle today, sprawled out with his head hanging down and his feet almost hanging off the couch.

Are you ready for some football?

Nicholas is!

His New York Giants outfit arrived in the mail yesterday afternoon, thanks to Grandma Alice, who apparently has been very anxious to get Nicholas something with a New York sports logo. Photos to follow later, either today if we try it on him, or on Sunday when the Giants open the season.

Rebellion

How does a 3-month old rebel, you ask? Well, in Nicholas' case by deciding he doesn't like bottles anymore and so instead of eating them just yelling and screaming and fussing. We made the mistake of not giving him any bottles on our trip and he decided he liked only having Mommy feed him. And so since we got back he has resisted eating from a bottle at all and will only sometimes consent if I give them to him. Needless to say, this makes it difficult for me to get work done. The answer is probably for me to just go away for a day or two and eventually he'll get hungry enough that he'll eat. But I don't know if any of us can tolerate that.

Updates

Life is chugging along here. We've all started to adapt to our new schoolyear schedule, which now includes a block of worktime after Nicholas goes to bed. Thankfully he has recently been going to bed around 9. Joe and I are still trying to figure out which division of childcare time works best for us, but in the meantime work is getting done and commitments are being met. There is no real theme to this post, but here are some random updates into our lives:

• Our recent outings to the fair and Ft. McHenry have convinced us that we need to take Nicholas out more often, as long as it is to places where noise is okay. He tends to spend the first part looking around at everything in wonderment. Then, when he wears himself out from trying to take everything in, he gets fussy and then if we snuggle him in or close him up in the carseat/stroller and give him a pacifier, he falls into a deep, well-earned sleep. He gets to see new things and we get out of the house. Win-win. And both of those outings were with other people, so we also got a chance to catch up with other adults. So, if anyone has a kid-friendly outing they want to go on, let us know.
• Church is difficult. Nicholas has been trying really hard, but the deck is stacked against him. An hour of being still and quiet is really too much to ask. Yesterday he did pretty well for the first half hour, enjoying looking at the older boys behind us and the stained glass windows. He was talking a lot, but I let him go until his sounds started to get shrill. They were still happy noises rather than crying, but I figured it wasn't fair to everyone else. Then he went to fussy and crying and we spent some time up in the cry room, but by the end of mass he was hanging by a thread and I could feel him about to go from crying to full-scale meltdown, so we left before the closing song. And he then fell asleep as soon as we got in the car and slept for 2 hours. I can't decide whether or not to start taking him to the nursery this winter. He is allowed to go beginning at 6 months (so around Thanksgiving), and it would be great to be able to focus on mass (esp once Joe is back over with the choir), but I am really scared of the germs this winter.
• Many of you have asked how I'm feeling these days. Pretty good. I have been hesitant to post because I don't dare think this is the way it will stay, and always expect it to come back with force. But for the past month or so I've been alternating between feeling perfect and feeling pretty good. I'll have a week or so where I feel perfect, as though nothing was ever wrong, and then a few days or a week where I just feel a little off in the mornings and not really up for food. So even these "bad" days are dramatically better than my good days used to be, and completely a level I can live with. They are just enough to remind me that I'm not completely 100% healed. But for now I've indefinitely postponed the next rounds of tests the doctor had proposed. There were just too many negatives involved in them to be worth it if I'm feeling good enough to function.
• Now that Nicholas is a little older (and has discovered his thumb), he has recently begun to put himself to sleep or back to sleep from crying. This has allowed us to begin implementing two of our sleep-related goals: naps in the crib and no pacifiers in bed. These aren't hard and fast rules yet, but they have been introduced and our hope is that over the next few weeks they can become the norm. Our next sleep-related goal is to get him out of the habit of nursing himself to sleep at night. He often wakes up when I put him down and gets himself back to sleep, but the goal is to have him learn to do the whole sleep process on his own. My hesitancy on this one is that if he doesn't nurse right before bed, he'll wake up hungry sooner, which means I have to get up sooner.

So in general, life is chugging along. And Nicholas seems to finally be stirring after 12 hours of nighttime sleep (well, he was up twice, but still), so I should go get him.

Historic Visit to Historic Site

From Nicholas - Month 4

Nicholas visited his first historic site today--Ft. McHenry. For those of you not well-versed in your Baltimore/War of 1812 history, Ft. McHenry was where the Battle of Baltimore was fought (i.e. the British bombed the fort like crazy but couldn't make landfall) in September 1814 while Francis Scott Key watched on and was inspired to write the poem that later became the national anthem.

Anyway, we toured the fort today with Grandma Kathleen and Grandpa Dan, and Nicholas was remarkably content through most of the tour, as long as we didn't stand in the sun too long.

From Nicholas - Month 4

For the most part he was more interested in chewing on his hands or the Baby Bjorn than anything else, but he did spend a lot of time looking around taking things in and was fascinated by both the video and the LCD light presentation of the battle. I think it was the lights and colors more than the historical content, but there's time for that later.

And, as always, there are more pictures in the gallery .

Found his thumb!

Nicholas found his thumb a couple days ago, and has started to using it to great effect. He hasn't figured out yet how to curl his other fingers down to avoid scratching his forehead and poking himself in the eyes, and he still mixes in a bunch of fist chewing, but when he needs it, he can get just the thumb.

And the really exciting news is that he is using this new skill to put himself to sleep! Yesterday I set him down on the floor half asleep to get a cake out of the oven, figuring he'd scream and I'd need to feed him more before putting him down for a nap. (Remember, this is the child who usually only naps during the day with the help of a pacifier and constant motion.) And I came back to find this:

From Nicholas - Month 4

He was content, so I left him alone. After about half an hour of alternating sucking his thumb and some very quiet fussing, I looked over and saw that he had his arm over his eyes, trying to go to sleep.

From Nicholas - Month 4

And a few minutes later:

From Nicholas - Month 4

He then alternated between being asleep and half awake sucking his thumb for about 2 hours. And one time when he woke up last night he had stopped screaming by the time I got to his room and I could hear sucking coming from inside the door. I went back to bed, figuring I'd let him go for the few minutes until he started screaming again and the next thing I knew Joe's alarm was going off at 6:30. I'm so proud of the little boy!

The First Hundred Days

As of today, Nicholas is 100 days old! Go, Nicholas! As such, it's time for his Report Card for the First 100 Days.

Vital Signs: A+
Nicholas is growing fast and furious. He came out of the gate as a long, lean fighting machine, and after a few days getting used to the idea of eating on his own, has been practically unstoppable in the growing department. At his check-ups, he's been well into the 90th percentile for both height and weight. He's big, but proportionate, like a linebacker (and unlike, say, his father).

Motor Skills: A-
He's learned how to kick and make his toys move. He's discovered his hands (and how tasty they are!) He can interact with his toys. If only he would consent to staying on his tummy and learn how to play that way, we'd have a real powerhouse on our hands.

Sleep: A-
Grade inflation, you say? I don't know. But truth be told, he's doing pretty well. Nighttime in our house lasts from about 9pm to 7am, and at this point he wakes up once or twice a night to eat. During the day? Well, he just doesn't want to miss anything, but he usually gets a good solid afternoon nap in.

Foreign Policy: B
Alright, I can't get my boy through this exercise with straight As. He just doesn't seem to do as well in groups of new people as he could. Our trip to Louisville proved that in abundance. He can be a charmer, when he wants to be, but that only usually lasts about 45 minutes. Then the meltdown happens, and he needs some quiet time (usually with mommy) to reset and regroup. And boy was he happy to be home, which I never would have thought of a 3-month-old even noticing.

The Home Front: A+
As far as handling his parents goes, he's got us right where he wants us. It's as if he's already learned how to ring a little bell. Or just how to wail until we guess what he's thinking.

Media Relations: A+
Seriously, how could you not love this face?

From Nicholas - Month 4

OVERALL: A
I think the jury is still out on the parents and their abilities (you may note that we chose not to write a post on the development of our parenting skills in the first hundred days, but Nicholas is doing just fine.

Next milestones: 100 weeks (April 26, 2011); 100 months (September 26, 2017).

And NOW it is a good morning

I was sort of cranky and tired this morning, but when I went in to get Nicholas, he greeted me with smiles and all sorts of happy babbling. Good morning to you too, my darling boy.

Looking Grown Up

Nicholas started the day in a t-shirt and overalls, but soon after I got home and Sarah left for a meeting, he indicated emphatically that he was done wearing the overalls (if I may put it so euphemistically). So he needed new pants. Because he was already in a t-shirt, I figure jeans were the way to go. I was planning to take him out to run a few errands, and with the weather suddenly becoming cool, I wanted to make sure he kept his socks on (he tends to kick them off within a few minutes if he's awake ... actually even if he's asleep). So I found his Gerber shoes that we'd gotten as a shower gift, and laced those up for him.

Sarah came home and thought he looked like a teenager. You know what that means! Photos!

From Nicholas - Month 4

As a side note, at what point do you think our hairlines will be even, then continue on in their separate directions like ships passing in the night?

From Nicholas - Month 4