Gimme!

Jonathan is a lot more grabby these days. He used to love sitting on my lap, having his hair brushed. Now, he just barely tolerates it. He's waiting for the end of the grooming, when I let him take the brush in his fist. The handle is perfect for chewing, and he likes to tickle his fingers against the soft bristles. He's also rediscovered the round mirror rattle. I spent hours last month wedging that thing into his hands, only to have him drop it seconds later. Not anymore! He actively reaches for it, showing off his new abdominal strength. When he gets a hold of it, you can see how much his fine motor skills have improved in the last two weeks. He can turn it to get the edge in his mouth, and he easily passes it back from hand to hand. He also whips his head around looking for it when it finally drops, or if I rattle it while it's out of his line of sight.

He can turn from his back onto his side, but he just looks offended if I give him a little boost onto his tummy. He's also becoming a little more shy around strangers. Twice in the past week, he's been held by people he doesn't know that well. He doesn't mind at first, but after a few minutes, he takes a good look and realizes this is not Mommy or Daddy holding him. The lower lip goes out and he snurfles a little. This does not bode well for babysitting in the weeks to come.

Roll over, baby!

Jonathan keeps teasing me with the rollover. He still just barely tolerates tummy time, so he hasn't had much chance to practice rolling front-to-back. However, he's getting closer at flipping over from back-to-front. The technique is very interesting. He sort of hyperextends himself into a comma and brings his head waaaay back. This is enough to get him lying on his side. It doesn't look very comfortable, but he holds it for a long time. Often, he's studying something intently, like the control box for his mobile. If I help him kick his top leg over his bottom leg, he flips, and looks quite surprised to have ended up on his tummy! But he hasn't gotten the hang of it on his own yet.

He's back in love with his purple elephant, which now accompanies us on stroller rides. It can be clipped to the stroller, so he can't throw it overboard. He also likes the very soft Beanie Baby his Auntie Liz gave him. He posed with it for Easter pictures this morning. When I picked him up, he made a grab for it and carried it along!

More Exersaucer fun.

The Exersaucer remains a big hit around here, with the rattle retaining first place in the toy pantheon. However, man cannot live by creating a godawful racket alone. Sometimes, Jonathan needs to chew on his blocks. He likes to rotate counter-clockwise in the saucer (I have no idea why, or if it is developmentally significant.) So, when he gets tired of the rattle, he generally has to turn about 270 degrees to get to the blocks.

The problem comes when he's almost there and the blocks are bumping up on his elbow. He can see them - they're right there - he can almost taste them! That might be anticipatory drool, or, more likely, his regular drool output. But here's the problem. He hasn't yet figured out that he has to lift up his arm over the blocks. So he keeps rotating and his elbow keeps pushing the blocks further away. The more he pushes, the more they move. He gets so frustrated! Finally, he completes a 360 turn and now the blocks are heaped up on the rattle. Fine, he thinks, I'll play with the rattle. But now he can't get to the rattle because the blocks are in the way.

Right about there is my cue to come and straighten things out.

In other news, he's starting to stay up when I place him in the sitting position. The baby books say he should be "tripoding" first, using his arms to hold himself upright. Unfortunately, Jonathan's got short arms. They don't seem to touch the floor until his nose is touching his kneecaps. Still, it isn't lying down, and it certainly isn't standing - so we'll call it sitting.

The butt occasionally scoots up into the air during tummy time - but only when the face is firmly planted for support. So crawling is still a ways away.

Pet Names

What a lot of nonsense I talk to this baby. These are some of Jonathan's many nicknames; not all are applicable at all times. Keeping in mind that he'll be a teenager in twelve years, seven months, and eleven days, no further details are offered.

Chunk

Droolio

The Fussybutt

Mr. Delicious

Captain Squishypants

rattle rattle rattle

New toy heaven! rattle rattle rattle
Jonathan is keeping busy rattle rattle rattle
in a fabulous new toy rattle rattle rattle
that Mommy got him. RATTLE RATTLE RATTLE

Why, yes, that is kind of annoying, isn't it? But the delight our little rattling angel gets from his new Exersaucer is worth it. I have been eagerly awaiting the twice-annual Lollipop Shop for months. It's a local children's consignment shop that's only open for one week. I stopped by when I was eight months pregnant and picked up all sorts of goodies. This past weekend I was there on opening day. I got a lot of clothes (new outfits coming soon in the next crop of pictures!) but best of all was the Exersaucer! Walkers are tres passe, you know - too much falling down stairs and all that.

Jonathan stands in the middle of this saucer (with some help from a seat with leg holes in it) and he can bounce himself and rotate around. Ahhh, freedom of movement at last! There are all sorts of toys on the outer ring of the saucer with which he can amuse himself. Jonathan divides these toys into three categories: things that RATTLE, things to chew on, and not-worth-my-time.

Woe to the lowly atomic rattle, last week such a favorite. Now Jonathan has a clear plastic cylinder filled with beads. He's quite good at spinning it around and around on its axle. What an unholy cacophony it makes, too. He hits it and hits it and grins at the noise, and just when you think your ears are going to get a break - he hits it again!

There's a tray on the Exersaucer, now designated home to things to chew on. He likes the soft blocks he got as a present last month. We put them on the tray and he lurches forward as far as his seat will allow and face-plants onto the block. Sometimes he picks it up with both hands and brings it to his mouth. When he really gets going, he looks like he's in a corn-on-the-cob speed-eating contest. Eventually the soaking-wet block makes a break for it and falls off the saucer. For now, at least, it's forgotten as soon as it's gone. But I foresee that putting the blocks back on the saucer will be my major occupation in the months to come.

Rattle rattle rattle.

Baby genius

I've been hesitant to write about Jonathan's latest accomplishment this week. Chris and I thought it was just happenstance at first. Plus, Liz tells me that the story about Jonathan saying "sleep" at three months makes us look like weird hypercompetitive delusional yuppie parents, which is the last thing we want. But this is now three times in the past week and we've moved past coincidence. So I will tell.

Jonathan loves his crib mobile more than just about anything. He lies there and looks and listens and laughs out loud. The mobile attaches to the foot end of his crib. There's a control box inside the crib and, for some reason, you have to hit the "on" button twice to make it work. Hitting it once makes a little red light go on, but nothing else.

Now, he's been migrating from the top to the bottom of the crib for a long time - there's nothing new there. Last Saturday morning, when I went in to get him, he was down there with his feet up against the mobile box - he'd turned the red light on with his feet. I said something like "Oh how cute, you want your music" and he grinned and flapped his arms (his morning "hello") and kicked the button again, turning on the mobile. Chris went to get him on Tuesday - mobile was going. Same thing again this morning. We've noticed that the first set of batteries lasted three months. The new set burned out in three weeks.

We're very proud of our little baby genius and also a little scared. We were counting on at least a year of being smarter than him. I'm thinking babyproofing is going to be a lot harder than getting some cabinet locks and outlet plugs. We're going to have to move into a giant padded cell to keep him safe. Maybe he can program the VCR so I won't have to miss "Lost" anymore.

Return of the Atomic Rattle

The atomic rattle was a gift from Grandma Kwon. It has multicolored plastic loops around a central rattle - we saw one as window dressing on a Pampers commercial the other day! Anyway, it's been on the shelf for the last few weeks. But Jonathan has made huge improvements in his fine motor skills this week, so I got it out again. Amazing! He will grab for it when I hold it in front of him, and now he uses both hands to rotate it and get the loops into his mouth at just the right angle for chewing. It does induce a large amount of drool, however. The two-handled sippy cup is another favorite. We put water in it, but none seems to escape - all the wetness down his shirt is drool.

Another first today - Jonathan made a grab for Mr. Bunny when he was lying on his back and Mr. Bunny was next to him. He is taking more interest in toys in general, and that means I can keep him on his tummy for longer amounts of time. We haven't seen him raise up his hind end again, but he is getting quite strong!

He loves, loves, loves to stand up! As long as I am holding his forearms, he will plop himself down to a sitting position and then push himself up again. I don't do any lifting, but he does need me to stabilize him a lot. We are only slightly disturbed by the smile he gets whenever he is "taller" than Mommy or Daddy, meaning his head is higher than ours. I'm sure it only looks like he's plotting something nefarious.

Too soon for sumo

And the winner is: Arlene is closest for weight and Grandma Westin is spot-on for length! Great job! Jonathan weighed in today at 19 pounds, five ounces and is 26 1/2 inches long. This puts him in the 97th percentile for weight and 90th for height, which is where's he's been all along. Head circumference is 50th percentile. We love seeing Dr. Ranney as always. She thinks he's doing great. Jonathan didn't want to talk, but he did give her a few smiles this time, and showed off his latest obsession, which is sticking out his tongue. He does it all the time - the only way to hide it is to pull out the camera.

Our little boy is fickle, it turns out. After a month's infatuation with the purple elephant on his playmat, he has grown bored. He's not ready for such a commitment! The elephant is sadly banished down towards his feet and the lovely giraffe, who has up until now been ignored, is now literally Jonathan's right-hand man.

Major step made towards crawling the other day. During tummy time, Jonathan got his butt up off the ground for the first time! He still cannot coordinate that with the front half coming off the ground - it's one or the other. But it seems he will be Mr. Mobility sooner rather than later.

Tedra and Misha babysat last night while I was at the Free Clinic. They tried valiantly to get a bottle into Jonathan, but he wasn't having it. Dr. Ranney thinks we should just move on to the sippy cup, and he'll get the hang of that in a month or two. Tedra did get Jonathan to fall asleep so sweetly after playing with him for a few hours. I woke him up, though, to eat, so I could continue to spoil myself with an uninterrupted night's rest.

He'll probably run a bit of a fever tonight with this latest series of shots. Poor little boy. Poor mommy who will take his temperature twelve times in the next sixteen hours. We'll try to get out for a walk after his next dose of Tylenol.

How much will he weigh?

And how long will he be? Help us test out Power Blogger's new, updated comments feature. They have fixed it so anyone can leave a comment - of course, good old anonymous always works, too! Anyway, Jonathan has his four month appointment coming up soon. Post a guess on his height and weight here! The one closest to the actual figure will get . . . heck, I don't know. Bragging rights? Pick a number and post a guess!