Growing and Moving

All of a sudden my little newborn has turned into a wiggly, active baby.  He has grown and changed a lot it seems, just in the past week or so!  Now that he has found his feet he is obsessed with them and wants to grab them all the time, which has made diaper changes pretty interesting!

 

 

And speaking of grabbing things, now nothing in his reach is safe...including a handful of my salad at lunch the other day and knocking my sandwich off the table at another lunch this week. I guess it's time to be more careful about that!  And he's starting to grab pages of books too. Such an inquisitive little guy.

Reading with mama

Because of his desire to move around at all times, we decided to start transitioning where he sleeps.  Starting with the pack and play and hopefully moving over to the crib in the near future.  So far so good!

 He moves his legs around like crazy and is getting really good at lifting up during tummy time.

When he's on his back, he'll naturally turn to one side. He has been trying hard to learn to roll over, which paid off because he just rolled over from his tummy to his back for the first time tonight!  It seems like he's changed overnight. 

  

He's also "talking" a lot more and sometimes at a much higher volume, with LOTS of happy shrieks and squeals.  Other than that, he's been his smiley, cute self - just getting bigger!

We had a great trip to Roanoke this week and packed it full to finally get our housing situation squared away.  Robert was a little trooper and did great through many house tours and visits as well as meeting with a mortgage lender.  Our big news of the week is that we put an offer on a house that was accepted!  We're still crossing our fingers that all goes smoothly, but if it does, we'll be official Roanoke residents in June.   We'll give you the house tour once things are a little more finalized, but it's a cute colonial with 3 bedrooms - so we'll have a guest room for any visitors that come our way.  And for those of you in Northern Virginia who want to see us before we go, we have a few more weeks here!

Since we drove down together this week, Robert and I killed some time on Friday enjoying the weather in a park in Roanoke while Jim finished his workday.  He loves to be outside and even squeezed in an outdoor nap ;)

 

 

 Quality time with dad :)

Snuggling after waking up from a nap

Smiling at dad when he gets home from work

Weekend Happenings

The three of us had a great weekend, particularly enjoying having Jim home again!  He was at a wedding last weekend and then in Roanoke all week, so we had gone a long stretch without seeing him. We had some good quality down time together and got a few things done in the meantime too!

Here's a peek into our weekend....

Trying the bottle again.  Robert is a little more interested in the bottle this week.  He's starting to reach out for it and didn't spit it out immediately or completely meltdown.  He also didn't take a ton from it, but we'll keep trying.

Robert also took a little bit from the bottle when Uncle Dan watched him during my hair appointment. No photo evidence, and he fussed quite a bit, but at least I know he'll eat some when I'm away!

So we also tried to see if he'd like the sippy cup and would drink anything out of that.  Like it? Yes!  Drinking? Not so much. 

Don't take my picture!  I'm helping dad work.

So focused!

Meeting Robert's new friend, baby Braxson, for the first time! 

Hangin with dad.

Robert has started to laugh when he's tickled. It's pretty adorable - see video below for evidence :)http://youtu.be/yBSVm_1uaMY

Chip is his usual, cuddly self.  And Robert has taken notice of him a bit more and will watch him run around the house.  But he still spends most of his days sleeping!

Getting comfy in the middle of laundry folding...his version of "helping"

A few other updates:

Jim continues to work to get our basement prepped in anticipation of getting our house rental-ready. He's made some good progress down there, so I'll post pics once the next steps are more complete!

We are also all going down to Roanoke this week...so more news on our housing search will be coming (hopefully!)

4 months!

Another month down!  The little man is growing and keeping us on our toes.  As he enters his fifth month, he's a lot more active and even more aware of his surroundings.  He needs to stay entertained these days and is way more distractable. 

Current likes: people, being outside, any movement - the car, stroller, walking, rocking, etc., music and singing. 
Dislikes include: loud abrupt noises, going down for naps (sometimes!) and then being overtired....those two go hand in hand!, and bottles are still not a fave.

This month's stats:

Weight: 15 pounds, 5 ounces (50 percentile)

Length:  25.75 inches (about 80 percentile)

Head: 42 centimeters (50 percentile)

 

1, 2, 3, 4!

 A few new things from this week.... Robert seems to have found his feet!  He started kicking his toys on the bouncy chair the other day.  And he also was reaching for them while sitting in my lap, although didn't get that he could move them towards his hands.  So he's slowly realizing that they are there!

Robert also got a Jumperoo this week (thanks to Grandpa for helping me put it together!) and it didn't take him long to realize how fun it is.  I think this toy will last him quite awhile!  He loves to stand upright, so it's nice to have a toy that helps him do that!  He's done with the swing and on to bigger and better things!

Roanoke Revisited

Last week Robert and I made our second trip to Roanoke.  He is getting to be quite the little trooper and has (knock on wood) traveled decently well thus far!  Which is good because there will be quite a few more car trips in the future.  I think if nothing less, he's gotten a bit more accustomed to his car seat, can nap like a champ in it and even entertain himself for awhile.

On our way down we made one of our pitstops at my grandparents so Robert could finally meet his great grandma. It was a great visit and he loved seeing them!

Unfortunately, we're still looking for housing in Roanoke.  Who knew it would be so difficult?!  We had a good option that fell through and so now we're back to looking.  So Robert and I spent our time in Roanoke looking at some other areas and neighborhoods, checking out the downtown market area and Mill Mountain, and having some downtime in the hotel as well as enjoying evenings with Jim!  We had a good time on our adventures this week!

Exploring the Blue Ridge Parkway and Mill Mountain...

It will be nice to live so close to the Blue Ridge Pkwy!

Robert slept through all those scenic overlooks!


But he woke up in time to see the Star!

 

 

View from the Star

 

And back at the hotel...there was lots of finger chewing and thumb sucking going on...

 

As well as tummy time, which is starting to get more and more active these days.  Robert still isn't rolling over, but he's starting to get better at holding himself up and can certainly move his legs around a lot more in the motions that are moving towards flipping over!

Lastly, a side by side of Robert at almost 4 months and on Christmas, when he was 8 days old.  I can't believe how much he's grown already!!!  He seems like such a big little guy now with so much personality, it's fun seeing him change so much, but I definitely wish time would slow down a bit!

 Coming soon...the 4 month update!