4 Months Old

Little guy is 4 months old now. We had his 4 month check up and here's the stats... weight: 15.6 lbs (60%) and height: 25 1/2" (75%). I thought for sure he was going to be 16 pounds, but close enough. His long, dark baby hair that he was born with is almost gone. There is a small section at the back base of his skull that is still really long. Its a little too mullett-ish for me and I may have to clean it up with some scissors. I know its wrong, but no child of mine is going to have a mullett! He has fuzzy light hair coming in all over. Im so curious to see what color it will be. Im thinking sandy blonde/light brown.

He is falling right into place in all developmental categories. He is rolling over all of the time now, i.e. crib, activity mat, tries to in his bath tub. He's a busy guy. When we go in his nursery to wake him up, his feet are where his head was. He spins all the way around at some point in the night, chasing his thumb I'm sure. He's chatting up a storm and making new noises every day.

We tried rice cereal for the first time. I've been waiting in excitement for this moment for a while. I thought he was ready because he stares you down while you eat. I don't know what I expected, it's not like he was going to jump out of his Bumbo seat and hug and thank me for finally giving him something other than formula or breastmilk. But, I didn't expect it to go so bad. He was more interested in eating the spoon than having cereal. About a minute into it he was in a full blown cry. My guess is he was pissed he wasn't getting food fast enough. Oh well, we'll try again in a few days. I'll keep you posted.

In other developments, he is so close to grabbing his feet. I seriously cannot wait for that day. I have a feeling it will be a good day in Grady's book.

This weekend he will be Baptized. I'm sure we'll have some stories to share, and pictures for sure!

XOXO,

Courtney

A Weekend of Several Firsts

We had Sarah and Jonathan in town for the weekend and I don't think they could have picked a better time to come. The weather was absolutely perfect and we took full advantage of some sun and sand. 

Awe, happy couple!

Our neighborhood beach behind our house.

Cousin Ryan came to play

He he, love this outfit! Grady's first pair of boat shoes!

All tuckered out on daddy's chest

We decided to run in our first marathon ... the .05 K Bridge Run. Nope, not a typo. It's literally .05 k - a quick run over the bridge that connects Annapolis and Eastport. The best part about this run is that halfway on the bridge there is a hydration station, and then a pub crawl afterwards to celebrate. I seriously LOVE where I live. They even made a map of the bridge, you know just in case ;)

Notice the guy with the cane!

So, we "stretched" our arms with a Corona before the big run at Boatyard.

And we "cooled down" with some pain killers at Pussers.

All proceeds this year went to a local girl battling leukemia. We felt pretty good about our athletic/philanthropic afternoon!

Sarah, of course, entertained us with her social mishaps in Dubai, and Dave was in Shades (his alterego) form too. Needless to say I'm a little sore this Sunday evening - not because of the marathon, but because of the laughing! The only thing that could have made it better was if all the family was in town. We'll save that for the Baptism in two weeks ;)

Grady had a few firsts this weekend of his own. For one, it was his first trip to downtown Annapolis. It was a big hit! He liked staring at all the big boats and sailboats.

And...he rolled over all the way on his tummy by himself. I don't know whether to be excited or so nervous that I need a Zanax! He has been rolling over on his side for a few weeks now, but I caught him on the video monitor at 5:00 a.m. rolling right over onto his tummy. Lord this is going fast! He has his 4 month checkup this Friday and all bets are he weighs 16 lbs now. Big baby boy! I'll keep you posted!

XOXO,

Court

9 to 5, sort of

I returned to work last week and it is horrible. My job isn't horrible, but leaving Grady is. My heart hurts every morning when I drive in. And when I drive home I feel like I can't get to him fast enough. I miss our mornings together. He is so stinking cute in the mornings! I'm going to give it at least a month before I make any decisions about staying home, but I'm starting to rethink this whole working thing. But how do you choose between going to work or staying home? If I work I can give Grady a better life. But if I stay home he gets me all of the time. I will say this though - when I am with Grady its so special and he gets the very best of my attention. When I was on maternity leave I would get distracted by the house being a mess or running errands. When I am off work, all I want to do is squeeze my little man and play with him. I am also considering working for now, but when he goes to school staying home. I hate this decision!

I'll tell you what is making the decision to  go to work even harder is my schedule. So I wake up at 4:30 am and get myself ready, then wake Grady up at 5:00 am, change and feed him and get him in the carseat to drop him off at Katie's at 6:00 a.m. - all of this so that I can make it to Bethesda by 7:00 a.m. But wait, that is only on Tuesday and Friday. Mondays I work from home from 5:00 to 9:00 a.m. and have the rest of the day off (yay!). Wednesdays I leave my house at 5:00 a.m. to be at work by 6:00 a.m. so Dave has Grady duty. Finally, Lauren watches Grady and Ryan at our house on Thursdays so I work 5:00 - 7:00 am until Lauren arrives and then I work 9:00 - 3:00 at the office. Confused? Good, so am I!

Decisions, decisions...

Courtney

Not a Whole Lot Going On

Grady is 13 weeks old, but I read I'm not supposed to refer to him in weeks any more, rather I am supposed to refer to him in months. So, Grady is 3 months old. I was kind of sad about this development. When I refer to him in weeks he seems so little, but when I refer to him in months he seems older. Oh well, I better get used to this because time is flying by! My parents, eh hem Nona and PopPop, came to visit and they couldn't get over how big he is getting and how active and playful he is. They had a great time watching Grady play on his activity mat.

PopPop couldn't be prouder of his grandson.

Meghan and Jon came to visit the weekend after. The last time they saw Grady he was 5 weeks old, so they were shocked at how much he has changed. We had a good time and it was nice to have another set of hands since Dave was away on a guys weekend.

Grady has now learned how to roll over on his side all by himself. He likes it too! He figured out how to roll over by chasing his thumb. He is literally obsessed with his thumb. Some mornings I go into his room to wake him up and he is completely sideways in his crib from chasing his thumb all night. As Grandma says, "if I had a thumb that cute I would suck on it all day too."

He has become very vocal telling me stories all day long. He also plays independantly more and more. When I put him in his bouncer seat to watch Baby Einstein, he watches the whole video and talks to the TV. I just wish I knew what he was saying.

Best buddies!

Since Grady is holding his head up so good now, I busted out the Bumbo seat. I have been dying to get him into this thing because I think babies look so cute it in. I just love how his feet stick out.

Must eat hands!

Finally, he is grabbing everything. I need to wear my hair up now and earrings are a thing of the past. The best though is that when I give him a bottle, he just looks at me and then grabs my face. Melt my heart!

XOXO,

Court