Finally...

Up until now, Michael has been pretty content on rolling around the room to get what he wants. A couple of months ago he started scooting on our bed, but he refused to scoot when he was on the floor. I figured it was because our carpet isn't very soft...He made some progress while the Ridge side of the family was in town, but on Wednesday this week he suddenly started scooting when there were certain things just out of reach. Right now the only things worth scooting towards are cell phones, belts, books, and Jeff's remote control car. Apparently I'm not cool enough to scoot towards unless I have one of those items...

He can actually move a lot faster than this video shows, but the way he kicks his legs a bunch of times to move half an inch in this one makes me laugh...so I had to share.

And a few pictures for your viewing pleasure ;)


And lets zoom in on the teeth...

And I will admit...he bit me. He hasn't made a habit of it so I'm hoping he's gotten that out of his system :).

I love watching him learn and do new things everyday...and I love what a happy little boy he is. Jonathan and I feel so blessed to have him in our lives...

Yay!

The New Camera Face

The blank stare that used to surface when I busted out the camera has officially been replaced by a new and improved camera face...

Ta Da!!!! Get a load of that smile! And for your viewing pleasure I zoomed in on his mouth so that you could get a good look at the two teeth he has coming in through his bottom gum. One of the teeth has officially broken through and the other you can see starting to make its way up.

I must say...he is a cutie!

*please note the super handsome outfit Michael is in...Thanks Grandma Laura and Grandpa Perry!!

Turkeymas

Every year we take turns celebrating certain holidays with each side of the family. This year is the Ridge Christmas, so we celebrated Christmas with the Peterson's at Thanksgiving. (Two years ago Steven decided to name this blessed celebration Turkeymas.) While it was a really short trip, it was nice to be all together as a family. We've been really blessed this year because my side of the family has been able to get together4 times since Michael's birth.


Michael didn't have very many toys prior to this get-together and he was definitely spoiled by his Grandma Gracie and Grandpa John.

Jonathan likes this one because it's in English and Spanish

The Playskool Ball Popper thingamajig is still a little advanced for him, but he likes to play with the balls and to tip the toy over so that the air blows in his face. :)

(I still don't know how to rotate videos...)

He also got a few toys from his Uncle Paul, Auntie Jennie, and Cousin James.

His favorite thing to do with these is to watch me stack the cups so he can knock them down...

At this point I think I have more fun with his toys than he does...but Michael gets a kick out of it when I play with them with him :)

I still can't believe how fast he grows and the new things he does each and every day. He's started to make new sounds and has moved from just saying "ma-ma-ma" for everything to including ba's da's and ga's in all sorts of combinations. I've been trying to get it on video...but have had no such luck yet. He also officially has two teeth coming in which makes him a bit grumpy at times, but all in all he really is such a sweet happy boy. Our pediatrician said that pretty soon he may start to have "stranger anxiety" and freak out when someone other than I am holding him...I'll really be surprised if that ever happens. I think he may have "grumpy-people anxiety" because if you are a happy stranger, he'll smile and go right to you. :) Such fun times!

I can sit!

While crawling still hasn't been of any interest to Michael, sitting up finally is! Before Thanksgiving the best we could do independently was this:

...which would last all of 5 seconds before he plopped to his side. By the time we got back he had gotten much much better at balancing himself.


Unfortunately...mom needs to get better at moving things out of the way so that when he does topple he doesn't hit anything...I wasn't quite quick enough nor observant enough beforehand to move a box that was near him. Michael tried to grab a toy that was just out of reach and he fell to the side and bumped his head...you can see the line it made on the left side of his forehead...we had a very unhappy boy on our hands for all of 30 seconds and then he was ready to sit up and play some more.


Michael had his six month appointment on Monday. Here are the new measurements:

Weight: 14 pounds 8 ounces (still in the 10th percentile)
Height: 26.5 inches (dropped to the 75th percentile from 90th percentile)
Head Circumference (up to the 50th percentile from 25th percentile)

Sick, Sick, Sick...

When I was 17, I babysat two little girls for a sister in our ward. One of the girls was less than a year old and about an hour after I had put both of the girls down to bed, she woke up hysterical. I remember being unable to calm her down for quite some time...I finally sat down in their rocking chair and I sang to her. Right away she stopped and fell back asleep in my arms. I remember thinking that I couldn't wait for the day that I would hold my own child and rock him or her as I sang them to sleep.

Singing is part of our bedtime routine with Michael, but he gets so excited when I sing to him that it's almost not productive because he thinks it's playtime when I do. Jonathan and I limit it to one or two songs and then continue with the routine of nursing him and such. I've been sick since Monday and Michael finally followed suit yesterday. He had a runny nose and a cough and seemed warm, but every time I took his temperature he didn't have a fever. (To make things worse he's been having tummy aches because he's constipated...) At four in the morning he wasn't doing too well and we took his temperature again and it was 100.0 degrees (which I found out today isn't technically considered a "fever" for him...) He was having trouble breathing because he was so plugged up and was coughing constantly. I held him upright and starting singing to him and he immediately put his head down on my shoulder and whimpered his way back to sleep in my arms. It's unfortunate that my dream of singing my child to sleep had to come about that way, but at least I now know that Michael does find my singing comforting...

Here's a picture of poor Michael from this morning...

We called the pediatrician's office this morning, and since our doctor is out of the office on Fridays, we saw the on-call pediatrician. They weighed him at 13 lb 15 ounces. His fever however was gone and the pediatrician was impressed with how active and smiley he was (HUGE contrast to what he was ALL last night...). She said it looked like he just had a cold that has been going around. I was sure he didn't have the swine flu...but in the back of my mind I was paranoid since several of my in-laws and some of the family members of Jonathan's co-workers were officially diagnosed with it recently and I know any kind of flu isn't a good thing for Michael to get...His ears were very clear, but he was extremely congested. We're supposed to keep an eye on him and if his fever comes back and is persistent this weekend we need to bring him back in on Monday. She said that for his age a low-grade fever would be 100.4.

The rest of the day Michael did really well and besides the huge bags under his eyes, his runny nose with snot that flies all over me when he sneezes, and his occasional cough...he seems to be getting back to his old happy self. I was even finally able to get his "ma-ma-ma-ma-ma" on video...

Right now saying "ma-ma-ma" is his way of talking. He sometimes grunts or squeaks too...but ma-ma-ma is used most often. Hopefully someday soon that mama will refer to me :)

Anyway...I better end this. We're praying Michael continues to get better and that he will sleep through the night tonight...I don't know how much longer my body will endure this lack of sleep while I'm sick!

4 months

It's amazing how quickly these doctor's appointments sneak up on you...Michael has now been with us for 4 months and it's getting hard to even remember what it was like before he came into our lives.

4 month Stats:
Height: 26 inches (90th percentile)
Weight: 12 lbs 7 oz (10th percentile)
Head Circumference: 40.9 centimeters (25th percentile)

So he's still a tall skinny little boy...I was starting to get worried that he wasn't getting enough to eat because it seems like I'm not producing quite enough to fill Michael up, and he always seems like he's hungry. We asked the pediatrician today if we could start giving Michael rice cereal and he gave us the thumbs up :). So tonight for dinner, Michael had his first rice cereal experience...and of course we recorded it so you could enjoy it with us :)

Michael and I were sitting on the bed afterward and I turned to see this...

if you were wondering...yes that is the leftover rice cereal that Michael did not finish...I feel bad feeding my child something that I won't eat, but if my husband will eat it, I guess it can't be that bad...right ;)

And since we are in video mode...Michael always gets super excited when his daddy comes home from work--he laughs and smiles more with him in the first 5 minutes he's back than he does all day with me. He's definitely a daddy's boy.