Little Climber

I drove down to Philly for the weekend to meet my mom and Chip who were in for a conference. It was mostly cold and rainy, what gives? But we had a couple of nice meals and were able to get in a little sightseeing. We took a trolly tour and they let us stop off for a few minutes at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Simon took a stab at the stairs.

*Please ignore my voice in the background...

4 months

And you are getting so big.  14 pounds now and 26.5 inches tall!  This month has been huge in growth for interactivity.  We can roll from belly to back and back to belly.  You did each for about a week, all the time, and now only occasionally.  I think it's because you don't get much from it yet.  I think that in a few more weeks you will use your rolling to help you get places.  Right now you are still coordinating all of your limbs.  Your arms are less spazzy now.  You are starting to reach for things with purpose.  Any toys in your hand or within reach go straight to the mouth.  If there are no toys then your burp rag, fist, arm, my hand or arm will all work just fine. I'm not sure how you do it, but your inchworm technique is moving you pretty well.  It's slow, but sometimes I find you off the blanket. You are sitting pretty good with support, and tummy time is no longer torture.  You can hold your head and body up for quite a long time and enjoy babbling to whatever print is on the blanket of the moment.  On your 4 month birthday we got a jumperoo, I think you are going to really love it. This month flew by.  I worked a ton, so lots of daddy-baby time was had.

Some days you really throw tantrums.  Then you both fall asleep.

You are a drooling machine.  You can soak through a bib in 10 minutes. Your face is covered in drool rash.  You love to suck on apple slices, and once a grape - that almost ended badly though, so no more grape for awhile.  Eating food is still a month or two away, but we are ok with you getting little tastes right now.  Mostly the fruit has gone over well.  You love to sit on our laps while we eat and look at the food.  You laugh and talk all the time now.  You can blow razberries, so we do that a lot.  You also found "the baby in the mirror."  You are really responding to our voices now.  When I get home you smile when you see and hear me.  Same for Dad.  Mostly still vowel sounds, but the babbling is increasing.  You are just starting to entertain yourself, where I can leave you for 20 minutes or so.  I hope this trend continues and my productivity will increase greatly.

And you took your first flights to Indiana to visit all the grandmas and grandpa.  You flew quite well, although the downside for flying with a baby is we can't sleep on the flight.  Babies sleep just fine.  Since you refused to nurse on the take-off and landing you were awake for, we were happy this trick was shared - blow in his face to make him breathe and swallow.  It stopped the crying anyhow since you would not suck.  You also really liked looking out the window.  On the way there, we flew business class, the extra room was nice, and you slept the whole time. 

The way home we flew coach, but I used a trick I read on a blog somewhere and booked the window and aisle seats, and we lucked out and no one took the middle, so that was nice.  Airport security was surprisingly easy.  They let me keep you in the carrier and just tested my hands after walking through the x-ray.  Way easier than having to take you off and wake you up...  Grandma has a carseat and we borrowed a stroller there, so we didn't travel with those this time around.

I was going to brag about sleep here.  But last night we were up every two hours.  So it's not great, but it's not awful either.  I can't yet bring myself to be consistent with sleep training, but the current wake up all the time is working ok for now.  Some nights are really really awesome.

To Grandmother's House We Go

 

Simon love Grandma's house.  There was a new ball toy.  And lots of rest.

And a wedding.

And a trip to Madison, and visiting with aunts and uncles and great-grandmas.

Lots and lots of driving.  And lots of loving on Grandma.

And to make it a real vacation Mom and Chip took on night duty a few night.  And Rob and I got to sleep.  This is how I found them one morning.  Rough night.

But the best part of the trip was hearing Simon really find his laugh.

It's so cute you'll cry.

Hail to Old IU

Last weekend I was fortunate enough to get to take Simon to Bloomington for the first time.  I just love IU's campus.  We took some pictures around campus.

Showalter Fountain and the Auditorium

  At the Sample Gates.

Here Simon is saying hi to Herman B. Wells.

We also went to the IU vs. Northwestern game.  I played in the alumni band, which was so much fun.  I forget during the year how much I like playing the trombone.  The game itself was kind of depressing.  More than half the crowd left during the 4th quarter we were loosing so bad.  Simon didn't like the game much at all.  Too loud for him.  He fussed through most of the game, and as soon as we exited the stadium and it was quieter, he got so happy.

Vince and I covering the babies ears.

 Strategy

 Go Hoosiers!

 Girls and babies

We also got to meet Clara for the first time, and see Charlie as a big kid.  I love that I get to see my best college friends at least once a year.  These guys are the best.

Madison

Poor Simon has spent so much of this trip in the car seat.  He kind of hates it.  There is lots of fussing, but some sleeping.  My mom got an infant seat for her car.  And while I do see the benefit of being able to pop out the seat and take the baby in, or put the seat into a stroller, I find the seat heavy and cumbersome.  We've hardly used the Ergo.

On the trip to Madison we got to spend a couple of days with my Grandma Frazier and Dad.  Emily took a day off to spend some time with us too.  Auntie Em brought Yumi, Simon got his first encounter up close with a dog.

We took a trip downtown to eat some lunch at Hinkles. Then we walked around downtown and on the river.  We stopped at the playground.  Em took him on his first slide.

And then we tried the swing.  Again.  He's got enough body control to sit in the swing now, but he's still to little to really enjoy it.

Papa loves Simon.

 And while we were walking we found our family brick from 1987 when they first put in the river walk.

 Family picture.  I kind of like this one.

 Aunt Patty came to visit.

And before we left we had a little family dinner.  This was the first time in awhile that all siblings and Dad have been together.  Clint was a little embarrassed that we had the waitress take a picture because "we live here" but I'm glad we got it.

Back Home Again

Last Thursday we got up very very early (2:30am) to go to the airport so that we could fly to Indiana and meet some very important people.

Simon did great on the plane. He slept on the first flight.  He was a little fussy in Atlanta, but slept and looked out the window on flight number 2.  We got to Indiana, ate some lunch.  The Rob and I handed Simon off to grandma and took a nice long nap.  I didn't get a picture of Simon on the plane, but here we are waiting in the airport at 5am.