The answer...

This week Alex seems to be noticing a lot more of his toys. Like Chicco on his car seat, here:



He's also reaching for things more, and when I put a toy in his hands or on his chest he'll feel it for a while before he drops it. Maybe this is what 12-week old boys do!

Yes, he was 12 weeks old yesterday. And at this point, I think we're ready to call his eye color. We've been waiting for his eyes to change from newborn dark blue to whatever color they're going to be, but I think it's supposed to have happened by now. So despite my brown eyes and Marty's hazel eyes, the answer is:



They're really kind of grey-blue, or blue-grey. I'm trying to remember whether anyone else in our family has this color eyes, and I'm coming up blank. But they sure are pretty.

The weather is nice again so Alex and I have been getting out to the park for walks and playing on the grass. Yay for spring!

Rolling right along...

Our week is off to a good start. Alex has been sleeping well at night (on Sunday night he went six hours between feedings!) and during the day he's getting lots of exercise. He rolls over all the time now. I know this graphic will probably mess up the layout of my page, but I can't resist. Click to see the larger version.



I especially like how he waves his foot in the air at the end! Olé!

He almost always rolls over this same direction -- I've only seen him go over to the left once. And he always stays intently focused on whatever it is he's looking at (as you can see in the pictures).

* * *

Just to clarify something in my previous post: John Denver's "Country Roads" is not only an American lite-country song, it's also a German beer drinking song! It's an Oktoberfest favorite. Which is why Marty knows the words and can sing it to Alex before bed.

Alex will be ready when it's time to go to Oktoberfest, and not only because he already knows one of the most popular songs on the Wies'n. Our German friends are making sure that he'll fit right in:



As you can see, Alex is a little annoyed that he has to wait for Oktoberfest to wear his new Lederhosen!

Whew!

Well, Alex and I had a new experience this week. We stayed home together while Marty was on a business trip!

Marty left early Wednesday morning and came back Friday evening. Three days and two nights! Alex and I did okay by ourselves, but we both missed him. Especially at bedtime. Marty is the bedtime guy. Not only does he usually put Alex to bed, but he also takes care of the 10pm feeding so I can get an early bedtime, too. Since I usually do most of the getting up after midnight, it really helps me a lot to be able to go to bed early.

For the two nights Marty was away, I did the bedtime routine (Goodnight Moon, Country Roads) but I do not think I did it as well as Daddy does!

We're glad he's home!

P.S. Check this out for a new look at Goodnight Moon.

Eleven weeks

Alex is eleven weeks old today. He is still doing a lot of tummy time. Yesterday morning he rolled over ten times, and then he slept for three hours! He also likes to stand up on my lap (with me holding his sides) and he smiles whenever someone says "moo." He now weighs about as much as Ziggy, or a little more (Ziggy weighs 12.5 lbs).

Here are a couple of pictures I took yesterday. You'll notice that Ziggy is in both of them. Very unusual!


Tummy time is serious business!


Ziggy is supervising.

Also, I've ordered Alex's next set of wheels. He won't be able to use it until he's a little bigger, but I can't wait for it to arrive:

Creativity

Recently we replaced the birdfeeder on our back deck. The old one was here when we got here, and it was falling apart thanks to the weather and the squirrels. So we went out and got a new one.

It turned out to be a little smaller than the old one, and don't think the squirrels didn't notice! They used to sit up on the perch very easily, but now they have to do some fancy acrobatics to get to the seed!


click to enlarge

I hope you can see how he's using his back paw to hold onto the hinge on the top of the birdhouse!





Sometimes when life throws obstacles in your way, you just have to find a more creative way to reach your objective!

Ah, spring!

The weather has really warmed up here! Last week we had some beautiful sunny days. It's been overcast this weekend, but much warmer than it was a couple of weeks ago. There are buds and spring flowers out everywhere. It's so nice to know that winter is (probably) over!

Yesterday Marty and Alex and I went to a local park for a walk. Alex rode in the Bjorn facing forward for the first time. Doesn't he look cool in his shades? There's a great playground in the park, but Alex is still too young... even for the baby swings!

Here's a picture of Alex and me at the park:



And I call this one "Chicco is my co-pilot."



Today I had a full day chorus rehearsal. I left home around 8:30 this morning and didn't get back until after 5! So Alex had a big day with his daddy. They went on a walk down at the river park, and of course had lots of tummy time. As always!



He even had an audience!



I think they had a nice day together!

A few pictures...

We've had a busy week here and I haven't had a chance to update. Alex and I have been out a lot, and the weather has been really nice.

At home we're still concentrating on tummy time. Some days, it's lots of fun; other days, it's not. Here are a couple of pictures from a good session:



As you can see, it's important to have lots of entertainment during tummy time!

Tummy Time

Alex has had a big week! On Monday, he had his two month checkup and his first round of vaccinations. Three big shots in his fat little thighs! Poor little guy.

He weighed 12 pounds on Monday and was 22.5 inches long. At birth he was 7 lbs 6 oz, and 20.5 inches long. The doctor was pleased with his weight gain and how vocal he is. Then he asked about tummy time. I said I was putting Alex on his belly once or twice a day, and the doctor exclaimed, "He needs to go on his belly TEN times a day!"

Ten!

Let me explain about tummy time. You may have heard that in the US, babies are supposed to go to sleep on their backs now. Doctors used to tell people to put babies to sleep on their tummies, but several years ago studies revealed that sleeping on their backs could prevent crib death. So now there's this big "back to sleep" campaign and you're never supposed to put a baby on his belly to sleep.

One side-effect of this is that today's babies do a lot of things -- like crawl -- later than the babies of the past did. The reason is because spending time on their tummies helps them develop muscle tone and strength, and they're missing out on that. So now you're supposed to put them on their tummies to play, so they can develop the muscles and skills that they can't develop on their backs.

But ten times a day? That seems kind of crazy! I'm a very obedient patient, though, even when I'm not actually the patient. So Alex has been spending a lot of time on his tummy this week.

It was kind of hard at first.



Because really, who wants to be on their tummy when they can hardly pick their head up off the floor?

But the doctor told me on Monday that of course babies who don't get much tummy time don't like it. But he assured me that if I did it more and more often, Alex would learn to tolerate it.



So we've been doing lots and lots of tummy time -- on all different kinds of surfaces. Alex has had tummy time on blankets on the floor, in the crib, on the exercise ball, over the Boppy pillow, and even across my lap.



We've made a lot of progress.



And then today, something Very Exciting happened. Alex was on his tummy on a blanket on the floor. He was propped up on his elbows looking at a Dr. Seuss board book, and I was running the vacuum around the living room, keeping an eye on him. Suddenly he straightened out his left arm, pushing himself up a little, and ROLLED OVER onto his back on the blanket.

Rolled over!

My mom saw him do it, too, and I'm so glad. Because at first I kept thinking to myself, Did he really just ROLL OVER? But he did! He really did it. He has come a long way in a week!

All that tummy time does make him tired (the doctor told me this would happen, too).



Could there be any better place to take a nap than on your grandmother? I don't think so.

Busy Week

I can't believe it's been a week since I updated. My apologies to those of you who are looking for new pictures today -- I do have some, but they're still in the camera.

However, I have a good excuse. I've been working. My mom is here this week, and she's been nice enough to take care of Alex for a few days so that I could put some hours in on a quarterly project with my team at work.

I don't plan to go back full time, at least not anytime soon, but it's been nice to do some brain work again. I enjoy my job and the people I work with, and I've missed them since I left in January. But I realize that if my mom weren't here right now, it would have been very hard for me to work this week.

I'm still thinking about what to do in the future. Right now I'll still have some things to do for this project later in the month, but I should be able to get most of that work done on the weekends. Then I probably won't work again until the next quarter begins in July. We'll have to see how it all goes.

But Alex has enjoyed the week with Granny Laws Junior, and he's made some progress, too. Next time I'll tell about his 2-month checkup, which we had on Monday. Can you believe he is 9 weeks old? I can't!