We decided to try rice cereal with BB this weekend.  He's a few days short of 4 months (but was also born a few days late, so it balances out!)  We thought he might be ready since he's been taking approximately 35+ oz of milk a day, can sit up by himself in his highchair and shows interest in big people food.  So we trotted over to Whole Foods and picked up a can of Happybellies rice cereal.  I didn't make too much since we were just doing a test run to see if he whether or not he would take it.  The first sign of failure....he wouldn't open his mouth.  So I put a dab on his lip to see if he would like the taste.  He seemed to not mind it and opened his mouth a little.  I managed to get the tip of the spoon into his mouth (we were using an adult sized spoon....I don't know if that makes a difference or not)...but he kept pushing it out with his tongue....the second sign of failure.  The thing is, he liked the cereal itself.  I made it pretty runny, so even though he pushed the spoon out, some cereal still went into his mouth.  He was able to swallow that.  So he likes the cereal, but not the spoon.  I guess we'll try again later.   It was worth a shot.

After doing a little research and asking around, we ended up buying the Baby Dipper Bowl for BB.  It's a pretty cool concept...it's one of those products invented by a mommy (the company is still run by that mommy).   This was invented by a mom of twins.  It's triangular shaped with rounded corners (it comes with a spoon that fits right into the corners.  The inside of the bowl slopes towards one corner, so it makes it easy for kids to scoop up round foods.  It also has a spongy rubber base that prevents it from sliding around.  I'm hoping this will prevent BB from making a mess while he eats...although I'm pretty sure that's just wishful thinking!

And to complete his big boy set, we got him a Klean Kanteen sippy cup and BuiltNY insulated sleeve (I LOVE BuiltNY stuff...I've had their lunch bag for years from when they first started out).  When he gets bigger, we'll just swap outHe's starting to try to hold his own bottle, but he doesn't get the whole opposable thumb thing, so he ends up pushing the bottle down.

And we've moved BB into big boy pajamas.  He kept growing out of his fleece footed sleepers every month or two and we didn't want to keep buying them every month.  He's in the 6 month ones right now and they fit him pretty perfectly now, meaning they're not going to last him the next few chilly months.  I'm not sure how baby feet sizes go, but his feet are too big for some of the footed PJ's.  His toes end up curled under and I feel like I'm binding his feet or something.  So we got him those 2 piece PJ's.  We got size 6-12 months and it's only slightly big now, but I think it'll last a few months.  We put him in it today for the first time and he looks like such a big boy in it sniff sniff...like a toddler almost.  I can't wait to see how big he is at his 4 month appt (we were comparing baby sizes at work since 8 of us had babies this year, so they're all close in age.  BB is the same weight and an inch longer than a co-worker's 7 month old boy!)

I didn't make a hong bao for Tyler until late last night.  We didn't even prepare anything for him...we are so bad.  I just took all the cash from my wallet (which isn't a lot) and stuffed it in a red envelope and stuck it under his pillow.  According to PB, they never do the hong bao under the pillow or in the pocket thing.  And technically I was supposed to do it last night since my parents have always celebrated it on New Year's Eve.  I guess canto traditions are different...like I wasn't supposed to bathe Tyler otherwise it would wash away all his luck.  oops. oh well....he has something better than luck anyway!

So here are pics of Tyler's first Chinese New Year (uh....the hong bao was empty because I wanted to take pics in daylight, so I just grabbed an envelope and stuck it in his hand)

Hello Mama....gyung hee faht tsai

Show me the money
 

There's no money?

Mama's so mean...I can't believe she didn't....OOOH! FEET!

This morning:

He found his feet again while lounging on his bopper
  

I set up his clip on high chair.  He's okay to sit in it just to lounge around, but he's not quite big enough yet to reach the table.  And he keeps sticking his hands in the leg holes. We'll have to stick with his regular high chair for now.   That's his toy that is supposed to suction to the table so he can spin the wheel.  He always rips it right off.

I dressed BB up in his a new outfit as tradition calls for.  Well, actually it's not new, but he's never worn the sweater part before.  Anyway, I'll take pictures later after he wakes up from him nap.  Am I supposed to give him a hong bao? hahaha.

I think we might try to start solids in a week or two.  BB has been taking down a lot of milk these past few weeks.  Normally he takes between 25-30 oz a day but now he's doing 35-40 oz.  He went back to eating 6 times a day after he was doing 5 for a month.  Now I have to research plates/bowls/utensils and stuff like that.  I didn't even think to look up stuff like that while I was preggo because I thought solids came much later...at like 1 year (same with crawling hahaha).  I had no idea what a baby's developmental time line was...I thought they were babies for much longer than they actually are.  What plates/utensils do you use?

We're also trying to foster more independent play for BB.  PB thinks he's starting to get clingy because we're always trying to hold him even when he's fine where he is.  It's so hard to resist holding him.   But it used to be that we couldn't lay him down by himself without him getting upset.  So now, if he's content in the crib looking at the mobile, we'll let him stay there and babble to the mobile by himself.  I think it's working pretty well.  He's okay to be by himself for a little while now.  So I can leave him for a few minutes while I run his bath, or grab a bite to eat.

BB and I have a daily "conversation" time that I LOVE.  It's usually after his second to last meal of the day.  After he's done, he'll sprawl out on my lap in a loose cradle hold and we'll "talk".  It usually involves at least one laughing fit, which is sooooo cute!

He's getting really good at fighting naps.  He thinks it's always play time now.  The eat, activity, sleep routine that we've been following has been completely destroyed!  He shows signs of being tired, and when we put him down, he's smiling and waving his arms around so he can grab something to play with.  The only time he goes to sleep without a fight is a bed time (thank goodness)!  So we just let him do whatever.  His eating schedule is fairly consistent, so everything else is fair game.  Luckily his tired signs are pretty obvious so it's easy to tell when he's due for a nap...and I do try to put him down when it gets close to 2 hours of awake time.

BB thinks the music from the exersaucer comes out of my mouth since I sing along with the music.  So now he'll press the buttons and then look at my mouth to wait for the music.  He loves that thing.  I know I was supposed to wait until he was 4 months, but he's already the size of some 4 month olds and has great head control.  His feet touch the bottom, but I don't think he knows he's supposed to jump in it...he just sits in the seat and bangs his hands on everything.  Sometimes he tries to stand up...but since he's leaning forward and grabbing onto something, all that happens is that his butt sticks out!

Our house hunt is still continuing.  We've looked at almost 10 houses and there's nothing yet that we LOVE.  We don't want to have to do too much renovating and a lot of these old homes need just that.  So we've pretty much looked at all the houses in the area (the town we like and the surrounding towns) in our previous price range and we haven't found anything.  We decided to up our price range a little (we were going pretty low before in hopes of finding something cheap) and there are some potentials that we're going to go look at soon.  This is hard work!  The houses all look so good online, but when you see them in person, it's like yuck.

Well, technically 3 months and 1 week. We dropped by work for a visit for BB.  He is now 15 pounds and 25 inches...just around the 80th percentile for both.  They had to swap out the infant blood pressure cuff for a toddler sized one because his chubby legs were too fat. puahahahaha.  There was a set of parents on the elevator who asked how old he was...when we said 3 months, they kind of did a double take and the dad was like, "oh...he's a big one".  We also got asked when we were going to start having him play football hahahaha.  He doesn't have that big buddha belly anymore, but he's pretty broad and solidly built.

BB still hates tummy time.  We've been bad and have been pretty lax about having him do it.  We do it at most twice a day...but most of the time it's just once a day (sometimes zero times a day!) and only for 2 minutes each time.  He hates it so much.  He doesn't even try to push up.  The only way he'll stay up is if we tuck his arms under his chest.  Otherwise he'll just lay there with his arms flat out to the sides and his face in the ground.  We know he's strong enough to do it, he just doesn't want to.  Sometimes he'll try to crawl, so he'll push with his legs, but since he does nothing with his upper body, all that ends up happening is that his butt will go up in the air.  Then he gets super mad.  He LOVES to sit up though and prefers that over lying down.  Anyone have any tricks for getting some more tummy time in?

...Or was it "mem"?  hahaha.  He is definitely working on his "M's" now and he's said a couple of "mem mem mem" Although PB said he did hear a "mommy" yesterday.  I heard a couple of "mem's" this morning and then I heard a "mom" (well, more like "mum"...so British style mom).  Later one, I put him on the changing table and told him to say "MAmamamama"....a few sounds later, I heard it again "mum".  tee hee hee.  Ok fine, it's not really mom...but he's getting close!!!

I can't believe how much he's developed cognitively over the past couple of weeks.  Sometimes I feel like he's a toddler because of the way he interacts with us.  On the days when I'm home, I'll take him into bed with me after his early morning feed and we'll wake up together.  Usually he'll wake up first and I'll feel little hands whacking my face.   I'll try to pretend that I'm sleeping....and when I open my eyes a crack, I'll see him staring at me...waiting.  And as soon as he sees my eyes open, he'll smile.  Then I'll close them again....and when I open them a little later, the same thing happens.  I can do this several times in a row before he gets impatient for his breakfast and starts shrieking.

That's the other thing...he shrieks now.  Before it was just yelling...now it's shrieking....like that high-pitched horror film shriek.  I have no idea where he learned that from.  Whenever I put him down for a nap and he wants to play even though he's tired, he'll shriek non stop until I peer over the side of the crib and pat him on the chest.  Then he'll give me this big smile like "please, mom, don't make me sleep".    But he shrieks when he's happy, mad, sad, hungry, tired.  I think we might have to consider getting a single house to save our poor neighbors.

The new thing he does also is close books.  Whenever I read to him now, he'll grab the front cover and try to close the book.  Either that or he'll put his hands on the cover and try to slam the book shut.  Every single time.  I'll re-open the book...he'll slam it shut...over and over again.  It makes reading to him quite the challenge now. hahaha.

Somehow, this makes me think that I may be in for a handful when he's bigger!

These two pics are for Auntie Mei and Auntie Yen....thanks for the clothes!  (I, uh...took the second picture while he was trying to do #2 hahahaha)

He finally started to discover his wrist rattle....of course he doesn't shake it...it just goes straight in his mouth

I LOVE when he folds his hands in front of him.  It's sooo cute.  It makes him look like a big boy!

We started putting him in the exersaucer.  I know it said 4 months +, but he has pretty good head control so we tried it.  He's still too short for it and his legs don't touch the bottom, so we only leave him in there for a few minutes to let him play with the toys.  He's so strong...the positioning of the seat makes him lean back, but then he can't reach stuff, so he pulls himself forward by hanging onto the front of the seat and then he'll lean against the front and play with all the stuff.  He loves the toy that plays music when you press the buttons.  He learned that one pretty quickly.
 

No more pics for a few days.  I have to work the next few days and this coming weekend

We went to look at 3 houses today in the town we like.  We decided to go with a local, family owned real estate company as opposed to something bigger.  The real estate agent we got hooked up with grew up in the same town that we were interested in, so he totally knows the area.  Out of the 3,  I ended up really liking one of them.  The inside has been completely renovated and is really nice and cute.  There are a few issues with it though...like there's no garage and it's across the street from the back of an office building (so the house faces two of their large trash bins) and a gas station.  But those were the two major things....everything else I loved. I actually don't really care about those things so much, but we're thinking about re-sell potential. Based on our feedback from today's session the real estate guy sort of has a feel for what we're looking for and is going to send us more listings in the surrounding areas (since there's not much availability in the town we want).

And of course I wouldn't let another day go by without taking more pics.  Bear with me with these obnoxious picture posts for a few days.  I'm sure the novelty of the new lens will wear off (or will it)....or at least I'll get too lazy to upload and post so frequently!

Baby Bear loves to grab anything and everything.  Some examples of his new skill:

These hands are everywhere now

The playmat

His bib
 

His ring set

And his new favorite thing.  The mini "blanket" that crinkles.  He loves this thing.  We tried introducing it to him a few weeks ago and he did nothing with it.  But now he goes nuts with it.

Look at the effort that goes into crunching up that blanket (that's the same face he used to make when he tried sitting up!)

He's the happiest when he's nekked

PB trying to teach BB how to pray before meals

BB not being a great student and totally eyeing a pack of crackers instead

BIL got us this picture frame for Christmas. It's so cute.  The people are held together by magnets in the "hands".  He had put the faces in there himself.  He didn't have that many pics of me, so the orig picture of me was horrendous.  I was eating, so it was one of those eyes closed while in mid-chew pics.  I changed it as soon as I got home.

This was one of those by accident shots that came out pretty cool.  I love a good out of focus shot, if that makes sense.  I was trying to capture a flare but was too trigger happy and took the picture before the lens was focused.

My pump died a few days ago.  It was slowly dying but it suctions very little now.  I went into panic mode when I pumped 1 oz after not nursing for 6 hours.  I ran to work and pumped with the symphony before my shift.  I rented the Medela Classic (which is also a hospital grade pump) from work.  That is one ugly pump.  It literally looks like some sort of machinery (which it is...but it isn't feminine at all).  I wanted a Symphony, but they were out and wouldn't get anymore until tomorrow or  the next day.  I couldn't wait that long.  Plus the Classic was half the price...I figured it was okay since I only pump twice a day.  It was heaving lugging that thing back home!  I hope it pumps as well as the Symphony.

MB got her new toy in the mail today....and it ROCKS.  I can't believe the crap I've been shooting with this whole time.  I wish I had this lens from the beginning.  We took a few quick shots before BB's bedtime...no flash...the lighting is just from the floor lamp in our room.  These are some pics...straight from the camera.  Thank you motomamma...this is the best toy EVER!

PB and BB

MB and BB....sorry, no shots of my ugly after work face!

BB and Jeffrey the Giraffe

yum

We got an official weight and height measurement for BB today.  They actually used a length board on him, so this is his real height (as opposed to the drawing a line at his head and feet method that they sometimes do).

So at 3 months-ish, BB is 24.8 inches and 14 pounds 14 oz.  It's amazing that he grew almost 1.5 inches per month and has almost doubled his birth weight.  It's getting hard for me to burp him since his feet now touch my thighs when I hold him over my shoulder and he keeps wanting to stand/jump.  He also loves to look around now and will lean all the way to the sides to look at whatever is behind me.  This usually results in spit up everywhere except on the burp cloth...and we don't even use real burp clothes anymore, we use his receiving blankets which are quite large.

A few days ago, we took out some of his stuffed animals to see if he would do anything with them.  He likes to play with them now!  He'll reach out and grab them by the ears, nose or anything that sticks out....then he'll bring it to his mouth and lick it.  His favorite toy now is this stuffed giraffe that has a bell in it's big, round belly.  He loves to hold the giraffe's hands, ears and antlers (are they called antlers on a giraffe?)....and sometimes he'll put one hand on each side of the belly and hold it up in the air.  So cute!

As far as breastfeeding goes, I don't know if  I can do 1 year now that I'm back at work.  I would really like to, but the way our lunch times fall (they're designated times), the earliest I can pump is 7 hours after I nurse/pump at home...and sometimes it'll be 8 hours.  That's a LONG time.  There's no way I can take a 20-30 minute break before then to pump...sometimes it's hard to step away even to pee.  My lunch time is 50 minutes and only 50 minutes.  My lunch coverage will go cover another area afterwards, so if I'm late, the next person is screwed.  So it's always a mad rush...I run down to where our pharmacy microwave is and zap my lunch...then I pack it back up and take my ice packs out of the freezer...then I run down to the lactation rooms praying that one will be available...then it takes several minutes for me to set up...then I pump 15 minute (I try to shovel food into my mouth as best as I can during this time, but towards the end I need my hands to do compressions)...then a few minutes to clean up...then I usually have like 3-5 minutes left where I shovel down as much of my remaining lunch as possible...then I run back to the pharmacy.  It's crazy. 

Our house hunt is still going...we're asking around for rates now.  We've decided to broaden our search to a few of the towns adjacent to the area we like.  There are only  a few houses available in our price range in our ideal area...and they're houses that we probably wouldn't consider if they were else where.  The other towns are in another school district (still top rated) but they have a less "quaint" feel to them since there are a lot more apartment buildings and strip mall type shopping in those areas.  So we'll see.

I worked last night and towards the end of the shift, I felt achy.  I just thought I was tired from standing all day.  By the time I got home, I had chills and my eyeballs felt hot and I knew I was in trouble.  This morning, I woke up with a 102 degree fever.  I had to call out from work, which sucks because if you call out on a weekend, your name gets put on the weekend call out list, meaning the next time someone else calls out on a weekend, you have to go fill in.  I rarely get sick, so when I do, it always feels like I got hit with a truck.  So, I just took tylenol and drank water and PB did most of the baby duties while I relaxed and took a quick nap and now I'm starting to feel better.  I'm wondering if it could be mastitis.  I worked one shift this week where I wasn't able to pump for 8 hours.  Yeah.  I was really engorged and it was to the point where I couldn't lift my arm or breathe because of the pain.  I normally go 7 hours without pumping (that's the earliest I can go...sucks) and I can manage that.  I thought 8 wouldn't be much different.  I guess 7 hours is my max.  But  I don't have redness or anything, but it's a little sore.

On the plus side, we found a nanny.  Until now, we hired a college student (who works at her school's day care) who was home on winter break since we couldn't find THE one in time.  Well, we had a few we really liked, but they went with other families for a variety of reasons.  She accepted the job over the weekend and will start this week.  She's a pediatric nursing major and her last job was with a set of 3 month old twins.  Her program lets you do all the non-clinical coursework online, so that's what she's doing so that she can nanny on the side.  I think our situations work out pretty well.  She's not looking for a full time position and she can come any time.  We need someone flexible because of our hours and while BB naps, she can do her school work.  Hey, if she can handle two 3 month olds (they were premies too), then she can handle one!  I hope it works out!

BB has now discovered that his thumb is the best thing to suck on.  Until now, it's been his entire fist.  Now he sticks out that little tiny thumb and sucks on it.  So cute.  PB would rather him suck on a pacifier, so he keeps trying to take BB's hand away.  hahaha.  That hand goes right back in.   I remember I was a thumb sucker for a while.  I must've been pretty old when I stopped because I can remember still doing it when I went to sleep at night....either that or I have an awesome memory.

PB and I were talking about when I should stop breastfeeding.  Honestly, I hadn't even thought about that.  When do most people stop?  (I know this is probably personal preference) Do you stop when you start solids?  Or do you stop once the baby's old enough to drink cow's milk?  I feel like I worked so hard to make it work that I don't want to stop hahaha (not that I want to breast feed a 5 year old or anything like that).  My favorite moments with BB are right after I feed him.  He always relaxes on my lap on the Boppy afterwards with milk smeared all over his face.  Usually he'll just look around and play with his hands...sometimes he'll have a conversation with me.  But he's so cute and good then.  Sometimes I postpone burping him just so I can look at him while he's lying there.  But then that inevitably leads to spit up...ugh.

I heard it!!!  I heard the giggle!  He did it for Papa Bear a few times during the day, but by the time I get home, it's cranky time, so I never got to hear it.  I was watching him this morning and had stripped him naked because he spit up on his clothes...i put him in the crib while I got a new outfit for him.  He loves being naked and he loves being in his crib (his mobile cracks him up for some reason).  So he's always happy when we play with him while he's in the crib.  I was thumping him on his chest (he likes it when we do that....as well as thumping other parts of his body...he's weird) and then he laughed!!!  A few times!! I ran to get the camcorder...but then of course he wouldn't do it again.  So cute.

I think he's also on the verge of rolling from back to front.  He can get to the halfway point, but can't get all the way over.  He's not really close to doing it the other way since he hates tummy time and will just lay there whining with his face buried in the ground.  But if we give him a little of a head start, he can kick his way over.

Speaking of kicking, we figured out how to keep BB preoccupied in the tub.  By chance, I left the handheld spout hanging inside the tub.  BB went to town kicking that thing around.  At first I thought it was by chance since the tub isn't very big and there's only so much room for his legs.  But I would see him eyeing it and kicking it from side to side.  So I took it out and put something smaller in...a little rubber ducky.  Same result.  That ducky got kicked everywhere.  So then I threw in his waterproof book and he loved that one...he kept trying to pin it against the opposite side of the tub.  I gave up on reading to him in the tub a long time ago since all his kicking tended to left him above the seat and he'd slide down.  So I have to bathe him with one hand on him at all times.

This morning, we walked into his room to see him lying in his bed with both arms stretched above his face.  He was reaching for his mobile and giving quite the effort since he was grunting up a storm.  Sometimes, he would reach up with his legs as well, so he looked like a turtle with all 4 limbs straight up in the air.  Then when we walked closer, he saw us and immediately put all 4 limbs down and looked at us sheepishly like, "oh shoot....did they see that?"  We just laughed and he kept looking at us with that same look....he must've known we were laughing at him because then he started to cry!