Four Months Old

Joel is four months old today & I can't believe it!  Here are some things he's been up to this month...I had a whole post typed and ready to go last night & lost it, so I'm probably going to miss something...

* Joel survived an earthquake and Hurricane Irene - all in the same week! 
* We read  On the Night You Were Born every night after his bath and tummy time.  He likes to look at the pictures and all the colors, giggling while I read.  It has been hard for me to read these past couple weeks as I was preparing to head back to work after 16 weeks at home with him :(
* He also loves another personal favorite of mine, Guess How Much I Love You.  In fact, I love this book so much, I got this with the boys' names on it. I read this book to Daniel every night when he was little, and he likes reading it to Joel now...the joys of a nine-year age difference!! :)
* Joel is showing more interest in his toys.  He likes to bring them close and investigate their bright colors and noises they make.  His favorites right now are his crinkle bug rattle & an Eric Carle elephant.

 * Joel still loves Monkey, and he continues to sleep through the night...in his swing.  But, he's sleeping...we're sleeping...it's a pretty good arrangement if you ask me.  I plan to continue until he doesn't fit in the swing...and we'll deal with that when the time comes.  He is not a good napper, but as long as he's sleeping through the night (and has been since he was 6-8 weeks old), I can't ask for much more   :)
* We've fed Joel cereal a few times, and he didn't show much interest...I decided to try it again last night, and he loved it!  I will probably feed it to him each night this week and then introduce some fruits and veggies next weekend after his four-month well visit.  I had big plans of buying a baby bullet and making our own baby food.  Then Dan asked if I was going to "buy it, use it a few times, and then find a special corner of the garage to keep it in and headed out to buy Gerber."   He was so right!  I decided to go the Gerber route, and we're now stocked up with all kinds of fruits and veggies!

 * Joel kept looking to one corner in his room and smiling & laughing.  We couldn't figure out what had him so intrigued...then we realized it was his white blanket with the big polka dots.  We thought maybe he was seeing something we couldn't & I got a little freaked out!  And then...his monitor in our bedroom kept lighting up when no one was in there...I kept making Dan go over to make sure nothing was there.  I'm chalking it up to the monitor being extra sensitive...and moving on!  Yikes!

* Joel can almost sit up on his own now.  He supports himself for a few seconds before toppling over.  We switched him from the "newborn" side to the "infant" side of his tub so he can sit up, and he loves it!  Bath time is still one of his favorite past times!

 

* He likes his jumperoo a lot more, and can finally touch the floor when he bounces high enough.  He loves bouncing to the music and playing with the animals :)

* Joel went to the babysitter for the first time a couple weeks ago so I could work in my classroom.  He did SO good!!!  He spent his first full week there last week, and it went okay, but not as well as I had hoped.  I dreaded going back to work & "he did alright" or "his day wasn't so great" were not things I wanted to hear at at the end of a long day at work.  Babies spit up and sometimes they don't nap when we want them to...but it's not that big of a deal!!  He had a great weekend at home, and I'm hoping it's just an adjustment phase he's going through!  Let's face it, it is a big change for all of us!!
And...these two, they're still pretty good buddies :)

Happy Monday! :)
*He weighed 16 lbs. 3 oz.  and measured 24 1/4 in. :)