Making a liar out of me

I just have one thing to add to Jonathan's post. The other day I said Finn couldn't roll over from back to front. So what did he do yesterday? Rolled over from back to front! I laid him down on his space blanket and then got on the floor next to him, like I've been doing for weeks, because me & the kitties are generally the only things he wants to grab badly enough that they seem like good rolling motivators, and just like that, he was right there!

I think it was his way of celebrating his six-month birthday. If so it was kind of a poor choice, because once he found himself on his tummy he was pretty upset and couldn't remember how to get back. Oops. So then there was crying, and a nap.

He celebrated by sleeping for a six-hour stretch the night before, which was awesome. And I think he slept that long because he managed to roll himself onto his stomach in his crib. I think we've got some interesting times ahead.

Big week, featuring: TEETH!

The chaos continues here at Casa Fortney. I have one project left, and it's about half done. Hopefully in another day or two I'll be turning it in, and then I can return to being a reasonably stable, functioning person who responds to e-mails, reads books, and goes outside. In the meantime, the breaks to feed Finn and play with him and hang out with him and Jonathan help me stay slightly sane.

This week marked the appearance of Finn's first tooth, followed closely by his second:
I think the new weird face he makes is tooth related... it's this weird wide mouthed smiling-grimace-with-chomping-motion. We'll try to get a picture. Also growing: the hair! Not going to be long any time soon, but definitely getting fuller and fluffier.

Another first this week: solids! Well, semi-solids. It's just about the six month mark, so we've tried a couple rounds of rice cereal. Finn's a big fan.Then we got too busy, and too grossed out by the diapers, so we might not try again until after Boston. We'll see.
Because they feed him so much more at day care than I can pump when I'm away from him, he's also had formula for the first time this week. I know lots of wonderful mothers who've fed their babies formula for one reason or another, so I'm not guilty about it (not really), but I AM annoyed that we've had to introduce this complication into our routine. Formula requires mixing, and has its own set of rules, and costs money (theoretically - our free samples should last us quite a while at this rate). Also, since formula is either milk or soy based, this really isn't helpful as we try to figure out if Finn has milk or soy intolerance issues.

Wanna see how well he sits up now (and how little he cares when he falls over)? Watch this movie of him playing with Murray:

Tummy time is pretty infrequent and short-lived these days, though, because he's gotten so good at the front-to-back rolling over. No interest in the back-to-front, though. He's generally either perfectly content to stay exactly where he is, or completely sick of the entire house/room/state and DEMANDS IMMEDIATE AND EXTREME RELOCATION.

Did Jonathan mentioned the mucous is back? It's some completely different snot sickness this time - he had a fever on Friday and I had to go pick him up from day care early. But the bedtime routine is going great, and we're getting more sleep than we were three or four weeks ago.

I've had a good first Mothers Day. Mostly it's been homework, but I did make some cookies, and Jonathan and Finn ran a TON of errands that were stressing me out. I got some kitchen stuff (and LASIK) and later this week I'm getting a trip to Boston. :) Keep your fingers crossed for me and I may just make it through these next few days...

He's a big boy

He looks like he should be able to stand up and walk around, right? No luck. He can't even crawl. His head is so big that he isn't even all that good at tummy time, either. He needs a stronger neck. But we're working on it. He *STILL* hasn't remembered how to roll over onto his back again yet, so we're lucky we got video of it a few weeks ago. Silly baby!

Easter at the Reeves-Fortney's down in Salinas was fun. Finn was enjoyed by all, especially by my uncle Gregory. Finn liked to be outside on his blanket in the grass. Although we have a little yard, it is entirely taken up by shrubs and such--no grass!

Grandma Mary comes tomorrow! Yay my mom! We're all excited.

Roll over!

It's been a big week. After feeling kind of like we were treading water for a while, suddenly it seems like so much has changed. First, the exciting audio-visual material:

Sunday afternoon I was awakened from my nap by the sound of Jonathan giggling like a little girl. So I came out to the living room to see what was going on, and this is what I found. We kept putting him back on his tummy, and he kept rolling/falling over, I think about ten times. Then he forgot how to do it and put his head down and cried. But he enjoyed it while it worked, although I don't think he knew exactly what was going on, and he hasn't repeated it since. Very exciting stuff for the kid who wouldn't put up with tummy time flat on the floor just two weeks ago.

Also, we're making progress in the sleep department. The bouncy chair has been out of the picture for weeks, but I didn't want to jinx it by saying anything. I think I can honestly say now that he's outgrown it, and prefers sleeping flat on the mattress now. Again, like all our great parenting accomplishments, this was basically an accidental discovery. We're making progress on the napping front, too. Naps are starting to occur unwrapped, flat on back in crib. If you don't understand why this is a big deal, then ... well, I'm very happy for you. I keep seeing pictures of our friends' babies sleeping in these relaxed, accidental looking poses. That is not our kid. Other than putting him back after a middle-of-the-night feeding, Finn sleeping is almost never accidental. It is a deliberate multi-step process. At night it involves multiple layers of very specific, very tight swaddling. But he's outgrowing our swaddling materials, so now that he's getting a little older we're trying to help him form some new habits. The main obstacle is that he startles anywhere from one to three times a minute and keeps waking himself up. But we've had multiple unswaddled crib naps every day this week, so there's hope.

What else? He's spitting up less. He's better with his hands. He's drooling a lot and may be starting to think about getting some teeth. The combined result of these last two is a lot of wet fingers (his) and a number of (mostly failed) attempts to get other things in his mouth - my fingers, his toys, whatever happens to be in reach. And he continues to giggle more and more - he's ticklish in the neck as well as the armpits now - and make more and more funny faces. I think I call him "goofball" now more than anything else. For instance, the other morning we put him in what we decided to call his "interview clothes" - a button down shirt and some baby khakis - and take a nice picture. These are the five shots we got:
Seriously, with those last two he has a career in front of him playing maître d's on sitcoms, right? We're going to try to take him for portraits next weekend. Wish us luck.

More pictures on Flickr.

Tummy Times!

Tonight Katie has been working hard on her homework for a class for her Masters of Library and Information Science. Finn and I have been playing, bouncing, and "talking." We're trying to give him a good amount of tummy time so that his neck gets stronger. It helps if he gets propped up a little bit. If he's right on the ground he often ends up face down squealing for help. So he liked this pillow. Sometimes it helps if he can see the TV. Pretty moving light box!



I got a few pics of him smiling, but they turned out blurry, as he was bobbing around a bit. Notice the extra pillows around for when he rolls off.... "Daddy Friday" yesterday went very well. I think it was his best day ever! I even put him into the Ergo baby carrier and we took a half-hour walk in the woodsy park near our house. Yay Finn!

Neckxercise

Fresh from yesterday, more Finn Footage. Here he is doing his
morning head lift reps.
Go, Mr. Baby! One more set - feel the burn!

So far he'll only lift his upper body like this when someone's holding
him. If you put him on the floor, he occasionally manages to flip his
head from one side to the other, but often just ends up with his face
pressed into the mat. We could post a picture of that, too, but we
thought he might find it kind of embarrassing.

Weekend!

Wanna see a funny sign from a hallway in the hospital?

We've made it 2 more days! Last night Finn was a good little sleeper, with 3 different chunks of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of sleeping. He much prefers his carseat or swing over his crib. So for now he gets to sleep where he likes. We'll try breaking him into his crib slowly for afternoon naps.

Today is my birthday! I'm 31, one year older than my Dad was when my parents' had me.

Below are Finn and Katie right before we hopped into the car for the ride home on Thursday.

Everyone knows how important tummy time is.