New and improved baby!

It took weeks after his last shots, but Connor's healthy and he's better than ever. His congestion's pretty much cleared up, he's sleeping through the entire night without getting fed, and he only ever needs a diaper change if he does wake up.

He's also much more fun during the day. He's been smiling for a while, but recently you can actually get him to laugh. You can get him to smile by being sweet and talking in a high pitched voice, but he loves to laugh in the face of danger. The only time I really got him laughing hard is when I was threatening to spank him. I asked him if he was "hankerin' for a spankerin'" and he giggled at me. I decided I'd show him who the boss was, so I raised my voice and told him I wasn't scared to "spank the baby" and I clapped my hands together. Instead of giving me respect, he started shrieking with laughter. We went back and forth with threats and laughing for a while, and even got a little on video, but I haven't gotten a chance to upload it yet.

His Uncle Nate also got him to laugh once. He made up a somewhat frightening version of the "Kit Kat - Gimme a break" song coupled with some kind of frenetic dance. I'm not sure if the dance is scarier or the song, but Connor thinks it's hilarious. This one's pretty hard to explain, but it's also on video and we'll have to get that one uploaded ASAP.

For now, we've got a few pictures of Connor working on being a big boy. He's been practicing his sitting and standing recently. He's got huge, powerful legs (maybe a teeny bit chubby) and he can support his weight easily with them. He isn't very good with the balancing yet, but he's working on it.

1 second away from a face plant-


Huge, Powerful Legs!!

Exersaucer fun!

We started Connor on the exersaucer and he has been doing a great job with it. He is pretty content sitting in it for up to 15 minutes at a time, which for Connor is a LONG time to do the same thing. Usually we've got to switch activities every few minutes or he gets bored, but he loves grabbing on all the toys and spinning around. He seems to love being able to look around the room and I think it's a nice change of perspective for him. He isn't sitting up unsupported yet, so he's used to lying on his back, or craning his neck from a prone position to see the world unless someone's holding him up.

Here's an action shot of Connor attacking the Giraffe.


Connor and I (Shawn) have both been a little sick since Connor's immunizations a couple weeks ago, but we're both getting better. Connor actually slept from 9 p.m. last night to 7 a.m. I was planning to get up during the night with him, and it was a welcome reprise, however I still had dreams about getting up with him and woke up every time he made a noise. At least I'm no longer having waking dreams where I'm taking care of him. I don't know if I mentioned, but the first few weeks we had him home, I'd find myself walking around the room in the middle of the night looking for him because I was convinced he was in bed with us and tangled in the covers. He never did, and never has slept in bed with us; however Andrea would still find me wandering around in the middle of the night looking for him. Those nights weren't very restful and I'm glad Connor and I are both sleeping better. It's getting better for all of us!

Connor is 4 months old

Here are some numbers from Connor's doctor's appointment on Friday the 6th:
Height: 24 1/2 inches (40th percentile)
Weight: 14.1 oz (50th percentile)
Head: 16 1/2 (50th percentile)

Here are some of Connor's current skills:
- Rolling both ways (front to back, back to front).
- Supporting his weight when standing, but still needs some help with balance.
- Scooting around a lot, but not exactly crawling. He does this a lot at night and ends up all over the place in the crib.
- Grabbing everything within reach. He typically will snatch at it, and if he can close his hands around it he tries to pull it into his mouth.
- Smiling a lot more in response to people and situations. Also will laugh out loud.
- Working on sitting up, he likes to pull himself into a sitting position. Still working on the balance thing.
- He chomps on his hands a lot, Andrea thinks he's going to be a thumb sucker. He may be teething, we're not sure.

Cereal is disgusting

Connor may be 1/4th Chinese, but apparently there's no innate love for rice in the little guy. We got him some rice cereal to eat and so far it disgusts him like nothing else. The poor baby acts like we're killing him when we feed it to him. Upon our doctor’s advice we’re working on spoon feeding him and the skill is pretty hard to learn for both of us. As part of Andrea’s job she has to help patients eat, so she’s pretty good at getting the spoon to the right part of the mouth to trigger a swallow. The one time I tried to feed Connor he gagged and I decided I’d rather take pictures than make the baby aspirate. Connor has trouble deciding what to do with the food once it’s in his mouth. He’s used to manipulating his tongue to get fluids out of a bottle, so once you stick the spoon in his mouth, his tongue thrusts out and most of the cereal comes out with it. We’re all still learning.

Here it comes...


Grosssssss....


Here's a video of Connor trying to choke down some cereal:


Shawn's parents and brother Alex came to visit this weekend. Connor got his 4 month immunizations and was also running a bit of a fever (101.8 deg!) this weekend. He was fussier than normal and unfortunately Alex had to sleep (or try to sleep) in the room adjacent to Connor's. Saturday was a tough night for everyone. We still had fun though!

4th of July is different when you have a little baby

For the 4th of July we went to Andrea's Aunt Jan's house. Connor was in a pretty good mood and we got a couple cute pictures of him with his new sun hat. His head is either finally big enough to fit into a hat or his Aunt Abby is the only one smart enough to find one that's his size. Either way, it's the first hat that actually fits him well.

Your perspective of the 4th changes a little once you have a kid. You really enjoy fireworks until you're trying to get a baby to sleep and it sounds like a war zone outside. We ended up putting him in our room with a fan blowing full blast and he seemed to sleep better than both his parents last night.

Here he is, celebrating the greatest country in the world!


With Mommy:


With Aunt Amanda: