reverse inchworm.

so i now have a baby who scoots all over the place! two weeks ago mom and i took him on a trip to gatlinburg and before we left he could barely raise hiw lower belly off of the floor. by the time we came back, he could push up onto his knees for about a second, in effect doing a reverse inchworm movement. and now, he can hold himself on his knees for quite awhile before throwing himself down in frustration. beds and couches are no longer a safe place to lay him down for more than 30 seconds. if i take my eyes off of him for a second, he has rolled over to his tummy and immediately starts scooting backward. i don't think he means to... in fact, it seems he would much prefer to move forward toward what he can see, but he is learning. he now rolls back over to his back when he gets too far from what he wants to grab. not that this helps much, but it's funny to see his little brain working out different means of transportation. but he isn't one of those constantly rolling babies as of yet. he likes to be on his belly so that he can reach out and grab his toys and pull them into his mouth. i'm sure laying on your back for most of five months got boring. now he has a new perspective and some new means of exploration. and he is quite the explorer.

he likes different textures, feeling and subsequently tasting anything he finds interesting. the xmas tree didn't taste great... and yet he is still reaching out for anything and everything. he adores faces. he is like a little blind boy touching and prodding and pulling on people's faces as a way of greeting them. and rarely does he meet a stranger. he always looks around for me, to make sure it is safe, and then goes right on with his business. and i am trying to give a little in the germaphobe department. i don't let strangers hold him, and i cringe and immediately wipe him down after a close encounter, but i have been letting him put his toys on the tables at restaurants sometimes. the worst thing now is that he is touching everyone's faces and MOUTHS which drives me nuts. especially when they let him put his hands in their mouths. yuck. there is such a multitude of bacteria in the human mouth, that i would almost rather a dog lick him! but i'm not as quick to wash him off as i used to be, and i find it a little easier to tell people what i don't like when it comes to things like that. no fingers or hands in his mouth (except occasionally mine) and no letting him put his fingers in your mouth. those are my only stipulations. everything else i just clean when i feel the need and i usually wipe his hands off frequently no matter what. but as for toys dropped, and things of that nature, i am more relaxed.

and i have been trying to mix his routine up just a bit, so that he doesn't always have to be home to nap and so that i can have somewhat of a social life. i've taken him to walmart a few times, to the mall a bit, and to visit some friends and family. most of this has mainly been due to the holidays, and i'm glad to settle back into our homebody lifestyle, but still if i need to run errands now i don't hesitate. the bigger, more comfortable carseat makes this much easier, and i feel better about driving 45 minutes with him being able to sit up in it and play with toys. he still isn't crzy about travelling, but at least he is better about sleeping in the carseat. the only downfall is that when he poops while in the carseat, it ALWAYS ends up out of the diaper. i suppose it is the way he is sitting, but it sucks. and when he is on long trips and has to have a bottle, it never fails to happen. i will say i've gotten more comfortable with packing his things and now know usually what i will need, but it is still a hassle if we are going to be gone for long.

let's see... what else? well, for starters, he screams now. long, loud, and piercing. and not because he is mad or anything, moreso just to hear his own loudness. he chuckles from time to time, but i've noticed most of his laughter is silent. he gets a huge, open-mouthed grin going and squeals intermittently, but you can tell the giggles would otherwise be flowing out of him. it's precious. he has the funniest little sense of humor. he chuckles when i stick my tongue out at him, make funny faces, and loves some of my crazy noises. bouncing him or throwing him up in the air usually makes him extremely excited and sometimes he will scream with delight or give me a resounding "HA". he really loves bathtime still, and squirms away from me to get into the water. and he likes mom's dog, belle, always smiling when he notices her. likewise, any moving toy or noisy toy absolutely cracks him up. he thoroughly enjoyed opening xmas presents, even though he only pulled the paper so that he could try to eat it. he was quite overwhelmed by the whole ordeal. he couldn't understand why we were all awake so early and being so chipper. he is used to lounging in bed with mommy until we decide to get up and then being greeted by people as they come and go. but for once his whole little family was there, uncle and all to shower him with attention and kisses. it was such a fun day. and he is such a spoiled boy.

oh, and he had his first cereal yesterday morning. xmas was too busy, and so i waited until his daddy could be home with us yesterday morning. nana and poppy "ooo-ed" and "ahh-ed" appropriately and cracked jokes when he made some pretty awful faces. he was not a fan AT ALL! he shivered away from it after a couple of bites and just kept spitting it out. he wanted the brightly colored spoon, of course, but nothing to do with that pasty, drippy crap on it. i must say i was a little discouraged, but i tried it in his bottle that night and he was fine and then this morning he ate like a pro. it was super cute. i can't wait to start fruits and veggies! i am making his cereal from organically grown rice, and will be continuing with organic fruits next, followed by organic veggies. it's so simple to make the cereal, and actually cheaper, that i wouldn't do it any other way! plus i have plenty of time to dedicate to my sweet boy and it just makes me feel good to be able to do this for him.

i am not looking forward to the upcoming semester. i hate it when i can't revolve my day around my little henryjude. everything is just happening so quickly now that i hate to miss a second!

roly-poly.

so i totally missed it! twice! tonight, while i was in lexington taking my psych final & then having dinner with a friend, jude accomplished the feat of rolling from his back to his belly. and then yesterday, when i stepped outside for FIVE MINUTES and left him in the supervison of my step-dad, he rolled from his belly to his back. true, the very first time jude rolled from his belly to his back on the floor, i was there. but that's been two months ago or more. and since then, he hasn't done it much. until a few days ago he preferred to stay put, knowing someone would roll him over or pick him up if he wanted a change of scenery. realizing this, my mother and i set to the task of inspiring him to roll himself over more frequently. until now, his attention span has been so short that he only wanted to have tummy time for about 5 minutes at a time before getting fussy.
however, over the course of the past week or so, something about my little jude has changed drastically. his attention span has slowly been lengthening. he is much more observant and understanding of the world around him, and most importantly, he is much more INTERESTED in everything. i remember a couple of months ago when he first started to realize that he could interact physically with the world around him. for the first time, he began to reach out for toys when they were put in front of him. and even before then, he began to grasp things when placed in his hands. eventually he started putting things in his mouth, and this oral exploration has led to his manipulation of objects in order to actually learn his capabilities. just last week, he was grabbing at my hand in attempt to put it in his mouth (which i, of course, don't allow him to do haha) and so i was holding my hand spread out so that when he tried to bring it to his mouth i was essentially palming his face instead. well, after a couple of tries, he figured out what was going on, pushed my hand out so that he could see it, choosing instead to grab two of my fingers and bend them so that he could fit them in his mouth! i pulled my hand away before he got the chance, but i was astounded at this learning behavior! before, he would have gotten bored after he was unable to get my hands in his mouth after the first few tries and then moved on to something else, but now he is actually learning to manipulate things to achieve a specific result. he does this with toys, washcloths, etc. holding them out in front of his face, studying them, and turning them this way and that in order to figure out the possibilities. it's so awesome.
and, in my opinion, it is precisely this behavior that has brought on the ability to roll in both directions. not only has he been learning how to manipulate objects handed to him or put directly in his line of vision, he is beginning to reach for objects that aren't very close to him. i assume this is due to his developing depth perception. as he is being carried around, if i linger for any length of time, he will begin reaching out for whatever is near. light switches, christmas garland on the staircase, books, the camera, etc. he also likes to grab at anything i am carrying, whether it be an armload of laundry, a dirty diaper, or even a glass of milk. he has thwarted my milk-drinking on many occasions, nearly causing me to spill glassfuls at very inopportune times. (and for those of you who don't know me, i say milk because 90% of the time, that's what i'm drinking)and as inconvenient as this all is, i must admit it's exciting as well as endearing.
what's more, for the past couple of weeks he has been discovering his feet. it began with him glimpsing them at bath time and during diaper chnages and has progressed as he has been bringing his legs up more and more. it seemed for awhile that a tubby belly was preventing him from bringing them high enough to grab, but low and behold this week he has started getting ahold of the little devils. next stop, his mouth, i'm sure. i'm just glad he's not too fat to do this, i was getting worried! lol!
so, all in all, we've seen some big changes this week. jude now loves tummy time and is extremely content to just lay in the floor on his blanket on both his belly and his back. he will play by himself for longer periods of time, though i still prefer to interact with him and talk about his toys and what he is doing as he begins to understand more. his little sense of humor is also developing as he now squeals in delight more often and gives me big, gummy grins more than ever. he has perfected his raspberry, preferring to put as much spit as possible behind it, and doing this all the time. he is too quickly becoming a mover and a shaker, learning more and more each day.

and all the while, mommy is learning more about her baby boy! i can pretty much decipher every cry, knowing if it is the need to burp, the desire to get up and walk around, frustration over an out of reach toy, or just wanting to be held close. it really gives me a sense of accomplishment and a feeling of intimate connectedness with my henry jude. sometimes when i'm cradling him in my arms, he simply looks up and coos, which i know is his version of "i love you, mommy" and it just melts my heart. it's such a soft, sweet sound, different from any other tone or pitch he uses, and unique to me. he has one for his daddy, too, i've noticed. and i just love it. i swear i never knew how amazing this parenting thing could be. even perpetually covered in spit up and smelling like poopy diapers, he is the single, sweetest thing in my life. i love my son more than the whole world.

and really quick, i just want to make note of our daily routine and his sleeping and eating habits so that i don't forget one day... right now he is sleeping through the night, going to bed a little later, and waking up usually once before going down for good. bathtime is still between 8 and 8:30, but is now followed by playtime if he isn't starving and then he usually has a bottle or nurses around 9-9:30. sometimes he goes right down, only to wake up thirty minutes later, and other times he fights to death before finally giving up and falling asleep after being walked and wrestled for about twenty minutes. then he may still wake up within thirty minutes, but usually goes back to sleep pretty quickly. he will sleep until sometime between 5 and 7am, nurse, and then either go right back to sleep or lay in bed with me until he falls back asleep. if he woke up around 5 or 6, then he will generally wake up a couple hours later to nurse again and fall right back asleep for two to three more hours, and then sometimes will wake up again, nurse, and sleep for another hour. if he didn't wake up until around 7 then most of the time he is harder to get back to sleep and sometimes i bring his playmat on the bed and let him play himself to sleep. two hours or so will go by, then he will wake up and nurse again and usually wants to get up and go play at this point. (all of these situations include about 4 diaper changes and his usual morning poop, haha)
after he's up for the morning, he likes to talk and play for anywhere from an hour to three hours before settling down for a mid-morning nap. we haven't been getting up until about 9:30 or 10 for a few weeks, so it's been a nice change from the 8am mornings. he doesn't nap as long as he did when we were getting up earlier, so he is usually back up and ready to play for a long time. by the afternoon, we have talked, tickled, played with stuffed animals, played on the playmats, had tummy time on the quilt, played in the exersaucer, walked around, done some chores, and sometimes read a few pages of alice in wonderland. he is a busy boy. he sometimes takes an afternoon nap before doing all these things over again, and sometimes waits to take an evening nap. he is still nursing about every two hours, but this has been fluctuating and he has recently started nursing more often and for longer periods, so i think he is going through a growth spurt. his four month check up he was 28inches long and last week he was already 29 inches. he seems to have maybe slimmed down a little but i think he looks slimmer because he is getting taller. i'm not sure. i'd love to have a digital baby scale, because it always seems like our scale here weighs heavier than the doctor's. but either way, he is still a big boy, rapidly outgrowing his clothes. he is still in size 3 diapers and wears 6-12 month clothes, 9 or 12 month sleepers, amd a few 12-18 month things. not sure about shoe size, because everytime we try to put shoes on him he curls his toes so they won't stay on or even really go on in the first place. if i had to guess, i would say a size 2 or 3. bathtime is still his favorite, he is still selective about his laughs, and he is getting more and more skilled at sitting up without tipping over. when he is propped against something, he can sit unaided, but usually leans forward for his feet or a toy and then topples over. however, just in the past week i can tell a difference in his posture and strength. it's amazing how it all happens!
hopefully i will be updating again soon!