Love of my life

Brian cracks me up.

We were watching The Kids are All Right and had this exchange watching two main teenage girls talk:

Brian: What's that girl's name?
Me: I don't know.
Brian: I know her.
Me: No, you don't. If I don't know her name, you definitely don't. (Brian is notoriously bad at actor's names)
Brian: Yes, I do, it's that girl that's married to Jimmy Kimmel, Jeneane Garafalo.
Me: Dying of laughter.

SO many reasons this is funny, two being the 20 year age difference, and the fact that Jimmy Kimmel is married to Sarah Silverman. I love that man.

4 months old!

Nathan is 4 months old today! He had his checkup today, and here are his all important measurements:

Length: 25 inches (50th percentile)
Weight: 14 lbs. 4 oz. (50th percentile)
Head Circumference: 16 3/8 inches  (50th percentile)

Ridiculous that he keeps growing so exactly. 

The doctor said that he was delightful with impressively great gross motor skills. Nothing we didn't already know, but it was nice to hear again! He cried a bit with the shots, but in true Nathan fashion calmed down after a few minutes and a little distraction from Dad. 

General milestones:
He's gotten very good at grasping, though he isn't switching things back and forth yet - at least not on purpose. While he started rolling over around 2 months, he hasn't seem to be inclined over the last month or so. I'm not too worried. How many adults do you know that can't roll over? Mostly he just seems pretty content on his tummy so I think he's not as motivated to change his situation. He's also started to try turning pages of board books. Warms my heart.

He's got the best hearty laugh known to mankind and especially loves being startled. He's definitely on the shy side, and large crowds are NOT his favorite. When he's surrounded by people he doesn't know well he spends most of his time in deep concentration just taking it all in, and it's much harder to elicit the wonderfully easy smiles he flashes at home.

He loves being naked, baths, and music. He generally sleeps between 8-10 hours in his first stretch at night (AWESOME BABY!!!!) followed by a few more hours. His naps are definitely on the shorter side, somewhere between 45 minutes to an hour typically, but he takes a lot of them. It's a trade off we're willing to take.

This is from the beginning of the shoot. Wouldn't he make a great cherubic statue?

Also, here's Leah at 4 months! Maybe it's just because they are both babies, but I can't help seeing a resemblance. 

Credit: Book of Days (Liz Wyderko :))

Shyam!

Our good friend Shyam came into town this weekend from DC for a friends' wedding, and we got to host him! He was the most amazing houseguest, doing dishes, helping seal our deck and applying decals. Welcome to a domestic weekend at the Kelly's, Shyam! We also got to see our friend John and his girlfriend, Erin who came in for the wedding as well.

Nathan seems to be getting easily overwhelmed and skeptical of unfamiliar faces. The first time Shyam held him that lower lip came out right away. Being fed and well rested fixed all of that, and soon they were good buddies. We're hoping this is the first of many visits.

Hickeys?

Who knew we would have worry about hickeys already???

Lately Nathan hasn't been great at giving feeding cues. You'd think he was fine and dandy, but the moment I decide he's overdue and try to feed him, he'll get desperate. He sucks on his hands all the time, (even just after he's been fed) but apparently this morning he was actually very hungry. Poor pumpkin!

It doesn't seem to have phased him too much. 

Nice footwork

Our little guy has not so little feet. From birth his gunboats have been on the extra large side of things.

I hear Carter is the same so it must be from his maternal line! Brian and I have agreed that they are our favorite part of his body and they continue to tickle us to death. It's been tricky to find clothes with feet that fit him in all the right places. The only outfits he has that fit his feet are at least 6 months. In general he's wearing 3 or 3-6 month clothes... like I said, it's tricky. Socks are tricky too. I bought him some 6-12 month socks which fit his foot, but are pretty baggy on his calf. I'm sure he will become more proportional at some point, and we won't have to cut the feet off of his clothes forever. Until then, we'll just plan on him being an excellent swimmer with great balance.

I have really big hands, so this doesn't quite do them justice.

Love those toes!

Oh, and he can do this with them.  

I was busy finally putting up the tree decals we had bought before Nathan was born when I looked over and he was doing this over and over. My little monkey!

Carseat Success!

For the majority of Nathan's short life he has HATED the carseat. I hear that most babies don't mind it. Most even like it, especially the car ride. Well. Ha. 90% of the time we strapped him in he would start wailing. Usually we could calm him down if we used a variety of techniques, but let's just say there were definitely times when it was just me in the car that I'm certain I wasn't the safest driver. There were also a number of times that I would just have to pull over and get him out of the seat to stop his uncontrollable and heartbreaking crying. Meghan heard that cry for the first time on our drive down to Fort Wayne, and I think it made an impression. 

What's this has meant is that the normal outings people take to get out of the house with a newborn just haven't been worth it for me by and large unless it was by foot. Human interaction just isn't worth having to cope with a miserable baby (and mama) so even trips to the grocery store were made while he's with Brian.

Here's the good news: We've turned a corner! For whatever reason, over the last two weeks we've seen huge improvement in his general demeanor in the car. He almost seems to like it and will fall asleep with barely a peep. It's a whole new world people, and I like the view. 

On the drive back from the cottage - just having a
hand on his belly did wonders. Let's not mention that I was
sharing the seat with a cooler...

Outside Lab, a local coffee spot rented out
for one of Brian's work functions. Lots of stop signs
on the way but no tears!

A picture of him in the carseat! That I could
take the time to take this is explanation
enough of the progress we've made.

 

Duds

Thanks Sara and Eyal for this adorable outfit! You can't see in these pictures, but the pants have a pocket on the back that match the top. Too cute!

16 weeks!

A few more growth pictures for those who love them. I actually don't think these quite do his growth justice. I think he's around 13.5 lbs. these days. which is just about double where he started.

We're closing in on 4 months. That's crazy.

1 week

5 weeks

6 weeks

7 weeks

8 weeks

9 weeks

11 weeks

16 weeks

Squealing

This is a game Brian plays with Nathan most mornings when he gets him up. It's uncanny how consistent he is with his reaction. We don't know why he likes it so much, but we'll take it!

Another wonderful Wednesday

We spent this Wednesday at Liz and John's house with the kids. I missed another opportunity to get photos of Zach holding Nathan again! He's really so sweet with him and so good about holding him safely. They are both such good older cousins. During tummy time they both tried to keep Nathan happy and entertained by bringing over toys he might find interesting. Mostly I think he found them interesting. 

Here are a few fun videos from the day. 

 

Zach's hair is almost as curly as Leah's. Who knew????

I don't usually get the chance to capture what it looks like when Nathan gets upset. It's usually pretty fleeting, follows a smile, and I'm trying to stop it. It may make me sound heartless, but when he sticks that lower lip out, I find it both so sad and adorable.