4 Months Old

 Luke is 4 months old today!  I love this little boy so much, I can hardly stand it!  He is such a sweet baby, so easygoing and so fun.  He changes every day and Jeff and I are having so much fun watching him grow and develop.  We can't believe how big he is getting so fast!  I am so excited for every new stage and up until recently, I never understood why moms cry on their kids' first day of kindergarten or say, "I wish he would stay this little forever."  I can't wait for the future.  I'm loving every step of the way.  However, I got a glimpse of what those moms are feeling a couple of days ago.  It may have had something to do with my heightened emotional state at the time.  

Luke and I had just come home from the grocery store and I had stocked up on soup because there was a great sale and it's getting cold here!  Normally, I am quite a sturdy little pack mule.  I cram all of the grocery bags onto one arm; carry the diaper bag, my purse, and Luke in his car seat on the other arm, and make my way up the stairs to our apartment in one trip.  This time, however, I could not fit all of the groceries on one arm so I put two bags on my right arm with Luke.  Luke was asleep in his car seat and as I straightened up with my heavy load, one of the bags of groceries, containing a few cans of soup, swung around the car seat and hit Luke.  He immediately started crying.  My heart broke as I took him out of his car seat and tried to comfort him, aware that I was the cause of his pain.  I had just been thinking the day before, that Jeff and I had a pretty good track record for injuries with Luke and then this happened!  A little bump and a red mark almost immediately formed on the left side of Luke's nose.  He is a tough little baby so he didn't cry long.  He was smiling up at me and babbling away soon after I got him upstairs.  As I laid him on the changing table and he smiled up at me with his little swollen nose (don't worry, it looked good as new by the next day), it suddenly hit me how much I needed to treasure each day with my little boy because my little Luke wouldn't be little forever and I would never have him back this way again.  I will have other babies, but I will never have my baby Luke again.  He will just keep growing and changing and as excited as I am for that, I will miss this sweet baby stage.  I don't want to freeze time or keep Luke a baby forever, but I will treasure each day and each stage, as brief as it might be, before he races on to the next one.

I had only planned to do lists every 3 months, but this boy is changing so fast, that I have to share a short list of things that Luke has been up to since his 3-month list:

• One of his new favorite things to do is to blow spit bubbles, which ultimately leads to a whole lot of drool.
• He has discovered his feet.  He loves to lay on his back and bring his his legs up so he can grab his feet.
• He rolled from his back to his tummy for the first time on October 18th and he has done it several times since then.
• He is "talking" more and more, adding new sounds to his repertoire, as well as some serious volume.
• He is still teething and all of his teeth seem to be coming in at the same time.  They appear to be much closer to the surface.  As a result, he is not a very happy camper most nights and sometimes works himself up into quite a screaming fit.  At times like these, no matter what we do to try and make him happy, it is unacceptable to have the TV on at the same time.  Oftentimes, when we pause our show on Netflix, he calms down.  He may even start to smile and laugh, but the second we hit play, he starts up again.  He demands our absolute undivided, attention.
• He is a bottomless pit.  I finally couldn't keep up with him with breast milk anymore and had to start supplementing a little formula two days before he hit 4 months old.  He has had 2-4 oz. of formula and almost 50 oz. of breast milk each day for the past 2 days.  His 4 month check-up is on Thursday and I will hopefully get the go-ahead from his pediatrician to start him on rice cereal soon.
• He laughs a lot more and no one can make him laugh like his dad can.
• He is so easygoing and just goes with the flow.  He took formula without hesitation, just like when he started on a bottle, just like when we moved him to his crib after he spent his first month in bed with me.  Nothing phases this boy.
• He is getting closer to learning to sit up on his own.  He still never relaxes his muscles for a second when he is awake and now when we put him into a sitting position, he immediately tightens his muscles.  He is a little over-zealous though, because this almost always results in him making himself fall all the way forward into a face plant (we usually catch him before the face plant part).  He also strains really hard and tries to sit up whenever we start to lay him on his back.
• He is getting really good at grabbing things and reaches for anything in front of him.  This includes my hair, countless strands of which, he rips out every day.
• He chews on everything within reach.
• He loves music and "dances" by kicking his legs like crazy.
• He is HUGE.  He has been wearing 6 months clothes for a few weeks now and he is already starting to get too long for some of them.

The bottom line is, this little guys is so much fun and even though these days, he likes to make nights (Jeff's and my only time together) all about him, we couldn't love him more.  Jeff and I just have to work a little harder to have alone time together.  Thank goodness for naps and weekends!

Here are a few pictures of Luke from the past week or two...

Sprawled out, his favorite way to sleep.

Big boy!

We have recently switched from Hyland's teething tablets to Baby Orajel, thanks to my awesome sister-in-law, Caitlin who told me that the teething tablets have been recalled.  But when Luke was taking the tablets, he used to try spitting them out, but they would usually just stick to his lips, giving the hilarious illusion of big buck teeth.

Love those long lashes.  I'm jealous.

He can't get enough of those feet.

Watching Monday Night Football with Daddy