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This was a banner week. Nolan finally figured out on Tuesday how to roll over back to front. He mostly only does it when he’s upset, though. He wiggles like mad, flipping onto his side, then his tummy, then pushing himself around with his strong legs. He’s very close to rolling over from front to back as well… I’m expecting that to happen any day now. Finally, he discovered a whole new vocal range way in the upper register—think ear-splitting squeal—and has been talking up a storm.

Here is a sequence of pics from earlier this week: I finally captured that elusive pouty lip, appearing out of nowhere in the middle of a quiet evening.

Nolan turned 4 months old on Tuesday, and had his well baby check-up on Thursday this week. He weighs 13 lb 10 oz now, and is in the 25th percentile all around—very symmetrical.

Jeremy’s parents were with us until Wednesday, and helped us out tremendously with the preparations for Nolan’s bedroom. We were able to move all of the home theater equipment and furniture to its new home in the back room, and put a fresh coat of little boy blue paint on the walls. We’ve still got lots of rearranging and organizing and crib assembly to do, but I feel better already, and Nolan seems to love the color of the walls… he smiles every time I take him in there. I’ll post some pics of the nursery once it’s more together.

And in case you are getting tired of looking at baby pictures, here’s one of Jeremy with our sweet little lap dog:

Jeremy’s parents are here visiting us at the moment—or, I should say, they’re here visiting Nolan. He’s been getting lots of snuggle time with Grandma Leah, and this afternoon he met a bunch of his great-aunts and -uncles too. He did great with all the attention, and is sleeping it off now.

Nolan is sleeping in the bedroom right now. I left him wide-eyed and wiggling on his back to go take care of my freshly pumped milk, and when I went back for him less than two minutes later, he was conked out lying on his side with his thumb in his mouth. It’s been an hour and a half now, so I expect to hear him stirring anytime, but maybe he’ll give me enough time to post a few pics from the week.

Nolan’s big accomplishment this week was discovering how much he has to say. When he is awake now, he babbles constantly, and his range of sounds and volumes has greatly increased. The other night he spent over an hour sitting on my lap (with very little support from me) and talking in highly animated fashion. I’ll have to try and get Jeremy to take some video of it, because it is awfully cute. These pics are completely unrelated, but show him doing some tummy time.

This was a big week for eating. I’m hoping it was just a growth spurt, but Nolan has been eating bottles nearly twice his usual size this week, on the same 2-3 hour schedule, and I’ve been struggling to keep up with his demands. I actually had to break into my stash of frozen milk yesterday.

His other big accomplishment this week was the discovery of his left thumb. He’s always preferred sucking on my finger, but I was getting a little worn out from it after 3 and a half months, so I finally broke down and ordered him a pacifier (Natursutten, made from a single piece of soft organic rubber). But before it could come, I found him in the bassinet one afternoon sucking very noisily on his thumb. On the 4th of July, he even soothed himself back to sleep in the swing with it. Good thing too, because he isn’t really interested in the paci… he doesn’t close his mouth around it very well (similar to how he takes his bottles), so it just falls right out again.

Anyway, a few unrelated pics from this past warm week:

I guess a couple weeks have slipped by somehow… Our 9th anniversary was last week! Nolan weighs 13 pounds now. He has been very busy chewing on his fingers and drooling, interspersed with lots of practice standing, wiggling on his back, fussing on his tummy, and sitting up with a little help. He also had another round of vaccinations, which did not make for a pleasant evening. My mom has been requesting new photos, so here are a few:

Nolan is 12 weeks old today, if you can believe it! Jeremy was out of town for a work training this past week, so my mom flew out to keep Nolan and me company while he was away. We managed to get a huge project (which deserves its own post) and lots of smaller errands done in the course of the past five days, mostly snuck in during Nolan’s morning naptimes. Here are a few pics of the downtime:

Nolan had his 2-month well-baby check-up last week, and seems to be doing just fine. He measured in at 11 lbs. and 23.5″, 30th and 75th percentiles, respectively—in other words, he’s a long skinny baby, as I suspected. I think he’s had a bit of a growth spurt since then, so he’s probably pushing 11.5 or 12 lbs by now. Here are a few pics from last night and this morning.

Nolan’s been working on his push-ups, and his chest can clear the ground a little more now. He’d still rather practice standing, though. He also discovered his fists this week, and has been spending a lot of his free time gnawing on his knuckles—no thumb-sucking action, though.

These were taken this morning. For photographic evidence of growth, take a look back to the similar photos in this post from a month ago—the onesie he was wearing in those pics and the one he is wearing this morning are from the same 0-3mos package, and he’s about ready to outgrow them.