JcSparks.com

Sorry I’m a bit late getting this post up. Nolan is 5 months old, and we’ve had a busy week—we assembled Nolan’s crib (finally!) and had visits from two of my aunts. We’ve started working on transitioning him from co-sleeping to sleeping in his very own bed, and although he hasn’t made it through the night yet, he’s taken several long naps in it. I think once we get some curtains on the windows, that will help, but we haven’t had any luck finding decent ones yet.

The really big news this week was the eruption of Nolan’s very first tooth. It didn’t seem to be too painful for him, as he wasn’t extra fussy or drooly, but he is definitely chawing on his fingers and everything else he can reach (eg: my shirt, a washcloth, his toys, Freyja’s ear), so I think the second tooth won’t be far behind.

Sorry for the bad photo… he wasn’t being very cooperative, and kept sticking his hands back in his mouth.

That beautiful smile was aimed at his daddy, who was making funny faces. Nolan really lights up whenever he sees Jeremy.

Here he was nearly asleep, cuddling and sucking on my finger. The snap of the camera woke him up a little, but he is sound asleep in the crib now, which is why I have time to write up this post!

I still haven’t quite captured the toe-grab on film, but this one was close.

Check out that bed-head!

You can just see Freyja in the bottom right part of the picture; she was keeping Nolan highly entertained with kisses and tail-chasing.

This week was all about the grip. Nolan’s grasp has started getting stronger and more accurate. He’s pinched me pretty hard a few times, and keeps grabbing at the collar and sleeves of my shirts. He also finally pulled at the dangling toy above his little throne hard enough to get its music started. Most exciting of all, he started grabbing his toes this week, though I have yet to capture photographic evidence of this.

Nolan’s Grammy Rita and Grandpa Nelson sent him a jumperoo this week, and I put it together on Friday. Nolan is still a little short for it, and hasn’t quite figured out how to coordinate himself for the whole jumping thing, but he’s working on it with a little padding under his feet, and is very interested in all the toys on its tray.

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: