A friend of Mommy and Daddy had a baby a couple days ago. At church, you got to meet a 2-month-old little girl. All of this got Mommy thinking about how you’re not the littlest one any more. You can now follow us with your eyes and use your smiles to get and keep our attention. You hold your head up. You sleep from 9 pm to 6 am nearly every night. You can down a 4.5 oz bottle with little effort and those digestive bubbles that caused you so much discomfort are now no big deal. And let’s not forget the little rolls you are finally starting to build on your legs and arms when you used to be all head, Buddha belly and skinny appendages. Soon, you’ll realize what you are doing when you squirm around on your belly and end up on your back with a surprised look on your face.

Now that you have discovered you have hands, you seem to have fallen in love with blankets. If Daddy tucks you into your car seat with a blankie from your neck to your toes, you wave your arms around and look like a kid in a too-big ghost costume. Add a nook…or just let you mouth the blanket, and you are set for long stroller ride’s worth of entertainment. You grab and hold onto any kind of cloth the gets within reach: burp cloths, Mommy’s shirt, blankies, your clothes, etc. You love playing peek-a-boo. All of this adds up to many adorable amounts and slightly more blankies in the laundry.

We reached a new milestone this morning. Mommy and Daddy woke up with a start to realize that you were still sleeping…and it was 6:08 am! And you had slept since 9:45 pm! Normally, we are lucky to see the positive side of 5 am when we put you to bed at 9:15. Needless to say, this is a trend we wouldn’t mind continuing, especially given how good of a mood you were in this morning. (Now we just have to keep Mommy from waking up expecting to hear you cry at 4 am, 4:30 am, 5 am…)

Your first two months of tummy time mostly consisted of you squawking and wailing while randomly kicking your legs and flailing your arms. So it was to Mommy’s great surprise when she found you calmly holding your head all the way up, lifting your feet and “swimming” with your arms a few days ago. There are still many times when you don’t like being on your stomach, but Mommy and Daddy have also learned to put your favorite green rattle ball in front of you which sometimes distracts you so much, you forget about the amount of effort you are putting in to keep your head up. Keep up the swimming lessons!

In this great TV show called Bones, there is one episode where Dr. Temperance Brennan (aka Bones) is playing with a baby. If Mommy’s memory serves her correctly, Bones had been told to talk to babies with real words and to teach them the names of things. So, she is talking to the baby in a very excited voice about “phalanges! phalanges!” while her coworkers look on in confusion. It is not that they don’t know that phalanges are fingers and toes–they are just so surprised that she would play with a baby using such technical terminology. I guess that means Mommy can talk to you about sucrose, sodium chloride and sodium bicarbonate when we bake together…

Anyway, that whole little tangent is because over the last week, you have seemed to discover that you have phalanges. You open and close your hands; you start to grasp things; your fingers seem to always find your mouth. We can’t wait to see what happens when you realize you have feet!

Sunday we picked up a new toy at Target. Its a little bug with four legs that you can pull down and let go.  When you let go it vibrates on its way back up.  I have never seen such a honestly shocked expression on any face before.  When I pull the bug down you completely startle, legs and arms flail and eyes become huge. The same things happens when I let it go. However, if I put it in your grip and let you let-go of it, its no longer scary.  I guess I should take this as a lesson. Nothing is quite as frightening than things you cannot control.

Even when it is only a little pull toy with vibrating action

The book from the pediatrician says that between two and three months, your digestive system gets bigger and more efficient. This means a more comfortable process for you and less frequent dirty diapers for us. Less frequent dirty diapers, however, can mean DIRTIER diapers. Today, you graduated from multiple-wipe + outfit-change dirty diapers to I-give-up-just-put-him-into-the-tub dirty diapers. This particular advancement came while on the phone with Grandma Carol…much to her amusement…from a distance.

Oh well, just one way to get your bath time earlier in the day.

Yesterday at your doctor’s appointment, Mommy and Daddy were finally given the green light to try to get you to sleep through the night (i.e. no more 2 am food date with Mommy). Last night we tried it and got close: 9:15 pm asleep, barely woke for bottle at 10:30 pm, woke up hungry at 4 am. Tonight, the goal is to keep you awake longer, make your 10-10:30 bottle the one right before you fall asleep, and have you sleep until 6 am. As much as we appreciate you being an early bird rather than a night owl…we were hoping that little bird could be just a slight bit less early.

Today we took the light rail from the medical center to the museum district then visited the Tot-Spot at the Children’s Museum. Lots of under 3 year olds running all over!  We sat and talked with some other parents about all sorts of things.  Everyone thought you were the cutest. You were hungry right on time then went into quiet alert mode, looking and listening to everything.  That must have been quite stimulating because you have slept hard all the way home.

Fed – Check
Changed – Check
Sleeping – Check
Dishes – Next

Today we finally arrived in Houston after one insane week of packing and three long days on the road. It even got to the point on day two that you didn’t want to be in your car seat any more and you usually love car rides. In the next few days, our tiny apartment should be transformed from a mish-mash pile of boxes to something that resembles the home you have known. All you will know if that there will be a lot of activity and time in Grandpa Tom’s arms.