Dear Takeshi,

You are now 4 months old. The day before you turned 4 months, you started grabbing your right foot with your right hand and it wasn’t accidental like it had been the past few times you had done it. Then the day after you turned 4 months you started to grab your other foot, so you can now grab both feet and rock on your back. When you do that, you no longer look like a helpless baby; you look like a little boy.

You are also laughing more and can do so when we tickle you — you used to just tense up with this look of “What do I do now?” You have such a hearty deep little laugh; it makes us all laugh when we hear it. It seems that you get more and more tickle-ish as time goes on. When I undress you before your bath, you always laugh when I pull your onesie off; your arms come up, your back arches and your neck squinches down into your shoulders and you let out a “heee heeee.” Of course, once your diaper is off you get so excited since you know it’s bath time and that is still your favorite time of the day.

The other day you met Heath and Emily’s baby, Tanyon. You seemed so interested in him but unfortunately, Tanyon is still a bit young and couldn’t play with you. But you seemed content to just watch him, mesmerized that there was another little person in this world.

You still try to talk and you purse your lips as if you’re trying to form words. A few times I was certain I heard you try to say ‘hello’ or ‘mama’ but I’m sure it was just wishful thinking. Everyone says that new parents are always so anxious for their child to start talking, but that once it starts they wish they had enjoyed the silence. I love you gurgles but I wish you were able to express your thoughts.

Your bachan has now been taking care of you for over a month and she knows you better than your mama knows you! She says you have one small nap in the morning with Papa while she goes to work out and then another nap before lunch. Then right after lunch you have your big nap of the day. Of course, when she is most tired and would really appreciate one of your 2 hours naps to get some shut-eye herself, you decide you only need 30 minutes and wake up bright eyed and ready to continue your day. But she says you’re a good baby and that makes it much easier on her.

You’re starting to reach for and grab things. Once something is in your hand, you want to taste it. You love to grab hair… and lips… and noses. You still flail your arms when you get excited and are often hitting your bachan in the eye.

I got you a bumbo seat a few weeks ago and you love to sit in it and watch what everyone is doing. I used to hold you on my lap at dinnertime but that kept you too low and you couldn’t see everyone. Now we put you in your Bumbo and set you on the table; you love that you can see us and are more entertained on the table than you were on my lap.

The doctor said that since you are eating every hour to hour and a half while you are awake that we can start you on rice cereal. While I’m excited that you are on your way to eating solids, I feel like you are growing up so quickly. It’s hard to imagine that you were once so small; you’ve gotten so big! But you are healthy and happy and that is all that matters.

I love you so much, booger-butt,
Mama

Takeshi had his 4 month checkup yesterday. He weighed in at 15 lbs 7.5 ounces and measured 25.5 inches tall.

He also got his shots and has been up and down as far as temperament. He was very sensitive yesterday and would seem happy but then cry at the drop of a hat — we expected it but it was still so very odd to see our happy bubbly baby cry as much as he has been. Today he was the same way (although it wasn’t as bad). We noticed it got worse when he was tired… and he hasn’t been eating as much either. Hopefully this will pass soon enough.

The doctor told us we can start him on rice cereal — 1 tablespoon mixed with breastmilk, 3 times a day! She said the time between feedings will increase but he should be drinking the same amount of breastmilk. Wooohoooo! My mom and I went to Target after the appointment and picked up some bowls and spoons. I’m so excited! We wanted to start him on it yesterday but just couldn’t find the time and today Jay was out pretty much all day and I wanted him to be there when it happened. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll be able to start him on it. We also have to start giving him some vitamins (Poly-Vi-Sol) which I tried to give him today but he spit most of it out. Tomorrow we’re going to mix it with his morning bottle to see if he takes it that way.

Having him start solids, I feel like the baby stage is already slipping away…

I got my Moby Wrap on Monday and tried it out last night. It seemed a little snug but it’s pretty damn cool. Takeshi can flail his arms and legs to his hearts content and I don’t feel like I’m going to drop him.

It took me a while to figure out how to get it on and I’m still convinced that there has to be an easier way to get the whole thing situated. Or maybe with practice I’ll get faster… but it took me a while last night. The good thing is that once he was in, he was fine. I was worried that I would have to gradually break him into it but I think he understands that this is something that will be good for the both of us so he behaved.

Now I just have to get Jay and my mom to wear it.

Tomorrow our little man will be 4 months old; damn, where did the time go?

Right now he’s very interactive and responsive. He loves to make snow angels when we put him on his back in the Pack N Play and is getting much better at tummy time; occassionally he will go for 20 – 30 minutes without fussing. He loves to reach out and grab the little laughing bumblee that his abuelita got for him while they visited Chicago; he shoves that sucker in his mouth and smothers it with drool. Then he’ll reach out and grab the blue dinosaur that his Aunt Stacey got for him — he absolutely loves that thing. Then there is Tigger and he loves him too — he’s always giving him hugs.

I look at him and realize how lucky we are to have such a happy and healthy little boy. He is such a pleasure; I don’t think I can express that enough. He is always good when we go out; even if he is hungry or dirty he will wait and tolerate whatever it is that we’re doing. Sometimes he’ll fuss but we just hold him and everything seems to be forgotten. I’m currently working on trying to figure out all these carriers so he isn’t confined to the carseat when we take him out. I know I’d hate to stare at the ceiling for hours on end so I imagine he’s probably pretty bored with it too.

In other news, Jay has hopefully ended his little bad luck streak. The other week he had a car meet and after standing out in the sun all day he felt tingling and numbness up and down his left arm. He didn’t want to scare me so he didn’t say anything when I called to check up on him but he quickly came home and announced that we were headed to the hospital. I thought he was having a stroke; he thought he was having a heart attack. Turns out we were both wrong; he was dehydrated. So they gave him lots of water and Gatorade and he seemed fine. Then last Monday he was in Baltimore and decided that the trip to the ER wasn’t enough and he jumped down off a curb and twisted his ankle. When he came home he proclaimed that he didn’t need ice, he was fine. The next morning his foot was barely recognizeable except for the toes sticking out of the mound of flesh. He then realized that maybe it was time to put ice on it. Yeah. So between the ER visit and the bad ankle (which is still giving him grief), I’m hoping he’s had his fill of excitement for a while.

And I’d also like to say that I hate our bathroom. No, I hate Ryan Homes. Specifically, I hate the person who works for Ryan Homes that hired the retarded contractors that put our master bathroom together. After two painful years of troubleshooting (and repairing and painting) this fucking bathroom we’ve finally figured out what is causing the ceiling in our morning room to act like a raincloud. It seems that the contractor that was hired to put our bathroom together didn’t actually know how to put a bathroom together. They figured that as long as it looked kind of like a bathroom it should work. Unfortunately, water doesn’t know how to avoid uncaulked areas; it doesn’t know that if it goes into that uncaulked area and pools and sits in the floor it will eventually seep through the floor and come out of the ceiling and end up on a very expensive couch. Lucky for us, that water is just shower water and not toilet water.

So now we are all sharing a bathroom which isn’t too horrible because we’re all on different showering schedules but it’s still a pain and I’m sure my mom would like to have her bathroom back. Stinkin’ Ryan Homes contracting people. You suck.