Roll Baby Roll!

We had Colin's 4 month check up today. He weighed in at 14.4 pounds, which means he has doubled his birth weight, which is what they like to happen by 4 months. He was 25.5 inches long, which means he grew by 3 inches.

He got an A+ on everything else, he's doing very well! Our pediatrician recommends 6 month exclusive breastfeeding, which is what I wanted to do anyway, so he'll be on milk for another 2 months. He got 4 shots and 1 oral vaccine today, and wasn't happy about that either, but he calmed down pretty quickly.

In other cool news, he just rolled over for the first time this evening! He was laying on a blanket on the floor and mommy and daddy were down there playing with him. I rolled him over on his tummy and 10 seconds later, he rolled right over! I don't know if I scared him when I yelled Yay! or if he scared himself when he rolled, but he started crying immediately. He was okay though!

All in all, a big day for little Colin. We're so very proud of him!

Monthly Newsletter: Month Four

Dear Coly Bear,

Today you turn four months old. These past 16 weeks have gone by so fast, sometimes I wish I had you on DVR and I could just press a button and rewind your laughter, smiles or loving snuggles. You are growing so quickly I can barely keep up, just today you developed a new talent.

You've now started to blow raspberries with your tongue, making an adorable sound and lots of bubbles with all that drool. So much drool you have, I call you the slobber monster. We could water the new lawn for a week on the drool that you produce.

This month you discovered many new wonderful talents. You've begun to explore the world around you with your mouth. Whatever you can get your hands on and manage to pull to you. It's kinda fun to watch you aim for your mouth, often hitting your cheek, nose and chin with the object, and giving up and settling on your hand instead.

The very first object you put in your mouth was your moose. I left the room for a split second, you were laying on the floor and moose was laying within your reach. When I returned you had reached out, grabbed moose and pulled him towards you and you were sucking away on his face. At that moment I said goodbye to my previous life and hello to my new one, a life which will be consumed with running to grab potentially dangerous things out of your hands before they make it to the inside of your eager, drooling jaws.

Oh yes, you love your hands still. You get very upset when I have to remove them from the death grip of your tongue. If you don't have your hands, a toy or your bib in your mouth you are sucking on your bottom lip. All the drool and the fierce sucking makes the loudest sloppiest slurping noise when you do this. Adorable, of course.

Another new activity of yours is the joy of throwing your legs in the air and up into your chest. You lay like this often now when you are on your back. I call it your Roly Poly. This new talent has also lead you to discover your feet. Your little hands just hold onto them. It makes diaper changing quite challenging when I can't get you to straighten those little legs.

Your fussiness continued this month. One day it got so bad Momma couldn't take it anymore and Daddy had to come home early to rescue her. You could not be made happy and did not want to be put down. Thankfully within the last week you have begun to outgrow this trait. You've been a good boy in the evenings, spending time with Daddy and going to bed promptly at 7:30 without a fuss. We can finally entertain the thought of giving you a sibling again.

Thought not hard to accomplish, you moved your Daddy to tears one day this month. He was playing with you in your exerciser and you reached your little hand out and began to turn one of the toys on the side. You did it over and over and he couldn't believe how talented you had become! He grabbed the video recorder and shot away.

You also met the Easter bunny this month. We gathered the troops, two cars worth, and drove to the packed mall the weekend before Easter just to get your picture with him. I was so afraid you were going to cry when you saw that big hairy beast that I was placing you in the temporary custody of. I put on a brave face, walked you up to him, and sat you in his lap. You couldn't have cared less. I don't think you even realized anything out of the ordinary was occurring. You were so bored with all the crazy people trying to get you just look straight, you yawned.

Just last week you got to meet a new family member, the first from Wisconsin, your 3rd cousin Rachel. She stayed with us one night and we all went to the Dallas Arboretum. I was so excited to share one of my greatest passions with you, even though you were too young to really appreciate them, I know. And you slept practically the whole time. We got you awake long enough to get pictures, but back in the stroller immediately afterwards and back to sleep.

The best most fantastic part of this month was that you said your first word. Though I know you are only repeating the sounds you hear and have no idea that you are actually forming words of any meaning, I still cried when you said "momma." We were at your Grammy's house and we were showing the Carter family our new game we play. I lay you on your back and we stare into each other's eyes and I start to say, "Whose your momma?" and you just give me the biggest, most radiant smile and laugh. You have the most wonderful laugh in the entire world. It is truly the sweetest thing my ears have ever had the privilege of witnessing. Like Daddy says, my job has long hard hours and no monetary pay, but I'm paid in smiles and laughs, which is so much cooler.

What an awesome month, little man. We are having so much fun together, going on walks as a family, reading books and going on play dates. When I think my love for you couldn't be any greater, I wake up and discover that I love you even more, and I worry that my body isn't strong enough to contain this much love. I worry that my insides may burst because there isn't any more room. I am drunk on my love for you, a sloppy drunk in which I can't see straight or speak in coherent sentences, and makes me giggle every time you coo. And it's just so great that you're old enough now that you can giggle with me.

Love,
Momma


Taking a walk


Look how strong you are!


Roly Poly and hand sucking, multi-tasking!


Roly Poly


First time to suck face with a moose.


Hippo boy, just after bath time.


Easter Family


Easter yawn.


Reading with Daddy.


Arboretum


Arboretum

Hoppy Easter!

Colin's first visit with the Easter Bunny. He was a very good boy!

Smiley Face

"These are my hands."


"What was that bright light?"


"Momma has the camera again!"


"Momma's silly!"


"Wait, wait. Let me pose."


"Aren't I cute?"

A few Photos

We had a big weekend this past weekend and I'll post more on that later in the week. For now I wanted to share some of the photos I've taken in the past couple of weeks.


Nap time


This was the first time that Colin put a toy in his mouth. He pulled it towards him and started sucking on it.


Momma's lap is his favorite seat!


How you doin'?


MORE pictures?

Momma Smiles

This is a little bit of a longer video, and you have to wait until the end to really get the goods, but it's so worth it!

Tummy Time!

You're Getting Sleepy....

You would never know that about 20 seconds before I started taking this video he was SCREAMING mad. I love that swing.

Chatty Colin

Bath Time Video!

Baker Update

Last week I had a cold and by the end of the week, just as I was feeling better, Brad got it. We think Colin may have had a mild form of it, he had a little runny nose and a slight cough, but never ran a fever nor was he overly fussy.

He's been doing really well on his tummy time and actually had me fooled for a bit one day, I just KNEW he was about to roll over for the first time, I even had the camcorder going, but alas he didn't do it. He's been out growing clothes left and right, he's getting so big! He's still doing a great job on his sleeping still, sleeping anywhere from 6-9 hours at the initial stretch and then 3-4 hours the second stretch, which is usually about when we get up. He usually goes to bed right around 7:30 and is up every morning around 7:30.

He seems to like our routine too, we wake up and have some play time for a little bit, including tummy time, then he's a good boy and sits in his swing, or on his play mat, or in his bouncy chair while momma eats breakfast and gets him some more food. Then he takes a bath and gets dressed for the day and then we sit down and he eats a bottle, which will put him to sleep for a little while, letting momma get some things done, and sometimes sleeps long enough for me to eat lunch. Then he wakes up and eats another bottle and we have a good long play time. We read a book in the afternoons, sometimes two, and if the weather is nice we'll go out or go for a walk around the block. He'll take cat naps in the afternoon, but is pretty much awake from that point until bed time at 7:30.

Now that Colin is 3 1/2 months old I'd like to start teaching him sign language. I know three so far: milk, eat, and more. A friend of ours who is studying child development in school (Erin) suggested a book for us to use. She said a baby can have a sign language vocabulary of up to 100 words by the time they are 1 year old and that Colin is the perfect age to start teaching him. So, I'm going to try and get the book this week. I'll keep you all posted on his progress.

He's also doing really well with his head, he is no longer a bobble head. He can also now sit up in his Bumbo chair with no support from me. He's cooing and smiling away these days.

As for Brad and I, were doing pretty well. We are still doing Jenny Craig and he's now lost 11 pounds and I've lost 13 1/2 after 8 weeks. We've joined a gym and have been doing really well. I'm very proud of him.

The house is almost complete! They are done with the kitchen, guest room and down stairs bath, finally. They should be coming back in the next 2 weeks to turn the butler area into a wet bar and put in a new counter top and cabinets to match the new kitchen. We also plan to replace the front door and windows next. All I can say is it is so nice to live in a clean house and not worry about workers coming in and out every day! As soon as everything is complete, I'll have pictures up for you all. I may even do a video. And of course we'll have a party for everyone to come and see!

That's all I have on the Bakers for now. I'm going to be posting a video everyday this week. I've got a lot of them stored up that I've been taking over the past few weeks that I'd like to share. So check back often!