Aunt Lisa's Birthday

Yesterday was Aunt Lisa's birthday. Collin and met the family at Olive Garden for lunch to celebrate. Afterwards, we went back to Lisa's house to play Rock Band with cousin Dustin. Collin had fun listening to use try to play the guitar, sing and play the drums. He was doing tummy time for some of this and did not fuss at all because he was so distracted. Good distraction, huh? hehe

Speaking of tummy time, Collin is really using his arms and hands now. Within less than 10 minutes of putting him on his tummy, he scoots around to more than 45 degrees from the position he started in. He is not turning over much these days without a reminder of how to do it.

He is "talking" more and does this much more in the mornings than any other time. He even screams sometimes. I was hoping we could skip this phase.

Sucking on his fingers, wrist and anything else he can put into his mouth is a priority these days. If he gets your fingers, he will try to put these in his mouth too. We used to think this was cute but try not to let him do this right now because he has thrush again. Yep, that's right. The thrush came back so I am back to sanitizing everything he touches everyday. This also killed any milk supply I had left so Collin is on 100% bottles these days.

He is trying to sit up on his own more and more recently. If is lying in our laps, he does crunches to try and sit up and see what is going on. Last night, he sat up in dad's lap unassisted for a moment before falling backwards but it sure did seem like a long time to us.

He is still not sleeping through the night even though he is eating more which includes rice cereal around the 7:30pm eating time. He will sleep for a 4 hour period which is better than nothing. Our schedule is different everyday though right now because of the holidays so I am hoping this is one of the reasons for him not sleeping as good. I am back to work this week so that should help get him back on a schedule. I hope this works.....

Happy New Year's Eve....be safe tonight.

Merry Christmas!

Collin opened his presents this morning after he had some breakfast. He did not care too much about what was inside the bags or under the paper...but he sure did like the wrapping. He would crinkle it and then put it in his mouth (no, I did not let him eat any of it). I had a hard time getting him to open the next present because he was focused on the wrapping paper. Daddy and I got a big laugh out of this. It was a lot of fun to watch him investigate the paper and then put it in his mouth. Of course, he had to slap and hit it since that is his thing to do these days. He did do a better job of helping open the presents than I thought he would. Having him sit in his chair really helped.

The Man with the Beard

On Monday, I took Collin to see Santa at the bike shop. He was not too interested in Santa or what he represented but he sure was interested in tasting Santa's beard. Collin is in that stage of putting everything in his mouth that he can get in his hands. Santa's beard was no exception Monday. He did manage to stick a few strands of the beard in is mouth a little and then make the funniest face that said, "yuck, what did I just put in there". But, he kept trying to eat the beard no matter what it tasted like. Santa kept moving him around and Collin still managed to find his beard. I was proud to see that Collin did not cry and was very happy to be held by a stranger (well, not a stranger because he works at the bike shop).

That night, we went over to some friend's house for dinner. Collin was a hit because he was in a really good mood, laughing and constantly smiling. We thought that would have worn him out and he would have slept most of the night, but he fooled us. I even gave him a tbsp of rice cereal for dinner but he still woke up hungry around 11pm and then again at 5am. We have a growing boy on our hands for sure. Maybe he was waiting up for the man with the beard.

Mommy! There is another baby in the house!

This evening during tummy time, Collin noticed himself in the mirror for the first time. He was starting to get a little grouchy until he turned his head and saw "the other baby". He stopped whining and just starred. I watched his eyes move up, down and around checking his reflection out. Pappy came over and tried to get him to turn over on his back. Collin was too busy looking in the mirror.

Most of the day, Collin was grouchy still from his shots Thursday. This is what he did after his 2 month shots so this might be typical for him. I finally got him to take a nap around 2:30pm for about 1 1/2 hours. He was a little better when he woke up which is when I put him on his tummy.

Matthew and Collin Update

Remember Matthew? He is Collin's buddy. I introduced you to him about 3 months ago. Matthew's mom and I met in 1980 (Maria, is that really right? Geez). We met his parents for dinner this past Sunday night to see what another sleep-deprived couple looks like and to exchange stories. The little guys let us eat most of our meal before they wanted to go home. What's new...not finishing a warm meal. I am used to that now days.

Here is Matthew and Collin when Collin was 4 weeks and 4 days.

Here are Matthew and Collin with their daddy's at dinner Sunday night. They have really changed, huh?

Updated Stats for Santa's Little Helper

Collin had his 4 month appointment today. He showed up in a Christmas outfit that Grandma Esch gave him and was the hit of the waiting room.

He now weighs 14lbs and 8 oz. He gained 5 lbs in 2 months. He was in the 25% of his age group on weight and now he is in the 50% group. No wonder he is wearing me out trying to keep him full!!! I KNEW he was a hungry boy. He is 24 3/4 inches long (still in the 25% of his group) and his head circumference is now 16 1/2 inches which is 50% of his group. He also got his second round of shots. There sure is nothing wrong with his lungs. I think that was the loudest I have ever heard him cry. He seems like he is feeling OK this afternoon after all of that.

The "vet" did say that he can start on a tsp of rice cereal tomorrow. If he does not have an allergic reaction to it by tomorrow night, then we can increase the serving to 2 tsp the next day until we reach 4 tsp a day. She only wants us to do this once a day mainly to see if he seems satisfied from being hungry late at night/early in the morning and to get him used to using a spoon for when he does start other solids in about 2 months. I sure do hope that this will help him sleep through the night longer than he does right now...although, he slept over 6 hours last night. His first ever....at least that I can remember. Mommy brain has truly set in these days.

Updated Stats - Wild Guess Anyone?

Thursday morning is Collin's 4 month check up. I cannot believe that he will already be 4 months this Thursday. He will be getting his next round of shots, weight and height update. I am guessing that he will weigh at least 14 lbs and 5 oz and be 24 1/2 inches long. Just a guess since I have not weighed him in about 4 weeks now. I plan to let the doc (I have been calling her the vet...I am still not used to having a pediatrician) know how much Collin is eating lately to see if she thinks that we can start giving him some cereal at least. Since he is still waking up in the middle of the night at drinking up to 5 oz at a time sometimes, I don't know if he is getting enough to eat during the day. You cannot feed him more than what he wants though. He pushes out the bottle nipple with his tongue and turns his head away. If you keep trying, he will even start to kick a little. So, I am crossing my fingers that he is ready for solid food so maybe he will sleep longer at night.

Can I Taste It?

Collin is in the stage of putting everything that he gets in his hand into his mouth. He especially likes one of his burp rags that has now turned into his comfort blanket that we use to sooth him to sleep. Because he is into "tasting" everything, he slobbers and drools a lot these days. He even enjoys blowing bubbles. He was doing that in this picture but, of course, stopped when I tried to capture it. He got bored with his activity gym so I put him in his chair which he really likes....at least this week. If I have learned one thing about raising a baby, what works one day, or hour, might not work the next day or hour. hahaha

Santa's Little Helper

Last night, Collin supervised me wrapping Christmas presents. He really liked the crinkling noise the wrapping paper made. We discovered he liked this noise when Mimi was opening the mail this weekend and the "window" in the envelope made the crinkle sound. Collin, who was crying before the noise because he got bored with what he was doing, stopped crying. Mimi made the noise again and Collin turned toward her direction. She gave him the envelope and he studied it and started to smash it and make the noise himself. He laughed a few times when he did it and made the noise. Speaking of laughing, we have noticed that he will laugh a few times during his sleep. He is not awake when he does this. It's SO cute, he will laugh and then smile.

Standing, Sorta

Daddy has figured out that Collin LOVES it when daddy holds him up enough for Collin to stand up on his legs. He gets the great be smile on his face, giggles and even blows bubbles sometimes. Collin gets a kick out if when daddy rolls him backwards then around to the front like Keanu in The Matrix. Anything active and Collin loves it. I think we are going to have our hands full when he gets older.

I have noticed that Collin might have a little temper when he does not get his way. I hope that is not what it is but it sure seems like it. For instance, if we are not paying attention to him, he starts to fuss so we will at least look at him. Also, if he is hungry and we pull the bottle out of his mouth to burp him, he throws a fit until we put the bottle back in (he's been doing this tantrum action for a while actually). At night, when I am reading him books, he lets me know he is through by kicking his legs and hitting the book with his arm. If I don't quit, he keeps on doing it more. He stops only when I put the book down. Is this the Leo coming out? Great....

Tuesday's with Chris(Daddy)

It was a great day, we started early with a trip to starbucks. Then we came home so Collin could take a nap and then eat before we ventured out to meet Laura for her Birthday Lunch. We met for lumch at the same place I told her we were pregnant 1 year ago today. Of course we told Collin all about the signifigance of the place. He seemed to be interested who knows what he thinks. I spent alot of time watching Collin today and talking to him. I would really like to know what is going on in his head. I really like when he smiles at me and hope it is not just Gas like Grandma H says.
After lunch we met a friend of mine in the woodlands and I fed collin in public. I really like doing this because I get the strangest looks and it really throws the soccer moms for a loop to seeing me do it. A couple of them talked to me as if I were one of them and were amazed at how skilled I was in the art of public feeding with no mess. So we talked a little about our kids and I think they thought I was a stay at home dad. I had to step away from the table for a few seconds and asked my friend Mike to watch Collin for me and it was funny the look of fear he had in his face. I probably had that same look when Tom used to do that to me with his kids.
All in all it was another great day with my son. I am already looking forward to next Tuesday. Not sure where the day will lead us but I know it will be great. Collin is a good running buddy.

Family Day

Yesterday, Daddy had off work so we had Family Day together. What a treat! In the morning, both the boys took a much needed nap. Collin could have taken a longer one (he only slept 2o minutes) because he was up about 5 times that night (really just checking to see that we were still there). We ran errands once the stores opened. One errand was to FINALLY get a little baby chair for Collin to sit in. Other friends have it and say that it's great to help teach Collin to sit up on his own and to develop those muscles. When we got home and I put him in the chair, I thought he would be ready to get out after 5 minutes or so. He stayed in there for over 20 minutes sucking on his hands (his almost hourly thing to do these days) and playing with his rattle that Mimi got him.

Daddy also got the Christmas decorations out. I at least wanted to put up the tree this year so we could get some good pictures of Collin's first Christmas. Plus, I will admit, I needed to have a tree up. I spent about 20 minutes putting the ornaments on the tree while both of the boys provided support by watching TV nearby (see pictures).

Rolling Over

Collin has been consistently rolling over from his belly to his left side and then all the way to his back in the last week. During tummy time, he rarely stays on his tummy these days. He can hold his head up 90 degrees and looks around when he does. He does not fuss immediately either when he is put on his tummy. He likes this for about 15 minutes and then he is ready for a change.


Week 2 of work is going well. I still forget little things like my watch, earrings or cash for lunch. I hope one day I will remember to bring everything. Hey, I have not forgotten Collin, to pack his bag for the day, make sure that he has milk while I am away, bring the pump to work with all of the necessary supplies, or my laptop. Those are a BIG deal if I forget any of these.


Here is a picture of Collin and mommy this morning before I left for work. Happy baby isn't he?

Social Hour

This morning, Collin and I met Terry and her little girl, Melia, for a walk around Rice University. Melia is 2 1/2 months older than Collin. Terry and I know each other from many road rides together. Anyway, the walk was really nice around the campus. It was hard to believe that we were that close to downtown because it was really quiet and peaceful. Collin enjoyed looking around. After the walk, we wanted to weigh the kids and get some "momma" supplies so we went to A Women's Work. With clothes, Collin weighed 13 lbs and 11 oz. If I guesstimate that his clothes were at least 9 oz, then he has probably gained a pound in 2 weeks. Some growth spurt, huh?

While I was at A Women's Work, Michelle and her son, Brady, came in to get a sling. We had not seen her in awhile so it was good to see her. Then, when Terry and I were feeding our babies, Nathan came in with Addison to weigh her. Who knows...if I stayed all day there how many other people Collin and I know would have come in. It was fun to see everyone today. I felt like Chris when he is out on the town and usually runs into someone he knows.