4 Months Old!!!

My baby boy is 4 months old!!! Seriously, when did that happen? It seems like April was just yesterday. Now it's almost September! And my little man is getting so big:


A bunch of people have said he is starting to look less like a baby and more like a little boy. I couldn't agree more! Nick and I watched some videos from the hospital recently, and it's amazing how much he's changed!

His personality is coming out more and more. He definitely found his voice in the past month and likes to make himself known! He's developed quite the "happy scream", and loves to talk and blow raspberries with his mouth.

Talking away

He's also started to give me kisses (a.k.a. rubbing his open mouth on my cheek), which absolutely melts my heart. He also loves to hold my hand, or my finger, rather, and often falls asleep clinging to my finger.

He absolutely loves to stand, and if he's fussy, it's an immediate fix. He smiles all the time and has started to giggle more and more (see this video) and during his well baby check-up today, the nurse had him laughing so hard...until he got his shots.

He, of course, had just fallen asleep on me in the waiting room when they called us back for his shots. He was still asleep when I put him down, but the 4 year old on the next table screamed when she got her shots, so he woke up crying and then it just got worse when they stuck him. He clung so hard to my hands and his eyes got so wide...it was heartbreaking. Last time, I managed to hold it together, but I definitely got a little teary-eyed this time. Thankfully, he calmed down pretty much as soon as I picked him up. He passed out in the car on the way home and I ended up putting him in his crib still in his carseat so he could get some rest.

Otherwise, he's doing great! He's now 14 pounds, 12 oz (has gained exactly 8 lbs since birth, woo!), which is in the 50th percentile. His head is 40.8 centimeters, which is in the 10-25th percentile. He's also 25.5 inches long, which is in the 75th percentile. Looks like we're gonna have a tall one on our hands! Which would explain why I had to retire some of his 3-6 month PJs. The pair I tried on him last night looked like capris! So he's now in 6 month PJs and shorts, but 3-6 month clothes otherwise. He's also almost out of size 2 diapers, crazy!

On a good night (when he's not too distracted to eat during the day), he'll only wake up once, which makes for a very happy mommy. And during the day, he now eats every 4 hours, which means he's up for 2 hours at a time between naps! I've pretty much had to come up with ways to entertain him now.

He's also totally on track developmentally:
- Has steady head control
- Rolls front to back (see this picture)
- Reaches and grasps at objects
- Bears some weight when held in standing position (LOVES to stand!)
- Laughing and smile (see above)
- Continuing to coo
- Turns towards voices
- Brings hands together
- Lifts chest off ground when lying prone

Doing lots of push-ups

He also loves to talk to and flirt with "the baby in the mirror".


I've been able to leave him a few times with babysitters, which has been awesome. Unfortunately though, he goes on a hunger strike while I'm gone, but is otherwise totally happy. He also spent his first Sunday in the church nursery, although I was in there with him. He did pretty well, but I think it would be easier when he can sit up, because I kind of had to juggle him and the other kids.

Oh, and he is now in his own room in his crib! We moved him a few weeks ago, since he was getting to big for his bassinet and it was getting difficult to make sure he stayed asleep in our room. Plus, his 7am wake-up call (it's his favorite time of the day) was a little loud.

I think I've sufficiently covered all aspects of his life, and he's asleep for the night, so this mommy is going to bed!

If you want to see more pictures & videos from all 4 months of his life so far, click here: Eli

Excuses

My goodness, I have been a terrible blogger! It has been almost a month! In my defense, we had a crazy thunderstorm about 2 weeks ago and, as a result, we had a power surge in our office & our wireless router died. So I just fixed our wireless this past week.

Ranger School didn't end up happening, which was a big relief for me. But, Nick is currently at a different school that is a month long. We're over halfway through (WOOHOO!), but he has to stay at the "compound" (despite the fact that it's about 20 minutes from our house) and we've only seen him a few hours here and there. So, I've pretty much been acting like a single parent while Nick has been gone. And so, what little free time I've had has mostly been spent sleeping or attempting to get some me time.

Otherwise, there's not a whole lot going on. Definitely looking forward to September, which will bring beginning preparations for moving and a trip home to California for TWO WHOLE WEEKS! Can't wait!

I will (hopefully) do a 4 month update on Eli tomorrow with lots of pictures and all of his growth stats since he has a doctor's appointment tomorrow

The Drop Off

Well, I dropped Nick off at Ranger School this morning. Oh joy. Honestly, I'm doing pretty well so far. Neither of us really think he'll be in longer than a week or two with the way things have been going with overcrowding. One can only hope, right?

I'm definitely not the stress case I was a month ago about this whole situation. Part of that is because Eli is a bit more predictable. That's not to say we don't have crazy days (cough, yesterday, cough), but overall, I feel like I can handle it, and God has given me an incredible peace about everything, like one of my favorite Bible verses says:

do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7

I'll definitely be surprised if he goes the whole two months (or more), but it could be 2 days (fingers crossed), two months, 6 months...who knows. Obviously I'd rather have him gone for a short period of time but, at this point, I'm just ready to be done with all this, one way or the other. And if he's in for a long time, I know I have a bunch of family who wants to visit, and some awesome friends who will help me get through it and give me some mommy breaks. I even have a dinner invitation tonight. So, I know we'll get through it. Just pray that whatever happens, Nick would either get through it all, or not be there for very long. Because I'd hate for him to get through all of this first week (which is the hardest), just to be out later.

3 Months Old!

My little man is 3 months old! I can't believe it! It seemed like just yesterday that he looked like this:

On his birthday

And, now he looks like this:

It's been a big month for Eli! He surprised us by rolling over on June 25th and now likes to do it all the time during his tummy time. I can barely get him to stay on his tummy. The other day, after not doing it for about a week, he proceeded to roll over 6 times!

Rolling over

He also looks like he really wants to crawl, but isn't quite strong enough to lift up his belly. Nick likes to say he has the mechanics down, but just doesn't have the strength yet. He's still jabbering away with baby talk and will give us a good laugh every once in awhile, or a cute little squeal. Pretty much his favorite place in the world is his changing table, and he will always give us a good smile at the very least. He absolutely loves the bath and has started splashing like crazy with his feet. Today he also started enjoying the "Where's Eli?" game, and I even got a good laugh out of him.

He has starting grabbing and holding on to toys, and his favorite are his keys, which he really enjoys shaking. He has started entertaining himself in his bassinet, especially in the morning. His favorite time of day is about 7am, and he wakes up and starts cooing and squealing with joy until we come pick him up. He can even put himself back to sleep when he wakes up too early for his liking from a nap. He just started sucking his thumb, and thoroughly enjoys munching on his hands when his binkie falls out, which helps him fall asleep on his own (yay!). He has also slept as long as 6 hours at night-last night, in fact.

Mmm, tasty hands

He has started teething a little bit, which hasn't been much fun. Thankfully, he only had a few really bad days, and is mostly just drooling and enjoying eating my fingers.

He's wearing some 3-6 month clothes, although he mostly wears 0-3 month. He also fits in a few 6-9 month shorts, which is crazy, and just moved up to size 2 diapers.

He's totally mastered holding his head up, which means we got to use his Bumbo chair:

Yay for sitting up!

I love my little family!

Working Out

In case you were wondering, I have officially stopped doing Couch to 5K for right now. I stopped when I got that infection a few weeks ago & it just got way too hot here to pick it back up.

There's just not enough time in the morning to walk the dogs and go for a run before the ridiculous humidity bears down at about 9am. It was just too stressful. And It's bad enough how gross I get just after the walk. I can't even imagine running.

The plan is to start back up running again in the fall once outside time isn't limited to a couple hours in the morning.

For now, I'm doing some 10 minute pilates and yoga workouts, mostly focusing on my abs since I had absolutely no strength left after having Eli. So far it's much more manageable with my limited schedule due to Eli and the crazy summer heat!

Sent from Court's iPhone

Up In the Air

So, in true Army fashion, the next couple of months are completely up in the air for us.

First off, Nick did not end up going to Ranger School at the end of June. They are extremely overcrowded, and they didn't let him in- can't say I wasn't happy about that! And Nick was glad that he had a bit more time to prepare because he's set to try again at the end of this month.

That being said, he probably won't be gone more than a week (it's supposed to be a 2 month course, but the first week is when they do the PT tests and stuff and eliminate as many people as they can). They are still extremely overcrowded, and if it's anything like the last few classes, they are letting less than 10% of guys at his rank through. It's pretty ridiculous.

So, option #1 (extremely unlikely)- Nick goes to Ranger School for 2 months (or more) and then we move.

Option #2 (this is what we're hoping for)- Nick goes to Ranger School for a week, then walks on to a month-long school instead. After which, we move.

Option #3- Nick goes through the first week of Ranger School, comes home, and they make us move as soon as possible.

So, as you can see, it all depends on that first week of Ranger School. It would be an extra perk for Nick's career if he did get to graduate from Ranger School, but thankfully, it's not a deal breaker if he doesn't. Especially since it's apparently extremely unlikely that he would be able to go through the whole school and graduate.

I would obviously prefer it if he wasn't gone for 2 months or more, and I'm getting antsy to get settled in Tennessee. So, please be praying for option #2.

We know that God is ultimately in control of the situation and already knows what's going to happen. It is a little nerve-racking though with all the possible scenarios, one of which is Nick being gone for 2 months.

Whatever happens, we will be moving eventually l, and we should be able to go home to California for a couple weeks after we get somewhat settled in Tennessee. I'll try to keep everyone updated on what happens!

Sent from Court's iPhone

4th of July

Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July weekend! Ours was pretty awesome and relaxing. And I guess the celebration of our wonderful country is still going because we just now realized that we have to watch Live Free or Die Hard! And, last night, we watched The Patriot, which just arrived on our Netflix. We were shocked that we made it all the way through in one night. That definitely hasn't happened for awhile in this house!

Happy Birthday America!

Seriously though, we had a great weekend and celebrated the foundation of our awesome country mostly on Saturday. Our neighbors had a BBQ that day and that was also when they shot off fireworks here on post. Eli made sure to wear his festive American flag bib.

We were lucky enough to be able to walk to where we could see the fireworks. We transferred Eli to his stroller and were just out the door when we thought we locked ourselves out of our house! Thankfully, I hadn't actually closed the back door like I thought I had, so we were able to get our keys without having to wait on maintenance to let us in. So, after all that excitement, Eli slept through the fireworks show completely. He didn't even flinch.

Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July as well! I'll hopefully be updating about all the other craziness that's been going on around here soon, but things might have to slow down a bit first.