Working on sitting...

Luke is starting to get very strong! He is holding his head up almost all the time now, and when we carry him against our shoulders he likes to hold his head up by himself and look around. He's working his abs really hard to get them ready to sit up by himself. Meanwhile, he's doing really well sitting with help from one of us. We'll either hold him by his sides, put a hand behind his lower back, or let him hold onto our fingers and pull himself into position and use them to steady himself.

He's also getting a lot more smiley... making funny faces at us while changing his diaper, and smiling with recognition when he wakes up and we get the day started, or when I pick him up from day care. It's really sweet to see that look on his face that he knows who we are!

Baby fun time!

Last night after Luke's bath, the three of us got out his playmat that we haven't really done much with yet. Now that he's getting older, he is starting to take more interest in things he can see and hear, like the mirror in the picture and the zebra with the rattle in it (you can see the zebra's tail next to Ryan's face). He's starting to learn how to shake his hand a little when we put a rattle on his wrist, and while he doesn't know how to grasp things and hold onto them, he seems more interested when I take his hand and help him touch different textures of toys. It's fun to watch him grow into a little learning and playing machine.

He's not really enjoying tummy time yet - mostly he just kind of lays there and buries his face in the playmat and screams. But it's important, so we make sure he can breathe and let him scream it out for a couple of minutes before we flip him back over. He recovers pretty quickly, and since he's already doing well at sitting up (with support of course) and holding his head up, I know it will be pretty soon that he's able to push himself up while he's on his tummy!

Two months old!

On Wednesday, Luke turned 2 months old! We celebrated - ha - by going to see Dr. Alberts for his 2 month checkup. He weighed in at 11 lbs 7 oz (up from 7 lb 11 oz back in July), was 24 inches long (he's grown 3 inches since he was born!) and his head circumference was 38.5 cm. Dr. Alberts said he looked happy and healthy, his sleeping and eating habits were good and normal, and she told us to keep doing what we're doing because he's doing great!

Luke also had to get his 2 month vaccines - an oral vaccine for Rotavirus, and 3 injections (Hep B, Hib and DTaP) which he was very unhappy about. I cried a little bit just from seeing him so upset! After the doctor, he had to go straight to day care and clueless parents that we are, we didn't have any baby Tylenol on hand to take with us. I ended up having to take half an hour in the afternoon to swing by HEB and pick up the Tylenol to deliver to the sitter, but he seemed to calm down when he saw me in the middle of the day. Since then, we've been keeping up with his Tylenol every four hours or so (except while he was sleeping!), and he had a bath last night to help relax him before bedtime. He seems to be feeling much better and slept really well last night.

This morning Luke saluted the Longhorns and wished them good luck in this year's hunt for the national title!

Dance, dance, dance

Luke was wide awake Sunday evening, so to wear him out a little bit I put some toys on his wrists and let him flail around in his crib for a few minutes.

The Sunday Morning Diaper Challenge

Sunday morning I got up and started getting Luke ready for church. Usually it's a pretty simple process - take off his cloth diaper, put him into a gDiaper, and get him dressed. But this time was quite a challenge. (What follows may be graphic to those who aren't parents, but will probably be funny to those who are...)

I took off his pajamas and found that his diaper was just barely wet. Not bad! So I loosened his diaper and started stuffing the insert into the gDiaper, when I heard a grunt. I looked down just as he let go of a big poop and a stream of pee flew into the air and landed back on the changing pad. Luckily I still had the diaper underneath him! I took the diaper out from under him and put a clean cloth diaper under him while I started cleaning him up, and he sprinkled the area two more times before I managed to get him covered and cleaned. I put the gDiaper on him and had almost gotten it fastened when I heard another grunt and he dirtied ANOTHER diaper. I took the gDiaper off, shook the insert into the trash can, stuffed another one in and managed to get it onto him this time. Luckily, he was completely empty by then so I didn't get sprinkled again.

All told, the changing table casualties were 2 cloth diapers, one diaper cover, a gDiaper insert, five wipes, and the changing pad cover. I hadn't put his clothes on for the day yet, so it was no big deal that the pajamas had to go into the hamper. Still, quite an exciting morning for changing a diaper!

Out and about

We had a long day out on Saturday! We started out with lunch at Titaya's Thai Cuisine, where Luke wanted out of his car seat so he could look at all the interesting decorations on the walls. After lunch, we headed up to IKEA in Round Rock, where we walked through the whole store without buying a single thing! Ryan and I checked out the bed frames, but Luke was more interested in all the bright lights. We wrapped up our big day with a trip to Grapevine Market in Round Rock for a wine tasting, where Luke finally started to get fussy (probably because he can't hold a wine glass yet). It was hard to get him to fall asleep Saturday night, but when he finally did, he slept for nearly nine hours! Whew!

The critic

Ryan has been working very hard on his podcast (it's up now at his website, Speak Podcast) and Luke decided he would help Ryan out. We may have to spring for some baby-sized headphones, but I think I see a successful producing career in his future. (Just like Mommy!)