"but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” joshua 24:15
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are…
Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect Tomorrow.
One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in my pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return.
Henry used to hate being on his tummy but over the past couple of months you can find him like this just hanging out for a while before he's had enough. Rouge also enjoys checking in on him in between doing doggy things. Henry will pull his knees up under him and can scoot himself around on his stomach in a full circle in under 5 minutes. He just has to figure out those arms and I think he'll enjoy it a lot more. I'm so proud of my little boy!
Every year around mid August, we spend a week at Emerald Isle with my family and extended family. We look forward to this week with so much anticipation and all year long you can overhear us saying to each other "I can't wait til we're at the beach!" This was our first year vacationing with a baby and it wasn't all that bad. Basically we did our same routine we do here just in a different town. Henry really liked the water in the ocean and in our backyard pool! He stayed true to his sleep and nap schedule and we were very thankful. It was SO nice getting to reconnect with everyone!
You are 26.5 inches long and weigh 16 pounds and 11 ounces as of 2 weeks ago. You wear mostly 6 month clothing and a size 2 diaper, but you'll be moving to size 3 soon. We'll know your four month 'stats' at your next well check up in late August. You love to check out your surroundings these days and I can usually find you staring at the ceiling fan (and then giving it a smile!) or looking at the toy in your hands. You grab objects with both hands when I hold them in front of you. You also grasp with one hand if I hand you something from the front seat when we're on a drive.
You light up when I sing, "How Much is that Doggy in the Window?" or "Bushel and a Peck". And if you are fretful singing these songs will usually calm you down. Some days you get in a certain mood where you only want to be held and we walk around the house and sing. Just a little phase you're in right now!
You still enjoy books a lot. You like when we read to you and you love to put your hands out and touch the pages. You will point at the pictures and stare at them. You enjoy pages that are made of soft cloth so you can grasp them and turn the pages on your own. One of your favorite past times is to sit in your chair and look at the pages of your cow book. You love to be read to anywhere- whether its sitting in my lap or reading before bed. You love the books 'Chicka Chicka Boom Boom', 'On the Night You were Born', anything by Sandra Boynton, 'Gossie & Gertie', and the list goes on... you adore books! I have a hard time going to the book store with you because every time I take one off the shelf to look at it you stick your hands out and get really excited! We enjoy reading to you and we're so glad your mind is soaking in all these books! You love to smile! You have the sweetest grin I've ever seen! You will smile at us so much and we love it! Your laugh is so sweet. Its a deep, husky chuckle. We have to work hard to make you laugh, but its worth it! But ever since yesterday you can't stop laughing at a lot of things around you.
Your hair is slowly turning really light blond! We're talking platinum just like when your Mommy was little! Underneath your light brown hair is a whole head of it! On your left side, you've lost a lot of the brown hair and the blond is coming in nicely. You still have SO much hair! You love the words/phrases goosey, zoom, la la la, ahhh goo la, boo, and peekaboo. You still enjoy smacking your lips. Sometimes I can hear you smacking them in the backseat when we're on a drive and it warms my heart. You enjoy your mirror that lights up and plays music when we're in the car. I can often hear you talking to the mirror and you get really excited! You are an easy, happy baby that we enjoy taking out with us to all sorts of fun places. You don't scream and squeal loudly all the time like some other babies do! You love to hold my fingers and study my hands. All you want to do these days is pull yourself up to sit. You are excelling at holding your head up. Your head control is very good and steady. You don't prefer to turn your head one way or the other like you used to you can use both sides evenly. There are times where you only want to sit up and look at everything around you. You rarely let us hold you like a little baby anymore (which I miss!) because you want to be held upright so you can explore everything! You do extremely well with sleeping. You sleep 9-11 hours straight at night and take a long morning nap directly after your first bottle of the day. An hour or so after each feeding, you will take a 30-45 minute nap. You eat 5 oz. six times a day. We're looking forward to seeing if you'll enjoy starting a bit of rice cereal one of these days when you're ready!
You love your stroller and look at everything we pass. You love to go on walks! You like your Bumbo seat for short periods of time and you still love your chair. You enjoy your activity mat and also laying on a blanket on the floor and playing with your toys. You've started teething and so you primarily play with wooden toys and teethers now. There's a little tooth starting to come in on the bottom left center of your gum. The real teething hasn't started fully yet, but we're armed and ready when it does!
You are staring at Rouge a lot now and enjoy watching her play with her toys on the floor. You have started reaching out to try and touch her (which ultimately will result in a tight grab and pull!) but you both still aren't quite sure what to do with one another. You enjoy kicking and using your legs. You like to put weight on your feet when we hold you up, but you still prefer to sit up on our lap.
Yes, he's adorable. But the best part about this picture is what y'all can't see. The fact that the washing machine was running about 15 feet away, Caleb was emptying out trash cans throughout the house, and Rouge was running like a wild dog from one side of the room to the other. :)
Henry, today you are three months old! I can hardly believe it! You're growing up so fast (too fast for your Mama!) and discovering new things around you all the time.
At your two month appointment you were already at a 6 month height (25 inches) and its obvious you are even taller now when the stack of clothes you've outgrown keeps getting taller itself! You wear only a few 3 month outfits and you're in 3-6 month clothes and can easily wear 6 month clothing as well because you're a tall boy! Your Grandmother has already moved down a lot of buttons on your 3 month and 6 month jon jons to fit you! You are fascinated with your hands. You will hold them up a couple of inches in front of your face and wiggle your fingers. It kind of looks like the hand motions to "The Itsy Bitsy Spider", which you enjoy watching me sing and do the motions. Other songs you love are 'How much is that doggie in the window', 'The Farmer and the Dale', 'Good morning to you', 'The Little Green Frog', and 'My God is so Big'. You enjoy books A LOT. You get so excited whenever we read to you and you love to look at the pictures. And I'm not kidding when I say this, but you have even been known to turn the pages for your Daddy and I! I need to get this on video to prove it. We love that you already love reading as much as we do! You smile at us all the time it is precious! You have laughed several times (and when you do its big) but you make us work for a good laugh. Your smiles are huge. You have started sucking in your bottom lip and smacking. Its too cute!
You are your Daddy's son of course, but you really resemble your Mommy's face in so many ways at this age. It's like looking in a mirror when we look at baby pictures of your Mommy. But we also see a lot of your Daddy in you too! You "talk" to us so much! We love to hear all that you have to say! You make all sorts of sounds and expressions. Its obvious you enjoy being able to talk back and forth with anyone who will listen. You give the biggest smiles when we make funny sounds with our words: zoo, zipper, vroom, zoom, coocoocachoo, achoo, goosey, and peekaboo just to name a few.
You do not like to stop eating to be burped. You will scream and cry! But are easily distracted and will calm down (some of the time!) This is about the only time you cry for us. You are content most of the time unless you need something or want someone to talk to you. You love to hold Mommy's finger any time. You will grasp anything we put in front of you. Its so fun to watch you discovering your own hands and arms and that you can use them to hold toys or your paci. You will bring what you are holding to your mouth most of the time after you inspect it. You hold your head up more steadily when I carry you around, but you still love to nestle your head on my shoulder and I hope you never stop doing that for a long, long time! You roll from back to side and side to tummy. You hate tummy time after a couple of minutes, but I can really see you working hard at holding up your head. We believe in you! When you're in our arms or your car seat you will pull your whole body up. You're strong!
You started a bedtime routine almost a month ago and are doing really well with it! You don't even fuss when we turn the lights out! You've always amazed us with how long you will sleep. Lately, you've been sleeping 8-10 hours at a time and then go down for a long morning nap shortly after that. You will nap throughout the rest of the day in 30-40 minute intervals usually one hour after the last feeding you had. You also rub your eyes when you are sleepy. You still enjoy your stroller and we've taken lots of trips to the mall to get out of the house and to stay out of the heat. You have begun to notice everything we pass. I love watching you take it all in. Recently, you've made it through a couple of trips to Target without fussing! You let me get my shopping done for 30 minutes a couple of weeks ago and you weren't asleep! We hang out with Emma Grace and Ashlee, Grandmother and Granddaddy, and Rebecca and Emily a lot. You've started staring at Rouge more (who is always hearing 'back' or 'no' for trying to lick your little toes) and we know you will become fast friends. Especially when you start sitting in a high chair and throwing food on the floor one day down the road! You are kicking anything you can. And lift your legs up all the time. I think you are going to discover your feet pretty soon. I had a time keeping the camera out of Henry's sight so his head got cut off a bit in the beginning.
Every year for the 4th, we venture out to hear the North Carolina Symphony and enjoy the fireworks afterwards! This was Henry's first Independence Day and we were so excited to take him along! He did really well and just took it all in. He was so fascinated with everything around him. Caleb and I watched the fireworks on our looooong walk back to the car while Henry slept in his bassinet and reminisced about the past years we had enjoyed the fireworks together. All in all it was a great way to celebrate our wonderful country and we are so thankful to all those who made sacrifices for our freedom!!
We started doing a nighttime routine with Henry about two weeks ago. He's always been a great sleeper at night since he was born and having a routine has worked very well for him (and us) too! So thankful for our sweet little man- and a sweet Daddy to Henry!
Hi out there...it's Lou Ellen! I'm blessed to have recently married the man of my dreams, Caleb. :) We are enjoying life and keeping busy! I work from home making hair bows and other fun things for my business loozieloo and absolutely love it! I love having the freedom to make my own schedule and be as creative as I want with what I do. Caleb works in Raleigh as a Senior Web Developer for an amazing company. We met through a college ministry called Campus Crusade for Christ and fell in love. God has blessed us immensely and we want to give back in as many ways as we can. I'm just getting into blogging and hope to stick with it...we'll see!!
