Well, Theo’s big accomplishment this week is learning how to roll over in his sleep. These days, the mantra for sleeping is "back is best"—supposedly on the back is the safest way for babies to sleep to lessen the risk of SIDS. Which was all fine and dandy until this week, when Theo decided that he MUST be on his tummy, even while sleeping. He constantly tries to roll from back to tummy now—while on the floor, while in his stroller, while on the changing table, and now while sleeping. And he has become quite accomplished at it; it takes him only a couple seconds to flip over and push himself up on his forearms. (Needless to say, this makes changing his diaper an interesting challenge these days!) He even flipped onto his tummy on the bathroom floor and attempted to scoot away from me as I ran his bath. The image of his cute little naked bottom trying to wiggle away was adorable, so I grabbed the camera. Alas, I didn’t have time to fix the lighting settings on the camera before snapping the pix, so those pictures in the album are a little off on the coloring.

 

Anyway, the first night Theo kept flipping over at bedtime in his Pack and Play (where he's still sleeping at the moment), so Chris and I kept turning him back over. Theo would look at us, give an angry squawk, and then flip back over...and proceed to fuss and squall because he really doesn't like being on his tummy. (This is the odd part—he's determined to be on his tummy at all times, but then he fusses like crazy when he gets on it! And he can't flip himself back over very well yet, so he just gets all irate and we have to come rescue him.) We were rather nervous about the increased SIDS risk because when Theo was first born, we were told he was already at a slightly higher risk for SIDS, due to his neck vertebrae being twisted during his rough delivery. Supposedly that has since been corrected, but as you can imagine, it still makes us a bit nervous. (I should point out that the risk of SIDS is very, very minimal, so I’m probably just being ultra-paranoid here. But what can I say—I’m a worrywart!) So I did some research online and discovered that once your baby can roll over, all bets are off. If he wants to sleep on his tummy, really all you can do is make sure there are no blankets, sheets, toys, or anything else in the crib that he can bury his face in (until he’s a bit older). So, we have resigned ourselves to having a tummy-sleeper, and the last several nights have consisted of me getting woken up every couple hours when Theo fusses in his sleep because he doesn't like being on his tummy. I flip him onto his back without waking him, and within a couple minutes, he has flipped back onto his tummy...but at least he has usually fallen back into a deeper sleep and is no longer fussing...so I go back to sleep until the next round. He also somehow manages to rotate himself in his sleep and scoot around the Pack and Play, so I find him in all sorts of weird places when I wake up. There's only so far he can go in there, but he manages to get himself in every corner.

 

Needless to say, this has slowed down the transition to crib slightly. Theo got himself stuck in the crib again the other day, so I'm still not crazy about the idea of putting him in there at night. Partly because I don't want him to hurt himself, but partly because he seems to get into more predicaments in his crib, and that will mean more wake-up calls for me in the middle of the night to free the little booger from whatever scrape he has gotten himself into! And so, the Pack and Play continues its duty as the bed. And I long for the day that Theo can flip himself back over in his sleep so I can get more than two hours of sleep at a time!

 

So, on the rolling topic...question for other mamas or papas. It seems that most people’s kids start crawling around 7 or 8 months or thereabouts. However, Theo is already trying desperately to do it. He gets on his tummy and tries to scoot and pulls his knees up under him and tries to push off the floor with his feet. He’s not even quite five months old yet. So, I’m wondering, do they generally start “trying” to crawl this early, and then it just takes a few months for them to get it...or should I be expecting him to start doing it in the near future, do you think? Just curious what we might be in for. Of course all kids are different, but I can’t figure out whether he’s starting this a bit early, or whether it’s normal for kids to spend several months working up to it from when they start pushing off with their feet, trying to scoot, etc.

 

All in all, it has been a pretty good week for Theo. He's been quite fussy a few times, but I think it's teething. It's usually accompanied by much drooling, inserting of an entire fist in his mouth, and ear-pulling.

 

Theo got a couple visits with Grandma Diane this week: We met up with her Wednesday for lunch and a bit of a furniture-scouting mission (more on that in a moment), and she came along on Friday when I got a haircut, so she could watch Theo, and then we went to lunch. On a side note, I think Theo is making connections about food. I could be wrong on this, as I'm not sure how likely it is that a baby would put two and two together about this, but at lunch on Friday, Theo was sitting on my lap while I ate a tuna sandwich. He kept looking at my sandwich, and then turning his head to stare right at my chest and root a bit, making some sort of baby babble along the way. Do babies smell our food and equate that with their food, I wonder? Not sure. All I know is that the boy leaves no question about when he's interested in eating, so I'm quite sure he thought he ought to be eating too (despite the fact that he had just eaten—little glutton!!).

 

Thursday we joined Janeane and Emma for a stroll at the mall. It has been hot, hot, hot in Sacramento this week...much too hot to walk outside. We live about 10 minutes from a nice, big mall, so that makes for good strolling on the days when it's just too bloody hot to get outside. Theo gave me a big smile when I asked him if he wanted to go see his buddy Emma, and Emma seemed quite pleased to see "Baby Beo!"  Alas, Baby Beo was a bit fussy at the mall, but luckily, the mall is usually filled with stroller-pushing moms at that time of day, so I figured they've all been there too, and he probably wasn't bugging anyone.

 

Thursday night, Chris and I took the plunge and bought a new TV and a couple new furniture items. The new TV, as you may recall, was to be Chris's M.A. graduation present to himself. Then he hemmed and hawed and decided he didn't really need one, so we decided we wouldn't do it. But then his parents gave him a very nice graduation present in the form of some money toward said TV, so we decided to go ahead and do it. So, our new 32" flat-screen TV will be delivered next week. It was kind of a challenge to find the right size TV and a stand because our living room is quite small and with some odd space issues, but we also ended up finding a perfect TV stand in their clearance center, so we bought that, too. We were using a coffee table as a TV stand, but that makes the TV an enticing height for tiny hands that will soon be into everything! The new stand is about 3 feet tall, so it'll take Theo a while to be able to reach on top of it...and by then, hopefully he will be old enough to understand that the TV is a "don't touch" item. And, as long as we were paying for delivery, we also bought a desk that was on sale. Our den/office has become hopelessly crowded by Theo stuff. Since I work in there, it makes sense to have a baby swing and a few play items in there so Theo can amuse himself while I get some work done. But it makes for a VERY crowded room. So, I have downsized my giant desk for a much smaller one. My old one was also all open in the back, leaving many enticing cords and wires exposed. The new one is more solid, so I can tuck the cords behind it and hopefully keep them away from tiny hands!

 

Saturday Theo and I met Auntie Jeanette for coffee and then a stroll around a great discount store, Stupid Prices. (Weird name, but lots of good deals to be found there! I got a nice suede jacket for $17—originally $80! LOVE a bargain!) And Saturday afternoon, our friend Becky came over for a visit, which was a lot of fun.

 

Sunday we decided to take a day trip to some outlets about an hour from our house, which was sort of a flop. The weather finally cooled down, so it was nice to be out and able to walk around outside with Theo, but he was pretty cranky most of the day, so I can’t say it was overly relaxing. Ah well, c’est la vie.

 

Theo did do one absolutely adorable thing on Sunday that made up for the fussiness. We were driving home from the outlets, and we decided to stop in Davis for an early dinner. We suddenly heard Theo laughing in his car seat, so we looked back to discover that he was fast asleep...and giggling away in his sleep! It was so cute, and Chris got out the camera and managed to get a picture of him doing it (see this week’s album)! I wonder what he was dreaming about. Usually when he laughs out loud it’s at the dogs, so maybe he was dreaming about them? Not sure, but I thought it was incredibly endearing.

 

And tomorrow, Labor Day, we shall be laboring. We intend to clean out the closets in our house. We recently had our house reassessed and have discovered that we’ve lost a ton of money on it, just like everyone else in this area (and in a lot of the rest of the country, I’m sure). So, our “starter home” is likely to be our permanent home for quite some time, until we can dig out from under all this negative equity. And thus, we have resolved to make the most of our small space...thus reorganizing the den, cleaning the closets, etc. The good thing is, we love the house and the area, so at least we’re happily “stuck.” It’s going to get tight as we raise our family, but people make do with far less space, so it’ll all work out in the long run. If we have a second child someday, well...that’s what bunk beds are for, right?!

 

Happy week, all!

 

Theo is a rolling machine! Rolling is his main goal these days, and man, is he getting fast!! Last night I had him in the Pack and Play, changing his diaper, and I looked away for one second to grab the diaper next to him, and when I looked back, he had flipped from his back to his stomach and pushed himself up on his arms. He very much wants to scoot or "Army crawl," but he doesn't quite have the muscle strength/control yet. We're placing bets on when that will come. Chris says two weeks, I say three weeks, and Aunt Linda says a month. I think it will be here before I know it, and Chris and I will be scrambling to put up baby gates on our stairs!

 

We had a busy week, though much of it was with errands and such. We did fit in a few fun things, though. Monday Theo and I went to see Great-Grandma Ruth at the nursing home. Theo likes this very much, as his great-grandma is quite fond of telling him how handsome he is! Plus, he gets to see Grandma Diane, who also tells him he's a handsome boy, so he's all in his glory. He also likes to charm the CNAs and aides who work at the nursing home. My boy is such a ladies' man! Must've learned it from his father. 

 

Tuesday and Thursday we had boring doctor appointments (new glasses for me and such fun things), but Wednesday Theo and I went for a picnic at the park with Kim, Janeane, and Emma (pictures posted in the midweek album from earlier this week). I always like seeing Emma because she has such a vibrant little personality. I have a feeling that looking at her may be getting a bit of a glimpse at what Theo will be like in another year and a half. Emma is full of energy and definitely knows her own mind, and our four-month-old is showing signs that he will be much the same! And as usual, I hit Kim up for camera tips. She has the big brother to our camera--the Canon 40D--and so I pick her brain whenever possible to figure out tricks to do with ours. It's funny--I think becoming a mother has spurred me to take up something for myself (photography for fun). Obviously, like any parent, I give so much of myself to Theo...and finally taking the time to learn something new that I've always been interested in is sort of my way of keeping a little piece of independence for myself. Granted, my main subject of choice is Theo...but still, it feels good to do something just for me. No matter how much I love spending time with Theo and doing things with him, I really do enjoy this new little hobby I've taken up for myself. It's harmless fun, I suppose....

 

Friday we took a trip to the mall to get Chris a new phone because, as he says, "it got washed." (In reality, Chris washed it, but he doesn't like to admit that he has laundered--and thus ruined--two cells phones in less than five months, so instead of admitting that he washed it, he says "it got washed." Harrumph. That makes it sound like the chief laundry-doer (which would be me!) made the gaff. Not so! I check pockets before doing laundry, unlike someone in this house! )

 

Saturday we trekked down to San Jose to see Grandma Kathy, Grandpa Tom, and co. Nicky, Tanya, and Steve came over, and Aunt Linda and Uncle Bill came by for dinner. I think all the hubbub was a bit much for Theo, who tends to get a little freaky around a lot of people. His alter-ego, Leon, made an appearance in the evening...probably a result of his being overtired and a wee bit overwhelmed! Nonetheless, it's always good to see everyone, and Theo did well for him. He lasted until after dinner before giving way to Leon.

 

Sunday Chris and I hit a used book sale on the way out of town, always in search of more cheap books for our book-selling side business. It was a gold mine! Hopefully the Amazon.com orders will come flooding in. Really, these sales are more fun than anything else, but we do usually net $50/month or so in profits, so that helps pay for my Starbucks addiction. (Starbucks uses vegan chocolate, so my soy mochas are non-dairy! Something yummy that I can still have--I love it!! )

 

I think the ride home was a bit long for Theo...Leon made another appearance Sunday night. But now he is finally sleeping and all is well...and so ends another week in the roller coaster that has become our lives. Thankfully, the highs are far outnumbering the lows now that feeding issues are sorted out. Our little boy is giving us so much pleasure these days, and that helps make the "Leon" times soooooo much easier.

 

Happy week, all! 

Well, I decided to download photos midweek, and I realized that I've been a picture-taking MACHINE this week. We're only halfway through the week, and I already have something like 150 pictures on the camera! So, I figured I'd post a midweek album, since I'll undoubtedly take a bunch more pictures in San Jose this weekend, and thus this week's album would get impossibly huge.

 

The reason for the vast number of pictures this week is that I've really been working to learn how to use our Canon dSLR. I've always wanted to learn more about photography, and I've been editing two photography books this week, so that kind of spurred me into action. So, you'll see a LOT of close-up shots of Theo...and finally one with the effect I've been working on (blurred background, sharp focal point)! It's a ridiculous picture of a baby bottle on a bird poop—covered bench at the park, but still...it shows the effect! As for all the close-ups...well, Theo is making lots of fun faces these days, so I was trying to capture some of them!

 

You'll also see a few shots of Theo's buddy, Emma. We had a picnic at the park with Janeane, Emma, and Kim, which made for some great photo ops. Mine are nothing compared to Kim's, though. She was able to get some awesome action shots of Emma, as well as a few cute ones of placid Theo. (For some reason, he was freakishly calm and not overly animated that morning, so not the greatest photo subject. But his calmness made for a nice morning for me!) Anyway, if you want to see Kim's great photos, click here.

 

More to come after our weekend trip to SJ!

The latest odd Theo development? He seems to have figured out that it's fun to squawk like a baby pterodactyl. Last night we put him in his crib while we started some laundry and cleaned up after his bath, and Theo was having a blast, waving his arms and legs frantically, throwing himself over onto his tummy, all the while making a weird pterodactyl squawk! This morning, I decided to attempt to work (notice the emphasis on "attempt") with Theo on my lap, so I was reading to him from a book about San Francisco photography that I'm editing at the moment. I thought he'd be lulled to sleep by discussion of Beaux-Arts architecture and Victorian details on houses, but I wasn't quite prepared for the enthusiastic response—Theo arms and legs flying everywhere, and much excited pterodactyl squawking!

Wow, what a week for development! To anyone who has had a baby, this will all sound like old hat, but given that I haven't been around babies very much, it's absolutely fascinating to me! In fact, on reflecting on being a parent, I realized that two things stand out to me:

 

1.       It is far, far more exhausting than I imagined.

2.       No matter how seemingly minor the "leaps and bounds" are, they're absolutely incredible to witness in your child!

Anyway, it seems like Theo changes literally overnight. Here's a list of recent developments from just this week:

• Last week, his little legs were too short for his Exersaucer; this week his feet touch the bottom so he can stand on tiptoe!
• In the last three or four days, he has started trying to move to get toys. You can almost see the wheels turning in his brain: "If I roll to the left and then wiggle a bit, I can reach that lion toy!"
• Also in the last few days, he has been a rolling machine! It started the day Chris finished his M.A. degree (more on that in a moment). I was baking a from-scratch cake to celebrate the occasion, and Theo got bored sitting in his high chair holding the balloon (which fascinated him for a time), so I put him down on the carpet to play with his baby gym. I kept looking over to check on him, and he was repeated rolling from his back to his front, over and over.  He has rolled from his back to his front once before, but only once. All of a sudden, he was doing it over and over! Only problem is, he'd get stuck on his belly with one arm pinned under him, and that would annoy him. So, I kept having to go over and turn him back onto his back, at which time we would repeat the process. (Nevertheless, I got the cake baked and Theo managed to really tired himself out, which was wonderful!) That was Thursday, and by Friday he had mastered rolling back to front and slowly unpinning his arm. By Saturday, he was able to roll and quickly unpin his arm. Saturday night he added pushing up on his arms to the trick, and by Sunday morning, he was also pushing with his feet to attempt that "army crawl" that babies often start with. He's not getting much of anywhere yet, but I have a feeling that it won't be long before we have to purchase and install baby gates by the stairs!
• On Friday, he discovered texture/sound. It started with him scratching his fingernails on the Boppy (breastfeeding pillow). He seemed to like either the feeling or the sound of the scratching, so he kept doing it over and over, leaning forward and wiggling to be able to reach the Boppy and scratch it. And Saturday morning, while rolling around on the floor, he discovered that our faux suede-y couch is really neat-feeling, too. I now have little Theo finger tracks all over the suede-y material, down by the floor where he was repeatedly running his fingers over it. And Sunday afternoon, when we went shopping for a bit, he discovered that scratching the Baby Bjorn carrier makes a fun, amusing sound, too.
• Sorbet confounds him. We gave him a tiny taste of it on Friday night, and he looked alternately pleased by it and confused, either by the coldness or the sweet flavor. Lemon seemed to go over well, as did blood orange. Pineapple...not so much.

·    All this may sound mundane, but as I said, it fascinates me. I sometimes wish I had endless amounts of time to watch these developments. As it is, I'm lucky enough to work at home so that I can catch them out of the corner of my eye, take a break, and sit and watch them transpire.

Other fun Theo things:

• He loves his bath. In fact, it makes him so happy that we give him one every night, even though that's really probably unnecessary. He has figured out how to arch his back and then let his body come crashing down in his baby tub, creating a small tidal wave of soapy water. Big fun! He's also quite adept at passing gas in the tub, making some fun bubble creations. And this week, he managed to pee right in his mama's face while in the tub. Good times!
• He loves the Baby Bjorn carrier. He flirts happily with people as we pass them and they smile at him. However, he's not liking his stroller much these days. The Bjorn puts him more at eye level with people, and I think that may be part of what he likes—he can see a lot more than he can see from the low vantage point in the stroller.
• He loves the pug, and she loves him. He grabs her fur and pulls on her, and she just sits there placidly, letting him manhandle her. She's really a gem with him...which is a good thing, since she is being a pill with us! She keeps stealing and eating things. This week was three pacifiers and part of a peach. Makes for fun yard cleanup, let me tell you....                  

Anyway, now that I've rambled for a long time about Theo, let me move on to other things. First, the reason for this Star Wars allusion blog title (yes, I'm becoming more of a geek every day!): CHRIS FINISHED HIS MASTER'S DEGREE!!! Specifically, on Thursday. It was supposed to be Wednesday, but bureaucracy and red tape rule in the state university system (and probably every university, really), and so they denied his thesis because: 1) he listed his abstract in the table of contents, and 2) he had ONE blurred word from a printer glitch on ONE page of his thesis, way in the middle (it was still readable, just blurred). So, after lining up Grandma Diane to babysit Theo so we could go turn in the thesis and have a celebratory lunch on Wednesday, it turned out that Chris had to make the correction, reprint the two pages, and resubmit the thesis on Thursday, when it was accepted. (The really ridiculous part is actually aside from this: He paid $60 to have the thesis bound and put in the library, and now they may reject it because the title page uses 14-point font. But the template provided to him by Graduate Studies uses 14-point font! And nowhere on the web does it say that the template has an error, so he had no way of knowing that the font is supposed to be 12-point on the title page. Ahhh, red tape and silly rules...gotta love 'em.) Anyway, we had a nice lunch on Wednesday despite the disappointment, and when Chris got home on Thursday, Theo and I were waiting for him with a big balloon, a homemade cake (see pix in this week's album—yes, I know it's ugly; the center collapsed! But it's the thought that counts.), a card, and flowers. It was a small-scale celebration for six years of hard work finally completed, but we'll do more celebrating when we go to Portland next month. And Chris bought himself a little gift in honor of completion—an autographed set list and photograph from his current favorite band's recent tour. (We tried to see them in concert when I was pregnant, as they were opening for George Strait, but it figures—Sacramento was one of three cities on the tour to have a different opening act.) The picture/set list were up for auction for the Make-a-Wish foundation, which is a charity we both really like, so we figured it was a neat present for him and the money went to a good cause.

I had lunch with Janeane, Emma (Janeane's almost-two-year-old daughter), and Kim on Thursday. Theo was worn out from his morning rolling adventures, so he actually fell asleep in the restaurant, which was lovely—I was able to enjoy chatting with my friends while he took a nice nap. And after Janeane and Emma left, I stayed for a bit to pick Kim's brain about photography techniques. She showed me how to achieve the "focused subject, blurred background" type of effect I've been trying to shoot. I need to keep practicing with it so I can post some good examples, but I'm finding it tough to get quite right. However, it sure is fun to play around and see what our camera can do. After I get that technique down, I want to work on getting better action shots, since Theo is quite the mover! I did some practice work on them with pugs this week (a few examples in this week's album), but I've got more to work on.

Saturday our friends Roxann and Mike came to visit with their new son, Tico (born 7/7/08). What a cutie he is! He's very alert and very strong already! I think Theo was more intrigued by their dog, Cali, as he doesn't really notice other babies yet. Cali's pretty darn cute too, so I can see the appeal.  After Roxann and Mike and Tico left, I headed out with Luna to a pug meetup while Chris happily stayed home with Theo. Pug meetups are not his favorite thing in the world, so he was more than happy to hang out with the boy while Luna and I went to the meetup. I was sorry not to get to bring Theo, as he loves seeing animals, but I thought it was going to be too darned hot. As it turns out, the weather was quite pleasant, so he could've come. Oh well, maybe next month...he and his papa had fun hanging out, anyway.

Sunday was a quiet day for us in terms of no major events or outings, but we (and by "we," I mean mostly Chris) finished shampooing the carpets and steam-cleaning the hard floors. Chris is a cleaning machine now that he doesn't have the thesis hanging over his head, and I can't say I mind that! I'm a bit of a clean freak, but I just don't have time to raise Theo AND work full-time AND clean very often, so alas, my cleaning standards have had to slip. I still can't bear to live in a pigsty, but I've had to learn to live with the house in some disarray (which is nearly killing me, if I'm honest about it!). Needless to say, Chris's latest cleaning endeavors have been much appreciated by me! Obviously, since he works full-time too and helps out with Theo a great deal, he doesn't have any more time to clean than I do. So, whenever we get to it, it makes us ridiculously happy. Sigh...sad, the silly things we get pleasure out of some days!!  

As usual, I've rambled on for a ridiculously long time. I think I find this blogging rather therapeutic, really. I get to indulge the pleasure I get from writing every week! Sorry if that ends up meaning long-winded blog posts, y'all! You can always just skip to the pictures.  

 

It's been a busy week for the Small Fam! Monday we visited with Grandma Diane and went to a favorite local discount store, where I found a nifty new interactive "gym" thing for Theo on major discount. He loves it! Pictures are in this week's album.

 

On Tuesday, Theo and I went to lunch with our friend Rachel and her daughter, the lovely Lizzy Dodge, as well as Dr. Bell, my favorite prof. from Sac State, and his daughter, the lovely Lizzy Bell. (The Lizzies are informally known as Lizzy 1 and Lizzy 2 when we get together.) Theo was a little angel, which delighted me and surprised Dr. Bell, who had been warned about the possibility of Leon making an appearance. We got lucky and had a cheerful little lunch companion.

 

And then I ruined it. Theo needed two more four-month shots, so after lunch I took him to Kaiser for those shots. He hadn't had a reaction to shots any of the three previous times, but this time he ran a fever, spit up a lot, and was really fussy for about 24 hours. Poor little guy was not having a good time of it! He's doing a lot of teething these days, so I wonder if the teething/vaccine combo was just not fun for him. Which translated to no fun for Chris and me. Tuesday night, after his vaccines, I think Theo woke up about six times, despite having a dose of baby Tylenol.  Needless to say, we were quite tired on Wednesday!

 

Thursday, Auntie Lynnie and my nieces and nephew (Theo's cousins) were up to visit my Mom, so we went over and spent some time with them. Theo was very cheery, which was nice because usually he howls at my nieces, which is quite sad because they really like him, and they always think he hates them because he's generally crabby. But, he was in a good mood, so all was well. Auntie Briagha came to babysit Theo so Chris and I could have a date. All reports suggest that Theo was pretty good for Briagha—he had a few fussy bouts, but was generally a pretty cheerful guy. That kid knows how to work it, though. We came home from our date (dinner at Il Fornaio, a stroll around the mall, and sorbet at Nugget for dessert), and Theo was sitting quite happily on Briagha's lap, playing with a toy. Then he saw me, and out came the lip in a dreadful pout, and then "MMMAAAAAAAAADDDDD!" I have no doubt that had he not seen me, he would've quite happily kept playing with Auntie Briagha!

 

Friday Chris had to work most of the day, although it was supposed to be his day off, so Theo and I just puttered. I was trying to work, too, but Theo has suddenly decided that he's a big fan of being held. (This is quite a change for the boy who used to not like being held!) And he doesn't like sitting at the computer for some reason (flashing light from the screen, maybe??), so I can only get a bit of work done before moving into another room with him. Anyway, he was pretty needy and clingy and whiny that day for some reason, so I was feeling kind of blue myself. Very blue, in fact. And then I stumbled upon a trick that inspired the title of this week's blog post: Our son snorts when he laughs!! You know those people who laugh so hard they snort? That's our son! (I need to capture this on video. It’s too cute for words!) I was lifting him up in the air and playing "Theo's an airplane!" when he started to chortle and snort! This made me laugh, so I then snorted back at him, like a pig. Apparently he found this uproariously funny, because he kept cracking up and snorting every time I would snort! So I sat on the couch, happily snorting like a pig to make my son laugh. Oh dear, what has happened to me?!

 

I'm delighted to find that Theo has quite a little sense of humor. In addition to finding pig noises quite funny, he's also vastly amused by his bodily functions. (Gee, I wonder which one of us he got that from?! My very polite husband? I think not! I admit to finding bathroom humor quite funny myself!) He smiles and giggles when you say the word "poop" to him, as in "Did you poop?!" or, "My God, man, that's a funky poop!" He is also amused by passing gas in the bathtub. And, he finds almost anything Luna does quite amusing as well. Further, he likes the quacking duck sound Chris makes for him. And he finds it quite hilarious to spit out his pacifier.

 

Saturday we had a visit from friends Jen, Ken, and Elliott. Elliott is almost exactly one year older than Theo (I think their birthdays are something like 362 days apart), so it's neat to see a bit of what our son will be like in a year or so. Elliott is a fun, curious, energetic little guy! I don't think Chris and I quite realized what we're in for when Theo hits toddlerhood. Somehow, Elliott managed to find all the most fun things in our family room in short order—the stairs, light sockets, stove knobs, the cupboard with cleaning supplies in it...and then toddled out holding a large bottle of wine. In short, all the things any curious toddler would find. It was a good reminder for Chris and I that we'll need to babyproof one of these days! We also got to see that no matter how wiggly we think our son is while being changed, he'll get wigglier when he is old enough to want to run around! Ah, the fun we have in store for us....

 

Sunday we took it relatively easy and went to a book sale to benefit Folsom Feline Rescue. (No, we didn't come home with a cat!) I wish I had gotten a picture of Chris with Theo in the Baby Bjorn! Chris is now officially a Bjorn devotee...Theo loves being able to see and be close to his daddy, and Chris loved having his hands free to poke around in the books.

 

So we've officially had Theo on Baby's Only formula as a supplement for over two weeks, I think...and no ill effects other than the persistent eczema, which I'm beginning to think he may have no matter what. And so, it's official...we have finally found a formula that Theo can tolerate well. WHEW! I'm still primarily nursing him and plan to do so for quite a while, but it's very nice to have a formula he can tolerate for those times when he's just not full after he nurses from me. 

 

Last but very far from least, this coming Wednesday, Chris officially FINISHES HIS MASTER'S DEGREE!!!!!! We are celebrating by having Grandma Diane watch Theo for a couple hours while I go down to Sac State with Chris to get the final signature on his thesis and turn it in, and then we have a lunch date to commemorate the occasion.  The bigger "he's finished!" present is a trip to Portland at the end of next month, which we set up this weekend. We'll be visiting my aunt and uncle from Virginia (who will be in Portland for a couple days), hopefully visiting with Chris's friend, Tyler, and also doing some just-for-fun sightseeing.

 Enjoy your week, all!

So evidently we're not raising a little boy, we're raising a moose! I took Theo in for the second half of his four-month shots today, and I asked the nurse to weigh him while we were there. The moose is...drum roll, please...15 lbs 12 oz! He was just 14 lbs two weeks ago! Granted, he had a diaper and a onesie on, so we could subtract a couple ounces for that, but still—he is roughly 15 1/2 pounds...up 1.5 pounds from two weeks ago!

 

I guess that new formula is indeed doing the job, eh?!

Well, Leon (Theo's fussy alter ego) hasn't fully disappeared, but in the last seven days, we had FIVE good days! This is a major improvement, so we're really happy! We can't help but be optimistic that we may have finally found a formula he can tolerate. This week he has mostly nursed, but every day we've had to supplement with about 7 or 8 ounces of formula, thanks to his voracious appetite. And so far, so good. Theo has some eczema on his arms and legs, but that seems to be the only ill effect. No scary diapers, no excessive spit-up, no excessive fussiness that seems formula-related...all in all, good signs. And the nursing is improving...not so much pain for me as there was. Every day is a little bit better. Our fingers, toes, and eyes are crossed that things will continue to go well.

 

It's been a quiet week because, frankly, we were pretty worn out from Theo's major fussiness just before the nice five-day stretch of Happy Theo. Our friend Rachel came over one evening with her daughter, Lizzy, and brought us a delicious dinner. Lizzy is such a cutie. Theo doesn't seem to notice her much yet, but I suspect one day, that little cutie will catch his eye! We also got to see Chris's cousin, Bill, for an hour or so as he passed through on his way up to Truckee. Theo looooooves his "Uncle" Billy—he had a grand time "playing" with Bill. Lots of smiles from the little guy! Chris and I also had a much-needed lunch date to a BBQ restaurant while my Mom babysat Theo. And on Saturday, we ventured to Placerville for our favorite used book sale, which resulted in some good finds. Theo didn't seem to enjoy the book sale itself, but he spent a fair amount of time charming an elderly woman who was working at the sale. I think she would've taken him home if we had let her!! She was a sucker for his toothless grin.

 

I was feeling a bit blue today and decided to splurge on a baby item I've been coveting—a Baby Bjorn! Theo is liking to be held a lot more these days, but he's pretty darn heavy to hold for long periods of time. And he's not quite big enough to be really comfortable in his Ergo these days, so I decided to try a Baby Bjorn, which came highly recommended from several friends. Sure enough, Theo really seems to like it...and it's much easier on my back than carrying him. He doesn't look overly thrilled in the picture on the blog, but he actually really did seem to like it. And it feels much more secure than the cheap knockoff version we were using, so that makes me happy.

 

Chris is due to start getting signatures on his thesis this week, and he will be turning in the official copy on the 13th. And then, he's finished!!! To celebrate, we may take a short overnight trip, just the three of us. Not sure where yet...perhaps an overnight in San Francisco or Monterey. We had thought to take a quick jaunt up to Seattle to see our friends Chris and Lisa, but plane tickets for the weekend we were considering are quite pricey, so I think we may have to save that trip for a bit later.

 

I also posted a new video on the blog this week! It's about four minutes long, but it contains lots of footage of Theo movin' and groovin'. The boy is dying to be mobile!!

 

And that's it for this week! This may be my shortest post yet.... Have a great week!