Rolling, rolling rolling...

Ahem. Yes,  I am still here. It seems I've fallen into the usual condition of bloggers who recently became parents. Because while I do manage to read blogs, I seem to not be able to find the time to comment much or give an update here. I will admit that part of my lack of updating is that it was hard to figure out what to blog about. I mean Seven has been changing all the time, so there was everything to update. But yet in some ways it seemed like nothing to update. I mean, how do you choose what to highlight when it seems like everything is different.

But today was a milestone. It started about 3 weeks ago when I went to check on Seven sleeping and noticed he had rolled from his back to his side. First it was a rare occurrence. And then in the past week he started rolling to his side regularly. We were happy with his progress and E predicted he would roll over all the way in another 2 weeks.

And then today I heard from my sister that my niece who is 5 weeks older than Seven first rolled over a month ago. My competitive juices started flowing. I decided he needed a little coaching. This evening I rolled him over to show him how it was done. Then we let him go at it. E was using the mirror to motivate him to go to his side. He was looking so good rolling over to side again and again that I got out the camera to film him. Even just rolling to his side was cute. I switched to video and then 30 seconds later he rolled all the way over! We were speechless and then cheered. I think Seven got a little overwhelmed about why we were so excited. It was so funny. But we are so proud of our roller!

3 months

Our dear Seven is 3 months old today! It seems like it has been much longer but also such a whirlwind. Yesterday I visited my campus coffeehouse for the first time since coming back to work. I used to visit nearly every day before Seven's birth.  They remembered my order! At first I thought, "wow, it's been over 4 months since I've been here and they still remember-what great service!" And then I remembered, it's only been 3 months. Yeah, I know how old my baby is...

Seven is changing all the time. It is funny because we get so many comments that he is so small. And it is true that he is small for his age and still pretty young. So as babies go, the truth is he is small. But every time I hear someone say that, I think it is strange because he seems so big to me now. His body seems to have grown much more than the mere 3 inches the official length as increased. His legs are almost always extended now and he has a neck now. He is alert for most of the day. Much different from the scrunched up sleeping ball of baby we brought home from the hospital.

Seven definitely knows his mama. And yes, I love it. His smile lights up his whole face and he loves getting kisses. He often has this look on his face like he is trying to say something but it just won't come out. He is quite a smart little baby. He met some older kids who were blowing bubbles and when they put the wand up to his mouth, you could tell he knew what to do but couldn't figure out how to get his mouth to do the right thing.

He likes being outside and seeing the world go by. We try to enjoy the nice weather we are having by eating outside when we can and going for short hikes. He really likes his rattle, although prefers to put it in his mouth rather than shake it. He is slowing starting to like taking a bath. What he loves most of all are funny noises and singing. Nothing calms him down like me singing his name in this certain melody I created. And trust me, my vocals don't exactly wow most crowds. But he loves it.

Daycare update

Sorry for the lengthy time with no update. Now that Seven is alert for most of the day and ready to play, I just don't have the time to blog! He's now had several days at daycare and it is wonderful to have him just a few buildings away, even though I would love to be with him all day long. I was worried about how he has handled the transition. The place is really nice, but he always seemed so subdued when I visited and picked him up at the end of the day. And he wouldn't smile at me when I picked him up. He was having trouble sleeping there so I could rationalize that he was just so tired by the end of the day. But the irrational part of me was worried, like what happened to my happy baby-he is punishing me for using daycare?!

So today I was elated to hear that he took a two hour nap in the afternoon and then he was all smiles when I picked him up. I brought in a swaddle blanket for him and that seemed to do the trick. We only use the swaddle at night when he is at home, but the added security must help him during the day.

The other good news is that he did his first art project today. It is just a bunch of smears of red paint, but it is his smears!

Celebration

Today is a day for celebration!

E from Many, Many Moons finally has her sweet baby daughter. Please go over and wish her new family well. I can't believe that it was only 2 months ago when we were heading home ourselves with our new baby. E is in for an amazing ride!