four month photos.

it's really really bizarrely difficult to get pictures taken around here.  that being said, these aren't our most stellar work, i don't think.  but the kids are at least mostly in focus and there is not a large quantity of spit up or various other stains on them, so i'll take whatever victories i can get....

four months old.

ah, four months old.  i think this is when i start with "this is my favorite age EVER" and continue with that sentiment indefinitely.  it is even more true with hollis.  

physical: a few things.  we are knocking out our barrage of monthly/bi-monthly doctor appointments this week.  we did cardiologist about a week ago and he was 16 lbs. 10 oz., 27 inches long.  we did regular pediatrician yesterday and stats were:

height: 25 inches - 50%
weight: 18 lbs. - 90%
head: 43 in. (maybe 43.5?  i can't remember). - 75%

so.  i think the pediatrician's scale is a little high and the cardiologist's scale is a little low.  my guess is he's somewhere north of 17 lbs and about 25.5 inches.  still big compared to ek, but mostly proportional, i think.  also, miraculously, he is off the heart meds!  we saw a new cardiologist because ours moved and he just wants me listening to his heart with a stethoscope a few times a day to make sure he's not in tachycardia, but he's pretty sure hollis has outgrown the condition/didn't have it after birth but was so cranky no one could really tell.  it is absurdly amazing to not give him meds twice a day.  he's still spitting up, but not too badly at all (definitely way better than ek) and doesn't seem bothered by it in the least.  

likes: somehow over the course of the past month, hollis has gone from being annoyed/mad at everything to being super content and sweet 95% of the time.  i've never seen a 180 like this and i am so thankful.  he loves grabbing toys (especially ones that make jingly sounds) and putting them in his mouth.  gnawing on my hand.  bath time.  getting kisses from emme.  tickles (he is so so giggly).  tummy time.  being sung to while making funny faces and/or dancing like a weirdy.  

dislikes: the only time our boy gets mad these days is if i make him wait too long to eat after bath/before bed.  he will also sometimes pipe up when he's been in one place for too long - the dude likes a change of scenery, who can blame him?  

biggest achievement of the month: rolling over and laughing are both big ones for me.  although the rolling isn't happening too frequently, i know he can so i'm counting it.  also, being off the meds is HUGE!  

biggest challenge of the month: sleeping in longer stretches at night/shifting his milk intake to daytime hours.  

nicknames: hb, hollissey, bittles, babbins, bits, smalls, bg, chublet, chubbins, duder, little bear.

sleep: we have really made some progress here.  still not sleeping all the way through the night, but i now believe that is a possibility in our lives (as opposed to a few weeks ago when i just assumed he would be hanging out with me every two hours for the foreseeable future).  hollis's teacher miss laura called me a couple weeks ago to discuss and make some suggestions.  i love her.  she asked me how long hollis cried before i went to get him/nurse him at night.  i explained that he didn't really ever cry - the second i hear him, i go in and take care of it so he doesn't wake justin and emme up.  also, since i'm the lightest sleeper ever, i will pop up and go get him over ANY squeak.  i knew this was not a great plan, but i needed someone to talk through it with me and laura did.  she said to start with 4 hours, since it's pretty obvious hollis is physically capable of not eating for four hours without wasting away.  ha.  so the first week, if i heard him before the 4 hour mark, i would just go in, check on him (no poop, no limbs stuck in crib bars), then give him 10 minutes to work it out.  the first two nights, he settled himself back to sleep in under 3 minutes.  amazing.  we had a few nights where he woke up twice, but now he is down to only one waking a night - usually around 2.  so he sleeps 7-2ish and then 2:30 until i wake him up at 7:30 or so.  of course i don't sleep all those hours, but i am getting longer stretches and he is waking up in the BEST mood because he's so well rested.  it's really amazing.  i think it will probably be a bit before he drops that middle of the night feed, but this is so manageable for me compared to where we were.  

temperament/personality: what a difference a month makes.  hollis is so smiley and curious now.  he laughs and lights up over any and all eye contact.  he's still a dude who likes his needs met immediately, but he calms down super easily and has a much longer attention span.  he's also super cuddly and loves kisses and nuzzles.  i am a fan of super affectionate babies.  

eating: we got cleared to start him on solids, as per the usual 4-month thing pediatricians do these days.  but i'm going to wait at least another month and probably closer to 2.  i can tell he's not ready and there is no rush.  i started ek right before 6 months, so we'll probably do the same for him.  he's taking in way less milk than the APA guide says he should be for his age, but he's not starving and not fussing, so i'm just letting him be the boss.  

superficial: blue eyes are still here.  fuzzy blonde is still creeping in and he's losing what little brown hair he had at birth.  chubby chubby and a super dimply tush.  cheeks (on his face) that i nibble on multiple times a day.  

motor development: rolling tummy to back when the spirit moves him.  head control is so so so much better -  he's comfortable in the bumbo for decent lengths of time and his "cobra" move is stellar.  he can also use his core to sit up from a recline position in my lap, so i think he's getting there - slowly but surely.  

pictures to be posted soon!

the rest of april and a roly poly.

we are starting to formulate a routine, slowly .  it's easiest on days when i can work from home.  i wake up first, shower, start the motions.  prep the bottles, unload the dishwasher, feed the pets, let the dogs out, start breakfast, stuff the diapers, start a load of laundry.  all the things.  most days i feel like i see my children in a blur through the morning.  hollis usually wakes up late - a ball of chub and warmth in my spot in the bed.  some mornings i wake him just in time to change his diaper and clothes, give him his heart meds, and get him into his carseat.  we have to wake emme up earlier than that since she has so many opinions these days - about what she will wear to school, what and how she will eat breakfast, when she will conduct the rest of her morning chores.  but i still try to wait until the last possible minute, balancing that seesaw of the importance of sleep and my intense desire to spend time with her.  it's harder when i have to get myself ready too - find relatively clean clothes, avoid getting spit up on, throw on a layer of mascara and some work-appropriate shoes.  but most days we make it out the door with few, if any, tears, full bellies, and warm coffee in my mug.
the evenings are still the witching hours - you never know what you're going to get.  some days emme is exuberant, rambunctious, wanting to help or at least willing to play independently.  some days she is overly tired, cranky, the poster-child of two and a half year old moodiness.  sometimes, hollis can plow through until his favorite time of day: bath time.  but some days he is fussy and tired, hungry and discontented.  some days i am successful in getting him down for a mini-nap before the bedtime routine begins, but i question how good that extra sleep is for a child that is adamantly refusing to go more than a few hours between night wakings.  despite this, i still manage to get a somewhat functional dinner on the table so that we can eat as a family when justin gets home from work.  meal planning (when we manage to do it) is a life saver.  after dinner, it's haul everyone to the bath, lotion, clean jammies, cuddles.  emme has created an intermission in our normal progression from bath to jammies to books to bed.  now, she demands "a little bit of dancing" in the living room, usually while i'm putting hollis down.  she is turning in to quite the little dancer - twirling and jumping and shaking, getting out the last energy from the day.  once hollis is asleep, justin and i read books to ek in her bed and talk about her day.  i love the things she mentions from her day - the caterpillar she saw under a leaf, the tomatoes growing in her garden, the work she did with her buddies at school.  she always lists every item that was in her lunch that day.  we end the day with jb turning out the lights and she and i snuggle for prayers and a closed-eye recitation of goodnight moon.
hollis started rolling from tummy to back last week.  he also started laughing and it's a joyful little sound.  for the cranky dude he was for most of his first three months, he is really turning in to quite the happy little chublet.  he and i are completely in love - i can't get enough of all his rolls, his soft baby skin, his big gummy smile.  he is not a good night sleeper, but i'm trying to let him have his own journey.  a good night is one where i get three uninterrupted hours, and i haven't had many of those.  but in the grand scheme of my life, these nights awake with my baby are so few and short.  he doesn't love taking a bottle, so he's not eating enough during the day, hence the compensation of nursing half the night.  there are worse things and i know i will miss these nights when they are gone.  that being said, it is hard to be on my a-game, both at work and emotionally, when i haven't slept more than three hours in a row in nearly four months.
anyway.  i'm trying really hard to slow it down a little and focus on all the magical little things about this time, rather than concentrate on all the things i'm not doing - like exercising, sweeping the floor daily, crafting, organizing, running the dogs, etc etc etc.  it really is an amazing thing to be in this life with these little people who are so interesting and learning so much every day.

easter weekend.

easter this year fell on my last day of maternity leave, so it was bittersweet.  my mom, dad, and brother drove in on good friday and dad and joe left after brunch on easter.  we had a really nice weekend - an easter egg hunt with lots of friends at the tajchman's house on friday evening (ek mostly wanted to play in the sand box); park time on saturday for ek; mom's friend margaret and her friend carmen and son collins over for dinner on saturday night; and mass followed by brunch at z tejas sunday morning.

i kind of love that the pace of everything really slows down when two small people are in tow.  there are naps in the middle of the day to factor in, so it's really nice for everyone to have a break from an agenda.

anyway.  i didn't capture as many pictures as i wanted, but there are still a gazillion here.  these do include my super dorky pics of my kids in twin outfits.  someone gave hollis the polo romper (it's for a 9 month old and fits him pretty well already.  sigh.) and ek had a matching dress, so i had to get some pictures.  don't judge me!