Halloween

Tigger and I went trick-or-treating this evening and got a pretty good stash of candy for a little guy. He was to hot and sweaty for the rest of his costume. He is even getting better about smiling for the camera. He smiled once I pulled it out. I love that is is almost a forced smile.

Here he is playing with his haul. He had so much fun chomping on all of the candies, especially the chocolate ones because they would get soft and chewy.

He is growing so fast and is such fun to play with. It is so easy to get him laughing like crazy. The other day he spit up and then put his face in it. When he rolled back over Jadon saw him looking like this...

Milk mustache

Oh What A Cutie

When I put Tavius down for the night he was very stubborn. Even with the light off he was in there playing and talking for quite a while. When it finally quieted down I went in to check on him. What I found was quite hilarious, so I had to run and get Jadon to look as well.

Just Some Fun

Here are some fun pictures of Tavius. He is growing so big and loves moving, wiggling, scooting, talking...you name it! This morning he started doing this half crawl. He leans on the right side of his body and lifts the left side in the air and tries to fling it forward, and then does it with the other side. When he gets up on his knees and tries to crawl he ends up scooting backward and getting frustrated. It is very cute.

He loves the swings, although he only shows it by kicking his legs until I start swinging again.

This is currently his favorite sleeping position.

He is such a big talker. The other day I caught him on video talking to himself in his room. Usually he sees a camera and gets completely emotionless. He had been making this high pitched squeal and then laughing at himself. He did it over and over, but by the time I got the camera out he had stopped.

Yesterday Tavius and I went to a portrait studio and got pictures together, since I am in very few pictures with him. They turned out really good and I cannot wait for them to be printed. He refused to smile the whole time, but he is still super cute to look at!

He has been teething for a while, and I thought I had seen the worst of it, but no. The last few days have been very difficult. He has a hard time sleeping and cries in his sleep. I finally gave in and gave him Tylenol before bed last night because the teething gel and tablets don't last through the night. It worked! Well, that and sleeping on my bed made it possible to get a full night's sleep, something that I have missed the last couple of weeks.

Over all we are doing well and are happily adjusted to living in our own home!

The Good, The Bad, and The Sad

The Good: We started rice cereal today.

The Bad: I missed Tavius' appointment this morning.

The Sad: He got shots today.

I know, I know, that is very confusing, so let me explain...

I missed his appointment this morning at 8 and was freaking out because he has a case worker who called to make sure I was taking him to his appointments and said she would be calling the doctor's office to make sure I really did have an appointment scheduled for his check up and said she would be calling after the appointment to make sure I really took him. Hence, "the bad".

So I called the doctor's office at 8:30 and they had an opening at 10. I took him in and they gave him his 4 month vaccines. So sad. But he was so brave and only cried for about 5 minutes, but it is the saddest cry I have ever heard. He never cries like that except when getting his shots. He started feeling feverish about an hour to an hour and a half later so I have been keeping him on Tylenol. Poor little guy.

On an exciting note, we came home and gave him rice cereal at one of his feedings, which he seemed to like! He figured out pretty quickly that he needed to open his mouth when I got close with the spoon. He liked it as long as I was quick enough. I tried taking pictures but it really does take 2 hands to feed him effectively. Thank goodness I was smart enough to give him his own spoon to play with.

4 Month Stats:

Weight: 16 lbs 7 oz (he has doubled his birth weight, what a crazy thought!)

Length: 26 1/4 inches

Head Circumference: 42 centimeters

Percentiles for the above are:

55th, 97th, 75th

Funny side note. So I started noticing that all of his 3-6 month clothes (especially the footie jammies) are a little too short, so I looked at the labels and noticed that most of them say "up to 26 inches". He is 26 1/4 so I don't think I should be having such a difficult time.

Physical Therapy

This morning I took Tavius to his physical therapy evaluation. His doctor recommended it because she suspected he might have torticollis, which is where the something or other (SMT?) muscle in his neck is tight, so it is not as strong as the other side. He has an arm preference and he prefers rolling to one side over the other among other things.

The PT he saw agreed with the doctor and wants me to take him in for weekly visits. Only problem is that they are closing their Mesa office in 3 weeks and I can't drive to Phoenix once a week. She also gave me a paper that shows how to do different stretches with him to loosen it up. It is not really bad so she is hopeful that I can do most of it at home.

She recommended not putting him in a highchair, bumbo, or his jumpy toy because being in an upright sitting position can make it worse. She explained that gravity makes his tendency to tip his head to one side even worse. So we are back to the basics; laying on a blanket to play. The trick is to keep him entertained playing on a blanket.

His development is really great though. He rolls well (and a lot today all of a sudden), his neck muscles are getting really strong, he has excellent hand-eye coordination. Next week is his 4 month check-up and shots so we will see what his doctor thinks about giving him rice cereal.