4 months is the new black

Or at least that's what I've heard.  Something like that?  I'm making that up.

Either way, here we are.  Colin is 4 months... and let's be honest by the time I managed to get this written down, he's actually 4.5 months old, and downright coming up on 5 months.  But that's okay.  There were lots of pictures, lots of adventures leading up to now, and I suppose I'll catch you up a little bit before diving into the nitty gritty of what's going on. 

We went to the beach!  We rented an umbrella to keep us in the shade, and we rocked out the beach.  It was fun.  Colin got to put on his adorable swim trunks and rash guard t-shirt, and I threw on my pre-pregnancy bikini (yikes!).  I did keep on my dress, although the top fit a WHOLE lot differently than I remembered on both my swimsuit AND my dress, oops.  But, Colin did get his feet in the water (although in the picture below you can tell he's a bit unsure).  I'm looking forward to going back and getting him more used to it.  Hopefully the weather breaks and it's warm enough again before the season ends!

 Colin and I siting at the water's edge, getting used to it - luckily the water is pretty shallow so it's not as cold as some parts of Lake Michigan

 

Laying on our blanket under the umbrella

 

Just the two of us - chillin'

This picture below has nothing to do with the beach, and I'm not entirely sure of when it was taken.  But, I like it because Colin and John are looking a little bit matchy.

 The boys

What else did we do... we took our first road trip.  Our friends, who John saw get married in Cancun had a local wedding reception in O-h-i-o.  So that meant that I was able to celebrate them, and that meant that we would go and visit my dad in Dayton before heading up to Wapakoneta.  We were able to get a photo op in the cradle/rocker that my grandpa built, and multiple generations have slept in.  Colin did surprisingly well in the car.  On the way down one of us was essentially always with him in the back seat and he only cried for little bouts.  He slept most of the way home too, which was excellent.  Just a lot of "Itsy Bitsy Spider" to distract him on the way home when we weren't able to get off the freeway and he was SOOO done wit hthe car.  We brought him to the reception for a little bit, to show him off to Joel and Heather -- and then my dad was more than happy to come and pick him up so that he could spend the evening with him.  Strangely enough it didn't take much convincing.  Ha.

 The three of us at the reception

 My dad had made mention that there are not a lot of "grandpa" things out there -- so of course I had to pick this one up for him.

 Once we got back to the city, we swung by to catch the end of the US Soccer game, and Colin was so excited to be out of his car seat - this was the biggest smile we've seen in a while

Later in the week, we were back to beach volleyball so I managed to get a quick shot of the three of us.  We don't get many pictures of us as a family, so I wanted to share.  Colin was conked out...

This weekend, while John got in a round of golf, I managed to get some 4 month pictures in.  I have to say, it's next to impossible to get them without a set of extra hands.  He is SO freaking wiggly.  He loves his feet, doesn't like to sit still, and puts EVERYTHING in his mouth.  Once he watched me put the sticker on his belly.... he got excited and was able to pull it off and stick it in his mouth.  Yeah, it's awesome.  

 I know that Colin looks drunk on the bottom one, I assure you he isn't...

1- I found the sticker; 2-I can kick higher than the aardvark; 3 - I hate you, Mommy, for making me wear all these ridiculous things and then take my picture

Now the "OMG we have a 4 month old who actually is present in the world and gets frustrated and/or giggly and/or needs to be entertained all the time".

The other day, we decided to finally move Colin into his own room.  We have had his crib set up since he was born, ready to go, but we just hadn't made the switch.  Let's be honest, most of it was from my selfish need of not wanting to have to go into his room to get him when he was hungry and waking up multiple times a night  (I think that's completely valid by the way).  I started thinking that perhaps we were getting into a bad cycle where he was waking me up, I was waking him up, and it would go round and round.  I was hoping (envision me with eyes closed and fingers crossed) that if we moved him into his own room, we could break that and he would finally start sleeping through the night.  Knowing what I know now, it was probably a pipe dream.  In all fairness, it's been two/three (?) nights, so you can't really judge yet.  But, it's not working out as smoothly as I had hoped.  

The first night, I look down into the monitor and realize that I can see the bottom of his footed pajamas... Umm... we laid him down on his back.  Now, I realize he is a squirmy little guy - he rotates in anything he's sleeping in and has for months.  So, I don't expect him to be in the same position I left him in, but I never see the bottom of his feet - so John checks on him, and sure enough he's semi on his belly.  When I picked him up the next day at Julia's, she mentioned that he was really rolly-polly and going from back to belly.  I thought for SURE she got confused and switched it up and meant belly to back.  Fun fact, she wasn't lying.  She realized that I hadn't seen it yet, so she set up the floor and we coaxed him into rolling.  Umm.. yeah, he rolls both ways, back and forth, back and forth.  The best part, he tends to get kind of pissed if he ends up on his belly..... Even though he does it to himself.  Ha.  (**Disclaimer, this is the first official milestone that I haven't witnessed first, and Julia did a great job of setting the scene to get it to happen again, and really didn't make it seem like something that I missed out, and it was actually really good)

That takes us to night two, where we are awoken to a very sudden and unexpected cry from Colin, where he had rolled over on his belly and didn't realize that he could just lay his head to the side, relax, and fall back asleep.  He thought he needed to keep his head up in the "tummy time" position.  And of course he forgets he can roll back over, so he gets uber-mad and we have to go in and calm him down and sometimes roll him back.  It was a long night.

So we still aren't sleeping, but last night he only woke up only a couple of times, instead of every hour from 2-6.... so that's a plus, right?  Ugh.. I can't wait for him to sleep for longer periods of time.  It's exhausting when he isn't sleeping longer than 3 hours (and really only averaging 2 hrs at a time), and while we are able to get him to go back to sleep sometimes without nursing, most of the time the only remedy is feeding him - which means I'm on the hook.  Bummer.

Otherwise, I think life is moving along pretty smooth.  Colin is doing well, growing as he should.  He's still a skinny minny (14lbs 4 oz at his 4 month check up) but loooong (at 26") which is exactly how we expected it to be.  

He likes to giggle - at everyone BUT me, he likes to smile - at ALMOST anyone BUT me, and he likes to eat -- from no one BUT me, haha, kidding.  He actually takes bottles pretty well from nearly anyone.  He is a pretty serious little boy though - looking at things and taking them all in.  Not a very "carefree" baby.  But, he's still super cute, so I'll take it!  It makes me appreciate the giggles I can get out of him even more.

I think I probably overwhelmed with words, so I should get going.  There has just been so much going on and so many posts that I've wanted to write - and it's all getting condensed into this which doesn't even scratch the surface of everything I want to say.  

But, this is good.  He's 4 months, going on 5... we'll start thinking of solids in the upcoming months which is crazy and exciting.  Summer will end, fall will come, and I can't wait to see what he's doing next!