Rollin', Rollin', Rolling

Well it has been a while since our last blog, understandably. We have been busy since the last post at 4 months. Kierran, still bald and toothless, is now 7 months old, 17ish+ pounds and 27ish+ inches- double + his birth weight of 8 lbs. and 8 inches longer than at birth. 

laughter from megan jacobsmeyer on Vimeo.

His latest tricks are rolling everywhere (especially under tables, chairs the crib etc), sticking all things in his mouth- including my face for a "kiss", sitting up (with a spotter) laughing, pulling hair, babbling, squealing like a teradactle, sucking his thumb (lefty preference like his Gramps) eating, and drinking from cup (with help, of course, and without drowning himself with water). 

Crawling is definitly coming soon with all his push up practice and desire to move! Just like when he was a newborn, he still loves to stare and things intently for a long time (especially trees), be outside and seems very strong for such a little guy, only in the 25th percentile in most categories- height, weight etc. Overall Kierran is a really mellow guy and a delight to be around.

Here we are with our first feeding ever- a dive for a banana mom was eating- guess the time was right! Kierran really enjoys eating solid foods: rice cereal, Banana, Yams, Carrots, peas, pears, applesauce, spinach... socks.. pretty much anything baby approved. 

Under the table again...
this is surfing at 4 months

Thumb love, especially with some sand on it!

blankets are for chewing... so cozy

He loves his toys, especially the way they taste.

The last time we posted, 3 months ago, it seemed Kierran was improving on his sleep patterns. That proved not to be lasting and we were up every 45 minutes again for that next month. So much for the "no cry sleep solution". 11 weeks of working with it and we were all crying in desperation! As that book says in the "what to do if it still not working" section, it works for some babies, but some may need a different approach to sleep learning.  In some countries sleep deprivation is used form of torture, we could relate. After much difficulty we took our first stance as parents and taught him his most important life skill at 5 months- how to sleep through the night and take naps. It was a hard decision to make and of course there were some tears, and we all were much happier after a couple of nights. We used a book called the "Sleepeasy Solution", (for 4 months through age five) and now I am out converting other desperate parents because it worked so well and fast for us. 

Bragging rights allowed after 5 months of, on the average, being up every hour: Since July 5th, Kierran sleeps 11 hours, from 6:30-5:30 each night and takes 3 naps a day, an hour or more each, sometimes over 2 hours! (Enter sigh of relief and sanity here) This was our greatest challenge so far.

Sleeping on the knees, thumb locked in, love it!
Danny and I have also both back working full time, teaching for a month already! I am still in 1st grade with 20 students and Danny is back up in 5th grade with 29. The transition was pretty brutal (challenge #2). Full of separation anxiety and tears, for mom that is... ha ha. Kierran did awesome. His daycare is amazing and he adjusted really well there. It is a small home daycare where the woman has her own son and a few other kids. Kierran is the only baby. His care provider, Rachel, writes us a detailed report each day with what he ate, when, how much, when he slept, what and when his diapers where like- and yes as all you moms know I acctually do want to know about this- and a little note from Kierran about what he did that day. My favorite so far was from his first day:
"I smiled really big when Rachel played the tape of mommy and daddy's voice (Grammy's genius idea to tape record ourselves) When it was over I cried and she played it again 3 more times...I started looking around the room for you, kicking my legs the whole time" 

 or maybe it was last weeks "I was rolling around on the blanket outside and rolled onto the dirt. At first I didn't like it, but then I started rubbing my hands in the dirt. Then I picked up the dirt clod and tried to eat it, so Rachel picked me up and put me back on the blanket!" 

Classic. 

Here are more pictures of some of our activities lately:

Ready for the pool

Kierran loves the water! (even though his face doesn't show it here)

Every day we walk 81 stairs down to the beach...

Orange you glad we are back on the blog? for this month at least.... =)