Drooler Monkey

I can taste salty baby tears on my tongue today. I kissed little tears off Henry's face after he had his vaccinations today. He had three shots and one oral vaccination at his four month check up this morning. He was a trooper though and recovered really quickly. He nursed and had a nap after we got home and was smiling and cooing again in no time. Here are the stats from today's check up:

16 lbs 12 ounces
26 3/4 inches tall
17 1/8 inch noggin

He is very strong, with the head control and hand-eye coordination of a six month old. He is babbling a lot and on the cusp of teething so is more or less a drool factory, soaking jammies and bibs and chewing on anything that gets near his mouth.

He had his first piano lesson with Daddy last week and is learning Abbey Road as he watches Nathan rehearse on piano and guitar and sing.

Exersaucer

The kid's head control is almost ready for sitting up, but not quite. Here is a video of Henry checking out is his friend, Paige's, Exersaucer.

SAHM

Three weeks into this whole stay-at-home-mom (SAHM as opposed to SAHB, which is an entirely different thing) business and things are going well. In reality, I've essentially been home since the end of September. I was terrified that having a baby in the winter would mean depression for me. The combination of postpartum and seasonal depression, continual sleep deprivation PLUS light deprivation, well, it could have been lethal and I was very much in fear of it. Surprisingly, I've come through the winter quite well and even the addition of my job loss had not managed to suck me down into the abyss. Henry and I joined a group of other moms and kids thanks to our friend Emily and really enjoyed our first week with them. I hope that "Mommy Mondays" will be a good outlet for us as Henry learns social skills with the other children and I get to have other SAHMs to check in with for sanity sake. I did experience all of the stages of grief when I was laid off. I was angry, very angry for a long time. Then sad and worried my career was over. I was in denial for awhile, then indifferent and I think now I'm finally in the acceptance stage. I also went through a couple of my own unique stages including obsessive vaccuuming, baking and two nights of drinking, but I'm over those now, too. I am looking for a job, but the reality is that there just isn't much out there right now. Many companies and especially non-profits are expiriencing hiring freezes and lay-offs. I'm not even looking in public radio, where I've worked for the last decade, because media is being particularly hard hit by this economic depression. So, I've added another night class to my Spring schedule and hope to finish my Master's degree as soon as I can. This means, likely, student loans but there is not much else I can do right now. Henry and Nathan will be hanging out having quality Father-Son time on Monday and Thursday evenings from now through May. It'll be good for them!

At three months, Hank The Tank is growing fast and furious. He's 16 pounds already and he seems to be very healthy. We will see the dermatolgist again soon to have another look at his hemangioma, but it appears to be involuting (fixing itself) already. Yay!

Busting out of Uncle Keith's baseball shirt at 3 months

Mr. Blue Eyes

Henry is now three months old and it looks as though our little man is going to have his Momma's big blue eyes. This week has brought some new developments, including the beginning of the drooling stage. Its a good thing most baby-related items are washable!

Strong Little Bugger

Henry first rolled over at 4 weeks old and freaked us out. He didn't do it again until about 8 weeks. Now, going from tummy to back is old hat. He holds his head up with ease and is becoming less bobble-headed. He also scoots from one end of the crib to the other when on his back and just this week has managed to rotate himself 90 degrees so that his feet stick out of the crib when he's in there playing with his dangly toys. We're still a ways off from real mobility, but we had best be thinking about getting around to child-proofing the house.

Welcome, Obama!

Henry watched Obama's Inaguration live with Mommy and Daddy.

He Slept Through The Night!!!!!!

What a good baby. He slept from 8:30p last night until 7a this morning! Major milestone!! He is also cooing and babbling like crazy, rolling over immediately anytime we put him on his tummy and smiling all the time. He loves to bat at his toys in the crib, too, as documented by Grampa Merald in this excellent photograph. Once it gets above zero, we'll be outside for walks again. I can't wait.