4.5 months and on a roll

Sometime around now, Malcolm is 4 and a half months old! So we went back to the bear chair.

Playing with Bo the bear is old hat by now:
look at those chubby feet! Compare this picture to his 4-week chair picture :)

He likes to have dinner with us when his naps allow (though if he's napping during dinner, we honestly don't mind eating just the two of us either), sitting in the Bumbo, trying to chew on Sophie le Giraffe. He's started watching us eat, but not with any particular longing to join in yet, we think. We have a (belated) pediatrician appointment on Friday (his doctor had surgery and so his 4-month appt was delayed) and will ask about her philosophy on starting solids. Even if we wait til 6 months, that's not too long now! Andy is excited to cook baby food and introduce Malcolm to new tastes.

He has also started enjoying his new Exersaucer - though mostly it is a venue for him to practice standing (he LOVES to stand, though not so much to sit or be on his tummy) without Mommy or Daddy holding him, and chew on his hands or the towels we sometimes use to prop him up. But he has discovered one of the toys on it, and will sometimes play with an intense look of concentration:

Finally, today Malcolm and I watched the inauguration (well, it was interrupted by a diaper change right at the beginning of the inaugural address, unfortunately, but we caught most of it). I was glad to be able to watch history being made, but Malcolm was not so interested, so spent most of the time on his playmat. I guess he wanted to get my attention, because towards the end of the ceremony his playing got especially thrashy and he rolled over onto his tummy! He looked surprised and pleased for a few moments and then began the "I hate tummy time" crankies. Now, we'll have to see if that was a fluke or if we really have a roller on our hands! It hasn't happened again so far...

Milestones

We are loving 4 months over here! Malcolm is so smiley (when he's not cranky), and has started reliably giggling (usually at Daddy's wacky antics). He now actually likes going out and about, maybe better than staying in - we made a fun and calorific expedition downtown over the weekend - Malcolm's first ice cream shop, city-block-wide-bookstore, and gourmet drinking chocolate cafe. He hung out in the front carrier looking around, took a nap there, had a snack in the Art section of Powells, and enjoyed his first streetcar ride.The past week or so he has achieved some milestones!

He finally got to pet the cats, actually getting a handful of Sasha's fur and then her collar. She was remarkably patient. Cirrus is a little more skittish, but a couple of days later also got grabbed a little bit.
He is working on mobility - and while we don't have consistent rolling and certainly no crawling, he can rotate like clock hands while working on rolling onto his side.

The other day he started in this position, looking at that kooky baby in the mirror:

And pulling up his knees for the side roll practice, which also served to rotate him:

After a few minutes of this, he was almost 180 degrees around:And then 270 degrees:
And a full 360, yeah!
Self-satisfied portrait in the mirror, with new favorite toy Tigger (who is an amusingly bizarre hybrid of classic Tigger and a fuzzy beach ball gifted from Uncle Carl)

The final milestone explains why he's been so into gnawing on his hands, our noses, our chins, and Daddy's delicious head...
Malcolm has his first tooth! Yes, at only 4 months old, the bottom middle left tooth has popped through just this week. We noticed last week that his gnawing had become distinctly sharp, and a few days later the tooth came through. I was also an early teether - it seems to run in my Mom's family. We are hoping this explains some of his crankiness!

Of course I couldn't get a picture - the camera has a bit of a delay and he kept getting his tongue and lips in the way. But there is definitely a millimeter or so of white (sharp!) tooth poking up. We wonder if the next one is starting because he's still quite gnaw-ish and more cranky today. Though he did enjoy an outing to the local sushi place for dinner tonight

4 months!

Since I can't remember how many weeks old Malcolm is any more (er, 18? 19?), I guess it's time to go to monthly pictures. I'll still try to put something up weekly, though, since his skills are developing faster than ever. And I'm even getting back into knitting a bit (we'll see how long this lasts since I'm going back to work in a few weeks too) so maybe there will be actual knitting-related posts as well.

Malcolm turned 4 months old (on January 3) while we were in Boston at my folks'. So for this picture, he's in a different chair, and the part of Bo the Bear will be played by "Rexer", my childhood stuffed T-rex.


His pants were made by Grandma ("Loisknits" on Ravelry), from the "Pimp My Longies" pattern (Mom, let me know if that isn't the right link). See how she pimped 'em? This way we know which side the short rows (in the bum) are on.

They are super soft and comfy - she also made Andy a sweater from the same yarn. I'll have to get a picture of "the boys" in their matching wear.

We had a great time: made it to the airport (had to put chains on the car to get out of the neighborhood, but the highways were OK), did OK on the plane (only 3 meltdowns), and on the return trip (also 3 meltdowns, but shorter in duration). Vacation was nice and relaxing, and Malcolm(and us!) really enjoyed hanging out with his uncles, aunts, grandparents, cousins, and various kinds of 2nd cousins with a great aunt and other friends thrown in there too.

Well, someone's nap is ending so I will wrap this up, but will try to make another entry later this weekend.