Cereal and videos

For the past few days we've been offering Malcolm some (highly milked-down) rice cereal after his evening bottle-feeding. He's generally been happy to play with the spoon, but would make a "yuck" face if any got in his mouth, and would push the spoon away and clamp shut. We didn't want to force the issue, but were wondering when he would decide this stuff might be edible and actually seem interested in trying some (after all, he's almost six months old!). Tonight, he made the same "yuck" face when we put some on his lip, but then opened up for the spoon! He kept opening and lunging for the spoon while making the yuck (or maybe just skeptical) face at each spoonful! Funny little guy... most of it ended up on his chin, but we think some made it in. It's amazing to think that in just 6 months he will be eating the same foods as we are!


And I have two videos to present (these are especially for Grampa, who requested recent videos). First, Malcom splashing in the bath tonight! He just figured out how to do this last night!

Malcolm learns to splash in the bath! from Alison (& Andy & Malcolm) on Vimeo.

And second, a very cute boy giggling in his Bumbo a couple of weeks ago. For some reason he decided that me bobbing my head up and down was the funniest thing ever. It was very nice, especially since Daddy gets more of the giggles usually... I'm glad to have the laugh for posterity, because it is such a cute little heh-heh-heheheheheheh.

Malcolm's giggles from Alison (& Andy & Malcolm) on Vimeo.

6 month update coming later this week...

Things Malcolm has been up to...

since turning 5 months... (i.e. Mommy doesn't have time for a lot of text...)

Attending his first non-relative dinner party.

Learning to sit (pants and sweater by a knitting friend of mine).

Sitting in the bath.


Chewing his toes.

Helping me prune the roses.

Turning 5 and a half months!

and, after all that tires him out...

Napping without a swaddle*!
(doesn't the cuteness just slay you? :)

* we put him to sleep initially on his back, but since he can roll over (oh yeah, add that to the things he's been up to, though he does it inconsistently), the AAP says he can sleep on his side or his tummy now. He seems to prefer the side or 3/4-rolled positions. This is just for naps, right now, but we will be attempting un-swaddled night sleep soon!

FO: Matching hats!

Pattern: Circular Bicolour Prime Rib (Brioche) Hat by Megan Mills
For baby size, started pattern after first set of decreases (though the adult is pretty small unstretched and actually could have fit him, just very loosely!)

This was fun! Since only one color is used per round (despite the striped appearance), it was fairly easy to pick up and put down as baby allowed. I used Cascade Fixation (the green) and some brown Madil Zaffiro, the other ball of which had become Andy's Coding Gloves. The pattern has a lot of stretch, and the Fixation of course is part elastic, so Malcolm's should grow with him - until it runs out of length! Both father and son needed spring hats, and I'm hoping these will serve for a while.

Next up - gift knitting; not sure what after that. I am trying to knit from stash for a bit as I have more yarn than I really need at the moment (don't we all?).

5 months!

Wow, time sure flies. I'm pretty sure it was just the other day that I was posting that Malcolm was two months old...

This 5-month picture is late because a) my Mom was in town and we spent time with her rather than blogging, and b) I went back to work last week so wanted to spend time with Malcolm rather than blogging. b) will always be the case from now on, but I should manage to sneak in the odd blog after he goes to bed (but there goes the knitting time!) or during naps (if only they'd become > half an hour). Or, you know, during my breaks at work. Heh. Work was pretty quiet since my boss was out sick for the first couple of days, so I still got to come home early; and Andy and I availed ourselves of the free babysitting which Grandma offered, and went into Portland to our favorite restaurant (though, I'm not sure I enjoyed it as much as previously, I think they're trying a little too hard). Of course we mostly talked about Malcolm, but it was nice to go to a grownup restaurant and have time to order appetizers and desserts!

Anyway, the best bear-chair picture this month shows a somewhat grumpy Malcolm - I think he was getting sick of being posed in the chair. He has taken to whining sometimes - kind of a sheeplike bleating - which is better than all-out wailing but still kind of annoying. But annoying in a cute way, of course. We still get the all-out wailing on occasion, most often when overtired - like the other night in the bath where we had the gall to take away the washcloth he was chewing! Looks like we'll need more washcloths per bath since he has decided they're toys - I'd better get knitting!
Lots and lots of developmental stuff going on recently - not so much rolling (he's only done back-to-front a couple more times), but he's gotten very interested in sitting unsupported. He can do this for a couple of minutes, or more if we gently place a leg or pillow behind and around him. It's a whole new way to play with toys! Here he is sitting (highly supervised by Daddy!) on the kitchen counter and playing with a nearly empty plastic cookie box:


He also grins a ton and giggles a lot, especially for Daddy. One of his favorite games is to be carried by Andy, feet out, and be rushed over to me so I can kiss or raspberry those chubby feet. Here's a blurry action shot - I love this picture for the wide grin!

And one final pic - he is not hating tummy time as much now, though it still becomes crank-worthy after a few minutes. He has figured out that he can grab at toys from that position, which keeps him occupied a bit. Somehow I managed to take a really great picture of him - not sure how, but I got the camera to do that "fuzzy background" thing. As opposed to the fuzzy foreground in many others :D. Just a bit of demon-baby redeye, but that's not a big deal...


I have also done knitting (huzzah!) and will blog about it in another post... As a matter of preview, matching baby-daddy hats are very cute!

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.