A Flurry of Firsts

Today, on the way to Babies R Us, Justin was sitting in his car seat and he blew a raspberry. I'm pretty sure it was an accident. Also, he has become fascinated with Haydee and loves to pet her. I have to help him so that he doesn't bop her in the head, but we get big smiles from it.

The reason we were going to Babies R Us was to get some replacement hardware for his new highchair. Now he can sit at the table with us while we eat. I put a bunch of his toys on the tray and he seems to like it a lot, but he can get overstimulated and fussy if we're not careful.

He can reliably roll over from front to back and back to front now. I think he will start with the consonant sounds any day now. I've also started tossing him in the air. He loves it about 80% of the time, and the other 20% he's not so sure.

I put up four new pictures of Justin in his highchair on the gallery.

Late-night picture post

It's late so I'll make this quick. There are three new picutes up from our trip to Dallas.

Grab Your Feet

Justin has started grabbing his feet whenever we are changing him. I have uploaded three pictures to the gallery and one of them shows him grabbing his feet before his bath.

4 Month Well Baby Visit

We went to the doctor's office this morning for Justin's four month checkup. He's doing great. Check this out though, remember how last time I mentioned that he has a small head (22 percentile)? Well his measurements now are 88% for height and 15%! for head size. His head is shrinking!

But seriously folks, he isn't having any health problems and, his lower jaw seems to be growing into better alignment. He weighs 16 lbs. 5 oz. now. We will probably introduce solid foods sometime during the next month.

Sitting up like a big kid and pictures

The other day I took Justin and Haydee out for a walk. This is not unusual, but for the first time, Justin sat in the stroller without the infant seat installed. I think that makes him a big kid now.

Jenny and I started looking at high chairs today. Justin is facinated with anything we eat. He wants it SO bad he can almost taste it.

Eleven(!) pictures have been added to the gallery. They are awesome.

Remote Site Sitting

Justin had his first session of babysitting away from home tonight. Jenny and I went to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat while Justin hung out with Chris and Kristie Schweyer over at their apartment. Apparently all went well. Justin drank a whole bottle of milk, had a smile session with Chris, and drove their cat up onto the cabinetry. And Bob, Kristie informs us that he likes the Saints by 3 points this weekend. He would not be swayed from this position.

Pics, Piano, Blood, and the Dr.'s Office

Justin's jaw and tongue are both still fine and nothing to worry about says Justin's ENT doctor. We went back for a three month visit to make sure everything was growing in the proper direction and everything is fine. The doctor wants to see him again in a year.

A few days ago, while I was trimming Justin's finger nails I accidentally snipped the tip of his thumb and drew blood. He was upset by this, but he settled down quicker than I expected. We had to create a tiny makeshift bandage for the wound so he wouldn't keep tearing it open. He took a nap and that let the blood clot enough to take the bandage off. His first bo-bo doesn't seem to bother him at all which is good so I don't feel so bad about almost cutting his opposable thumb off.

On a more positive note (pun intended), Justin has realized that if he bangs on the piano keys they make noise. He loves this. Usually when I first sit down with him he wants to grab the music notes off the sheet music. When he figures out that he can't get them, he takes notice of the keys and if I play a little, he remembers and starts banging away, squealing the whole time.

Justin, Jenny, Grandpa Bob, Grandma Aylie, and I all went down to the Anclote River park today and I uploaded one picture to the gallery of everyone fawning over the baby. Go check it out.

Justin Flirts With Bethany

Justin went to have his first haircut today. All the ladies at the salon ohhed and ahhed at all his hair, then my hairdresser Bethany cut about half his hair off. He's more blonde now. There are new before and after pictures in the gallery.

Friendly Neigborhood Restaurant

So last night we took Justin out to a restaurant for dinner. I had taken him to lunch before at a very informal place on the day we went to the Dali museum, but this was a step up: Applebees. OK, a small step up. Jenny was very nervous about taking him out because she was afraid we might have to keep switching off taking him out of the restaurant and we'd end up eating alone. Luckily, Applebees is very loud on a Saturday night. Even when he did complain a little bit towards the end of the meal, no one could hear him anyway. We had a very nice time and Justin drooled and flirted with the lade sitting two tables back. A good time was had by all.

Cuteness defined

When Grandma Marx says "He's the most beautiful baby I've ever seen, except for you, of course." that doesn't move me. When Grandma Boitmann says "Isn't he the cutest baby in the world?" it's expected. But when Kristie Schweyer says to her cat Zoe "What's wrong Zoe? Are you upset that you're not the cutest thing in the apartment anymore?" we have arrived at a new, rarified, level of cuteness.

Edification

Some important firsts happened yesterday. Justin went to his first museum, his first restaurant, and went to Haslam's for the first time.

My friend Beau was visiting and he is a big Salvadore Dali fan so we went down to the Dali museum in St. Petersburg. Justin could appreciate the skill and thought that went into the works of Dali, but surrealism just doesn't move him emotionally. Maybe he'll come around one day.

After meeting us at the museum, Denis accompanied us to lunch at The Garden, a very nice downtown restaurant. I had the catch of the day, mahi mahi, and Justin had milk. He was flirting with the old ladies at the next table, then he took a nap.

We made a very quick stop (for our family) at Haslam's Bookstore, an evil establishment with black magic laid on its very aisles that causes anyone with the last name Marx to find one book that we simply have to buy every five minutes. We were in the store for twenty minutes. . . Justin liked the children's section, if you can believe it.

Many pictures were taken on Christmas day and the days immediately prior and after. Of these, the majority are in Louisiana and I will endevour to get a good sample online in the next day or two.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Winter Solstice

We just got home from Justin's first winter solstice stargazing night. He was a bit upset when we got to the field, but after Jenny and I walked him around for a while he settled down and napped while we looked at the stars, ate chocolate-penut butter balls, and drank hot chocolate (thank you Chris and Kristie). Maybe next year Justin will look at the stars a bit.

He's Going To Be Famous

PurpleStork.com, the company that made Justin's birth announcements, sent me an email today asking if it would be alright if they used his announcement in the card portfolio on their website. They said "We thought your card turned out so nice...in fact, it was one of our favorites!" So I'll let you know when they update their website.

A Day In the Life

Justin had his first trip to H&R Trains (the #1 train store in the Tampa Bay area) today. He hung out and looked around while I worked on his LGB train with help from the friendly employee Dave. When he started getting fussy, one of the other employees picked him up and quieted him a little bit.

The epic battle: Man vs. Sheep continues. We will prevail. . .yes, we . will . prevail. (Justin likes dramatic repetition).

You Can't Trust Sheep You Know. . .

Justin is sitting in his chair right now locked in mortal combat with his sheep toy. Staring with furrowed brow at the sheep toy hanging from the toy bar, he's beating the sheep repeatedly with his left hand, then turning to face the pig, which he can't figure out how to hit because it's on his right side. He's getting frustrated, but you can see him trying to work out why he can hit the sheep, but not the pig. OK, he got very frustrated and now I have to go wrap him up.

One New Picture

I added one picture to the gallery.

Grabby McGraberton

Justin has started grabbing onto any object that his hand happens to hit. Right now he's sitting on my lap, gripping my watch in one hand and his clothes in the other. He's also become pretty adept at getting his fist up by his mouth where he can try to eat it.

Last night when I wrapped him up for bed I left one of his arms free so he could comfrt himself during the night. It worked great! I hope he's this easy to potty train.

He can see clearly now. . .

Justin can now track Jenny and I as we move around the room. He can even keep track of us when we are up to fifteen feet away from him. He's staring at us a lot more now that he can keep us in sight.

2 month well baby visit

We just got back from Justin's 2 month check-up and everything is looking good. He is now 24 and 1/4 inches tall (95 percentile!), weighs 13 lbs. 4 oz. (88 percentile), and his head size is 15 inches (20 percentile). As you can see from the stats, he's going to be very tall, right on target with regard to weight vs. height, and his head will be very small. Don't tell Jenny I said that.

At this visit he also got 4 imunization shots. After the shots he cried for about two minutes, then went back to sleep in his car seat.

He's starting to drool a lot so we keep burp cloths handy at all times. One of the best new things is that he seems to be aware of Jenny and I and there are times when he gets upset unless he can see one or the other of us.

I've uploaded 5 new pictures. Sorry for the delay.

First Weekday Outing

Well, Justin and I went down to hang out at Emerald City for the first time yesterday. We had to set up the Christmas LEGO train display and teach some of the employees how to play Ticket to Ride. This was an important milestone because we were going to be out of the house long enough that he would require some food before we got home. This was the first time I've fed him outside the house and things went very smoothly. He was calm while I set up the display, then got hungry and fussy so I fed him, then he took a nap while we played the game, waking up in time to give me really poor advice on which cards to draw. Thanks a lot son! He even smiled and laughed (or as close to laughing as he gets right now) when Paul and Colin were giving him some attention. What a happy baby.

I know that many of you are clamoring for more pictures, especially from his two month birthday. I should be able to get two or three pictures online tonight, but it may be pretty late.