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A Story in Pictures
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Tag Archives: learning
Paul’s New Tricks
Grandma Peggy asked what new tricks Paul’s been learning. I had to think about that. Because I’m around him every day, it’s hard to pin down what’s new that I haven’t shared with you.
Paul sleeps. Paul has been sleeping for seven or eight hours at a time at night! That’s a great new trick. The problem remains that it begins at 7 p.m. (which, now that Daylight Savings Time ended, is now 6 p.m.). I wake him and feed him at 10 or 11 before I go to sleep; he still wakes up at 2 and cries for a while, but the crying is getting less; he tends to go back to sleep until 6 (or 5). I look forward to the day when he sleeps from 7 til 10 and then from 10 until 6 without waking.
Paul reaches. While he has always expressed an interest in things around him, lately he reaches for anything he sees and thinks he can reach—the piece of paper on the desk, the scriptures in my lap at church, the speck of ? on the floor, the silverware in my hand as I eat. When he’s on the floor and sees a toy across the blanket, he stretches and tries to get it. Most of the time, he is successful. Occasionally, he gets frustrated and decides he can’t reach it. No crawling yet (thank goodness) but definite development in the reaching department.
Paul sits. If I help him, he’ll stay in a sitting position for nearly 20 seconds before he falls over—and he falls over every direction. He’s getting better every day. I suspect that if I keep helping him now, he’ll figure out how to sit up all by himself in a few weeks.
Paul reads. Paul likes to pick up his book and try to turn the pages, although even the board book pages are a bit too hard to turn. He also likes to eat the books, just like in the picture I showed you last week.
Paul is such a happy and delightful little boy. We are so grateful that he is a part of our lives!
Pressure
On Tuesday, Paul and I went to Mother’s Group for the first time in a month. It was intimidating.
Paul is the second oldest baby (out of 10 or 12). One baby had cut two teeth. A few babies were busy rolling over. Most babies were starting to notice the other babies. All seemed huge! A few babies are already wearing the Crawler-sized diapers; they’re mothers said they’re already 8 kg. Paul was content to amuse himself, he hasn’t started rolling over again, and there is surely no sign of teeth (not that I’m looking forward to the teeth bit…). Paul is still about 6 kg and wearing the Infant-sized diapers.
On Wednesday morning as we ate breakfast, I was explaining to Ryan how Paul seemed to be behind. Ryan went over to Paul, who was minding his own business on his belly in the playpen, and rolled him to his back.
“Good job!” he said. Paul was excited too. Then Ryan made Paul roll over a few more times. Paul didn’t seem so excited anymore. Ryan left Paul on his belly.
As we were putting away our breakfast dishes, Paul rolled himself over to his back again.
I was delighted. I guess it takes a Dad to teach these kinds of things.
(Paul rolled over a number of times Wednesday. Thursday he didn’t do it very much, but he also seemed quite tired and fussy. Maybe Wednesday wore him out!)
An UPdate
I have not been keeping up! I have been absent from the web for two weeks. That is 10% of Paul’s life (he’s about 20 weeks old now). Here is an update.
Up in the Atmosphere
Paul has spent 46 hours up in the air in the past three weeks. Here’s the rundown of where he flew and how long it took:
- Melbourne to Sydney: 1.5 hours
- Sydney to San Francisco: 12 hours
- San Francisco to Chicago: 5 hours
- Chicago to Dallas: 2 hours
- Dallas to Denver: 1.5 hours
- Denver to Salt Lake City: 1 hour
- Salt Lake City to Chicago: 3.5 hours
- Chicago to San Francisco: 5 hours
- San Francisco to Sydney: 13 hours
- Sydney to Melbourne: 1.5 hours
Total: 46 hours in the air
Note: These totals do not include the time spent sitting in airplanes waiting to take off or waiting to disembark; they only include the flight times between the destinations. These totals also do not include the time spent sitting in airports, driving to airports, and packing to go to the airport (although Paul didn’t do much in the way of helping pack). All in all, we spent a lot of time travelling lately! I am so grateful that Paul was such a good sport.
Family Roundup
Paul has met all 5 of his grandparents/great-grandparents, 10 of 11 aunts and uncles (although some were only briefly met so there was no time to spit up on them), and all 8 of his cousins. (Uncle Carl, we missed you!)
Upset
Today I took Paul in for his next round of immunizations. I decided to have it done today rather than Friday (the next available day) because his schedule is already off; why not? He screamed while he got the shots, but he calmed down relatively well. He seems extra tired and a little sore. I think his extra chubbiness might help him not hurt as much as he did last time. I am glad it didn’t appear to be as bad as last time: I felt so mean!
Up Next
I have about 30 pictures to post.
For some reason, I thought I’d have time to post pictures while I was on my trip. I didn’t. In the coming days, I’ll be processing pictures of Paul with his Grandpa Sorenson, his cousins Daniel and Jessica, his Papa Paul and Grandma Peggy, his four Reid cousins, and his cousins Leah and Samuel. I also have a new family picture. Unfortunately, I only caught a few of the aunts and uncles on camera.
Check back often—and scroll down to make sure you didn’t miss a post. I’ll post the pictures as I get to them. (Each picture takes 10-30 minutes to process and it’s a matter of finding time amid all the other errands I need to do this week and next.)
Airplane!
Paul did not cry or fuss very much during his first 24 hours of airplane travel, much to his parents’ delight. He slept a lot. A fellow traveler congratulated us on having such a “good baby.” Does that mean that he would have been a “bad” baby had he cried? Would that have meant that we are “bad” parents?
After day one in his home country, Paul has met 2 of 5 grandparents/great-grandparents, 2 of 11 aunts/uncles, and 2 of 8 cousins.
We’ll make sure to take pictures (I haven’t really done so yet). I’ll post them when I get a chance to do so!
Four-Month Checkup
Since we’ll be gone next week, we had Paul’s four-month update yesterday. It’s only been three weeks since the last one, but here are his stats:
- Weight: 5860 grams (gain of 640 grams; 15th percentile)
- Length: 61 cm (25th percentile)
- Head circumference: 41 cm (25th percentile)
Here’s what he can do (taken from his four-month “gross motor development” page in his Child Health Record):
Supine (on his back)
- Head in midline
- Waves arms and legs symmetrically
- Hands open loosely
- Pulled to sit, no head lag
- Head held erect and steady for many seconds
- Ventral suspension, head about body
Prone (on his belly)
- Lifts head and chest well up
- Standing, will take some weight (he’s really good at this!)
Vision and fine motor
- Visually very alert
- Follows adult’s movement within visual field
- Follows dangling ball horizontally side to side and vertically from chest to brow
- Converges eyes as dangling ball moves up to face
- Defensive blink shown
- Holds ratter for a few moments with meaningful grasp
- Watches own hand movements in midline
Language, Speech and Hearing
- Responds to sounds
- Turns eyes and head toward sound
- Eye contact and turn talking with carer
- Vocalizes using single vowel sounds
- 2 or more different sounds
Social behavior and play
- Reacts to familiar situations—coos, smiles, excited movements
He “failed” the rolling prone to supine milestone, but he’s not yet four months. Maybe he’ll make it in the next few weeks. (He rolled over a few weeks ago, but he’s acting like he’s forgotten now, so I don’t think it counts…)
Forgetful?
Paul has apparently forgotten how to roll over.
He used to roll over from his front to his back every day. He hasn’t done it for almost two weeks. Now he stays happy on his tummy for almost 10 minutes, but then he gets tired and whines. Loudly. But he won’t roll over.
Is this regression normal?
Roll Over
I’m Two!
I am two months old today. I’ve decided to still be a cute, smiley boy. I just had a bad day the other day.
Here are some pictures of me from the past few weeks.
Cute Me in Late November
Here are some cute pictures of me from the end of November.
Cute Me in Early December
Here are some cute pictures of me from early December. I smiled at Cowboy Joe for the first time. I’m learning how to push up on my arms and look around.
I went to the nurse. She weighed me and measured me. Here are my measurements:
- Weight: 4390 grams (10th percentile)
- Length: 57 cm (35th percentile)
- Head circumference: 38 cm (10th percentile)
I’m long and skinny, but you already knew that.
Smiles
Incipe, parve puer, risu cognoscere matrem.
Begin, baby boy, to recognize your mother with a smile.
—-Virgil, Eclogues: Book 4, Line 60
I went shopping without the family on Saturday. Shortly after I came home, I went to change Paul’s diaper. As I put him on the change table, he looked up at me and smiled! It was delightful.
There is chance it was still a reflexive smile and he didn’t recognize me or intend to smile. But it was delightful all the same. I look forward to more!