Six Weeks and Counting

I don't know how the dog managed to get the blanket over himself, but he apparently wanted to hide from something...
Alex at a little over six weeks old
My friend Carolyn took some really nice pictures of Alex and I on Thursday afternoon. I wanted some pictures of Alex and I where he wasn't screaming and I looked somewhat nice.
Alex and his little friend Abigail. Abigail is almost 6 months old. Look at the difference between them.


Finally, some quiet time with his daddy.

Well, my little man has hit the six week mark (as I am typing this, he is actually closer to 7 weeks) and I feel the time is just flying by. He has developed so much in just the 6 1/2 weeks he has been with us it is hard to capture it all.

He is moving his little arms and legs around almost constantly. When I am feeding him it is like the battle of the wills now with me trying to control his arms and him trying to move them where I don't want them (mainly covering his face). He is grabbing onto things more now..like my hair, my shirt, etc, and boy does he have a really strong grip. He also has started reaching for things. He hits his rattle bee on his activity mat and he has clocked Henry in the nose and eye quite a few times by now. He is awake more during the day, which means I don't get much done.... His favorite "accessory" seems to be his swing. The boy can rock back and forth in his swing for hours and be content. In fact during the day, it is the ONLY thing he will be content in. It is too bad that the swing is so big and bulky and I can't carry it around with me... He won't sleep in his pac n play during the day (when I lay him down he just wakes up) and fusses when I put him in his bouncer...

He is a really good sleeper (at night). He typically goes down around 9/9:30 PM and sleeps until 12 AM or 1 AM and then goes right back to sleep until about 6ish. I also think he is grasping the concept of day vs. night. During the day he won't hear of sleeping in his pack n play. When I put him down he wakes up and fusses until someone picks him up. At night, when we put him down he does wake up, but he is so good about putting himself back to sleep. He doesn't fuss, just "talks" to himself and eventually he falls asleep.

Henry and I are convinced that Alex will be a thumb sucker. We have seen on multiple occasions where Alex has been rooting around at his fist by his mouth as if he is looking for his thumb. Until yesterday, he hadn't figured out that the thumb should go in the mouth, not around it. Yesterday however, there was a breakthrough in the thumb sucking department. Henry was holding him and I looked over and what was in Alex's mouth, but his thumb! We figured it was inevitable as both Henry and I were thumb suckers in our youth..now we have to figure out how to break him of the habit if he is still sucking it in toddler hood....

Overall Alex is a really good baby. After all the horror stories I had heard of my babyhood from my parents, I had expected Alex to be just as bad. Thankfully, he has inherited his father's disposition and is pretty mellow for the most part. I won't sugar coat it though...he does certainly have his moments where he shrieks and turns red and we have no idea what he wants or what is wrong. Mainly this happens when I am alone with him.. They say that crying peaks at 6 weeks, so I am hoping that as he gets older, he will be able to entertain himself more with toys and not get as upset as quickly..

Alex has also started smiling! It isn't on demand and if you look away for even a second you may miss it, but he has definitely started smiling in response to us. It is the most beautiful thing...to get a huge toothless smile out of him. He has also added a new sound to his vocabulary. It sounds something like "Agoo" and he is so proud of himself when he says it, he ends up smiling at himself. He will sit in one of our arms and say "Agoo" three of four times in a row with this really serious expression on his face as if he is telling us some important story. His facial expressions are hilarious. He has the most expressive face. I will have to capture some of them on video and figure out how to post it on the blog so you all can see.

Life has been extra challenging this week since Henry started his job on Tuesday. I got my first look at what being a full time stay at home mom is like. Needless to say, I did not get much done at all cleaning wise. Not only was it Henry's first week at work, but Henry was also gone last weekend to help his parents finalize stuff at his grandmother's house. My brother and Henry left on Saturday and helped his parents pack furniture and boxes and then Uhauled it back across the state on Sunday. Then Henry's dad fell on Wednesday while he was unpacking the car from the trip and managed to break his hip, so not only does Henry have a 1+ hour commute each way, but he had to take his dad to the emergency room on Wednesday and then we were there on Thursday for his surgery. He is being released today from the hospital and will be in a rehab center for about six weeks....

We have somewhat started our house hunt. I have contacted a real estate agent and she has started sending us listing of homes that we might be interested in. We are still not actively looking because we are still not sure what is happening with the Merck position. Henry and the hiring manager for Merck have been playing phone tag since Wednesday. Hopefully they will speak sometime this weekend. Until we have a better idea if this Merck position will happen or not, we don't want to become vested too much in one area. I am chomping at the bit to buy a house and settle down though......