Rhodes - 4 Months

Rhodes at Four Months:
Height: 25"
Weight: 14 lb. 11 oz.
Head: 42 cm
= 50th percentile in all three

Rhodes is:

• taking 5.5 - 6 oz bottles.
• I started rice cereal for the first time today (will discuss further below)
• nurses when not at daycare, about 20 minutes
• squeals and talks up a storm
• gnawing on his hands
• lights up when he sees us, but a guaranteed smile if Ryder gets in his face and talks to him
• size 1 diapers
• 6 month pj's (which is what he's in 90% of the time)
• still not much hair, I'm pretty sure he's got less than at birth
• he WAS taking last feeding about 7:30 pm, waking around 6 am.  However, over the past couple of weeks he's been waking up around 3 am to eat.  If he does this he won't wake up until 7:30 am or so.
• finally lifting his head up good while on tummy time.  For a while there if he was on his stomach he was not even studying lifting that head.  He's acting like he's trying to roll over from his stomach to back but hasn't done it yet.
• holds his head good and steady when we're holding him or have him sitting on our lap
• since it's gotten real cold recently, I've been putting him in a sleep sack to sleep in at night.  Before that I was using a blanket.  I know that's a no-no, but we have the the Angel Care monitor which gives me a major peace of mind at night.
• sitting up in the Bumbo seat.
• last but not least, he's growing toooo fast.

If JM and I are having our own convo, Ryder has no problem just talking to himself, or maybe it's his imaginary friends he is talking to.  We sat there and listened to him have a 5 minute conversation with who knows who the other night.   He was in our room just walking around and talking and just doing stuff.  Then he came out in my glasses with his drum set and started talking about "what month is this?"

Then he began to belch out the months in song, something we had no clue he knew.  I especially love his "cha cha cha" at the end.

Friday after work John Michael was all giddy about going hunting Saturday so we had to take the obvious trip to Bass Pro Shop.  I only agreed because I remembered Santa was there.  We have missed all opportunities to have the boys' pictures made with Santa so I was very excited about this opportunity.  Rhodes didn't smile, but he didn't cry either, and he wasn't scared.  Ryder wasn't scared either.  But he keeps referring to Santa as "Noah" from the Bible.  After we left he kept talking about how he told Noah what he wanted for Christmas???

I must admit, I am 100% more laid back in the outfit department this time around.  We decided at 5:00 pm we were going to have Santa pics taken and at 5:15 both boys were dressed in Christmas attire.  3 years ago, with Ryder, I would've shopped for weeks to find the perfect Santa outfit.  This time around I just ran to the closets and found anything that resembled Christmas, and slapped it on.

Ryder will have a fit if he can't control the stroller.  He's such a little boss-man.  His teacher pulled me aside the other day to tell me what a natural born leader he is.  It's no joke, if he's not in control, he's not settled.  It's true, and I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing.  All I can say is it's true.... And he takes after his father.

I guess our trip to Bass Pro paid off since JM "got him a nice one" the next morning.  He got him as soon as he was walking to his stand, before he even got his morning started.  I was shocked when I got a text at 6:30 a.m. with a picture of his deer since I knew he didn't get out there until after 6.

He left at 4 Saturday morning and came back at 8 Saturday night so I had a nice long day with the boys.  Kayla came over to do some wedding planning and helped me out a lot.  We stayed in our jammies all day and I think Ryder was starting to get delirious from being stuck inside all day.  He did a little reverse planking while eating his daily apple.

My little Rhodes-y is getting so good at holding onto things and paying attention to them.  The little squeaks this giraffe makes totally excites Rhodes.  He's growing so fast.

Rhodes had quite the night Saturday night.  I don't know what was up.  But all I know is I was up and feeding him all night.  I've never insisted on John Michael getting up with the baby since he's been born.  Sometimes I think it's just easier to do it myself.  But this night I would've insisted he take a turn.  However, Ryder was having a hard time going down too so JM went to put him down and ended up sleeping all night in there.  How nice.

The next morning around 5:45 a.m. I left this nice note on our bedroom door before he decided to come in and make himself at home and wake me up at the crack of dawn.

If you can't read it, it says, "Please let me sleep.  I got up at 12, 3, 4 when your alarm went off, and 5:15.  I've never left a note like this before, so I think he knew I was serious about my sleep.  And he left me alone too.

But that's okay, we were up and ready to leave the house for church by 8:45 the next morning.  Love those wake-up eyes Ryder gets early in the morning.

Rhodes at 4 months old

The season's first Thanksgiving lunch, at dad and Becky's.

Aunt Kayla and her nephews.

Today Rhodes is 4 months old.

November 19, 2012

In honor of his monthly birthday we tried rice cereal mixed with breast milk.  I think it was a little too cold, he didn't scream or anything, but he just didn't seem too interested.  Ryder was begging to help, which didn't actually help.  He was basically just pouring the mixture down Rhodes' bib and not getting much spoon to mouth contact.  I am wondering if Rhodes has been waking up so much because he's not getting enough to eat during the day, so I was determined to get some cereal into his belly.  So I ended up putting some in a bottle.  I made him another bottle at 7:30 for his "last" feeding so I could put some more cereal in it.  He sucked it down so we'll hope for the best tonight.  I never did put cereal in Ryder's bottle when he was a baby, so I don't really know what amount I'm supposed to do.  I'm not sure if I did too little, too much, or what.

I must say, I think that cereal gave him some serious energy.  I went to rinse out the bowl and came back to find Rhodes halfway over.  This is the closest he's come to rolling so I'd say the cereal was a success.