Thumbs Up

It's finally happened. Our little man has discovered the thumb on his hand, and its apparent deliciousness. He had seemingly accidentally found it and sucked it a few times in the last month or two, but in the last two days (and especially today) he has really gone to town on that sucker. Which, as a breastfeeding mom of a baby that hates pacifiers other than the mammary variety, I am A-OK with. When he needs soothing and won't take a pacifier, I've always had to nurse him. Now hopefully he can soothe himself a bit and give Mommy's parts a rest. I know everyone has their own opinion about thumbsucking. Byron has confessed that he was an avid thumbsucker as a kid, a habit which was apparently hard to break. Personally I don't remember being one myself (but I do remember chewing on my hair... which of course sounds gross now). We'll see if this thumbsucking continues - given his love of sucking on my pinkie, I'm pretty sure it will.

flying with mom

flying with mom, originally uploaded by Click Click Chick.

...in an attempt to stop some fussin', I lifted him up into the air above my head. Which did indeed stop the fussing. But what this photo misses is the glob of drool which dripped onto my face from his drooly mouth just moments later....Ah, babies.

A happy drooler

a happy drooler, originally uploaded by Click Click Chick.

This photo is a testament to just how drooly our little man has become - note the drip about to come off his chin! This photo also shows just how smiley he has become - he'll almost always smile back at you when you smile at him. And he gets especially smiley when Byron comes home from school, he just grins and grins at him. He has also inexplicably taken to smiling at the ceiling fan above our bed. Go figure. Developmentally, things are progressing well too - Leo is really becoming much more aware of his surroundings. Those mobiles and crib toys have become mesmerizing for him. There's one musical sun toy that we have attached above his changing table, and if you change him without turning it on he get visibly disappointed. He's just about achieved complete neck control, and pushes himself up quite well when on his tummy. And he loooooooves to stand up, with just his hands held for balance. An early walker, I bet. He's just starting to be able to control his hands well, and he loves to suck/chew on them. He gets noticeably better at grabbing things with each passing day. Pretty soon he'll be handy enough to mow the lawn or something and earn his keep! :)

3 Months Old!

toes in the grass, originally uploaded by lisiegrin.

Yeah, he's three months old now. Wild, eh?
Yesterday we had lunch in Notre Dame Stadium's press box, as part of Byron's orientation. We then got to tour the locker room and field, where Leo enjoyed putting his toes all over the field's grass. More pictures can be found on my Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/clickclickchic
And of course, everyone in the MBA program loves Leo - he's been a happy, calm baby at every event we went to this week, so they all think he's miraculously good! They just don't see him in the car on the way home, wailing....

Sigh.

Well the last several days in the Kern household have been less than idyllic. Leo has been pretty fussy all day long, and has become suddenly incapable of napping for any reasonable period of time. Sigh. Which has been compounded by the fact that he has suddenly become pretty chompy when eating, which has put dear old Mom in an unpleasant state of pain, and less enthused about nursing him when he fusses. Overall, a real dandy couple of days. On the upside, he's continued to be pretty good at night (thank god), just taking a little longer to fall asleep, but not waking up more than usual. I don't know if it's teething pain (our little man has become quite the drooler, which is supposedly a symptom of teething) or what, but let's all hope it stops soon, and our cute pleasant baby comes back.....

Two tongues and a toot

Two tongues and a toot, originally uploaded by lisiegrin.

Some well timed video of Leo responding to Daddy's tongue antics...

The Daddy Chair

Yes, I've found that Leo's favorite chair is me. the Boppy pillow provides a nice leg rest and he can just lean back on my chest. Comfy for both of us, and daddy's arms get a rest from holding him.

Leo continues to be more and more interested in the things around him - he's even managed to pull the little ring on the musical toy in his play pen to start up the tunes a few times. We're pretty sure it's only partly intentional, but he definitely looks over at it when the music plays.

His hair is getting a little darker day by day too... looks like he's gotten some reddish coloring like I have in my beard, so he may be a blue-eyed, auburn-haired charmer before too much longer!

Other news of the "Yay!" variety - Leo is pretty consistently sleeping very soundly at night, only waking up a few times, and many nights doesn't even require a diaper change. Exciting stuff! Now if we could just get him to nap on his own instead of needing to be in a lap...