4 Months old

This goofy boy is 4 months old!

14 pounds and 25 inches with a head in the 84th percentile 

It has been quite the month in Russell world. He has been busy growing and learning! It was also the first full month of Stephen working and Russell being stuck with me all day long. I think he gets tired of seeing my face because he has the biggest smiles when people start coming home. 

This month has been a month of sleeping phases. We've gone through a 'needs to be actively rocked back to sleep after nightly wakings/feedings ' phase, a 'nursing every 2 hours' phase, and are currently battling the 'needs a swaddle so I don't punch myself awake, but keep breaking out of them' phase. It has been a very tiring month. Luckily he has been napping better so I get some down time during the day!

  

Reason we need a swaddle still- wakes him up every time!

Tummy time is still not a favorite activity in Russell world. Everyone in the house knows when he is doing tummy time. His screams and grunts are very loud. He is getting in pretty good head lifts when he isn't too busy sucking on his fist. He also rolled over for the first time the day after his 4 month birthday! He is far from mastering the skill, but will be very happy when he can end tummy time himself. (Now three days later he has mastered the skills and tummy time lasts about 3 seconds before he rolls over...)

He is getting more and more control over his body! He prefers to be standing until his legs get really tired. He also enjoys sitting on his own (with support). He has been actively reaching for things and picking up some of his toys.

Sitting on the couch

Sitting on the pew at church

Playing with his toy

Reaching for Mr. Frog and the leaves

This has been the month of the tongue as well. He has his tongue sticking out most of the time. He thinks he is so funny!

As his personality develops, we have started to discover things that he likes and things that he hates.

Likes:

Being naked... (he will chat your ear off while he is naked during a diaper change)

Along the same note; Tubs- he kicks and splashes away

Music- "Wheels on the Bus" and "Patty Cake" for entertainment, "All About That Bass" when he is really angry to calm him down, and "The Russell Song" to calm when he is irritated and at night to put him to sleep.

Being around the action- we brought out his high chair so he could join us during dinner

Chewing/ licking things- if it can easily reach his mouth, it will be covered in saliva

Dislikes:

Being at church for 3 hours... 1st picture is hour 1, 2nd picture is hour 3

 Walking down the stairs- he will tense up and grunt the whole trip down. Scared of heights? He does the same thing if he is outside in the cold wind...

Putting clothes over his head- maybe because his head is large, but if it takes longer than 2 seconds to get it over, he starts to scream.

His skin- poor guy is battling cradle cap and eczema on his face. he tries to scratch it, so his dad put mitten on him which also go in the dislikes category.

We are still waiting for a real laugh from Mr. Russell. Either we just aren't funny enough for him or he is just a squealer when happy. His noises are pretty dang cute though. 

It has been such a fun month watching him grow and learn so much. We know that he is only going to get smarter and more entertaining every day!