The Harvey Family: Blake

Well, this was my first week staying at home with Blake and it went better than expected. We kept busy with a morning activity each day as well as eating, napping, and playing throughout the rest of the day. It seems like most activities for the little ones are at 10AM so we'll have to keep shifting our schedule a little to allow for us to hit that target time the best. It has been really nice to wake up at 7AM most mornings instead 6AM like I used to for work! While being with Blake is tiring, I think I've gotten more physical activity and more rest than while I was working so I'm happy with that. We still haven't gotten the sleep training started, but it is definitely coming soon... I'm just really concerned with how it is going to go since he gets congested so easily and it takes SO MUCH for us to calm him down. It's hard to be optimistic that he'll be able to do it on his own.

This week, Blake:

started sucking his thumb (or pointer finger). He's never taken a paci so we welcome any self-soothing techniques he would like to implement. Sometimes he'll even stick both in this mouth at the same time.
was really showing more aggression and strength. He's really turning into a full fledged BOY. He swings his arms to their full reach and bats at things and gets this super intense look on his face. He also has that same look when he wants to squeeze the life out of his toys (or a water bottle if I let him have it for a few minutes). He just wants to show it who's boss.
has been rocking a lot more on his hands and knees. He moves backward until he's up against something and then will get up on his knees and rock away. He doesn't quite understand the moving forward part yet but I'm sure we'll get there soon. His arms and chest muscles have finally caught up and he's ready to support his weight. He even gets up into the plank position which is kind of like a pushup. I think the sheet that we have on the floor doesn't give him enough friction to actually move but it does keep his skin from getting all red from contact with the carpet.
went to Nursery Rhyme Time at the Palm Harbor Library on Wednesday morning and thought it was very entertaining. There were 20+ kids with their parents all in a half circle around the lady who was leading it. Blake just watched everyone for a while and then finally got into it near the end. Since it was Halloween, there were a lot of little ones dressed up which was cute and a lot of the songs were Halloween based so I'm sure we'll do different ones next time.
went to Future Flipz in Clearwater on Friday with some new friends and watched some other kids have fun on all the toys like the foam pit, the trampoline, and the bouncy house. Once he gets crawling and walking this place will be tons more fun!
took walks in his new stroller each morning after breakfast and since the weather was cooler, he absolutely loved it! He even fell asleep in the stroller a few times which is very unlike him. Either he loves the cooler weather, he loves the new stroller, or both. Either way, it was nice to have a couple minutes to get a few things done once we got home (like write this blog post).
loved watching Mommy and Daddy blow their noses. He thinks it hysterical and gets this huge grin on his face. Since it's been chilly out, I've had to blow my nose a lot more lately so he's gotten quite the show.
went in to the doctor for his follow up appointment, and his ear infection is gone, hooray! One more hooray for being done with the antibiotics! They were terrible on his little tummy and we're glad he's done with the diarrhea and his little butt can have a chance to heal up. At the doc, Blake weighed in at 21 lb, 7 oz so he's gaining about a pound a month.
outgrew his size 3 diapers and we're onto size 4s. We're really sad that Pampers doesn't have Swaddlers size 4 and 5 since they've been wonderful. The mesh lining on the inside keeps the moisture away and has kept him mostly diaper rash free. We found the size 4 Pampers Swaddlers Sensitive online and just ordered them since they were supposed to have the nice mesh lining and... they don't have it... what the heck? But they did come with the blue line wetness indicator that wasn't advertised... very confused. Either way, they seem to be working just fine so we'll take it!
finally convinced Daddy to move his jumperoo setting up to the highest one since he could stand flat footed in it at the level 2 setting. He would get going so violently in it, that he would spit up food from hours ago and he really hasn't been spitting up much at all these days.
can stand on his own while holding onto something. This sort of just happened out of the blue one night. He is very wobbly when holding your hands but when he's up against the couch or the back of a chair he can hold himself there for a while.
eyes have been turning a lighter shade of blue. Perhaps he will be a blue eyed strawberry-blonde haired boy? I guess there is still time left for his eyes to change but that isn't the color I expected... I was fully expecting brown eyes like his Daddy.