The Harvey Family: Blake

Lindsay and Travis had their baby! Little Vernon James was born on 11/13/12 at 3:13AM, 6 lb and 20 in long. He was 4 days early and surprised everyone at being a boy since he was so tiny. After a bout with jaundice he is doing well and finally home with his mommy and daddy.

Tristan had his first birthday this week and has accomplished so much in his first year. He is such a cute and busy little boy. We're sad we couldn't be there to celebrate but the pictures from his smash the cake were so adorable. His birthday party was dragons and princesses themed and his little dragon spine is so so cute.

This week, Blake:

has been clapping a lot! He doesn't associate it with praise or doing something good. He just does it because he can... anytime his hands are free... or if one hand is free he claps it against the other one.
started waving bye. He doesn't exactly wave, he just holds his hand out in front of him. It took me a while to figure out what he was doing since he doesn't move it and he doesn't do it to actually say bye.
went to the park again and went in the baby swing and went a little higher than before. He also got so comfy that he just lounged back in the seat and rested his head... it was pretty funny.
started sleeping in his crib at night. We entered Phase 2 of sleep training and it went pretty well overall. The first 2 nights were filled with tears but only for a short time. We decided to do the progressive waiting technique where you put him in the crib awake and leave the room. After 1 minute you go back in and calm him down without picking him up, then leave the room again. The next time you wait 3 minutes, then 5, and so on (you can pick whatever lengths you want as long as they increase in time, or else he'll learn that you always come back in after X amount of time). On nights 1 and 2 he fell asleep after the 5 minute check. Then on night 3 he just whimpered a little as I put him into the crib and then rolled over and went to sleep. He seems to have gotten the hang of it quickly which is great, and in the end I think there will be much less tears overall.
learned how to get into a sitting position from his belly. He figured it out the first time during his crying fit during sleep training the second night. When I went in to check on him after the 3 minute wait, I went to rub his tummy or back and he was actually sitting up. It was a couple days later before he started doing it out in the living room, but since then he goes between lying down and sitting up a lot.
had to have his crib lowered from position 4 down to position 2 because of the bullet point above. It is much harder to get him down there but hopefully if he learns to pull himself up, he won't be able to go up and over the rails.
took stroller rides in the mornings again and just loved looking around, relaxing and watching everyone who is out and about.
has been falling asleep in his carseat almost every time he's in there longer than 5 minutes. That's fine with me since it is much better than being fussy.
started size 4 Pampers Cruisers mixed in with the Swaddlers to see if they're going to be ok for him since they're the logical next step once he starts crawling/walking. He'll probably be in size 4 for a while since they're supposed to go up to 37 lbs. So far they seem to be working out just fine... the one downside is that they don't have that awesome stripe that turns blue when it gets wet. We're definitely going to miss that feature!
likes to take steps while you're holding both his hands. He finally started stepping to gain his balance again instead of just leaning when you'd move his arms. He even wants to let go of both your hands and try and stand on his own. He's really started getting a lot more independent and wants to be able to move on his own.
went back to the Cardiologist for his followup after 6 months and the doctor said he no longer hears the heart murmur and said his ECG looked perfectly normal and his blood is 100% oxygenated which is great (anything over 94% is normal). So I guess that is one less thing to worry about for now. =)
started really showing a preference for the color yellow. Chris picked up on it when he'd reach through his cube toy to touch the backside of one of the toys which is only yellow on the back. Since then we've noticed him singling out more yellow things. When we went to the doc this week, he got to pick a toy out of the bin and out of all the colors he picked the lone yellow one.
started sleeping on his tummy. With the whole sleep training thing, he seems to be able to comfort himself by rolling onto his tummy just like his daddy. He still likes his side a lot too and he likes to have his head pressed up against something. Since we don't give him anything in the crib except a couple small blankets, he likes to get right up against the side of the crib.