Cha-cha-cha changes

Oscar has changed an insane amount since we last blogged. He’s now so clearly a 4-month-old baby, with interests and feelings and moods and motor skills, and no longer an infant. Since I really wanted to use this blog as a digital baby book and Oscar is changing at such a huge rate, I want to and feel like I need to blog every week… let’s see how far I get now that I’ve rededicated myself to the game. I feel obligated to go back and recap everything that’s changed in his life, and all he’s done in the last month or two, but if I do that, then I’ll never catch up. So, we move on (but maybe just maybe I’ll backfill with some photos and short stories later).

I absolutely love bathtime!

My cat Ramona guards me whenever I play on the floor.

But in the last couple of weeks, Oscar has really advanced:

getting really super good at tummy time. No more instant crying, can hang out for a long time and play with toys and completely arch his back to lift up his head super high and watch things. Jason is still gun-shy about the early days of tummy time which resulted in instant meltdown, but luckily he gets tummy time at school at lot

started rolling from stomach to back, but only when frustrated. This is a tough one for me and Jason, letting Oscar get pissed off enough to fling himself onto his back, we typically want to swoop in and help him flip over because he’s whining and about to cry. But if you leave him long enough, the hips start going and he pulls his legs and arms under his body and whoop, onto the back. It only happens occasionally, but it’s awesome to see.

becoming the master of his hands. Oscar spends a lot of time feeling adult hands, and waving his hands back and forth in front of his face, watching how they move. And he’s getting really good at grasping toys, and holding onto them for dear life. And grabbing handfuls of hair and holding onto those for dear life too... that part sucks. I'm pretty sick and tired of having to pull back my hair all the time, but there you go

self-soothing. With the new mastery of hands, Oscar has gone from entire fist in mouth to fingers in mouth to getting the glorious thumb into his mouth. Right now, he loves to suck on his right thumb, but the only way to keep the right thumb in his mouth is to hold his right hand using his left hand - sucking his thumb is a two-handed mess of slobber. Adorable.

sleeping through the night. This is a mixed blessing, man oh man do I love the extra, contiguous sleep, but man oh man does this situation monkey with my breast milk supply. Depending on the time when he first goes to sleep (we do not yet have rigorous bedtimes), he will sleep 5-9 hours before waking up, or staying asleep but fussing enough to wake me up because he needs to be fed or changed. Such a big boy!

poop. Starting around 2 weeks old, Oscar has pooped about every 4-5 days. I found this situation to be distressing, but was informed by the pediatrician that breastfed babies can go up to a week without a bowel movement. Fewer messy diapers would be great, except Oscar was clearly uncomfortable for about 2 whole days before “the big one” and would fart and kick and yell about all the gas trapped in his body. That part was super lame. But as of about a week ago, all of the sudden Oscar’s GI tract decided “hey, I feel like pooping more often”. And now it’s twice a day constitutionals. How things change.






sitting. Pretty much his whole life, Oscar has been a fan of being straight.  No bending at the waist, must be straight. Once he started pooping, then he was a bigger fan of bending at the waist, which opens up the whole brave world of sitting. Lucky for us, there's this great baby torture device called the Bumbo (god I hate the names of baby stuff) which props up a baby in a sitting position so they can work on head strength and working the arms while sitting.  Oscar will tolerate the Bumbo for a while, but drools a lot and looks kinda adorably clueless.

And that’s the baby development recap. Let’s move on to baby adventures!

This past week Oscar went on his biggest trip yet, a 4-day Thanksgiving trip to Moab, Utah. Moab is one of our favorite desert destinations, so it was a logical place to take Oscar for a family vacation since we weren’t going to Texas. The weather was decidedly un-desert-like, overcast and at times drizzly. However, we rallied and had a great time with Boulder friends who had also decided to eschew the typical Thanksgiving and relocate to the desert. We enjoyed a Thanksgiving dinner with 4 other families, which was super fun and unique, but it was a tough one for Oscar as there were a ton of kids between 3 and 8 years old and it was insanely loud and a little too high energy for him.

While in Moab, Jason and I each got in a mountain bike ride, but since a lot of the trails were too muddy to ride (which I can attest to by the condition of my bike’s drivetrain), we opted for a hike in Arches National Park for our second full day in Moab. Oscar’s first epic hike! He rode in the Ergo carrier without the infant insert, because he is big and strong enough to support his head while in a carrier. We hiked to Double O Arch, because, well, not every little boy has an arch named after him. This hike can be done as a loop, with a more established trail to the arch then a return on the “primitive loop”. We attempted to do the primitive loop, but a couple of mandatory slide down a rock for 10’ on your ass or downclimb or do something else sketchy, well, those sections weren’t gonna fly with a baby in a front pack, so we turned around. Next time, little O!

 And here’s a cute pic of all the extra clothes we shoved into Oscar’s hoodie to keep him warmer. Only after the hike did I learn it was something like 30 deg. Poor Oscar slept the whole time … probably to conserve energy and stay warm. This kid is a trooper.