4 months

It's hard to believe the little man is 4 months old! Looking back and pictures he was so tiny! I thought he was big at the time, boy was I wrong! He is so happy and such a good baby, we have been so blessed. We go to the doctor on Tuesday and I can't wait to see the progress he has made.

Developmental milestones:
-He brings his hands together now, and then to his mouth. He will reach for a toy if I put it in front of him. He brings his hands together slowly and calculated so he can grab it. Its so cute to watch him try so hard. He's not that into chewing on anything other than his fingers though. He loves that thumb!

-He is really great at tummy time now. He sits there up on his elbows just looking all around or trying to suck his thumb. He will lay there for much longer than he used to. I have to trick him into rolling over, it doesnt happen quite naturally yet.

-His legs continue to be insanely strong. When he's on his tummy, his bottom half will go up into a crawling position and actually push him forward. His arms dont understand what is going on though and he face-plants or drags his face across the mat. I try to support him under his chest so his legs can get a little workout but he usually gets pretty mad that he cant crawl. I can't wait to show the doctor this trick!

-He is sleeping great. He's out by 8pm each night and sleeps 8-12 hours. I'm trying to lengthen his daytime awake/nap periods, as they are still really choppy and about 45min-1hour long still.

-I didn't know this was a skill, but my friend posted that her baby did it so I was happy to know Kellis was doing it too. When he's in the bathtub or propped up on the couch, my lap, his chair or pretty much anywhere he always lifts his head and tries to sit up, doing a "baby crunch." He does it all the time now, working on those abs!!! He will sit in the bumbo chair but is not at all interested in sitting on the floor or couch or me. He prefers to "lounge" as I call it, or just lean back. I'm trying to work on that.

-I'm letting him pet Raider once or twice a day. When Raider is calm but not sleeping I go sit by him and let him lick Kellis' feet while Kellis pets him (I put his hang on him, he doesnt get it yet). Kellis loves being close to Raider and watching Raider so its really important to me that Raider learns to love him and be gentle with him. Scott plays really rough with Ray, so I am a bit worried he wont understand and be rough when he gets to playing with Kellis. Of course Kellis is never alone with Raider but could be in the future if we had a babysitter or something.


Halloween outfit: bib, onesie and socks. (finger in mouth) laughing at Raider running around.


Reindeer-butt jammies!!! LOVE THEM!


Tech outfit!!! (fingers headed for mouth)

Couponing success

Well I finally had a successful couponing episode. I only got 2 things (which is probably why it was successful. Any more than that and I get all scatterbrained) but it was still awesome.

prilosec 24ct originally 21.99 - on sale for 19.99
Scott takes it daily and usually I buy the 42 count but they were out and the 24 was the one on sale.

garnier hair color originally 7.99 - on sale for 5.99 - $3 coupon = 2.99 - $2 ON the package coupon (I'm so glad I saw this!) = $0.99
got the same color as we did on sunday. says 28 washes so i'm gonna stretch it out and hopefully wont need more for like 3 months. so excited!

so total was 20.98. had $14 extra bucks from my last trip (would have had $3off15 but it expired boo) = 6.98 + tax = 7.01!!!! and i had a gift card from our Discover cash back bonus so i didnt actually pay anything!! AND i got $3ecb back (for no reason other than i'm awesome) and another $3off15 (which I do plan to use on more prilosec, maybe tomorrow!)

I was just reading my newsfeed and apparently I should have scanned my card at the magic coupon machine. I saw it but thought it was just for price checking. CVS is so close I could go back.....

A good Raider

Have to give Raider some credit here, it was his blog to begin with after all. When we first got him he was really mouthy, always put his mouth on us when we came home, played, etc. Well he still does that to Scott (I think b/c Scott plays with him that way) but with me he knows as soon as I open the crate he better go find his ball. If he has something in his mouth he cant mouth me! Hey I'm a genius. So he is trained to do this. Today I let him out and he went galloping through the house looking for his ball and couldn't find it. So what does he do? Goes to the toy basket by the door and digs out a kong. I say digs b/c I kinda hid it at the bottom so he wouldn't drag all the toys out at once. But he got it and came galloping (he really does) back to me so happy. Such a good boy!

Fifteen

Today is the 15th
Kellis is 15 weeks old (as of Tuesday)
He weighs 15 pounds now (75% - really leveling off)
27" long! (99% - wasn't even on the chart)
17" head circumference (84% - catching up!)

His head is growing every day (duh). It is really noticeable to me, its getting more round and normal looking. Looking back at earlier pictures, his poor little head was so deformed!

This is his first nap w/o a swaddle (lasted maybe 30 minutes). It took a while for him to fall asleep but I have time to spare. I'm gonna start letting him nap w/o it if he does ok.


This is a 6-9mo outfit!


Sleep schedule
We have gotten into an amazing sleep schedule. He will sleep 8-11 hours at night now! He gets a bath around 7-7:30 and goes to bed. Wakes up at 4, 5, 6, or 7am. Takes a bottle, diaper change and back to sleep within an hour. Sleeps another 1-3 hours. Up again for about an hour, back to sleep. All day long he's usually only up about an hour then he goes back to sleep. Sometimes in the afternoon he'll be up 2-3 hours eating (making up for all that sleep time). We haven't been going anywhere so its been easy to get him to sleep and stay in this pattern. Kroger is so close now we can make it there and back in about an hour so it doesn't even throw us off.

Trips
We are going to Oklahoma on the 23rd to see Kellis' Great Aunt Peggy, Great Aunt Nancy and Great Grandmother Harkness for Grandmother's 85th birthday. We hope to leave around 6-7am, get to their place around 10-11am and spend a few hours before heading back around 2-3pm. Hopefully Kellis will sleep in the car and not be too tired and cranky.
November 5th we are going to Houston!!! Well, Kingwood and The Woodlands. I am so excited to see all of our friends and eat J. Christopher's pizza! That is a longer car ride, around 4 hours, and we are bringing Raider so it should be interesting.

14 weeks

I can't believe how fast 14 weeks has gone by! Or how much Kellis has grown and changed in this short amount of time. Every day he seems to learn something new and grow just a little. According to our scale he is still 14.0 pounds. I have never fully trusted that scale. Still, it would be nice if he was the same size for more than a month because we are going through clothes like nobody's business and pretty soon we're gonna need more! Guess its a good thing Christmas is coming!!