Time flies! And we are such bad parents for not updating frequently on Egan. What a second child!
But 4 great months have passed since he literally flew into out lives. Right now Egan is discovering his hands. He loves to chew on them and 'pet' things from a blanket or toy to your arm while changing his diaper. He's also developed quite the nursing crawl, which isn't so popular with momma. Egan is starting to 'talk' and sounds like a yowling cat. He tried 'talking' to you to tell you what he needs. When you guess wrong, he notches it up a level - 'yelling' at you to try again. But when you guess right, like put him on the changing pad, pick up the sling, or I sit down with the nursing pillow, he gives you a big smile and flaps his arms. Sometimes he will get really fussy in Jake's arms or the sling and then will look at me and give me a HUGE smile. Then he turns away and gets fussy again, turning back to smile big as if to say, 'hey momma - it's chow time!' By far his favorite thing in the whole world, though, is his sister (Ok, maybe she is runs a close second to nursing at this point...) She comes flitting into the room and will read him a story, show him something (usually proclaiming, 'Egan you can't play with legos - you are too small!' and he just smiles away), she loves to dance for him or sing songs. She calls him 'little pinto bean' and thinks it is really funny that when he sneezes his legs fly up in the air. I don't think that Egan really understands that one day he will grow up big like her. It's as if he is visited by some sprite, some strange creature, who appears from another room to dynamically interact with him, then disappears again far away to the next room. He also likes going for walks in his stroller as well as being a sling baby (which is a function just as much of us being sling parents and requiring two hands!) He also likes his paci and has thankfully come to accept a wider range of music than James McMurtry - because we were getting depressed with some of those lyrics all the time. He likes his baths and is enthralled with the water coming out of the shower head. Elena is really excited for him to grow into bath toys and get big enough so they can take baths together. What doesn't Egan like--well, he doesn't like his carseat (or used to, but now he is OK with it). And he hasn't been liking these really cold days (it got down to 3F!) He yells in anger when he has to go out. We even have a carseat bunting but the wind just whips through him. He also hates his arms whacking him at night and so we keep him tightly swaddled. Sometimes as soon as he is swaddled, after just a few sucks on the paci, he goes right to sleep. Speaking of sleep, he sleeps from about 9 to 7. He usually wakes up a couple of times to nurse but goes right back to sleep, often not even needing a diaper change. For a while we were having some really fabulous runs of 11-6 straight! But he's a growing boy and now is going through a spurt that needs more night nursing. The best part, though, is that he does go back to sleep (unlike his sister...)
We've gotten out the highchair for Egan - not because he's ready for solid foods (not showing any of the signs yet at all), but because he likes to be up high and see what is going on. I guess staring at our bottoms in the bouncy seat during dinner would get old. In the last week he must have had a growth spurt - because he looks huge to both Jake and I. He is pretty much out of his 0-3 mo clothes. At his 2 month appointment (although it was really more like a 2.5 months), he was almost 11lbs 12 oz (5.7 kg) and 22.25 inches (55.5 cm). He's in the ~15-20% (for american kids, and notice the metric for my Dutch and scientist friends). We go in on Friday for his 4 mo appointment. Egan has a funny little bald spot on the back of his head. He's got the 'meaty thighs' of a baby but hasn't really gotten super baby chunky.
For the first 4 months, we have been really lucky to spend time home with Egan. Jake extended his tenure clock for paternity leave and I took partial maternity leave. We alternate being home with him and working while he napped. Jake was teaching so, I was home much more (which was really nice, as I very much needed a break from work). Since Elena is in preschool full time, we have had some really great one-on-one quality time with our little bundle. But with the start of the new semester, we both have masters students to graduate and time to focus a bit more on work. So we found a new nanny, Ashley, though a mutual friend who is the head soccer coach. Ashely is a senior and soccer player. Last week was our first week. The first few days were tough (they always are) but Ashley did great and Egan is now happy to see her. As Jake said, 'what's not to like, she wraps him up in a blanket and rocks him the whole time he sleeps!' And Mimosa, this is just as painful for us as it is for you to read...honestly for me the hardest thing about leaving Egan with Ashley is that she isn't Mimosa. Jake had to repeatedly remind me to get over it. Ashley is coming 4 days a week for 5 hours in the afternoon and Jake and I are splitting Monday and alternating the mornings home. The big difference is that now that we have Ashley, instead of trying to work while Egan sleeps, we do stuff around the house. Consequently, this weekend we actually had family time rather than laundry, dirty bathroom, cooking time.
So that's it. Four months as a family of four. As proof, we have no family picture...come on people, we've got two kids now!
