Fight On!!

Clearly Nolan was excited for the kickoff of the college football season! Good thing his Trojans won!

Where did all my hair go?

I think Nolan and Nate are both wondering where all their hair has gone!  At least the little man can rest assured that his will come back better than ever...not so much for the big man!

We like to refer to this as a hot mess!

Hair or no hair...they both look great to me!

4 months

What a fun month this has been!  Here are some facts about your fourth month of life:

• You weight 15 pounds, 4 oz.
• You are 25.5 inches long
• You now wear a size two diaper, however we have a few size 1-2 left that we are squeezing you into...hopefully you aren't too uncomfortable.
• This month you started rolling over from your back to your tummy.  You do it all the time, but you get quite frustrated on your tummy because you won't roll the other way, even though we have proof (video) that you know how!
• Molly and Cooper are your buddies!  You love to watch them play.

• The exersaucer is one of your favorite toys.  You especially like the little wheels that spin and make noise.
  
• Thankfully you are over your dislike of the carseat.   Trips are much more enjoyable with you!  You actually like to play with the toys hanging from the handle.
• You aren't sleeping through the night, but we are working on it.  The crib is becoming your friend slowly but surely.
• You just started laughing in the last week.  It doesn't happen too often, but when it does, oh...it's just the best sound in the world!
• You took a trip to Santa Barbara to see family and you did a great job!
• You have discovered your toes and love to grab onto them, especially when your diaper is being changed.

• Your mom and dad love being with you!  We could watch you all day, everyday!

Recent Pictures

Nolan playing/eating with one of his toys.  I promise we feed him!

A really goofy smile.

So Sweet!

Probably smiling at the dogs.  He loves to watch them!

Hanging out in his exersaucer or the "circle of neglect" as some refer to it!

Sleep

From the time Nolan was born it was pretty clear where he liked to sleep; on mom or dad or cuddled up as close as could be on our sides.  We allowed this.  Not only allowed it, we enjoyed it.  As the weeks passed our boy grew bigger and with the added inches and weight came a lot more movement.  We commented frequently how he could move so much yet be sound asleep.  The more he moved, the less sleep we got.  After awhile it seemed Nolan wasn't sleeping as well either and he was starting to wake up more often during the night.  So a couple of weeks ago we decided to make the transition to the crib.  Once we made the decision we started reading about the different ways to go about getting our boy to sleep in his crib as painlessly as possible (which really means how to do with as few tears as possible, from both Nolan and me).  There are a lot of books out there on this subject, which made me feel better because I can't tell you the amount of time I have thought about sleep since he was born.  Should we put him down?  Is he tired?  Should we wake him up?  Is he napping too short? Too long?  Is he getting enough sleep?  And on and on and on... 

We decided to wait until this week because Nate is off from work.  So last night we went for it. We followed Ferber's method which has you go in at certain time intervals and console them without picking them up.  I must say that it was hard, extremely hard.  Nolan cried a lot.  I cried a lot.  Nate was a trooper and checked on both of us frequently.  Eventually Nolan drifted off for a couple of hours.  Woke up.  Cried some more.  Drifted off for a couple more hours.  Woke up.  Cried.  Repeat.  But, we survived the night!  The first night is always the hardest, right?  And the little man gave me a huge smile when I picked him up from his crib this morning, so hopefully he won't need counseling in years to come because we abandoned him in his crib.  He is in his crib again tonight and hopefully it will involve fewer tears...from both of us.

Santa Monica 5000

Last summer before I was pregnant with Nolan, Nate and I were in pretty good running shape.  We had just finished the San Francisco half-marathon and were looking for another one to run in the fall.  Then we found out I was pregnant.  I still ran those first few weeks, but I took it nice and easy. Then morning (ALL DAY!) sickness took over for ten long weeks and my weekly miles faded away and stayed gone until just recently.  Lately, we have been wanting to start up again and with our awesome new jogging stroller we have the chance.  We are running a 5k in October and Nolan will be joining us as well!  The couch to 5k plan is assisting us in getting back in shape.  It is super easy and starts with a mix of running and walking which is a great way to ease my out of shape legs and stretched out tummy back into the swing of things.  Nolan seems to enjoy his jogging stroller, most of the time he falls asleep!

About to go for a run...

AWAKE...in the middle of the night

Nolan woke up to eat in the middle of the night which is still pretty common for him.  He normally eats and goes right back to sleep.  Not last night!  Last night he decided it was time to be up for awhile (almost 2 hours!).  He was quite happy and gave Nate and I a lot of smiles.  Eventually he drifted off back to sleep...

Here is Nolan hanging out in bed during the pre-dawn hours: