4 Months old!

This weekend marked my little mans 4 month birthday. I am torn between excitement and sadness. Im excited because he now has so much personality and is a blast to play with. My heart grows bigger every time I hear his little giggle. BUT at the same time, it means he is not my itty bitty baby anymore. He is one step closer to not relying on me for everything. :(

In the process, I have one cute little critter and I LOVE to show him off. We will start with his super cute house shoes. He isnt sure if he likes his little frogs. OK I take that back, he likes them...just not on his feet. Unfortunately, he is just like his mama and hates his feet to be covered with stuff. Even the nurses in the hospital commented on how they couldnt keep him swaddled. He always managed to get his feet out! haha. Well, we try anyways. The frogs make for good pictures for a few minutes, then good stuffed animal friends! hahaha

Liam and his frogs!

and....he is kicking them off!

Dad and L having fun before bed :)

As Liam gets older, he obviously makes strides in his abilities to be independent. One of the stepping stones to independance is sitting up all by himself. We work with Liam on this every day. I do it with him in the floor every evening and J works with him in the tub. He actually can do it on his own and has for about a week now, but only for seconds at a time...then he starts to topple over or go face first to the floor. LOL I was lucky enough to catch a few pics of him being a big boy!!

Gotta get my hands in the right spot...

I'm doing it!!

Hurry mom, I might fall over soon!

On tope of sitting up, we like to get Liam in the shower once in a while to help him not be afraid of th water. We like to stick him under the water and see his reaction. He never cries...but doesnt always smile about it either. LOL

Shower time!

Today was Liam's 4 month check up at the doctor. He had to get shots again. :( Those are aweful. I don't take it well. Especially since he has been having tummy problems and I KNOW his "pain" cry....I can't take it. It truly breaks my heart and I teared up...I admit. J is great. He stands with him while he gets the shots then lets me hold him to soothe him as soon as the worst part is over!

He check in with off the chart stats again...as usual. :)

Weight: 17 lbs 11 oz - 92nd percentile

Length: 27 1/2 inches - 97th percentile

I did some research to check out this percentile business. I wanted to know if they were kindly telling me my child was obese or if it has any significant meaning at all. I am glad I looked it up. This is what I found.

Pediatricians and family physicians use a growth chart to keep track of a child’s progress. As all of us realize, there is a wide variation in the height and weight of "normal" children. Growth charts were developed from information obtained by measuring and weighing thousands of children. From these numbers the national average for weight and height for each age and sex were established and plotted forming a curved line. This became the 50th percentile curve, meaning in a sample of 1,000 boys or girls, 500 would be above the curve and 500 would be below. Then other curves were established representing the 10th, 25th, 75th, and 90th percentiles. By definition, 100 out of one thousand normal children will be at the 10th percentile. Another way of looking at it is that a child whose height fell on the 10th percentile would be taller than 100 and shorter than 900 children of the same age and sex. Four separate charts are published by the National Center for Health Statistics: boys, birth to 36 months and 3 to 18 years of age, and girls, birth to 36 months, and 3 to 18 years of age. Growth charts are adjusted for babies born prematurely and babies who are small-for-dates at birth.

After reading this, it made me feel better. It goes on to say that the doctors arent as concerned about what percentile you child is in, as long as they are in that same percentile range consistantly. They wouldnt want to see Liam at the 97th percentile for a few months and then all of sudden, in one or two visits, drop to the 10th percentile. Its kind of their way of monitoring that the baby has a healthy home and nothing significant is wrong. The website is http://www.kidsgrowth.com/resources/articledetail.cfm?id=304 and you can even look at a growth chart and see where your kids rank! Remember, its about consistancy...not exact current state. :)

While we were at the doctor, they gave us the go ahead for some rice cereal by spoon. We can put it in a bottle if we wanted, but we prefer for him to get it in the evening and Liam nurses in the evening. We try not to give him a bottle at night if we can. Its a little difficult in the beginning for babies to figure out a spoon. All they know how to do is suck. With the sucking reflex, come a thrust with the tongue...in turn, causing them to spit food out. This doesnt mean they dont like it, they just need practice! :) Our attempt was semi-successful. Liam LOVED the cereal, but we mixed it a little thin for the first try, just to be safe, so it was more like Rice Soup instead of cereal. Either way, we had fun and he kept crying for more when I would stop to clean him up...cause it was MESSY! haha

After the first taste.

taste number two

attacking the spoon!! lol

hmm...this is the mess i can make with Rice Soup!!

yep, I like it..maybe next time I will eat more than I wear!!

OK, thats all for today. Hope you all enjoyed the pictures!! haha I dont video tape much bc its on my digital camera and it drives me crazy to figure that stuff out. My new camera snaps pictures super quick without hardly any delay, so I just take a picture every second and get the whole process in snapshots!!!