the sometimes senseless ravings (and the occassional rant) of an aspiring marine ecologist who may enjoy killing things a little too much

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Pretty Much All Legs

when one hand just won't do...

















you have to try and shove both of them in your mouth.

holy crap, you guys. as of yesterday, max is four months old. already! and he's huge. and tall. he doesn't get that from me. he's 25.5 inches tall now, which is the 75th percentile. he weighs 14 lbs 8 oz, which is the 50th percentile. so he's not quite getting as round as he is long. i've decided that's because he's pretty much all legs. maybe it's just me, but when he stretches out, his legs look exceptionally long. but his head is still teeny tiny (15th percentile now, though - he's trying to catch up).

max's checkup yesterday went pretty well, i guess. he endured the usual weighing and measuring. then the doc came in and and poked and prodded a bit, checking his eyes and ears, etc. then she asked me some questions to make sure he's doing all the things he should be able to do at this age (he is). she also said he's doing fine, so we can probably wait until he's about 6 months old to start solid foods (but she gave me the go-ahead to start them whenever i feel like it). and then she put max on his tummy. which he pretty much hates after a couple of minutes, so he got kind of pissed off about that. but then he discovered the tongue depressor laying in front of him, so he grabbed it and started trying to eat it. the point of the tummy thing was to see if he'd roll over. he wouldn't. but he's much better at rolling from his back to his tummy than rolling the other way, for some reason. i'm told that rolling from tummy to back is supposed to be the easier of the two. but not for max. the doc rolled max back onto his back and let him roll around from side to side for a while, then he flipped over onto his tummy, got pissed off, and pushed himself back over onto his back. during that whole process, he drooled all over the examination table and rolled around in it. gross. but i've seen worse.

after all that, i put max's clothes back on him (good thing he no longer minds being naked). and then came the bad part - the 5 shots. he screamed, of course, but he only turned red (not purple like last time), and he didn't forget to breathe, so i decided it went better than last time. but then we got home. and max slept for a little while in his car seat. and then he started to cry. for like half an hour. and then he ate and went back to sleep for about 2.5 hours. and then he ate again and was supremely happy for about an hour and a half. then he got pissed off and cried a lot again. then he started to run a little fever. not a high fever, just a little one (100.9). so i gave him some tylenol before his last feeding before bedtime. and he slept fine. but he had a fever again when he woke up this morning, so i've just been poking tylenol in him every four hours today. he's pretty cranky again today. but he's also sleeping a lot, which is good. hopefully the fever will be gone by tomorrow. the information sheets they gave me on the vaccinations max received yesterday tell me that the fever could last 2-3 days. last time it was just one day, though, so maybe it'll be the same this time. i hope so. i don't want to send him to daycare tomorrow with a fever (even if it is a shot-induced fever not a sick fever).

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Haircut

so i finally found time for a haircut now that max is in daycare three days a week. i have some seriously mixed feeling about this daycare business, but you have to do what you have to do. it's pretty much impossible to try to write a coherent dissertation with an almost four month old baby constantly demanding attention.

but i digress. the daycare discussion can wait. this post is about hair. my hair and its sweet new cut.



















not drastically different, but definitely a fresher look with all the split ends gone and a bit of layering worked in. i was tempted to go shorter (i got 4-5 inches chopped off), but i chickened out. i'll probably go back in a couple of months and get the length taken up another three or four inches. my hair would just brush my shoulders then. opinions on that option are welcome.

Friday, May 09, 2008

Sitting Up (with support)

today, max and i are working on his sitting skills. he definitely doesn't have the core strength or balance to sit up on his own yet, but he can sit up on the couch for short periods of time.

see?



















and when i say 'short periods of time', i mean short. about 5 seconds after the above picture was taken, max tipped over. onto his face.



















but it's ok, he just fell over onto the couch. i sat him back up, and he thought about this whole sitting thing.



















he finally decided he likes this sitting up business.