Two Months Old

Update on Harrison:

• He's smiling a lot.
• He's chatting a lot, even at times just to get our attention when we are looking away. When we hold him he'll have a small conversation with us. We'll ask him questions and he'll coo back when we are quite.
• He has figured out his floor gym. He knows how to kick and swat at things to make them move and make sounds. His movements are still pretty erratic but more directional.
• His 0-3 clothes are all very snug on him right now. Next week we may need to move to 3-6 month clothes.
• He's started to watch Bentley. Not much, I just catch him every once and a while.
• He loves it when we sing to him and move his hands to dance a long.
• He smiles when we dance in front of him.
• We have upped the amount of bath times to every other day in order to start a night routine hoping he'll get the idea that he can start sleeping for 8 hours :)
• We are reading to him. He likes to look at the books but only for a short while.
• His first plane ride will be on Monday. I am not excited about this, I hate flying.
• And most importantly (dad says) he's moved up to number 2 diapers. The numbers start with NB (newborn) and go on up. It's amazing, he used to be too small for newborn, we had to fold them.
• He has rolls on his arms and legs and his belly is nice and round. He's a hungry boy.
• I'm starting to get better at figuring him out. Watch I say that now and it will all change tomorrow. He's a pretty easy going baby for the most part. When he doesn't like something, he tells us and typically it's not through a long cry. It's one small shriek or one small sound that I can't really explain. Kind of like a, err, I've had enough and I need a nap sound. If I watch his sleepy cues it's pretty easy to put him down for a nap. If he's had too much action over the time he's been awake it's a little rough.
• Currently he sleeps from about 7 pm to 2 am. We try to wake him up at 10 pm for a last feeding to get him to sleep through the whole night but it's very difficult.

He just had his 2 month doctor's appointment. He now weighs 11 lbs 10.5 oz and he's 24 inches long. Which means he's now in the 45th percentile for weight and the 83rd percentile for height. He's a growing little boy. He was prescribed at least an hour of tummy time each day so about 20 minutes every time he's awake. I'm going to have one cranky baby over the next few days since he still hates tummy time. We do have one prayer request that was sparked after his visit. It seems that Harrison's back soft spot is closing faster than the Doctor would like it to so he said he will be monitoring it very closely. I guess if it fuses together earlier than it's supposed to it's a pretty serious condition and he would have to see a nero surgeon. So please pray his plates slow down and don't fuse for a while. On the positive side the Dr. said that Harrison is such a "chill" baby. He only cried when he put him on his tummy and when he got his vaccinations (which is of course so normal). Quick story. The nurse who gave him his vaccinations is what I would like to call a vaccinator. I have NEVER seen someone give vaccinations so quickly, it made me think of James Bond or something, his technique was remarkable. He held Harrison's feet with one hand and with the other he grabbed a vaccination pulled the cap off with his mouth spit it out while putting the needle in Harrison's leg. This happened three times. It maybe took him 3 seconds total. You had to be there.

We have been watching seasons of friends while feeding Harrison at night. Their about 20 minutes long episodes which is just the right amount of time. It keeps me awake. Well, we're on season seven now. Hopefully he'll sleep by season eight.

Tonight Nathan and I are going out to dinner by ourselves so Harrison will have his first REAL (by real I mean paid) babysitter. One of the girls from our church college group is going to be watching him. I'm praying that he treats her well.

Here are some pictures of him over the last few weeks.

Nathan dressed Harrison for our road trip into the mountains.

This is Nathan reading to Harrison. As you can see, Harrison isn't that engaged in reading yet.

This is Harrison staring out the window at the snow.

I bought Harrison this onsie just a few days ago, it's 0-3 and it's tight on him! He may get one more wear out of it. He's growing so much!

He's still our pride and joy! We love him more and more each day. Now I get what parents talk about. I think you just can't understand the feeling of love that comes with being a parent until you are one. People can explain it all they want but it's hard to understand until you are one. It's really just indescribable.

Next post will be after we return from Oregon! It will contain a ton of pictures and several stories, I'm sure. Harrison is so excited to meet his great grandparents the Kochs, great aunt and uncle, aunt Nikole and to see his grandma Connie again!

Love you all!