Multimedia

Here is a video of Keegan laughing. I also added pictures to the post from earlier today for those who have already read it.

4 months

A few days ago Keegan became 4 months old. Does it feel like it has flown by so far? Absolutely. I look at him and I can hardly remember the not-so-tiny baby boy he was upon being born. He has almost doubled in size to an official 17 pounds 3 ounces. I don’t remember exactly but I think that puts him in the 150^th percentile for four month olds. They didn’t measure his length, but that has increased dramatically as well. He is close to not fitting in his infant car seat which is alleged to hold infants up to 30 pounds. If we waited that long it would probably look like me trying to fit into a cozy coupe. So we will be getting a new car seat soon and hopefully it will fit in my car which is not a whole lot bigger than a cozy coupe. I imagine we can get a few more weeks out of our current setup and then we will have to get serious.

In addition to his body’s growth, his brain is growing as well. He is constantly looking around and figuring things out. He is still a talker and one of my favorite games to play is trying to get him to repeat sounds. I will give an “ooooooo” and he tries to mimic and has actually succeeded a few times. The amount of concentration he is giving in order to get his lips in the correct position is both amazing and insanely cute. He then proceeds to giggle which never fails to make me laugh. If I could carry his laugh around with me all day, I would always be in such a good mood. He is still very vocal and you can actually hear inflections in his voice. He might not be able to form any words yet, but you can tell if he is happy or upset. It is especially humorous when he talks to his toys. I think he is trying to tell them to do things that they are not doing. Speaking of toys, he also is putting everything in his mouth. He loves the hard plastic, purple antlers on his moose, Mortimer. You can just hand him the moose now and straight into the mouth it goes. It doesn’t even require any thought at this point, it is purely reactionary. The second his hand feels something it starts heading for his mouth. It goes for Mortimer, daddy’s hand and even the tray on his high chair. His little taste buds are working overtime, though, and I imagine his brain learning that the plastic ring is pretty benign, but that the cat does not go in the mouth.

Speaking of cats, the animals are getting along just fine with Keegan. He hasn’t really tried to put one in his mouth yet, but considering he now weighs as much as they do combined I imagine he is not far from trying to grab them. The cats do mind sharing our laps with Keegan and just make themselves comfortable. Aurora would also like to share the laps I think, but she is not allowed on the couch and is ok with just being petted. So really not much has changed for either the dog or the cats and they are just cruising along like nothing major happened. I think Suzanne and I are starting to feel this way as well as though Keegan has really been with us all along. Life without him is quite hard to imagine.

All Smiles

Daddy's nose goes "HONK!"

Two pictures taken today!

Keegan's current hand position while feeding

Toys belong in the mouth

Giggly face

You just want to carry him everywhere

Keegan has a fever and the only cure is more cowbell

Well, the cure really isn’t more cowbell, but Keegan has had a fever for a couple days now.  Apparently the cure is actually a trip to Gramma and Grandpa Shary’s house.  I got word today that Keegan’s fever appears to have broken while spending the day at the Grandparents’.  Hopefully it will stay broken. 

 

This is his first true cold or whatever you want to call it.  He has a fever and some wicked congestion.  I wasn’t really sure how I’d deal with Keegan getting sick for the first time.  While I was not running around freaking out and worrying myself sick, it is a generally helpless feeling.  I wanted to make him instantly better, but really could do nothing but keep him comforted as much as possible and let him sleep it off.  I just wish he could tell me exactly what the problem is but that’s still a bit away.  I also wish I could tell him to blow his nose, but we have to use the nasal aspirator which Keegan likes about as much as when you take away his bottle after only a couple ounces.  But this is all part of it.  I think the weirdest thing is that he is normally such a jovial baby and he was very quiet.  You kind of get addicted to his giggling and a day with very little giggling is hard to handle. 

 

Keegan did get to see his cousin Peggy this weekend and it is really amazing watching them watch each other.  They would both smile at the sight of each other; this is a sign of good playmates and friends to be!  They both have adorable smiles and you keep trying to watch both of them at once.  Also, since they both are reaching out for things a couple times they ended up holding hands.  If I must say then I believe that Keegan Michael and Margaret Rose are the two cutest babies around.  And that is of course completely objective.  Why would I have a biased opinion of my son and niece?  It was great to see Peggy and Keegan together but unfortunately I left all audiovisual equipment at home.  I will try to get some pictures from Aunt Krista and post them.

 

 

Miscellany

Just a bunch of pictures from the last couple of busy weeks.

We got Dean to hold a baby

Keegan and Grandpa Shary

Tummy Time!

4th of July Outfit

Keegan shows daddy how to play

Keegan passed out with his rump in the air

Not so sure about the bath, yet, but he loves to be dried off

So cute!

Grandpa and Grandma Shary swing Keegan to sleep

Talkie talkie

Keegan is a little chatterbox but we hadn't recorded any good footage of it. Well, Friday night he was telling us all about his day he spent with Grandma and Great Grandma Shary!

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'. Keep them dogies rollin'!

Keegan has been able to roll over for a little bit now and Suzanne actually managed to get it on video despite Keegan's best efforts to avoid that. It is hard to catch events on video, though I wouldn't say he is camera shy because that would require him minding the fact that he is on video. I'm not even sure he knows what video is (I think he is able to text message though; kids are born with that ability now). I really think that he just sees Suzanne or me holding something and since he can no longer see a face he stares at the mysterious object which replaced the face. Without further ado, here is Keegan rolling over...

Our next mission will be to get Keegan's giggle on video. This will require a little more cloak and dagger on Mommy and Daddy's part. We will have to plant the video camera before we get him to giggle. He is starting to giggle a little more and Mommy discovered that Keegan loves the "Itsy, Bitsy Spider". That one can usually get him to giggle if all else fails. He also likes it when you raspberry or kiss his feet because I think he now realizes they are his feet. The first attempts at tickling his tootsies only brought about a furrowed brow. For whatever reason, I am focused on having him grab his feet as though this is some huge breakthrough for him. I really think that it is just super cute, like everything else he does that doesn't involve a diaper. He is making some headway and has grabbed his right leg. He will have his feet in his mouth in no time.

He has made it to the stage where things that are in his hands go in his mouth if he can manage it, but has also found he can pull the pacifier out of his mouth so he can resume crying. His hand and any combination of fingers are by far his favorite things to suck on. We know when he has awakened because we will hear his lips smacking on his fist.

Now that he is successfuly sleeping through the night, we have decided he should learn to fall asleep on his own. We have a nightly routine which consists of a large bottle, a diaper/outfit change, and then reading a bedtime story. After this we will rock him for a minute and then put him down. Most nights he cries himself to sleep. This may sound like cruel and unusual punishment for Keegan, but it is probably moreso for us. We set a ten minute limit before we will go back in and he has not once hit it. A couple of nights he has started crying after being quiet for half an hour or so, but most nights he is down for the count. There have even been nights where he just goes straight to bed with little to no fuss.

I do believe I have mentioned in every post how much he has grown/how fast he is growing but here is a little evidence:

Despite being so big, he was so little!

Jump around! Jump Around! Jump up Jump up and Get Down

Although it may seem a bit early, we purchased a jumperoo for Keegan. For those of you wondering it is quite like the Johnny Jump-ups so he can bounce to his heart's desire, but it is attached to a portable base so we don't need a doorway to use it. It may be a little early to tell, but if smiles are his way of telling us he likes something, then I would say he likes it. You be the judge.