6 Months Old

Half a year. That is how long our baby boy has been with us. I cannot believe how quickly ½ of a year flew by. It is such a cliché, but they do grow up so fast. Next thing I know he will be off to kindergarten, asking for the keys to the car, and packing up for college. Almost daily I get caught between wanting him to stay this little forever and getting excited for him to grow up and be able to do things like run in the yard and ride a bike. Usually the part of me who wants him to stay a baby forever wins out.

My little man

Logan is making the transition from 3-6 month clothing into 6-9 or 9 month clothing. His 6 month doctor appointment is not for another three weeks, so I don't know his official weight. However, on the home scale he looks to be about 18 lbs. I think he is heavier every time I pick him up.

Logan has taken to sticking his tongue out all the time when he gets excited. He shakes his whole body a little bit, puts his arms out, grins, sticks his tongue out and bites it with his gums. Too cute. I can usually always get this response when I get out one of his teethers or another favorite toy.

One of his new favorite toys are his stackable rings, courtesy of the Easter Bunny.

According to the nurse who runs our Mother's group, he is very advanced to be able to play with those at his age. But what mama doesn't think her child is a prodigy? He is still so close to sitting, but not there yet. He can last up to 5 seconds or so on a good day before slowly toppling over. A little over a week ago, Logan began rolling over from back to tummy. When paired with his well mastered skill of rolling tummy to back, he is now rolling all over the place. I guess I have to keep the house cleaner now. :)

Half of a year has gone by way too quickly. While I do remember a time without Logan, I cannot imagine our family without him now. Below are pictures taken of the family over the past few weeks.

Look Mama, I have Daddy's lip!

Ready for yard work

Supervising Mama and Daddy's work

Before the new mulch

After the new mulch.  So much better!

My Buddy

Logan really started to be aware of Rocky's presence and following his movements about two months ago. But in the past few weeks, Logan has really grown to love Rocky and finds the dog to be a constant source of entertainment (as seen in the bubbles video). Rocky had only been around children once before Logan, and he knocked that poor neighbor boy down. With that being 8 years ago, we were not sure how Rocky would take to Logan. Based off of the below pictures, I think the two have become best buddies. 

Petting Rocky

Look Mama, two hands!

That's a big tongue.

Bubbles

Among many things, one of the items in Logan's Easter basket was a bottle of bubbles.  Miss Amy at the library's baby lap-sit always brings them out at the end of story time, and Logan has enjoyed watching the bubbles float through the air.  Here is what happened when we broke out the bubbles at our house.

My favorite part is when Rocky hacks up bubble soap and Logan continues to laugh.  Luckily, the bubbles did not make Rocky sick.

Happy Easter

Growing up, the Easter Bunny always brought Matt and I both candy and a little something else. Well, the Easter Bunny in New Hampshire goes all out. Logan's Easter basket was loaded with all kinds of goodies. He is one spoiled boy. 

That's all for me?!

Thanks, Easter Bunny.

Taking the world in . . .

is so much better when you have a good buddy to share it with. 

Spring Cleanup

The one thing that can be said for winters in New England is that they really make you appreciate the spring. So much so that you do not mind doing yard work because you are just so happy to be outside. And while it felt like spring was never going to arrive in New England this year, it recently found it's way north.

With the warmer weather, we started our first spring as homeowners tackling yard cleanup. We know about half of what we are doing. The rest we are just making up as we go along. We figure that it is best to learn through trial and error anyways.

Last weekend, we worked on limb (sometimes branch) pick-up and repairing our Japanese maple tree. The tree looks pretty good and we are hopeful that it will survive.

While it was warm enough for us last weekend outside, it was a little chilly for Logan. So, we had to do the parental tag-team approach, except during naps when we worked to the sound of the baby monitor.

This weekend, we finished picking up the limbs, fertilizing the yard, and cleaning out and edging the beds, readying them for mulch.

The weather was gorgeous this weekend and warm enough for Logan to hang out with us. While we worked, Logan sat in his bouncy seat, babbling words of encouragement and supervising the projects.

Big brother Rocky did his part to help out by breaking down sticks into smaller pieces. That boy loves a good stick.

We got this and next weekend's to-do list done in one weekend. We are now ready to spread mulch next weekend. As long as the weather continues to agree with us, I am sure Logan will not mind supervising again.

A personal note, I was able to get out and run this morning for the first time since before I became pregnant with Logan. While it was not too long or fast, it felt great. The workout DVD's were just not cutting it for me.

5 Months Old

 Logan turned 5 months old today. Here's what's new with him this month.

Bear, give me some room.  You are hogging the chair.

Logan's really big developmental milestone this month is that he has learned how to put himself back to sleep when he wakes up at night or early in the morning. It happened by chance as I was not going to try this for another month or so. But I was slow getting to him one night because I had to go to the bathroom and once I made my way to his room, he was back asleep! It is the greatest thing ever.

Speaking of nights, I posted a little while ago that while he had been a sleeping rock star from months 1-3 but he regressed a little when he turned 3 months old. I am happy to say that sleep has returned to the Perry house for almost a month now. He is now sleeping 10 hours a night before waking to feed and back down again for 1 – 1 ½ hours. And if he wakes, he puts himself back to sleep. Life is good.

Logan's new favorite game?  Pulling something, usually a burp cloth, over his face and throwing his arms in the air in panic, pretending he cannot remove it himself.  Once you take it off his face, he grins from ear to ear.  Then we do it all over again.  Crazy boy!

Logan discovered his feet a few weeks ago. First, he only noticed his left foot, but after about a week, he found the right one. Now, his favorite toys are his socks and his feet. He loves to suck on his socks. It's great because it is a toy that he can never drop and is always within reach.

Yum, feet.

Even better, socks!

The other weekend, the family ventured out to purchase Logan a stationary entertainer. We got home, put it together and placed Logan in it. We have never seen him get so excited! He grinned, he laughed, and threw his arms in delight. I kicked myself for not having the video camera out. While we have not seen the same reaction since, he really seems to enjoy it and it keeps him entertained for a little while.

Logan is so close to sitting on his own. He can do it for about ½ a second before he slumps forward, backward or to the side. But he truly loves to sit-up and is getting stronger every day. In addition, he now is starting to stand, supported of course. Just like sitting, he keeps getting stronger and stronger.

Overall, we have a very happy little boy. He loves to grin at both Mama and Daddy and gives laughs if you know how to draw them out. He loves when Mama sings, which shows that he is as tone deaf as her. He is still very vocal. In fact, he is the most talkative baby in our Mother's Group. In the past few days, he has found a new way to talk, using his tongue and opening and closing his mouth with every word. It's adorable. I only wish I knew what he was talking about. All in due time. 

In other news, we had a really heavy, wet snow last Friday which took down a huge portion of our Japanese maple in the front of the house.  We wanted to prune it back anyways, but the wrong side went down.  However, it did balance off the pruning nicely.  

Poor tree!

With the weather warming up, our family of turkeys, the Duggers, have returned.

4 Month Doc Visit

Logan finally had his 4^th month doctor's visit yesterday. He weighed 15 lbs, 10 oz which puts him in the 53^rd percentile. He is 25 ½ inches long, which puts him in the 63^rd percentile.

The doctor answered a million of Mama's questions, as always. The doc was very happy to see that Logan is meeting all of his developmental milestones on target and some a little early. After putting on a show for the doctor, Logan took his shots like a champ, again. I am so impressed with how tough he is. Two more months and it's round three.

Take Logan's teether and he'll punch you.

Weather got nice enough to take Logan on his first walk last week.  Yes, those are piles of snow in the background.

The boys by the end of the walk.

Loving the new play mat.

Dressed like Daddy in his polo shirt.

Enjoying the Bumbo

Happy St. Patty's

4 Months Old

On Sunday, Logan turned 4 months old. I cannot give 4 month old stats because Logan's doctor appointment is not until 2 weeks after he turned 4 months old, despite the fact that I made the appointment back in December. That's what we get for having a part-time pediatrician. I think we might be changing pediatricians after this appointment. Anyways, our home scale has him at about 15 lbs as of 2 weeks ago. I will be curious to see what he weighs on the official scale at the doctor's office. I will post those stats after the appointment and his second round of being tortured (aka – shots).

At 4 months old, Logan is wearing 3-6 or 6 month clothing in day-wear and pj's and he is up to 6-9 month onesies. Now either our boy has clown feet or baby socks run small because Logan has been wearing 6-12 month socks for over a month. He can roll tummy to back (although he does not like to do it often) and really wants to go from back to tummy. His head control has gotten really strong recently and can sit in the Bumbo without slumping over after a minute or two.

No slumping!

As he gets older, we are seeing more personality come out in him. He loves toys. He has a favorite rattle and loves his ball. He also loves the dog his great-grandma got him, who we affectionately call Doug (the dog, not great-grandma). He also LOVES his play mirror. While all of these things are fun, sometimes there is nothing like a (clean) cloth diaper. Logan loves to chat and has developed a new way of talking while gargling. He loves when Mama tickles his tummy and feet. And he loves to play peek-a-boo with Daddy.

Enjoying his mirror

Love that mirror

The only thing that is not improving with time is his nighttime sleep. From 1-3 months of age, he slept an average of 7 hours before waking up for a nighttime feeding. At 3 months, he started to wake up more frequently. This was about the same time we moved him to the crib in his room, so I thought that the two were going together. But it has now been a month. About 2-3 times a week, he will do 6 or 7 hours before waking. But the other nights, it is about 5 hours and sometimes even less. Ugh! He really spoiled me from the beginning. He has just transitioned out of the swaddle at night which is also causing sleep issues. I am hoping that in another week he will be back to his 1-3 month old self. I have read about a 4 month old sleep regression, and I hope that he just got it early, and it lasted for a long time. As much as I hate getting up more frequently during the night, our little boy is so cute. You cannot be mad at a face like that! 

Play time wears Logan out.