New loves

Da Babe is starting to love things he's never cared about before.

Like me. I was doing the "getting into the car shuffle" (Did you know that I can't go anywhere without making about 3 trips out to the car? Re-freakin'-diculous!) and as I pulled the car out while the babe was in the carseat just inside I swear he pouted and whimpered because he thought I was leaving without him. I wasn't. I just had to pull the car out so I could close the garage door and run and jump over the sensor while carrying the baby in the carseat. You wish you were my neighbor so you could watch this, don't you? It could be a coincidence that he started crying right then, but I prefer to think he loves me.

Waking up slowly. Gone are the days of waking up from a dead sleep screaming bloody murder. Now he eases into it slowly and gently and is even content for quite some time. If he can keep this up, the 2 of us will get along swimmingly.

Sleeping. We're trying really hard to teach him how to sleep and the past 2 nights he's had at least one 5-hour stretch and has slept for close to 13 hours at night. A very welcome miracle.

Being held like a big baby. Grandma Egbert came to visit last Sunday and held him over her shoulder like this

and he promptly fell asleep and stayed just like that for hours.

Ever since then he hates to be held "like a baby" and much prefers this new version of grown up baby holding.

Tummy time. Maybe "loves it" is too strong - but he doesn't cry. So I'm gonna take it.

Moving. He's never been fond of the "set down a blanket on the floor and leave me there" approach to mothering. But suddenly he's taken a liking to the ability to lay down and stretch out. I guess there's something appealing about the freedom that comes with not being held tight to somebody's body.

The car seat. So far this is the only sure-fire way to make him fall asleep. He gets buckled in and once we're moving (in the stroller or the car) he falls asleep and stays that way until we remove him. That's why he was still in the carseat 2 hours after we got home from the grocery store.