A much needed TJ update

He now likes bath time! It’s a miracle! He used to scream the entire time, red faced and all. I don’t know if we have been doing the water at a bad temperature or because it was all of a sudden in the kitchen sink but he likes it now. Even in his normal infant bath tub too! He enjoys his baths more and more, has tasted soapy bath water and gotten some in his eyes and ears. He still likes it, thank goodness.

His hands now do what they want him to do! His brain and his hands are finally in sync at least mostly! He rubs his face and eyes when he’s tired. He grabs what he wants and brings it to his mouth. Like his pacifier and toys and faces and hair.

In his new Exersaucer he plays with each toy and really likes his take along tunes, chains, crinkle book, blocks, and balls. Mostly he just sucks on them since everything goes to his mouth now, but he’s trying to understand them.

He smiles even sometimes when you talk, he looks at you and smiles. He’s not too partial with who he smiles at but he’s beginning to be more clingy to Todd and I. He smiles and then turns away like he’s bashful. It’s adorable. He was smiling at this old lady in Church last week and she started crying and leaned over and told me that all babies cry when they see her. It made her feel so good that she cried. It was sweet and I was so grateful TJ could do that for her.

When we put him in his car seat, he’s started arching his back. He arches his back when he’s on the floor sometimes and especially when we change his diaper.

He's exploring his voice; he screams and yells sometimes even though he’s not unhappy.

He's got all his fingers in his mouth, well at least eight of them. He puts them up to his mouth almost all the time. Lately he's started to put one finger in his mouth and he hooks his cheek like a little fish. It's cute.

He’s getting better at sitting up. He topples quite a bit but when he’s really leaning forward, he balances pretty well. He also enjoys just sitting on my lap or on the bathroom counters.

He grabs at things he wants. If we bring him up to the table at dinner, he reaches for our plates, food, utensils, ANYTHING within his grasp. He loves our phones and has since birth almost. He reaches for those a lot. I have to secretly text sometimes so he doesn’t see the pretty light.

He’s getting really good at his hand eye coordination. Sometimes he pulls his pacifier out of his mouth and then tries to get it back inside. He usually just starts to suck on the outer rim or whatever hits his mouth first, like his hand. I’ve worn a sweatshirt a few times and if he’s on the ground and I’m looking over him, the draw strings swing over him. He reaches out and tries to grab them. He’s getting pretty good at it.

He’s laughing!! And they are like real laughs. It’s nice! He’s interacting with people now. He’s starting to play peek-a-boo and really laugh. We play by hiding ourselves and coming back into view like ducking behind the Exersaucer and coming up or covering TJ in a blanket and then removing it. He takes some time to build up to a laugh but it usually comes.

He’s still not gotten the hang of rolling over. He hasn’t done it since the first time. We keep showing him how but … someday. Speaking of rolling over, tummy time is going well. He can lift himself even further up and can hold it longer. He enjoys it for a longer period of time.

We’ve started and stuck to a routine and I love it! It’s the best thing and we should’ve started it from day one like I learned. For naps, we feed, then read a story (if he’s not passing out on the spot), swaddle him, then sing a few songs (usually Primary ones), and tickle his face (give him softly) and rock with him and put him to bed. He goes to sleep pretty fast. For bedtime we do the same thing, except add a bath and lotion massage (if we are giving him a bath that day), change him into his jammies and then feed. It’s great.

He’s started to pay attention to things and it looks like he’s trying to figure out how it works or why it does something. I think he’ll be really analytical (hopefully in a good way) when he gets older. Maybe an engineer or physicist or something.

He loves loves loves his Exersaucer and spends a lot of time in it during the day. He’s gotten pretty smart with some of those toys. Like when he wants to suck on the Holy Grail, he puts his hand behind it and pulls it toward him and him toward it. He can reach it so much better that way.

He gets our attention by squealing, crying or making a sound like clearing his throat/hacking. I don’t know where that one came from but all of a sudden he started to do it. Maybe because Todd does it a lot. I don’t know. It’s funny and like he’s hacking up something. We give him the attention he looks for. Sometimes I look, but Todd keeps doing whatever he was doing and TJ looks at him and then back at me and then him until Todd looks too. He’s got a cute little innocent personality.

When Todd walks into the room, TJ knows it’s play time. He either gets thrown in the air or spun in the air. Todd also likes to kind of gnaw but I know that’s not right, but make chewing motions on TJ’s neck or stomach and weird noises to make him laugh or cringe. Todd actually put TJ down for a nap today and I was surprised that TJ could settle down if Todd was even 5 feet away! It was nice to know that TJ can go to sleep without me.

We are going to start letting him cry it out to go to bed soon but we want to wait until he sleeps without being swaddled so he can soothe himself by grabbing his blanket or sucking on his fingers if his plug falls out. Any suggestions on how to transition him out of a swaddle?