He's growing up so fast!

For the past day or two, Grady has been turning to his side, and then rolling back onto his back. But last night he figured out how to turn from back to tummy! Here's a video of his new skill from this morning.



Unfortunately, this is usually how this new skill plays out:



(That's a shot from the video monitor.) He can't seem to figure out how to roll back onto his back and instead gets all tangled up in the side of the crib. It's pretty startling for him!

But it's STILL hot

I know I've had a couple posts with this heading before, but man, it's HOT. Another weekend in the 90s. It's hard to get motivated to do much when it's so hot, so we had a pretty boring weekend. Luckily, though, we have Matt to thank for some really great pictures. Matt has been taking a photography class, and here's some evidence of how good he is getting - there are all manual, not automatic!

I like this series because it shows how many different expressions Grady has now. (These don't even include his fussy faces!)













That last one was taken during Grady's favorite activity - bouncy time!

We gave Grady a nice cool bath to try to cool down yesterday. He was pretty interested in catching the drips of water. I think this is the first time I haven't seen him try to put something in his mouth!







The heat is supposed to break in a few days, so hopefully the next post will be a bit more newsy!

It's been a while - here are some videos

As Grady has become more and more interested in his environment and things going on around him, he has been getting a bit distracted during bottle time. He still gets pretty excited when he sees it coming, though!



I was told by daycare yesterday that he has started holding his own bottle there. He held it for himself at home the other day when there was only about an ounce left, but I think it was too heavy to hold on his own in the video up there.

Grady has been really enjoying tummy time lately. Well, for the most part. Sometimes he's not too sure when he gets started.





He usually ends up deciding it was fun at least!





Here's a video of Grady from this morning. He's really working at moving, but he just succeeds in turning himself about 90 degrees. It's pretty funny.



I've been trying to take Grady outside more, since he doesn't get to be outside at all while he is at daycare. He gets pretty contemplative when he's outside. He must feel pretty small in this big world.



Either that or he wants to eat his feet. Hard to tell.

All better

I'm not sure what was going on with Grady on Sunday, but he seems to have kicked it, whatever it was (knock on wood). His appetite is back and he hasn't had any more massive spit-ups although he has continued to spit-up a bit more than usual. So that is a relief. It gave me a taste of the terror of what it will be like when he actually does get sick. Not fun.

Grady and I went for a walk to a nearby park yesterday. After some initial tasting of the stroller strap (not tasty apparently), we had a very nice time.



Grady especially enjoyed looking at the leaves on the tree!



Today Grady and I met up with Jada and Rose for our walk. Grady and Rose interacted for the first time. It was one of the cutest things I've ever seen. Rose was reaching out to Grady, and Grady was trying to engage her in conversation. They were really fascinated with each other. Next week we're going to try to go to a park instead of walking so that the babies can spend some time getting to know each other better. No pictures, unfortunately, but I'll take my camera if we go to the park.

Because of Grady's extra spit-up, we put a bib on him for the first time today. I don't know what it is about the bib, but I think it makes him look extra cute! I'm of course biased, so I'll leave the decision to you all.

Made it!

At long last, we made it to the ocean today! We abided by our three rules learned the hard way a few weeks ago: (1) left early; (2) avoided biker conventions; (3) saw the ocean!



Matt's friends from high school drove out from Idaho to visit Depoe Bay, about 2.5 hours away from Portland, so we made the trip to see them. It was a lot of fun for Matt to see his old friends and it was great to finally see the ocean!

Here are some shots of Grady from the trip.







What a great way to celebrate Grady's four month birthday.

Unfortunately, Grady has had a decreased appetite today and had a massive spit up after his bottle this evening, so I am on high alert. He doesn't have a fever and has been in a cheery smiley mood today, so I'm hoping it's just an off day. Here's to Grady feeling all better when he wakes up.

Grady tries beef

Grady is still not quite four months, but if the man wants cow, he gets cow.









As you can see, Grady still hasn't quite gotten over his oral stage!

Here are some more pictures from today's photo shoot.









Grady has really been working on his sleeping these past few days. He had an unprecedented 2+ hours of sleep at daycare today. I'm not sure if he's finally getting used to it, or if he's having a growth spurt, or what. Whatever it is, I'll take it! We've also started imposing a slightly earlier bedtime (closer to 7 now), and he has adjusted to that nicely.

Grady has also been continuing to roll, so he may be firmly into this stage now. I guess we will know for sure in a few more days!

I wish everyone were closer so they could see how much Grady has changed and how much he is learning. He is also just a lot of fun to be around! It's hard to believe he'll be four months on Sunday!

Oh! One other thing I almost forgot to mention. Grady finally took interest in Besa yesterday. Grady was on my lap facing me, and Besa came up to get some lap too. Grady reached over and grabbed for her with both hands! Besa was not pleased, but refrained from biting. She jumped off in a hurry! Here's an unrelated shot of Bes from earlier today.



Fuzz is a little more camera shy, but, just for Matt's Dad, I'll try to get a few good shots of her soon.

Moving along

After taking a few weeks off to think about it, Grady decided he liked rolling after all today!







I'll be curious to see if he's firmly into rolling now, or if this is another "eh, I'll try again later" moment.

Grady also showed some good improvement with his circle of neglect today. He actually was reaching for the objects instead of just trying to eat the towel (although he hasn't given up on that either).



On Sunday, Grady had his first up-close encounter with a dog. My friend Joanna has a little dog about the size of our kitties named Wally. He and Grady were both extremely taken with each other!



It's funny, because he still couldn't care less about the cats.

Grady and I are still adjusting to our new schedule. It's still tough getting Grady to get a solid afternoon nap in because he's so overtired by the time I pick him up from daycare. We will keep working on it, though. Even the 30-60 minutes of extra napping he's getting on our new schedule seems to make a difference.

Finally, here's a cute picture of Grady from the weekend.