My July

Another month has come and gone, time definitely flies when you are having fun. Ryan is really starting to "play' and not just lie around all day! We've been working on tummy time every day and he definitely has full control of his head now which makes it much easier to cart him around.

He also, LOVES his walker. He hasn't quite got the Fred Flinstone action down, but he'll take little mini steps around our kitchen.

His usual fussy time inevitably is always right when we sit down to eat dinner whether its at 6 pm or 8 pm, so we have put him in the walker near us at the table and it seems to make him happy for at least a few minutes.

He has really discovered his feet over the past few weeks and can look at them and grab them for hours! He loves to play on his changing table.

We have really nailed down his schedule the past two weeks. Suprisingly, going to bed at night is as easy as can be. He actually loves getting ready for bed. We put him in his crib awake and within 5-10 minutes he is sound asleep and doesn't even cry. I am not sure what to attribute it to, but I know ever since we have had this amazing Homedics Lullaby SoundSpa, he is mesmorized. For all you new moms or future moms who have the expensive sound machines or mobiles, I highly suggest investing in this:

It is $20 bucks at Bed Bath and Beyond (I think Babies R Us has it too) and plays all sorts of sounds, has a timer, and projects different pictures on the ceiling. As soon as the heartbeat sound starts, he is out! He will sleep consistently until 5am now and then again until 7:30, almost to the minute!

As for daytime naps, however, he HATES them. He takes three 40 min naps a day and one 1.5-2 hour nap (but only if we let him sleep on his tummy, which my pediatrician is mad at me for doing since he can't roll all the way over yet). He will eventually go down but only after screaming his lungs out with huge tears rolling down his cheeks. We took him in for his four month appointment on Tuesday and here were his stats:

Length - 27.5 inches (off the charts in terms of % - they measured him twice just to make sure)

Weight - 16 lbs 11 oz (75-90%)

Head - 17.5 in (90-95%)

As far as development goes - he can fully hold his head up, roll easily from his tummy to his back, gets halfway over from his back to his tummy and just chills on his side, grabs at all of his toys, loves watching the TV (think it's time for some educational programming!), loves to be tickled and play peek-a-boo, will bust out in huge belly laughs, will smile on command (never thought we would get there after the first 2 months we had!), can watch us from across the room, and definitely recognizes us and gets excited when he hasn't seen us in a while. He got his 4 month shots also, which he was a champ and was laughing and playing afterwards. Here he is pre-shots

He was going crazy with the paper on the doctor's table. He kicked and crumbled up the paper for a solid 30 minutes while we waited to see the doctor. I also took his obligatory monthly pictures and he had fun with his sign.

We went this past weekend to Cedar Creek for dinner with our friends Courtney and Tim and their 6 month old - Caitlyn. Ryan had fun with his new friend, haha, well not really, they just sat in the car seats and stared. I didn't get any pics, but here is one of Ryan and me before we left.

This upcoming weekend Wes and I are headed to Dallas for my friend Courtney's wedding, it will be our first weekend away from Ryan! We are looking forward to seeing a bunch of our friends and having some grown-up play time, but will definitely miss our lil guy. Good luck CoCo and Poppy, and thanks in advance. Next up we are going to start rice cereal once we get back!