Jen and I discovered Ryan’s first two teeth coming in this week.  They’re coming in from the bottom front – in fact, they’ve completely broken through at this point.  Ryan has been no more fussy than usual (not often, only when he’s bored or tired) over the last few weeks, so he’s a pretty tough little guy.

He’s also started laughing once in a while.  You have to catch him in the right mood, but when he’s having a good time you can go after his belly and he’ll crack up.  The first time I made him laugh in front of Jen, she cried.  It’s fun to watch her bittersweet moments in his development.  He’s changing so fast!

He has also started on solid foods in the past week or two.  Squash, green beans, and sweet peas have been in the diet so far.  Much to Mom’s chagrin, he’s already showing signs of independence from breast feeding.  Certain meals are better for breast feeding, such as early morning breakfast or mid-day snacks, but when he wants to get down to eating, he likes the bottle.

He’s also mostly able to sit up on his own now, if you put him in a sitting position and let him stabilize first.  He has the forward and back movement under control, but the side to side balance is still a bit of a challenge.

Every day brings new fun!

Ryan’s 4 month check-up was this morning.  He’s still at or above the 95th percentile for height and weight.  Weighing around 16.5 to 17 lbs and is 26.5 inches long, so he grew 3 lbs and 3 inches in 2 months!   Dr. Sova says he’s growing very well.  Ryan started taking some rice cereal a couple times a day last week.  More ended up on him than in him.  We’ll be starting  vegetables soon.   Sleeping like a champ at night getting anywhere between 8-12 hrs at a stretch and taking 2-4 naps a day or about 3-5 hours total.   He absolutely loves to stand and can hold all of his weight for 5 minutes or so, also sitting supported by boppy for a couple of minutes.  Loves to “fly” as well, but he sure gets heavy fast for me!  He’s reaching for toys and shaking rattles.  Chews on his fingers or whatever he can get into his mouth- time to start babyproofing the house soon.  He loves loud smacking kisses-always gets big smiles.   Still wants to be held a lot of the time but is able to entertain himself for up to 30 minutes in his standing activity center or bouncy seat.  Also loving looking at mirrors.  He’s not rolled over in a couple of weeks, wonder if he’s forgotten how.

This is all happening too fast.  Dave was playing with him in the living room and I missed it.  Ryan rolled over for the first time and I missed it!  He rolled over 3 more times in the next 5 minutes which I got to see – and yep, I cried.

Okay, so it’s babble- but I swear he’s telling stories.  In the last 2-3 weeks Ryan has been keeping us entertained.  He’s “talking” quite a lot, punctuated by squeals.  We would find this endlessly entertaining, but Ryan is only good for a few minutes of “talking” at a time, when he’s in his best moods.  He will bless us with his ‘stories’ a few times a day though.

Dave thinks he’s reaching for toys.  To me it looks like wild flailing and accidentally hooking a fist around something.  Often my hair, necklace, or sometimes a toy.  He doesn’t seem to know he’s snagged anything.

I unofficially weighed him a few days ago (bathroom scale and math: me + baby, and figure he’s up to about 14 pounds now.  So hopefully he’s slowing down if he’s only gained a pound or so in the last month.  I was afraid he’d weigh 40 by his first birthday.

I’ve been pulling out all 3-6 month clothes that we have – Thanks again Eric and Em.  I’m shocked to find some of them are already snug.  Some 6-9’s fit and some of his 0-3’s still fit well- kind of confusing!

Ryan’s favorite thing is still to be held, more than not.  And I pretty much have to be up and moving for it to be acceptable to him.  Good for my innate laziness to be challenged in that way I suppose.  Funny that when Dave gets home Ryan can spend hours upon hours gazing adoringly up at his dad as he’s held by him without so much as a whimper…. traitor.