Adventures of a 3-month-old

Benjamin is 4 months old today, so this is going to be a 3 month review. You can check out all the things he's been up to this past month. The following are in chronological order so you can see how big he's getting. :)

Tummy time is a no-brainer. He's been rolling over since Thanksgiving but not with great frequency, and usually only once at a time. So if he rolls over and I run to get the camera to catch a second roll, it never happens. Murphy's law!

Time spent with daddy is precious since he's at work for most of Benjamin's awake time. But the time Drew spends with Benjamin is carefully used. He's always working on some developmental thing with him. He's a great dad!

Here is the official 3 month photo. Yes, it was taken on the evening of the Fiesta Bowl. We thought we'd dress Benjamin like Coach Tressel for this photo.

Benjamin did not stay awake for the entire game, so he did not know about the heart-breaking loss at this point.

Let the reading begin! Even at this age Benjamin tracks with us and really looks at the pages in the books.

Bathtime is a fun time for both boys. Usually Drew is giving Jasper a bath while I'm giving Benjamin a bath, but on this evening Jasper wanted to participate. He just sorta kinda likes his brother. :)

Sometimes Benjamin's schedule allows for Drew to give him a bath after Jasper is in bed. They both like that.

See the crazy baby hair?

Benjamin is now playing with toys on his own. He looks around for them and reaches for them. If we place something where he can kick it, that's a bonus.

Sometimes tummy time where he can look up for a toy is a great change of pace.

The Bumbo seat! What a crazy cool contraption. Benjamin now has the neck control to sit in it for extended periods of time. I've started putting him in it and setting him on the play yard (from above) where the toys are at eye level so he can reach out for them. And I place him in front of our big front window so he can soak in the sun.

Benjamin plays with the toys on his bouncy seat toy bar, too. Right now we have the giraffe stuck up there, and it's the perfect position for him to grab the giraffe's feet and put them in his mouth. That's because ....

Benjamin is teething. Ah, it starts so early! He's chomping on his hands and all his toys these days. It's getting a little hard to figure out if he's hungry or just needing to chomp. But the waterworks have started as well. Drool city is here! Teething is upon us. Who knows when the first tooth will decide to drop in.

Benjamin has sunglasses. It worked with Jasper to put them on early, before he could take them off himself. And he just got so used to them that he wears them all the time now. Apart from his curly blond hair, it might be his most significant trademark. Here Benjamin is soaking in the vitamin D while daddy plays with Jasper outside.

He looks just as cool as his brother.

Chunkalicious!

As of early January he was weighing in (at the doctor's office) at 16lbs 13 oz. His 4-month check-up is next week. I'll report how he's tipping the scales at that point.

Nana introduced Benjamin to the ultrasaucer, and he loves it!

He's especially fond of the sun.

Tummy time now. He can lift his head and feet up at the same time. Very mission impossible!


And his brother is introducing Benjamin to the finer things in life ... John Deere tractors!

Nana to the Rescue!

After spending two weeks caring for sick boys and dealing with cedar allergies myself, I was reaching the end of my rope. Benjamin was recovering, but Jasper had a returning cold which manifested itself with bad nasal congestion. Since Jasper LOVES his brother, he LOVES to give him kisses. Kisses are great, except when they involve germ transfer. I agonized that he was going to get Benjamin sick again, and I just couldn't deal with that. We escaped a trip to the ER while Benjamin was sick, but I was afraid a returning cold would be worse and might mean hospitalization. (yes, I worried. it's hereditary.)


Nana with her precious big and precious little boys. Jasper isn't excited to see her or anything.

So Nana came to our rescue. She was with us for about a week, and she was great! She did all my laundry for the entire week, helped with meals and generally provided the second set of hands that are so necessary when you're trying to care for two small boys that both need affection and attention but shouldn't really be too close to each other. She was able to spend time outside with Jasper to let him RUN every day ... something I couldn't do while cedar pollen was super high. She also gave Jasper another hair cut. He didn't protest at all. (Letting him watch Curious George and part of "Cars" helped.) Let's hope he can make it 'til her return visit before he needs another cut. We'll see!

Benjamin loved the extra attention from Nana. Plus, he got a new hat out of the bargain. Utah here I come! Bring on the snow!

We've been baking more and more with Jasper ... pancakes, muffins, and the latest: scones. He loves being part of the action and leaving his mark on the baked goods.

Jasper is a really active boy, and it seems each time we're outside he wants to be doing some type of work. He loves to sweep leaves. Good thing! we have oodles of them!!!

Playing with the Jeep is no end of fun, especially opening and shutting the door.

After a full day of playing with nana, Jasper is pooped!

and so are we!

Inside Play

While one or both boys were sick, we spent a lot of time inside. It was either chilly and kind of damp or the highest cedar pollen counts in years - not the type of weather for boys with colds or their allergy-prone mommy. We had to get a little creative to come up with things to do while we were staying inside. One thing Jasper did was play with an inside sandbox. The sand was oatmeal, and we used cinnamon sticks for timbers. They were proportionately sized to be used with Papa's dump truck.

Here are some examples of what the inside of the house looks like after inside sandbox play. It got a little messy, but it was easy clean-up ... so who cares!



I tried restricting the sandbox play to the town rug, but as you can see ... that didn't really work out.

Poor Baby

Immediately upon returning from Ohio both boys got sick. Jasper was the first to present symptoms of picking up someone's hacking cough and cold. We hunkered down to deal with our sickness-prone child. Much to our surprise, his cold passed in less than 48 hrs and he was back to normal. Unfortunately, this was not without first passing his germs onto his younger brother.


Benjamin got his first ever cold the first weekend in January. By Saturday night he was coughing, and on Sunday morning he had a fever > 101deg. Bummer! This is technically a fever for a wee little one of his age (13 wks), so while Drew and Jasper went to church, I hunted around for a pediatric prompt care that would see little Benjamin. His fever waxed and waned throughout the day, but the doctor who saw him on Sunday said it was just a cold and advised us to be watching for other symptoms of RSV or whooping cough.


By Wednesday his cough had not gotten better and in fact was worse, so I loaded up both boys and headed into the pediatrician for Benjamin's first "sick" visit. Our appt was for 1pm, and this is usually when Jasper goes down for his nap. I would have preferred to leave him at home, but I couldn't find anyone to watch him. So we all three headed in, and I just prayed that it would be a quick visit and Jasper would be able to hold it together.


It wasn't a quick visit. Benjamin was the picture of health. 16lbs, 13oz, smiling and cooing. If you overlooked the fact that his sides were sucking in just under his ribcage with each breath, you would not recognize that he was sick. But this is classic "distressed breathing" so there were multiple attempts to read his oxygen levels and two breathing treatments to be administered. By the end of the first breathing treatment, the wheels were starting to come off for Jasper. It was 2pm, and there was no near end in sight. Thankfully our dear friend Gayleigh came up to the doctor's office and rescued Jasper. He nearly leaped into her arms when the exam room door opened and he saw her there. With Jasper in her capable hands and soon sound asleep in bed, I could focus on Benjamin - his second breathing treatment, his chest x-ray and return trip to the pediatrician. We weren't home until 5pm.


On Wednesday night Benjamin did not seem to worsen, so our return trip to the pediatrician the following morning looked good. However, by Thursday night Benjamin's cough was sounding awful. It was so labored and scary sounding. So on Friday I returned to the pediatrician with him again. Again he was the picture of health minus the distressed breathing. Again his pulse ox was good. Again he fell asleep during his breathing treatment. As a last resort, the pediatrician prescribed breathing treatments for us to administer over the weekend. He even coughed some scary coughs while we were in the pediatrician's office and she was able to reassure me that they weren't actually that scary after all - they were pretty normal and while he did have brochiolitis, she never got to the point of diagnosing him with RSV.

We're guessing the purple dragon face on the mask was supposed to be playful for kids, but Drew just thought it looked creepy.

Benjamin was a trooper through each treatment, and it wasn't until Saturday night that he started to really rebound and actually get restless after the treatments. That's when I knew he was starting to really get better. It seemed that the cold which had been depressing his system and making him weak, overriding the jittery-ness he should have been experiencing with the albuterol breathing treatment was finally wearing off. The albuterol was winning, and we had a fiesty boy on our hands after each treatment. He was no longer sleeping as well nor as much. It might seem crazy, but we looked at this as a good thing. Now only if Jasper would stay healthy. ...

Fun in Ohio

Once the Christmas festivities were over, we had some fun time to spend together. As you probably know from previous entries in this blog, Jasper LOVES strawberry milkshakes. Here is a fun photo of Jasper sharing a strawberry milkshake with Grandpa.



He also made gingerbread cookies with Grandma.


Finally, we went as a family to a park near my parent's home on a cold sunny day. Jasper had a great time running, jumping, and one of his new favorite activities...hanging.

Bailey Family Christmas in Ohio

After celebrating Christmas at the Gant home, we went to Lou and Kathleen's home to celebrate the Bailey family Christmas. When we arrived, Lou pointed out an electric train set that she had setup around a small Christmas tree on a table. Jasper was enthralled with watching, touching, and experiencing the train. While I helped Jasper fix the derailed train, Erica snapped some photos that I cherish.




Lou and Kathleen's home has a huge basement, and we thought it would be a hit with Jasper to have such a large place to run around. Little did we know that a red tractor would be found.




They even created a bowling game.

Another highlight of the evening was having Benjamin and Jasper be held by their Great Grandparents.

It was a nice time with family.

Christmas at Grandpa and Grandma's House

After the fun events of Christmas day, we prepared for flying to Ohio. We chose the day after Chistmas in the attempt to avoid some of the holiday travel rush, and I'm pleased to report that it worked. The airport wasn't very busy in Austin or in Houston. The Austin to Houston flight is a short one, and our lay-over allowed us to collectively have some lunch before the long flight to Cleveland. While waiting in Houston, I was standing next to a Continental pilot, and I asked him if he was riding with or flying us to Cleveland today. After stating he was our co-pilot for the flight, we chatted about Christmas while Jasper watched the carts roll through the airport and Benjamin slept in my arms. Before he went to board the plane, he asked, "Do you have a camera with you?" Later he ushered Jasper into his seat, and these pictures were captured.

We arrived in Cleveland in the early evening, and we were met by Jon at the airport to take us to Akron. It was cold, but there was little snow on the ground.

When we arrived and Grandpa and Grandma's house, Jasper quickly settled into playing on the floor with Uncle Jon while Grandma spent some time bonding with Benjamin.

One of the highlights of the evening was Jon teaching Jasper how to catch from his "ready stance". Before Jon would toss the ball, he would call out "ready stance", and Jasper would repeat it while jumping and spreading his legs out for a solid base. As Jasper learned, he was repeat "ready stance" more and more emphatically.

<>The next morning we celebrated Christmas and Grandpa and Grandma's house. After some great pancakes made by Grandpa, we settled in for opening gifts. Here are some of the highlights.

It was a great experience to be gathered in my childhood home to celebrate Christmas with my wife, two sons, parents, and brother.

Dukes of Haz...I mean Austin

Check out Jasper "Bo Duke" Gant!