Brooke (holding up a light bulb that burnt out): “Mom! The light’s broken. We need to get a new one!”
Me: “Yes. We’ll have to go to the store and get one.”
Brooke: “But we don’t have light bulb stores in our village!”
I took Spencer to the doctor yesterday for his four-month checkup. I explained my concerns about him not being able to lift his head. Then I put him on the table to illustrate my point.
And Spencer did this:
In the eleventh hour Spencer pulled through and lifted his head for the doctor as if he’d been doing as much his whole life. He still looks pretty strained most of the time when he’s lifting his head, but there’s progress!
My babies have not generally loved tummy time. Usually I make them endure it for a few minutes a day here and there. However, three months seems like the magical age where almost overnight they go from hating being on their tummies to pulling their head and chest up and enjoying their new view of the world.
I quote from babycenter.com talking about babies’ neck control at 3 to 4 months of age:
“You’ll notice a definite improvement in head control by this time. Your baby will be able to raise his head to 45 degrees while on his tummy and keep it up steadily.”
Here is Brooke at three months:
So far so good. The next picture is Caroline at three months (funny that she’s wearing the same thing Brooke was in the previous picture):
Yep, she’s also got the hang of it. Baby #3 is where we hit a snag. Here’s Spencer at FOUR months:
I think my baby is having a little problem with his neck muscles.
For at least the past three weeks I’ve been aggressively giving Spencer tummy time as often as possible and have seen little improvement in his ability to lift his head off of the ground (much less to the 45 degrees that Babycenter assures me he will be able to do at this age). We go to the doctor on Tuesday for his four-month appointment. I’m interested to hear what the doctor says about this.
I better finish documenting Caroline’s birthday. She turned two! However, when asked how old she is, she responds, “Be three!” She’s just excited to grow up, I guess.
Caroline helped me make her cake by licking the beaters:
Here’s her Piggie and Gerald cake:
Have you heard of Piggie and Gerald? Allow me to introduce you. They are characters from books written by Mo Willems. We highly recommend the books. Brooke and Caroline love them. In fact, one of the books has already had its fifteen minutes of fame right here on our blog. Remember this post?
Another book spent some time cuddled up next to Caroline while she slept:
In short, go check these books out from the library, now! (That means you, Sarah…)
Back to our birthday celebration. We went up to my parents’ house for Caroline’s birthday dinner. Even though he’s now bald, Spencer was still adored by all:
I love this next picture. It’s my Dad holding Spencer. My Dad was getting Spencer to smile and giggle, and it was so cute so I captured the moment. This picture can also serve as a cautionary tale. If you skimp on your baby’s tummy time, he/she may develop a head as flat as my Dad’s. I’m amused by the fact that the back of his head perfectly matches the line of the fridge meeting the cupboards. Do you think they make head-reshaping helmets in my Dad’s size? Christmas present idea!
We sat my sister’s baby next to Spencer for a size comparison (four months vs. one year). Eli was fascinated with Spencer’s ear.
My Dad took a series of photos of Caroline opening her presents. Someone remind me to introduce my Dad to the zoom feature on our camera:
On second thought, maybe we don’t want close-ups if Caroline’s going to be picking her nose in every shot!
Caroline was thrilled with her new bike!
Good manners get thrown out the window when cake is involved!
Happy birthday, my sweet girl!
