cereal?! that's no cinnamon toast crunch!

we finally fed talan cereal for the first time on monday nite. i think i did the same thing with hayden. i waited around until i had people here to help with video and pictures. i'm a freak like that. so the poor kids don't get to eat food until there is a whole staff of people here. our friend tina came over for monday nite catan and i made her take video. you'd think that i'd never done this before. and i felt like i never had. i chose probably the worst time to try this. talan was exhausted as it was nearing bedtime and he was hungry. but instead of giving him a bottle first, we tried the cereal first. that didn't go so well. so we stopped and gave him some of his bottle. he eventually started eating it without screaming but he really just wanted to go to bed. anyway. now that all the photography work is out of the way, poor talan can just eat his cereal like every other normal baby.

he doesn't hate it, he just hates his parents for doing it the wrong way:
this is the real "stands with a fist" just look at all of the pictures:
ahhh, the bottle. and he's about to fall asleep:
ok. now maybe we'll try again:
still not that happy about it:
it's almost over, right?:
most of this mess was made because he was screaming while dave was shoveling the cereal in:
the cereal was gone, so dave could finally make him laugh again:

the best sound in the world

i was in the office trying to clean and organize (finally) when i heard the best sound in all the world. nobody can make talan laugh the way hayden does.

4 month check up

talan went in to the dr. on tuesday for his 4 month check up. he weighed 15 pounds, 4 ounces which puts him in the 60th% and he was 25 5/8" which puts him in the 75%. both the dr. and the nurse commented on how active and strong he was for his age. we were told we could go ahead and start him on cereal and after he takes that for a couple of weeks we can move him on to vegetables. so i'll start the cereal feeding once i have someone around for camera and video help!
we were told back at his 2 month appointment that the right side of his head was flat. for whatever reason, he only ever laid on his right side. so we had to prop him up on his left side when he would fall asleep. she had said if it wasn't any better, he might need physical therapy. lately, he has been laying on his left side all by himself, so i was hoping the problem was gone. she told me that it is far less flat now and she's not really worried about it anymore.
i was fully expecting her to tell us that he had an ear infection or something. i mean really, how have we not been to the dr. in 2 months and then her tell us he's healthy?! but that's just what happened. his ears and everything else looks great. he still has a horrible cough and sounds like a barking seal though. she had said that there is a possibility that he could end up being slightly asthmatic, especially since he had the respiratory problem so early on. he could just end up having coughing fits, especially when he gets sick, and with asthma treatment it would stop. but she did say he sounds perfectly clear inside so that's one reason she doesn't necessarily think it's that. he coughs every day, but it is only once or twice. he doesn't end up going into full coughing fits with it. so we're still keeping an eye on it. i'm not worried about it at all, it just sounds awful to hear a 4 month old cough like that.
he ended up getting 3 shots and took them fairly well. he didn't cry after the first poke, but cried for the 2nd and 3rd. just for a bit, then he stopped and then started back up again for drama sake. he was also really tired since he had missed his morning nap. he ended up sleeping all day and then in the evening was super hot with a fever. he seemed to be a little out of sorts the next day, but not too bad.
other than that, everything is great. we go back in 2 months as long as he continues to stay healthy! we'll get the pictures up of his first feeding as soon as we actually give him his first feeding!

new photos

so after days, if not weeks, of watching talan almost roll over from his back to his stomach he finally did it today. and i wasn't there. i've had a video camera on him some days, my camera out on others, and today i was in the basement. he was in the living room with hayden and i ran downstairs to check my emails. i came back up to find him laying on his stomach. so of course the first thing i do is look at hayden and say "did you roll your brother over?" he looked confused and said "no" then looked at talan and realized he was on his stomach and started yelling "he did it all by himself!" so yes. it appears that talan rolled over all by himself with absolutely no fanfare.
talan will be taking his first trip to the zoo tomorrow, so pictures will be posted of that outing soon. for now, here are some pictures of what went on this past week:


i walked into the living room to find talan under about 6 blankets. he didn't see to mind though:

the next day he was sitting in his bumbo seat and was then covered in 2 blankets. this time he seemed to mind a little more:
then, on friday nite while eating dinner, talan decided that he didn't need to be in the swing or be swaddled to fall asleep. he just went ahead and took his nap in his bumbo chair on the kitchen table surrounded by a mexican feast:

4 months

4 months old already. we go in to the dr. for his 4 month check up next tuesday so we'll once again update you on the official stats as soon as they come in. talan is still a really happy baby. when he was really little we commented many times on how serious he was. we wondered how he would ever survive in a family that is as far from serious as you can get. but it seems as though he seriousness is subsiding. he smiles all of the time. you just have to look at him and he'll smile at you. he especially likes hayden. hayden can just be playing across the room, not even paying attention to talan, and talan will just start to laugh. he still usually only cries when he's hungry and overly tired. the rest of the time he's either sleeping, smiling or just hanging out quietly. he continues to talk more and more each week. before he mostly made high pitched squeaking noises but recently started growling a bit more. he also loves to blow spit bubbles which doesn't help our cause in telling hayden NOT to blow spit bubbles.
he's still a really good sleeper although he afternoon naps aren't nearly what they used to be. although, he ends up going to bed around 9 or 9:30 each nite. one nite, he was so tired that we put him to bed just after 8 and he still didn't get up until 7am. most mornings he is up around 6:30 or 7 with only an occasional nite that we have to get up and shove his binky back in his mouth. usually shortly after waking up he ends up going right back to sleep for his morning nap for a few hours. the afternoon used to be a good several hours but now seems to be just several cat naps. he still will only fall asleep if he's in his swing or swaddled. it's nice knowing he has that routine. that once he eats his last bottle and is swaddled he just knows it's time for bed. but it's also annoying. he can wiggle out of it and then ends up crying until we swaddle him back up again. i would have thought he would have been out of this stage long ago.
he continues to roll over from his stomach to his back whenever he feels like it. it's not often, but it does happen. he hasn't quite made it from his back to his stomach yet but he has come very close. several times i thought he had done it, only to watch him roll back over. that darn arm just gets in the way sometimes. but i can't imagine it will be too much longer.
dave and i just took a trip to chicago for the 3 day music festival, lollapalooza, which we go to every year. kids get in free and they have a whole kids setup that is super cool. but we left them with grandma and grandpa. so it was talan's first time away from us. from what i hear, he did pretty well. it's really not him i worry about though.... and we did just fine too. i'm just glad he didn't go and roll over or do some other genius type of thing to make me feel bad that i missed it. nothing like giving him the middle child syndrome already, and he's not even a middle child yet.
so life has been great these past 4 months and we've decided we're definitely going to keep him. happy 4 months, talan cash!