tongue tricks

talan learned a new trick. it makes feeding him that much more difficult. lucky me.

carrots

talan has finally started to open his mouth on a regular basis in order to get fairly good at eating cereal. we were told once he was eating cereal for a couple of weeks we could then move him on to veggies. so that's just what we did yesterday. i fed him carrots. there was no real ugly face or anything like that. he pretty much took it the way he takes his cereal. he didn't seem to necessarily love it, but he certainly doesn't hate it. he's just big time into his bottle and he doesn't really seem to care to eat any other way. but he'll do it, usually.
hayden has been in helpful mode all afternoon so when i was getting talan ready to eat i asked hayden if he would bring the bowl of carrots over. he then said he could feed him. and because really, feeding him is pretty much a pain, i agreed. i certainly don't think that talan got as much in his mouth as he did last nite, but they both had fun. hayden isn't much for patience (wonder where that comes from) so he didn't really like to wait until talan opened his mouth himself. well, whatever. at least i didn't have to do it.


he has no idea what he's in for:
what is this?!:
i guess i'll take some more:


oh good, we're done:
this evening's festivities:


that was much more fun than last nite:

5 months

talan is 5 months old already. it's hard to believe it, but then again, it seems like he's always been here. and that's a good thing. talan is continuing to grow. we're curious to see if he'll end up being even bigger than hayden was in his first few years. so far they've been neck in neck. as mentioned in one of the previous posts, talan started eating cereal. like the horrible mother i am, i haven't been religious about feeding it to him every single day. it is a huge pain in the butt. i honestly don't remember it being this difficult with hayden. you can't feed him when he's too hungry, cuz he just screams for his bottle. you can't feed him when the bottle is gone cuz he's full and he won't open his mouth. so at random times, when i remember, i'll stick him in the bumbo seat and feed him some cereal. even then it's difficult. he just doesn't open his mouth all the time when you stick the spoon in his face. and he's always looking around to see if something better is going on. then he starts sucking on his messy bib or his fingers and cereal ends up everywhere but in his mouth. i hate cereal time.
he is constantly rolling over. he can do it both ways, be he prefers back to stomach. then if he wants to get over to his back again, he likes to let us do that for him. but he doesn't mind being on his stomach at all. in fact, many times, he prefers it. we usually find him in bed in the mornings on his stomach.
we put him to sleep several nites without being swaddled. the first two nites didn't go to badly at all. we had to go in several times to roll him back over and stick his binky back in his mouth, but after awhile he fell asleep and stayed that way until his typical 7am wake time. we've had a lot going on recently where he hasn't gotten his usual naps so he's been exhausted. when we've tried laying him down unswaddled when he's that tired, it just doesn't work so well. we have been able to get away with just swaddling his legs. so i guess we're a step closer to "normal." although, i guess what he's doing now is more normal to me. i mean, i hate sleeping without a sheet covering me. so why wouldn't he?!
he continues to love standing while someone holds on to him and he just keeps getting stronger. just today i had him sitting by himself for probably about 10 seconds. then he just falls to the side. but it's a start. he's been grabbing on to the toys on the tray of his swing to sit himself forward. all day today he's just hung out that way. he refuses to let go and just lay back. i figure he'll be sitting in no time.
he took his first trip to apple orchard (photos to be posted soon on my page) and we put him in the church nursery for the first time last week. not because we don't trust them, or we have to have our children near us. but just because he's such a good baby, he never really made any noise. it was just easier keeping him with us. we made the mistake of dropping him off at his class before we dropped off hayden and when then took him into his room hayden just started screaming "NO....I WANT TALAN BACK!!" he was quite upset. this week we made sure to drop hayden off first.
he cries almost every time we put him in his car seat, but just usually while we're sitting him in and buckling him up. then he stops and is back to his happy self. he still prefers naps either in the swing or swaddled but will take what dave has now dubbed "cash naps" if we're out and about. he'll fall asleep for a bit in his car seat and then about 10-15 minutes later his eyes pop open and he's back in business. he still loves hayden to death and continues to laugh harder for him than anyone else. he's usually eating about 6 ounces at each feeding which is every 3-4 hours with some bottles, usually the one first thing in the morning, being 8 ounces. although, the other morning he ended up eating 10 ounces. he still continues to only cry when he's hungry or tired. and sometimes when he's just tired of being ignored. the other day i put him in front of a baby einstein and he watched most of it, but still nowhere close to as intently as hayden used to watch them. he's lost quite a bit of his hair, and at certain angles looks like a balding man. but the hair growing in has covered his head and is totally blonde. which makes him look even balder at times. he loves to be outside laying on a blanket. he'll just kick and look up at leafs blowing and squeal. his talking has gotten even lower. sometimes it sounds like he's growling at us. and he still has his horrible pneumonia cough but it still doesn't seem to bother him. but then again, what does?
here's to another great month. happy 5 months, talan!

somebody should really get this kid a bed

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!

talan talks

so i've been trying to get some video clips downloaded so that jessica can see the boys. every time i've tried to get talan jabbering on, he doesn't. go figure. this is the best i've gotten so far. there is a point where he decides he's going to cry. but then decides against it. i'll try to get a better one. but for now, enjoy all that he has to say: