I think Lex thinks he has two mommies – a
daytime mommy with hair and no glasses, and a nighttime mommy
with no hair (all pulled back) and glasses. He always looks a
little confused to see me at night.

Anyway, we had a great 4th of July. We went down to Alan’s
parents house where they had a backyard picnic with all of
their neighbors, many of whom we’ve met before. I posted
pictures (as well as another week of random, around the house
pictures) at photos.datdec.com. Check them
out.

Happy 4th of July to all! We’re starting
the day here with a beautiful sunrise. Hope you all have a fun
day with lots of grillin’ and fireworks, or however you choose
to spend your day. We’ll be spending it with a block party down
at the in-laws. Should be a good time.

We went to the drive-in last night and saw
Star Wars and Mr & Mrs Smith. It was a lot of fun. Lex was
very well behaved – if you can use the word “behaved” for a 5wk
old baby. He slept almost the whole time, waking only for food
and a diaper change. I have to confess that I slept through
parts of both movies as well (hey, I’d been up since 6am!). It
ended up being a late night. We got home at 2:30am, nursed
again, and got to bed around 3:30am. Then up again at 6am for
the hungry baby. And on that note, he just fell asleep so I’m
going back to bed.

Lots of developmental changes
this week. Lex is starting to find his hands and feet lately.
He’s becoming a master at punching his little hands and kicking
his little feet. On the playmat he is able to bat at some of
the toys – though I’m not sure he really knows what he’s doing.
It’s cute to watch anyway :) He is also able to get his fist in
his mouth now (not the whole thing, but some of it) and he even
got a finger in there once, though I haven’t seen that again.
And he’s grabbing at stuff! Mainly my shirt, my hair, the burp
cloth on my shoulder, etc. When I put him up to burp he ends up
holding on to the burp cloth and/or my shirt and taking it with
him.

He also is smiling a lot
these days. Sometimes it seems very social (I smile at him, he
smiles back) and other times I think it’s still reflexive (big
smile followed by big burp, for example). Either way though,
it’s adorable!

He’s quite a strong baby
too. He pushes himself up with his legs and stands there for
almost a mintue (with a little help from us on the balancing
part). He’s getting more control over his head as well, though
he still has a ways to go with that.

Today we went out for a dessert run (after lunch!! gotta
kick this dessert habit!) and we sat on the beach by the lake
to eat. It was a beautiful day and Lex finally got a dose of
sunshine after the muggy, overcast, stormy week we’ve had.

On a down note, I fear we may be facing
a colic baby :( The past few days he has cried for several
hours, almost unconsolably, every evening. Tonight it was
almost exactly 5-9pm – what they call a “PM fusser”. It was
awful. We have this soothing CD (sort of melodic womb sounds)
that calms him down when we play it *really* loud, but as soon
as we turn the volume down he’s screaming again. Alan and I
broke out the ear plugs :) When we finally got him to sleep at
9pm we hit the sack as well – talk about an exhausted family.
However, right now he’s lying in my lap calm, peaceful, and
smiling away. That makes it all worth it!

PS – Happy July!

I posted the week 4
photos online. Nothing too exciting, just lots of
sleeping and hanging out pictures. I also posted a picture from
my 41 week ultrasound. I realize this
is an old photo by now, but I wanted to put it up anyway. It’s
actually a neat ultrasound picture for two reasons – because
you can clearly see a face, and second because Lex was born the
next day. It’s almost like a newborn picture, but not quite. I
thought it was pretty cool.

Went to the doctor today for a check up.
Lex is now 10lbs and 8oz. He also has a bit of a diaper rash
that we’ve been trying to treat with Desitin. The doctor said
to try vaseline or something. We had A&D; at home and it
seems to be getting better already. Otherwise Lex is a very
happy, healthy boy.

This afternoon a woman from our child birth
class came to visit with her new baby. She is moving to Boston
so it was nice to get to visit before she left. Her son,
Desmond, was born on two weeks after Lex. It’s amazing to see
how much a baby changes in two weeks. We had a nice visit and
got to talk about our labor and delivery experiences,
parenting, baby stuff, etc. It was fun.

We took Lex to Olan Mills today for a
professional photo shoot. Today is his one month birthday and
we had a coupon for a bunch of free photos, so we figured – why
not? It turned out to be a good time and Lex did a great job.
We went through two outfits (one from my Grandma and one from
Alan’s mom) and we took some pictures with his superman blanket
and some with a blanket my Grandma made for him. We go back on
July 9th to see the proofs and pick the pose we want for our
free pictures. I told Lex that if he enjoyed his modeling
experience he could talk to Lauren’s boy and get some advise :)
Lauren, I’ll keep you posted! Afterwards we bought a little ice
cream cake to celebrate (well, actually Alan and I just wanted
some chocolaty desert so the whole one month thing seemed like
a good excuse ;) ).

So yesterday was a very busy day, but much
better than Thursday. We started off at the office repo-ing a
Subaru that Alan had co-signed for and the company apparently
stopped paying for (long story). We then headed to Manchester Subaru to see what we
could do, as we were very shortly going to be faced with owning
two Subaru’s and having two car payments – not what we needed!
The guys at Manchester Subaru are fantastic (if you’re looking
for a car definitely talk to them!) and basically swapped the
two cars for a new one. So we traded in two silver Subaru
Forresters for a new silver Subaru Forrester :) Since we only
had one on us we had to drive back home to pick up the other
one and then back to Manchester. Lots of driving, but well
worth it.

Alan’s mom met us at the
dealership and played with Lex while we took care of the
paperwork and all. Then, since we had to come back to
Manchester with the second car, we met his parents at The Olive
Garden (yummy!!!) for dinner. It was great.

I was worried about Lex and the heat and the driving, but
he pretty much slept the entire time. I then started worrying
that he would be awake for three days! So far we’re doing ok.
He slept some during the night and he’s napping now. Such a
good baby.

It’s amazing how many random
people come up and talk to you when you have a baby. We got so
many compliments from people at the dealership and the
restaurant. One customer at the restaurant even came over from
his table to tell us that Lex is an adorable and well behaved
baby (Lex slept through dinner). He then told us that his
daugher (or son, I forget) is having twins. Babies make for
great conversation starters.

As a
development milestone, Lex woke up right at the end of dinner
and started sucking on his finger. Until yesterday he hadn’t
been able to coordinate getting a finger into his mouth. He was
really good at sucking on his arm, his hand, my shoulder, my
shirt, etc… but hadn’t been able to figure out the single
finger in the mouth thing. He seemed to enjoy his finger for
about two minutes, then he decided that he wanted breast
instead :) Smart baby.

This morning he
also had another first (at least first that I’ve seen). I had
him lying on the playmat that Mike sent us (thanks Mike!!!) and
he started batting at one of the hanging toys. In the past he
has hit them, but it seemed entirely accidental. This morning
he was looking at the toy and consistently hit it when he put
his arm up. I got some of it on video so I’ll have to figure
out how to get those videos online.

Anyway, I think I’ve written enough of this book for now.
In summary – new car (just like the old ones), Manchester
Subaru is great, everyone loves Lex, and he’s starting to get
coordinate. Overall a very good day. Today is supposed to be
record breaking temps (over 100) so we’ll spend the day in our
air conditioned apartment. More news leter.

Yesterday pretty much sucked. I missed the
4th Trimester group and (come to find out) the one and only
chance I had to see a woman from my child birth class who just
had her baby. She’s moving to Boston. The kicker is that I
could have made it to part of the group, but I got lazy and
just didn’t go :/ Then, in the afternoon, crappy stuff happened
with the old company. I’m not going into detail, but it sucked
and definitely ruined the afternoon. Today we are driving down
to Manchester for old company business. Hopefully that goes
well and makes up for yesterday. It’s supposed to be a
beautiful day and if we can just keep the little man happy then
all will be good.

On a lighter note, I took Lex in the shower
with me yesterday :) Think 4 weeks is too old to be showering
with your mom?? ;) He actually seemed to like it better than
the bath and it was definitely easier for me. I also think I
got him cleaner than we do in the little baby bathtub. Then
Alan dressed him in a super cute outfit that my Grandma brought
back from CA. It’s the first time we’ve had in a two-piece
outfit and his belly was showing all day. It made me happy
every time I looked at him. Actually, I get happy everytime I
look at him anyway, but you know what I’m saying. The other
good thing about yesterday is that I made a great fruit salad
for dinner. It had kiwi and pineapple and all sorts of good
stuff. I’m currently eating the leftovers (on top of vanilla
yogurt) for breakfast. Yummy!!

PS. We have a bunch of little movies we’ve taken
over the past few weeks. I’m trying to figure out how to make
them small enough (file size wise) to put on the web site. I’ll
let you know when I get them up.

Lex is 4 weeks old today. Yay! And yet,
not a month old until Saturday. Think we should have a 1mo
birthday party? Maybe get some cake for him. :)

(Now back to bed for me for another
hour or two.)