Turtle Monkey

Last night went really well with Elias. He was in a great mood when he came home from daycare. I had chili ready for dinner and Elias was content to sit in his swing while I grabbed a bowl. Even though he’s not going to be ready to start solids for another couple of months, Mark and I are thinking of getting him a high-chair like device so we can all sit at the kitchen table together as a family for meals. I’m not sure whether this would frustrate Elias since he can’t have what we’re having, or if being able to look him in the face and talk to him while we’re eating would entertain him.

Then we did another video chat with Mark’s parents, but Elias wasn’t going to produce a smile for anything. He did get a little talkative at the end of the chat, but he was his usual stubborn self through most of it.

After his 8pm feeding, he fell asleep on my shoulder and I held onto his sleeping little body for at least a half an hour, while Mark and I watched Stargate Atlantis. After the show, I went and put him down in the bedroom and to my shock and amazement, he stayed asleep for a good 90 minutes or so! He woke himself up by coughing. I went back there, picked him up and bounced him back to sleep again before laying him back down. He lasted another 30 minutes or so before another cough woke him up. By then, I was ready to go to sleep as well, so I joined him.

One night earlier this week I tried putting him to bed this way unsuccessfully for about two hours before I gave up and went to bed. We’re going to try to be as consistent as possible about getting him to bed using this method because it was OH SO NICE to have some time alone with Mark. We just watched TV, but it was still very nice.

I think tonight I’m going to try keeping him awake a little bit longer (as long as he’s not acting fussy or obviously tired) because he woke up around 5am this morning and refused to go back to sleep. It wasn’t really so bad, but I’d prefer him to stay asleep a little while longer in the morning (especially considering he always has a long morning nap anyway).

My baby turns 4 months tomorrow! I just can’t believe how fast time is flying. I don’t know if I’m going to get enough baby cuddles in before he grows up.

Elias really gets a kick out of my stepfather, Jim. My mom and Jim came over Saturday night and Elias was just fascinated with Jim, who’s very animated around him. Jim plays patty cake, sings songs and acts like Elias’ strength is crushing his finger when the baby wraps his hand around it. Elias eats this up and erupts in dozens of smiles and baby giggles (no full blown laughs yet). While Mark and I can pry a smile out of Elias when he’s not in the best mood, smiles always seem to come easily for his grandaddy.

A while back (as in, before I became pregnant) I made Mark get a webcam so I’d have a way to see what Teyla, our Maltese, was up to while I was at work. Well, he never got that set up and I never bothered trying, so it kind of just sat there unused. Mark recently purchased a similar webcam for his parents, though, so we could do video chats between them and Elias.

Mark got our webcam hooked up and operational the other day when he was cleaning his computer desk, so we were able to do the first video chat yesterday! Elias didn’t really know what was going on and just stared quizzically at everything.

Hopefully before long, Elias will be able to figure out that those are his grandparents on the other end of the monitor and give some sort of response.

Video chatting was pretty cool! It’s amazing how far technology has come!