Manipulation 101

I tend to take pictures of my boys in this pose:

Apparently, Caleb has caught on. 

Recently, on a morning like any other, the three of us were playing on the living room floor.

Caleb looks up and demands, "Hold!"

I'm pretty clueless at this point, "Hold what?"

"Hold baby!"

"You want to hold the baby?"

With a mysterious grin, Caleb replies, "Yes!"

Aw, my little guy wants to love on his brother. **warm fuzzies**

"OK, climb up on the couch and I'll let you hold the baby."

With Gideon in his lap, Caleb makes his next request.

"Cam-ra, cam-ra, pits-err."

"You want Mommy to take a picture?"

There's that sinister mysterious grin again, "Yes!"

So, of course I oblige because even though I know the kid is really only looking for an opportunity to swipe my  camera (which he makes glaringly obvious as he waits for the flash to go off and then nudges his brother off his lap and lunges toward me), it's still awfully cute.  Agreed?

Jinx: More than a Good Scrabble Word

I take it back, I take it ALL back!! Okay, maybe I don't take it ALL back. But seriously, I debated about whether or not to even write my last post. I waited until I figured I was "in the clear." Then the next day Gideon was MISERABLE! And since then he's had a series of bad days. Not like they once were, but not all happy and wonderful like I said either. Of course, maybe I was just delirious when I wrote that last post and I was high on the whole being able to put him down for a couple of minutes and eat a sandwich thing. I dunno. I'm not superstitious but if I were, I'd definitely, for sure believe that I jinxed myself. But I don't believe that, not even a little. Okay, maybe a little but at least I realize it's illogical.

Seventeen Pounds and One Ounce of Joy

So, my "little bundle" is four months old as of yesterday and he is a heavyweight at 17 lbs ,1 oz and 26 inches tall! We grow 'em big in this household (tips hat to my abundant milk supply)! He giggles, he rolls from belly to back, reaches for things and grabs them, holds things in his hand for prolonged time periods, watches every move his brother makes, loves peek-a-boo, and the list goes on.

How's his temperament you ask? At this point, I would actually go so far as to describe this baby as "happy!" Shocker, I know. In the past two weeks, I have had two different people at two separate events ask the following question: "Is he always this happy?!" My mind immediately rewinds and I recall Gideon's first three and a half months of life and I think, "If you only knew!". So, I let each of them know that recently he's been quite happy and even "joyful" as one woman described him. But I don't fail to mention how thankful, grateful, falling-on-my-knees-in-praise I am that he's FINALLY happy because I'm pretty sure I couldn't endure his frequent unless-being-bounced-on-a-ball-that-popped crying for any longer than I did. Sharing this allows me to keep things in perspective. After all, any "bad" day I may have had in the past couple of weeks really isn't that bad if I keep in mind that four weeks ago that same "bad" day would've also included a screaming baby on my shoulder.

So, here I am on the other side of the fussy newborn baby thing. While I'm sure there is a multitude of challenges ahead, I breathe a sigh of relief every time I'm able to look at my grinning baby and hear his little chuckle. I practically do a happy dance when I'm able to do things like lie Gideon down on his play mat, make an egg and cheese bagel sandwich, and consume said sandwich while gazing upon him playing contentedly.

Bottomed Out!

Good thing this child is cute! As mentioned before, Gideon likes to be bounced. It soothes him and often times it's the ONLY thing that does! So, the exercise-ball-bounce was the perfect solution (shout out to my friend who discovered this). Recently, I was bouncing him to sleep and he had just dozed off. I continued to bounce to be sure he was completely out when I heard a hissing sound. I looked inquisitively at Matt figuring that the pin in the ball had come loose and hoping he'd verify that was the case. Then suddenly we heard a very loud POP and I was on the floor. I was shocked, sitting on the floor, completely forgetting I was holding a sleeping baby. Fortunately, no one was harmed. After recovering from the initial shock, I started cracking up and after Matt was certain neither Gideon or me were hurt, he laughed too. The ball? Nothing but two rubbery shreds. Now I must resort to actually moving my arms to bounce Gideon. Is there hazard pay with this job?!