快四个月了 Almost Four Months Old

Noah's face seems to change everyday. He looks more and more like a little boy instead of a little baby now. He can sit sometimes with his arms stuck out in front to balance himself. ZM joked "just like a chimpanzee!" He could roll over consistently with some help. He loves lying on his stomach and look around.  he could also grasp toys quite well now.

He still loves to smile and laugh, any hour of the day. He took two weeks off from babbling though. His silence got me worried for a bit, luckily he just started "talking" again a couple of days ago, coincide with another heat wave (in November! it is crazy). This morning, he woke up at 7:30 and started "humming" to himself. It was hilarious.

Noah的脸一天天变化, 越来越像个小男孩, 而不是小婴孩了. 他有时候把手支在身前就可以自己坐一会. 米粥笑他 "像猩猩似的!" 翻身还是需要外力帮助一下. 趴得很好了, 趴着时挺胸抬头地可以东张西望很久.

依然爱笑, 无论早晚. 前两个星期他突然沉默起来不再嗯啊说话了. 吓着了我们. 不过前天开始好像闭关结束, 又开始长篇大论发表意见了.  今天早上七点半醒了,天还没亮,他居然悠悠然唱起小曲儿来, 好玩极了.

昨天拍的录像. 抓东西时手指的协调性已经很好了.

翻身 Rollover

Last week was my first week back to work. ZM and Noah not only survived their first week without Mommy during the day, they even managed to practice roll-over daily. So on Saturday morning, Noah showed me how to roll over for the first time!

上周是我回去上班第一周. 爷儿俩白天过得挺好的. Noah只有在周三晚上我回家前大闹了一次,狂哭了四十分钟. 其他时间都很好. 他们还天天练习翻身. 周六给我表演来着.这是录像. 小家伙抑扬顿挫的哼哈声还挺有练武术的气氛...

夜莺

最近两天小家伙会突然在晚上九十点钟醒来,然后特别高兴的又说又笑十几分钟.昨晚ZM抱他在屋里遛弯,哄他睡时,走到厨房他又开始了这一活动,我赶紧抓了相机拍下来. 很可爱. 这也是我产假期间最后一篇博了. 上班后看到他的时间会少很多. 真舍不得...

Three Month

Yesterday Noah did something funny when i placed him on his gym blanket, face up. He started kicking his legs against the bed, as if he was swimming-breast stroke style, except he is facing up, and inched himself headward quite a bit. He really enjoyed this movement, so he kept kicking. Just when i was thinking what would happen once he reached the end of the bed, Noah did just that, another hard kick, his head was at the headboard and couldn't go any further.  What's more, he kicked so hard, that his head banged on the board, it must have hurt, he started crying bloody murder.

Later we put him into his crib after he fell asleep around 9pm, an hour later, he has turned himself 90 degrees in his crib, while sleeping. ZM was startled when he went to check on Noah, where did he go?!

Noah seems to have the desire to skip crawling and going straight to walking. Often he demanded us to hold him up in our lap so he could look around. Today, we discovered a new game. I held him up then let go for a brief moment(both hands were still next to him torso), he fell, i caught him before he hit any surface. He LOVED it so much that he laughed out loud. So cute.

He also finally started acknowledge the cats' existence. He would even watch them fight for a few seconds. (He has noticed the dog since end of September, a few days before Yangmama came back from her China vacation, during which Anita stayed with us).

Another thing he started to enjoy is to watch animated clips on laptops. For example, he could watch up to three music video on this playlist before he got bored.

On our large bookshelf, we have English books in some cube, and Chinese ones in others. Noah showed a lot more interests to the Chinese sections than to the English ones. Probably because Chinese characters are pictorial?

While putting Noah to sleep, ZM would sing all kinds of tones, from revolutionary peking opera to Chinese pop. I only sing one song, Ella's Summer Time. I started singing this to him since he first discharged from the hospital. In a week, he caught on and singing this seemed to calm him down and eventually put him to sleep. But recently, this song started to affect him differently. Instead of putting him to sleep, whenever i sing this song, he would wake up and start laughing. What gives? Is he showing how much he loves the song? or is he laughing at my singing?! I would have to ask him that when he grows up!

Summer Time, When the Living is Easy
Fish are jumping, and the Cotton is High

Your Daddy is Rich,
and Your Ma is Good Looking
So Hush little Baby
Don't You Cry...

Noah "Discovered" My Laptop - Day 88

I often have my laptop open while holding Noah. Most often, i was updating his daily spreadsheet that tracks his baby activities. My usual seat was right by the bookshelf. Usually Noah completely ignores my laptop, and turns his head toward our colorful bookshelf, or the big window behind me. Today, however, he suddenly noticed the laptop screen. What's more, he discovered he could "type" on the keyboard, and things happen on the screen!

So i quickly opened a blank doc and allowed him to type away, ZM quickly picked up the camera and started recording...

小猴子

新玩具Jumperoo上面有一个小塑料猴子的挂件. Noah 对它情有独钟. 从第一次坐进Jumperoo就一心一意地望着它,跟它讲话. 在Jumperoo上坐不了多久就会发脾气.开始以为他发脾气是因为眼花缭乱烦了. 昨天看到Noah烦了之后又蹦又跳地把自己转了小半圈,正好转到右边小手可以抓到小猴子的角度.这下开心了,抓着小猴子唧唧咕咕说了好多话. 所以他发脾气是因为够不着抓不了玩具.

(健身毯(Gym blanket)上也有类似造型的一个小猴子,同样颜色不过是绒布做的,挂在毯子上面, Noah也是对它很感兴趣.不知道是这个颜色组合吸引他还是这个造型?)

周六拍的录像, Noah专心地望着小猴子说话.

周日就能抓着小猴子说话了.


自从昨天抓到了小猴子,今天开始就对小猴子兴趣小了,开始移情别恋,和小猴子旁边的小鹦鹉套起交情来.

Week 12 - Routine and Exception

Tomorrow Noah will enter his 13th week. His awake/nap/sleep schedule during both day and night starts to become more predictable.

• Morning starts around 7ish, almost always super happy and talkative
• Stay awake and mostly happy the entire morning with little 10-20min naps here and there. Wants to do lots of activities, playing with mommy or daddy, jumperoo, and going around in the baby carrier. 
• Have a long nap (2-3 hours) in the early afternoon, then woke up, usually happy, stay active until early evening
• Early evening(starts around 5, 6ish)  is the worst part of day for Noah. He tends to be really fussy. This is the time when he demands to be held by mommy, and cry bloody murder otherwise.
• Fell asleep around 8ish. Before midnight he would wake up every 30-45 min for a little cuddle, then go back to sleep. 
• Sometimes request a evening bottle before mid-night, sometimes not.
• usually woke up once during the night around 1 or 2. then sleep till 5ish.

We started to put him to sleep in his crib a couple of days ago. He has been doing pretty well.

Eating is another matter altogether. Sometimes he would take the bottle without any fuss even when he was not drowsy. But sometimes he acts really confused, one minute he is sucking on the bottle vigorously as if he was famished, the next minute he would spit the bottle out and wriggling like crazy and crying too, then a few minutes later, he would drink up the entire bottle peacefully. 

but as long as he is hydrated(producing enough wet diapers) and not losing weight, i guess we need not worry.

Another development is that he started to pay attention to toys and the dog (cats are still not in his radar yet, maybe cuz they are too small and mostly stay on the ground which is not yet in his line of sight.)

Overall, he has become a much happier baby than his newborn stage. I finally feel like I'm getting a full night of sleep and can get through the day without any naps.