Reier is 4 months old!

At least he was about a week and a half ago.  Sorry for the delay on getting this posted...family, holidays, a big birthday for a big girl I know (post on that coming soon), and illnesses were higher on the priority list.  On to the fun:

Our little boy is getting quite big.  He is growing just like his sister did at his age, long and lean.  He was 15lbs (25th%ile) and 26.5" long (85th%ile) at his 4 month doctor visit.  Most of his newborn brown hair has fallen out (remember that fuzzy mohawk in the first picture we posted of him after he was born?) and is being quickly replaced by the same white-blonde hair I had as a kid.  Reier is a very happy boy overall, generous with his goofy grins and smiles, wiggly when he plays on the floor, and very snuggly (my favorite part).  He will actually wrap his little arms around your neck and hug you, though his hugs are often accompanied by slimy, drooly open-mouth kisses.  The only thing he really gets upset about is being tired, and if I don't act fast enough to get him wrapped up for his nap, he can really get screaming mad. 

Speaking of naps, he usually takes three naps a day, though the times and lengths vary from day to day.  On preschool days I try setting him down in our bed for his first nap, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  I am not at all concerned about him taking most of his naps in the wrap because it is working great right now, I relish the little baby snuggle time that will be gone before I know it, I can follow Dahlia around the house or off to a park without having to disturb Reier's sleep, and as I learned with Dahlia: what works today may not work again tomorrow.  I am enjoying this phase of portable napping while it lasts.  

The only two things about Reier that are particularly challenging are his constant spitting up and sensitivities to foods that have caused major dietary alterations on my part.  Reier is far more spitty than Dahlia ever was and it is soooo annoying.  I do more laundry than I thought possible for one household to need, and my standards for how much baby barf I can stand on our clothes have gone way down over the past few months.  It is an inconvenience for sure, but I am thankful he is otherwise very healthy.  As for the food, he has reacted to dairy, soy, peanuts, and pretty much anything else in the legume family.  I am skeptical of gluten and plan on taking that out again for a few weeks and re-testing it later if it helps to remove it.  I guess Nathan and I are good at making tall, beautiful, allergic children. When I start to get discouraged that the only place we can ever eat out is Whole Foods (since they put ingredient labels on everything) I keep reminding myself that there are far worse things than food allergies.

In the week before he turned 4 months old, Reier learned to roll from his back to his belly (and occasionally back the other way), reach out for toys and bring them to his mouth, stand with both hands held for 10ish seconds, giggle, and pivot on his belly.  It was quite a week for him.  He has since learned to scooch forward on his belly a little bit to get to something he wants, and to grab his feet and put his toes in his mouth during diaper changes.  

Reier's favorite things are: watching Dahlia, having "conversations" with Nathan, snuggling with me, rolling around on the floor, sucking/chewing/mouthing his fingers and thumb, and putting fabric of any sort in his mouth.  We have offered him all manner of baby toys, but he really seems to prefer fabric over rubber, plastic, or wood.  He likes sucking on his sleeves, my shirts, little blankets, burp towels, and fabric rattles.

On to the pictures:

I will be so sad when he grows out of these spaceman jammies. So cute!

On his way over to see the octopus.  Don't tell Dahlia he was playing with one of her toys after she went to bed.

Happy little guy.

He loves his fingers.

Sometimes I think I might explode with love for my babies.  He is just so sweet and lovable.

Stripey cuteness.

He was yelling as loud as he could during this picture...not sure why, but he was having a great time being loud.

Mmmmmm...toes.

He LOVES being in the bath with Dahlia.  We just have to make sure she doesn't get overzealous with helping to wash him since no one likes having cups of water dumped on their face.

Rolling over halfway provides the perfect angle for relaxed thumb-sucking.