3 & 4 months

I really intended to cover each month of your first year but already I've fallen behind and now your 3rd month has melded with your 4th month in my mind and I don't know what happened when. It's this type of post that causes your Dada to squirm when he sees the barrage of words on the screen. Although Dada's genes appear to be fairly dominant in just about everything so far, I have high hopes for you that you will not abhor literacy as he does.Look at those cute chubby fingers.
Let's see, so in your 3rd month (11/18 to 12/18) - we had Thanksgiving, of course, that goes without saying and doesn't really say much about you. OK what else. The main event was that you started daycare. I really wanted to stay home with you and not send you down the daycare path as Sofia has already gone before you, but alas, down the daycare path you've already gone. You've done very well at school because you are such a good baby, it's not a moral judgement, just your natural disposition, content and easy-going. Have I said this already? That's OK, it bears repeating. You were very popular your first week as everyone had anticipated your arrival for months. You made the rounds like a celebrity so everyone could meet you and say how cute you are. You will probably never be this popular again. Sorry but it's true.In talking to other moms, most would agree, every baby has their thing, an ailment, an issue that one, as a mom, just can't resolve, an annoyance, something. With Sofia, it was the vomiting. The vomiting that plagued me for months and months and caused me to test the limits of my washing machine. The delicate balance of milk intake and the rituals that had to be done to mitigate the vomiting. But, I comforted myself with the fact that it was not a serious ailment and it was something she would at some point outgrow, and she did. It took forever, but she did. With you the nemesis is eczema. What was at first just really dry skin and cradle cap has developed into quite the annoying case of fairly severe eczema. I've tried every lotion on the planet conducting comparison tests on each one and it just keeps getting worse unfortunately.

The eczema has left raging red circles on your cheeks that are dry and weepy. (That means they ooze). Your arms have raised red bumps that dry and crack creating scabs that dry and crack and sometimes bleed. Your head oozes. I gotta say, it's kind of gross. Sometimes I try to kiss you or snuggle you and get ooze on my face because I forget. You're just so adorable, I can't help it.The dry itchy skin started causing you to wake up much more often at night then you had been. You had been waking up only around 5:00am to eat and we couldn't figure out why you were waking up so much now. You also started scratching your face and head causing little cuts on your skin. At first, I thought it was accidental. You're getting bigger now and can manage to get your arms out of the straight jacket swaddle blanket we put you in to sleep at night. Finally, I put all the evidence together after seeing you arch your back and wiggle side to side in your moses basket and scratch your face and head on deliberate areas that were already irritated. You were waking up from discomfort. Sometimes nursing you would calm you, but you weren't really hungry. So we are now just helping you go back to sleep by re-swaddling you and only feeding you when you wake around 4:30am.

At school, you get rubbed down with lotion 2-4 times and I lotion you up at least 2-3 more times at home. I've only recently found something that helps your scalp. It's called Softee Hair Food which I got for my horrible dry hair. I rub it all over your head at night and wash it off in the morning. And your head is conditioned and new until the cycle starts again which is usually within a day or two. At your 4 month Well Baby Checkup, Dr. Arnold recommended you go see an allergist and prescribed what I think is an antibacterial cream and also suggested trying Vanicream. I'll report on that next month.

Did I mention you have bad hair too. A couple of weeks ago, we woke up to this lovely site.

You cried heartily upon receiving your immunizations this month which means all your circuitry is functioning properly. Sofia's non-reaction to shots was a cause of concern, as I theorized for several months that although she had the use of her legs, she may not be able to feel them. You also took the rotavirus oral vaccine with pleasure and all systems were "go" during the checkup. You measured and weighed in around 40-50 percentile on all accounts. I think you are following a similar but less chubby growth pattern to Sofia. You have the same short and stubby legs at this point that she did.This past month, you have really enjoyed Sofia's company. You love it when she talks to you or just makes noise in general. You even enjoy it when she's loud and obnoxious energetic and you empathized with her when she cried. Your lower lip started sticking out and quivering just ever so slightly and the look on your face was pure sadness which of course caused me pure sadness too. Even without proper opportunity, you learned how to roll over in your bouncy seat because we don't put you on the floor. The carpet is just too unsanitary as a result of Lolo and Dudi's continued protest over Sofia's birth and renewed protest over your birth. With Sofia, they were just trying to make a point of their displeasure, but with you, wow, they really mean it. They (since I don't know which one did it, they share equal blame) peed on your infant car seat and the pram and the rocking chair in your room. You are also all about your hands right now. You love looking at them and now sucking on them and slobbering, making a big slobbery mess on your clothes. Oh, and you are quite smitten with yourself in the mirror. Apparently you find yourself more interesting than just about anybody else. It gives you great pleasure to see yourself smiling back.

We have rollover

Your first full rollover was on the bouncy seat. I guess we better start strapping you in.

Merry Christmas

First day of school

Today was my first day of school. I was pretty tired because I had to get up at the crack of dawn. I wore my best little boy outfit cuz I'm kind of the smallest kid in class right now and I wouldn't want anyone to think I was a baby or something.


Before starting school, I did my homework and practiced drinking from a bottle. Well, only a couple of times but I did it. Shortly upon arriving in class, I perfumed the room with my farties just to let everyone know who was the boss.

It was a pretty big day for me. After school, I got to participate in the Christmas program. Since I don't know how to sing or play any instruments yet, again, I just used my farties to perfume the stage for when the big kids came out so it would smell good.

2 months

Wow, it feels like I just got done writing the 1 month post and here you are already 2 months +. Already, you may be suffering from the photographic neglect that is bound to happen to the second or later born child. Not too many pictures to share from the last month.
In the past few weeks you have further perfected your cutie-petutie skills, cooing and smiling more and more each day. Sometimes you smile after waking when you first see my face -very gratifying, thank you; sometimes, midway through nursing, you're welcome; sometimes after hearing mine or daddy's voice.

We can't talk about how you are doing without talking about poop. The quality of baby poop is pretty much what all baby welfare is measured against. Your poop is still pretty yellow and pretty liquidy. It's not uncommon for baby poop to look like yellow diarrhea for breast-fed babies but I think you take the trophy in this department. I'll have to bring this up at your 2-month well-baby check up.

I no longer have time for errands, exercise or house work as I've spent most of your second month scratching your head. It looks like, not only do you have dry eczema prone skin (thank you again daddy's genes), but you have cradle cap as well. Although I have already only been bathing you with Cetaphyl cleanser for sensitive skin and using Cetaphyl lotion for dry skin on you, this cradle cap problem which extends down into your forehead, has prompted me to buy a rash (no pun intended) of expensive french baby products (Mustela) in an attempt to beautify your skin. I don't think they are working all that well, but I hope you might appreciate the effort when you are older. I only say this because my parents never even bought me a toothbrush until my first dentist appointment when I was nine and half my teeth were rotted out. I didn't even know such a thing as lotion existed until I was in college I think.




Anyway, you continue eating heartily and with less spit up, I think. Pooping, we've talked about. And sleeping, sleeping still goes well with usually one feeding during the night aroundish 3:30am. You are now sleeping in your moses basket on the rocker (mental note, must take a picture of you sleeping angelically in the there). In about two weeks you will be starting school. I'm not looking forward to this time at all but I know you will be the smartest little baby in your class.

1 month

You're already more than a month old. This time flies by so quickly. In your first month of life we have been going out for occasional walks around the neighborhood, running errands, paying bills (well I pay bills and you just lounge around in your Mcclaren rocker that your grandparents got for you while I type and rock you with my right foot).


You have been quite the sleeper, at first sleeping almost all day and sleeping really well at night only waking up to eat twice a night about every four hours. Lately you've had more awake time during the day and more and more you've discovered how much you love being held and talked to. So you usually prefer that to hanging out in the swing, rocker, or any other moving contraption. You also like to be held in the wrap and will settle for a pacifier now and then. It's nice to see you stop crying as soon as I pick you up. You are very similar to Sofia as a baby, the way you look, the way you eat and sleep, but in this way you are different. Sofia always seemed to have good reason to cry and simply picking her up and holding her didn't necessarily put an end to it. She would look at me with a concentrated look that created a wrinkle in her forehead and often caused her to go cross-eyed. You look at me with a relaxed contented look and you've even started cooing around 3 weeks and now you're smiling! Yes, smiling and not even by accident or from gas. You actually like it when I talk to you, a sharp contrast from Sofia who didn't crack a smile until she was like one and half or something. Sorry Sofia, comparisons are inevitable.


You've lost a bit of hair mostly on either side of the mohawk and some on the sides of your head where you seem to sleep on the most. But, you still have some long hairs left and it's staying dark. Sofia's started out like yours but began falling off and lightening in color immediately. (You can see her at this age here). You're getting much better head control (something Sofia had as soon as she came out of the womb) and sometimes you gently stroke my arm with your little hand as a I hold you. It's SO cute. The other day, I even caught you moving, or should we say tapping your foot to the rhythm of your suckling as you nursed. Along with these developing motor skills, you've started pulling my hair and scratching the crap out of my neck. Your nails are very pointy and you have your Dad's weird genes to blame for that. But at least you got ear lobes from me and normal looking toes.


[click here to compare Marcelo and Sofia]

You've outgrown your first set of newborn clothes and your filling out nicely. You've been a bit boogery lately. You might have caught a little cold from your sister who likes to kiss and hug you at least a couple of times a day. You wouldn't believe the size of the mucous that comes out of those tiny little nostrils of yours. It's enough to frighten a grown man. The reflux/vomiting problem hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be. It's mostly just spit up and not as much has been coming out of your nose lately, so I'm very happy about that. You still get all choked up when you begin nursing though. It's like the milk is "going down the wrong pipe" and you can't breath and then eventually you're OK.

You're still sleeping in your little moses basket with Mami & Daddy and you seem to like that pretty well except before you return to sleep mode during the middle of the night, you have to make a lot of grunting noises for no apparent reason. This usually elicits a response from Daddy to the effect that he doesn't know what's wrong with you and why you won't just go right back to sleep. I think you're spoiling Daddy with your good behavior. Your poopies and silent gases are getting stinkier though. The other day, I started getting angry with the dogs thinking they had pooped in the house and I might have stepped on it because the smell was so bad and seem to keep following me around and then I discovered it was just you.

shooting baby photos

Well, the baby announcements are out. If people only knew what it takes to get some cute baby photos -- two peepees and five liquid poopoos on Sofia's nice plush blanket. Luckily she wasn't there to see what you did to it.