For many weeks now, Ethan has been really great about going to bed. Every night, around 9pm I would nurse him and he’d fall asleep by 9:30. I’d put him in his pack n play, we’d turn off all the lights and TV and go to sleep. And he would stay asleep until daylight. This is all written in the past tense…

Now he doesn’t want to go to sleep at his bedtime! Last night I thought we had him too wound up after making the squealing videos. He would not calm down, even after I fed him and cuddled with him. He just wanted to stare at me and giggle. I put him in his bed and turned off the lights and TV. And he just kept jabbering and wiggling all around. I tried feeding him again, and he was not interested. He just wanted to play. I figured he would settle down and go to sleep at some point, or he’d get hungry again and cry. So, around 10:15 I put the pillow over my head to ignore his jabbering and I fell asleep. Aaron said Ethan finally stopped jabbering, calmed down, and went to sleep around 11.

I thought maybe last night was due to all the playtime right before bed, but maybe it is a new trend. He’s all wound up again tonight and we definitely avoided all the crazy play time this evening. Right now he is laying out the bed next to me, just wiggling and kicking and hiccuping and jabbering and playing with his hands and rolling side to side. If I dare look at him he giggles or squeals. I was really hoping he would go to bed early tonight. I have to get up early and go to work, and all this jabbering and wildness is really cutting into my sleep.

Well, I suppose I will try to cuddle him and maybe he will get the picture. Maybe he’ll calm down here soon and go to bed by 11 like he did last night.

20 minutes later…..

I decided to give a little update to share a few pictures I took today.

And also to say that mr jabber face tuckered himself out with all the wiggling and talking. He started sucking his thumb and put his other arm over his head to block out the light from the computer screen. I kid you not, after 3 minutes of thumb sucking, he was OUT. Now to get him moved to his pack n play without waking him up.

Check out the videos of Ethan and his ridiculous squealing and laughing:

Let me first say that the Head family, at least our branch, does not like Nascar. That includes Ethan. However, some of Ethan’s friends like Nascar, and he likes his friends to be happy. In honor of his Nascar loving friends, Ethan wore his Nascar onesie on race day. Or at least I assume it was a race day because when Michelle gave him the Tony Stewart onesie she requested he wear it on Sunday. So that’s what we did. Ethan loves Michelle and wants her to be happy, hehe. I must say, though, that day glo orange is not a bad color for him. He wears it well

More photos can be found in the Ethan 4 months album.

In these latest photos, you probably notice that Ethan is going bald. Its very upsetting!! He is losing all the hair on top of his head. Its still thick in the back, especially at the nape of his neck. I really hope it grows back soon. Allie wants it to grow back orange and Victoria wants it to grow back white. I don’t care, as long as it grows back sooner rather than later. He’s still cute, but now he looks a little like Dr. Evil.

Here’s a picture of Ethan from the end of December – look at all the hair!

end of January – still lots of hair, although I noticed that it was starting to fall out.

Beginning of February – its noticeably thinning

And now: Almost Bald!!

Ethan had his 4 month checkup yesterday. He felt OK after his shots yesterday, but today it has caught up to him. He’s slept most of the day, which is unusual for him. Not in a bad mood though, just sleepy, so that’s good. He’s on the charts for his height and weight for his real age, so the doctor said there is no need to bring him in for the weight checks. She is very pleased with how much he has grown. She was amazed at how strong he was and she said he met all the milestones for a 4 month old. Yay!

She asked how I felt about starting him on solids, and I said I wasn’t really sure. From what I have read, I didn’t think he should start until 6 months, possibly 7 since he was early. She said that she likes for babies to start “practicing” around 4 months. She said whenever we are ready, he can start tasting foods – getting used to the texture of real food and the feel of a spoon in his mouth. He won’t be eating any solid foods for nutrition or to replace any of his meals, just for practice. So I think we will give that a try this weekend. I’m not convinced that he is ready yet, so we’ll just see how it goes.

In the last post I mentioned the poop explosion problem he has had lately. I don’t know what to do about it. It continues…. I moved him up to a size 2 diaper and he still poops out of it. I tried a different brand of diaper, and yet another blowout. I’m not talking just a little leak out of the side. I’m talking huge leaking poop that comes out of the back and both legs. A huge pool of poop. Its awful. It happened last night at mom’s house, and it happened again today. This one is so bad, he should probably have a bath, but instead I used about 20 wipes to clean him off.

He ended up having a bath today anyway because he peed on himself at a later diaper change. He’s a dirty little boy

I realized today that it has been a while since I have posted any kind of useful information. its all been pictures and videos for the past couple weeks. and not even that many pictures. I have lots more pictures that I have taken this month, but haven’t even had the time to post them. I took some cute pictures on Valentine’s day. Ethan wore a onesie “Already breakin’ Hearts” and I don’t think he liked it. He spit up AND pooped on it. haha. He pooped out of his diaper, and it was so gross I can’t even talk about it here. I did have to call Mom and tell her about it, and Victoria has heard about it too. but I can’t even begin to describe the nastiness he created. Let’s just say that it resulted in doing a load of laundry and getting a bath. I didn’t need a bath, just Ethan. Thank goodness it wasn’t bad enough for me to have a bath as well. He’s had a few more diaper explosions since then, including a royal mess that required me to strip him naked in the bathroom at Buffalo Wild Wings. But even that one wasn’t as bad as the Valentine’s Day Massacre.

hmm…. to create so much poop, he has to eat a lot. And he does eat a LOT. He eats nearly every hour all day long. Sometimes he will go two hours, but any longer than that and he’s not happy.

The good thing about eating so much during the day is that he sleeps at night. Every night he goes to bed around 9:30, and he wakes up sometime around 7 in the morning. Yes, that is about 10 hours. Yay for sleep! He did wake up once during the night on Sunday night. But that was because he pooped, and it woke him up. All that pooping, what a nuisance.

Yes, all the eating and pooping is causing him to grow by leaps and bounds. He’s getting too heavy to lug around in the car seat carrier. But that is OK because he’s getting big enough to sit on my hip. He has good upper body control and likes to lean back and look around when I hold him on my hip. Of course when he leans back too far, he can get a bit wobbly. He can stand and support himself with a little help to fix his wobbly legs. He definitely has strong legs. He works them out by kicking and kicking and kicking. If there is anything within reach of his feet, he’s either kicking it or trying to grab it with his feet. Ethan will be a toe pinching fool like his dad.

Ethan is also figuring out what to do with his hands. He spends a lot of time with his arms stretched out, staring at his hands. He talks to them. Then he sticks them in his mouth. He grabs his toys and sticks them in his mouth too. He’s starting to learn that he can reach out and grab things. He likes to pat my face when I’m feeding him, but not paying attention. If I am looking at the computer and he wants me to look at him, he hits me on the chin until I look at him, then he smiles. What a stinker.

Ethan also is a bit of a chatterbox now. He jabbers and squeals and laughs all day. Its pretty amazing to watch him figure out how to make different sounds. He entertains himself by squealing, then sticking out his tongue to change the sound. He gets very excited and seems quite pleased with the loud noise.

hmm… he is going bald, and that is really unfortunate. He had such a nice head of hair, and now he’s starting to look pretty goofy. He turns his head from side to side to stare at things and that is causing the hair to rub off in the back. And its falling out on top. He will need to join the Hair club if it keeps up.

There is probably a lot more I could write, but I have to stop now. I think the light from the computer is bothering him, and I really don’t want him to wake up. He has a doctor appointment tomorrow morning, so i will post an update after that. He has to have his 4 month shots, and if its anything like the last set, he will sleep for most of the day.

Yesterday afternoon, Aaron suggested that we walk down to Jack Reed Park so he could take some pictures of me and Ethan together, since there really aren’t any pictures of me and Ethan together. It was the “golden hour”, the hour right before sunset, which is the perfect light for taking pictures. I wanted to practice shooting with lots of backlight, so it was a good opportunity for me to practice too. We got some really awesome pics of each other and baby boy. Here are my favorites:

Maternity pictures, YAY! This is as big as I got, folks. Ethan decided to make his appearance the VERY NEXT day!! Thank goodness I was able to get together with my friend Amy when I did. She did such a fantastic job! Please check out her blog and website to see more of her work.

Ethan is 4 months old today! He’s very happy about being 4 months old, just check out the video:

We went to the doctor today for a weight check. He is 12 lbs 4 ozs and 23 1/2 inches in length. That’s almost 2 lbs in 3 weeks! He’s sleeping through the night now, so I’m really happy with the weight he’s gained. I figured his weight gain might slow a bit since he sleeps 8 or 9 hours at night, but it doesn’t seem to have phased him at all.

He’s also really started to figure out his hands now. He bats at toys and grabs things. He sucks his thumb like crazy. He’s been a thumb sucker for a while, but it was by chance. If his thumb made it to his mouth, he’d suck on it. Now he knows how to do it intentionally. And he puts everything else in his mouth too. If he can grab it, its headed toward his mouth. I use an extra baby wipe to cover him during diaper changes. He grabbed it today and tried to chew on it!

And here’s another video I took this afternoon. He was really interested in sitting up, so I put him in his Bumbo seat and gave him a few toys to play with. He really had fun!

This morning I pulled the activity gym into the bathroom so Ethan could be entertained while I took a shower. He loves to play with the toys, but the music and lights frightened him today. I had to turn it off because he would cry every time he activated the lights and sounds. It was really funny! As soon as the music would stop, he was happy again. Of course, I had to take some pictures…

OMG its making noise!!!

I don’t like it!

TURN IT OFF!!!

OK, I’m happy again

I think he’s a bit overstimulated today because we have had people in the yard cutting down trees yesterday and today. He hasn’t had a very good nap because of the chainsaw and tractor noises, not to mention the house shaking every time a tree falls. Mom came over earlier and he was being weird. She made him laugh, then all of a sudden he started bawling. Then he smiled, then he cried. Just confused and tired… too much excitement.

The tree guys finally finished around lunch time today, and what do you know, Ethan’s taking a nice quiet nap. Here are some before and after shots of our yard. Now that the trees are not blocking the house, it looks absolutely ridiculous. We really need to get the siding done. Unfortunately, its hard to get anyone to call you back.

Pictures from this morning:
And I also put together Ethan’s activity gym today. He got the activity gym for Christmas from Nana and Grandpa Jim. He LOVES it!! He was totally amazed at the lights and the sounds. He smacked the rattles and kicked his feet like crazy.
And a video of Ethan playing with his activity gym: