Baby Boston: 2 Months Old

I'm a couple of weeks behind on this post...

weight: 14 lbs 8 oz (89%)

height: 25 1/4 inch (99%)

head circumference: 15.94 in (94%)

*had his first cold/nasal congestion at 5 weeks old and it lasted a couple weeks.

*also experienced a "hydrocele"... if you don't know what that is, google can tell you. ;) Poor guy. It was pretty miserable for him.

*his eyes are staying very blue!!

The weeks in between 1 month in age and 2 months were a little rough. Before turning 2 months old, he would wake up more often in the night, nursed more often in the day, and was very fussy between 5 and 7pm. But it literally feels like things have changed SO much after he turned 2 months old... He nurses every 3 or 4 hours in the day, although as it gets closer to bedtime I usually cluster-feed until about 9:15pm when I go to bed. He used to wake up every 2 hours, but now at 2 months he does a 4 or 5 hour stretch at night, which is awesome!

After a week or two of dealing with his fussing every evening, I finally figured out what works for him: around 6 I give him gripe water to help with gas and tummy discomfort, he nurses within that hour, then we do a bath around 7:30, he dozes on and off for an hour, and he is asleep for the night around 8:45 or 9. This seems to be working really well and he hasn't had many evening freak outs since we started this routine.

He didn't like being held by Daddy up until he turned 2 months old. But then it was as if he changed his mind overnight! Mommy is still who he wants when he is really mad about something, but now he will at least hang out in Dad's arms for awhile before getting upset.

As you can see from his stats, he is A LARGE BABY. He is so heavy and carrying him around in his carseat is just killing my arms and back. But he is still so wobbly too, so I can't have him on my hip yet and I can't always have him in a carrier or sling. When I see him in someone else's arms or see him in my arms in the mirror I canNOT believe he is so big. He's the size of a 6 month old!! I wish he would slow down, that crazy boy!

Photo credit: Logan

Here's something odd... Boston SPITS all the time. Not spit-up. Spit. It's as if he doesn't want to swallow his spit. And it's not that he is absentmindedly drooling either. It's so strange to me since he is still only 2 months old! I sure hope he isn't cutting a tooth this early.

Boston is cooing and so smiley now! His very favorite time for smiling is first thing in the morning. He loves when someone gets a couple feet from his face, smiles and talks to him. Such a sweet baby! He will often coo and "sing" to his toys that hang from his bouncy seat, his mobile, or above his changing table. They're like his little friends and it's adorable and exciting to watch him interact with them.

Boston is following in big bro's footsteps by developing a flat spot on the back of his head. I don't know why it's happening since every time I lay him down for a nap I rotate his head position. He will lay with a wedge on one side, then the other, sometimes on his back and sometimes napping on my chest so he is on his tummy. We try to do tummy time once or twice a day for a little bit but he just screams after a few minutes. I hope his head doesn't get much more flat!

He has the most adorable little curl on the top of his head. I wonder if his hair will be a little curly like Grace and mom's!

He has big feet and big hands, and we can't believe how tall he is! He is wearing size 2 diapers already and in the last few days has moved into some 6 month clothes. He is so long!! Maybe he will tower over us all one day.

Chuuuub

The napping corner at church with his twin buddies.

We sure love you, baby boy!!

Fort Bragg Weekend

A couple weekends ago, we headed to Fort Bragg, CA. It's a small, northern coastal town where lots of people we know go for quick vacations. We now know why it's such a popular place to be and to camp. It's such a beautiful, slow-paced, family friendly place. It took about 4 1/2 hours to drive there, but it really wasn't bad. Our kids are great travelers. We truly had such a nice time as a family! 

We visited Glass Beach and hunted for all the different colors.

 All the colors and textures of the rocks were so beautiful. 

 There are browns, whites, greens, and even some blues mixed in there.

 Finding a sea urchin in the tide pool.

The mist, the rocks, the waves, the colors. I love it all! 

The view from our motel to the beach below. Gorgeous!

 We went on a walk while the kids biked on the boardwalk.

For lunch we were told that the best fish and chips was at this place: Sea Pal Cove. It's located right on the harbor so it was fun to eat a yummy, greasy lunch while watching the boats come in.

We spent the afternoon at the beach down from our motel. It was so nice not having to load up in the car, but simply carry what we needed down the hill and back again.

 It was chilly with the wind, but these kids hardly felt it! They had such a blast.

 We kept this baby boy warm and covered up. He was perfectly content and good little baby.

 There's our motel and the boardwalk behind Ryan.

So beautiful.

 After showering and relaxing for a little while, we headed out to find some dinner. We ate dinner at a restaurant called Silvers at the Wharf. Oh man, was it good! Definitely a place I'd go to again. The kids especially loved the loaded nachos we all shared as an appetizer.

 As if we weren't full enough, we just HAD to get some ice cream at Cowlick's. Perfect end to a great day!

Oh wait, I was wrong. THIS was the perfect end to a great day. Seeing the sun go down outside our door was priceless. 

 In the morning we headed to breakfast at Eggheads. Several people told us it was worthwhile, and it's particularly fun because of the Wizard of Oz theme throughout the menu and the building. Logan was super happy with his dish that came with a piece of bacon. Grace insisted on getting simply a bowl of cheerios and a yogurt... Simply pleasures. 

After we checked out of the motel we drove 20 minutes south to the town of Mendocino. This town is very different from Fort Bragg. It's has a much more "old town" feel with lots of fancy bed and breakfasts and quaint shops to walk through. There were just so much great little alleys, buildings and views, I was enjoying capturing some of what I saw.

 We stopped at the Mendocino Chocolate store. Of course!

 We visited the two kids' toy and game stores they have there. My goodness, they had neat stuff! Some were very educational things you can't find anywhere else, some things were old school that I remember seeing when I was a kid, and some were just clever, random, awesome and crazy. 

 Down from the shops, literally across the street is this incredible view...

 Gorgeous!! I'm completely in love with the northern coast. Who needs SoCal when you have THIS!

Last stop of the day was driving a little bit north to MacKerricher State Park. This is where most people who visit here seem to camp. It's a very popular place, especially because you can go to this beach and lookout area to watch the seals. In February you can also watch the whales migrating! For us though, it was incredibly foggy and we couldn't see a single seal. We could hardly see very far off shore, which was disappointing. Showing the kids a real seal in the wild was high up on my list, but oh well. They still had a great time at the tide pools.

Logan found us a crab.

 Boston screamed for a little while and Ryan offered to hold him while I took the kids to see the tide pools below. He's a good daddy.

 Camera timer shot... See the fog?

 I love my people. They are fun to travel and explore with. And we truly had a great time! It wasn't always easy and fun, but overall it was really great for us. I hope we can continue to do these short trips together and explore the wonderful state we live in now. There's so much to do and see within just a few hours in an direction and we look forward to seeing it all!

 The windy road that takes up 45 minutes of the drive is pretty darn awful. Everyone warned us to have barf bags available. But thankfully these 3 all fell asleep within minutes of loading up to head back home on sunday afternoon, and slept through the whole time we were winding through the mountains.