Four Months Old

Judson is four months old as of Wednesday. I cannot believe how much he's changed in the past 120 days! He's gone from the tiny, hairy little guy pictured above to a nineteen pound chunk who smiles and squeals much of the time. =) (Okay, nineteen is a bit of an exaggeration. He weighed 18 lbs, 14.5 oz. at his four month appointment earlier today.) =) Anyway, here's what he's up to these days:

• He's starting to reach for, and actually grab, any item he's near.
• He sucks his hands constantly and his thumb is actually making it into his mouth fairly often. When he's really happy, he gets this huge smile on his face and stuffs one or both of his fists into his mouth. (See the first picture below...)
  
• He rolled from his stomach to his back five times in three days...three weeks ago...and hasn't done it again. He's still not a fan of being on his stomach and usually gets mad pretty fast when we put him in that position.
• He loves to stand up and can stand for quite a long time.
• He "talks" a lot.
  
• He loves getting his diaper changed...or just being on the changing table. He does some of his best squealing up there.
• Speaking of squealing, he sometimes starts doing it to get our attention. He closes his eyes and makes a funny face when he does it. So funny!
• He's a great eater, but often eats too fast and/or too much and it all comes back up. Combine that with his uncanny ability to miss the burp cloth and it makes for some huge messes. On Wednesday, he covered me and the couch at least twice, got Nate and my mom once each, and covered the dining room floor. And, of course, he drenched himself three or four times.
• He's a pretty good sleeper. He's slept ten hours straight two nights. Most nights are more like six hours straight and then another decent chunk after he eats. However, our trip to Colorado (hopefully another post soon!) somehow messed up his nights and lately I've felt like I have a newborn again (up four or five times some nights). Hopefully he'll be back on track soon. In terms of naps, he usually takes a long one in the morning (two hours) and the rest of the day he takes 45 minutes to one hour naps every couple of hours. The other day he took a two+ hour afternoon nap, so hopefully that's starting to develop... It should be, according to Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. =)

I'm sure I'm forgetting some things. The bottom line is that we love Judson very much and are so thankful to have him in our lives. God has really blessed us, and we are doing our best to enjoy every second, which is why I decided to resign from teaching a couple of weeks ago. I'd planned to finish this school year (part time), but I realized I just didn't want to miss out on that time with him. Though it was a very hard decision to leave mid-year and I am sad to put teaching aside for now, it was a relief once the decision was made.

Okay, here are the newest Sears pictures. Again, the quality on here isn't great because I just copied them from Sears' website... (Oh, one last thing. Last month, I posted about the great deals I get on pictures at Sears. Yesterday I learned that all of the employees at the portrait studio in Salem were fired because they gave away too much free stuff. Darn! I guess it was too good to be true! I'm pretty thrifty, though, and will still be able to get some good deals...) =)

My favorites:

And the rest, which are still pretty cute:

January Pictures

For my non-Facebook family members: If you want to see some more pictures of our January adventures, you can click here: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4643388&l=64392a7de5&id=520011822

(Click on 'next' to cycle through them...)

Judson's First Snow

It snowed here one day last month...or was that December? Anyway, it snowed while I was giving Judson a bath and didn't stick. So I hardly count that as his first snow.

This weekend, Nate and I met my brother, Morgan, and his wife, Anna, in Bend for skiing and snowboarding. I hung out at the hotel with Judson while they went to Mt. Bachelor. It snowed on Saturday and stuck for awhile, but by the time I was ready to take Judson out in it, it was mostly just rain and I didn't want us to get soaked.

So, on the way home yesterday, we stopped at the headwaters of the Metolius River so I could feed Judson and we could take snow pictures. As you can tell, there wasn't much snow, but it sufficed for his first experience. The little sled is one that my Grammo had in Aspen and my parents brought home after she passed away last year. I don't know the story behind it...like how old it is, so I'll have to ask my mom again. Anyway, we knew our family members would love the pictures and we did have fun. We would've stopped at the top of the pass to get better snow pictures, but Morgan had the sled in his car and had to go back to Sisters to get gas. Oops!

Before and After

My long hair had been driving me crazy for a number of months. There was just so much of it and lately I hadn't had the time or energy to want to deal with it. Go figure! I don't know why it took me so long to get it cut. Well, actually I do. I used to have a lady cut my hair on a regular basis. She was very reasonably priced and she always knew just what to do with my super thick, curly, frizzy hair. Once she moved on, it was hard to find someone else who could help me deal with my challenging hair. My sister-in-law, Kristy, recommended her hair dresser (is that what they're called these days?!) and I decided to try her out. I love the final result! Now I can leave it down without it driving me completely crazy. Yay! (Of course it looked best when she styled it, but I'll keep working at it...)

Before -- it had been pulled back in a ponytail all day, as usual

After!!