4 months young.

A little late, as Henry turned 4 months old...oh, 22 days ago, but we have been BUSY!

Solids Foods: At Henry's 4 month check up, we got the go-ahead to start giving Henry solids foods.  We started with rice cereal, once, twice, then three times a day, then did the same with oatmeal.  We now alternate between oatmeal and rice cereal at breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Henry loves eating big boy food.  It took some time for him to get the hang of the spoon, but now he is so easy and cooperative.

Teething: Henry is chewing on EVERYTHING.  His hands, my hands, his car seat, his clothes.  We bought him a Sophie giraffe, but up until now, he was very unimpressed.  Now that he's teething, he loves to chew on her...especially her face.  I don't feel any teeth coming through yet, but I know it's only a matter of time, now.

Sleeping: Henry is now sleeping 10 hours at night, with 3-4 naps during the day.  He learned how to self soothe this month, which is a big relief for Mama!  After I rock him for a few minutes, I put him in his bed, he rolls onto his left side and sucks his thumb until he's asleep.

Playtime:  We started putting Henry in his activity gym this month, and he LOVES it.  I have to admit, I didn't understand the concept of an activity gym.  I have no idea what exactly is so fascinating to Henry, but he can lay there and play for quite a while.  I can almost see the wheels in his head turning.  We bought him the SkipHop alphabet gym, which I would recommend.  It is very bright and colorful, is gender neutral, and has lots of figurative "bells and whistles."

Development: Henry has rolled over in his bed a few times.  I say that he is cheating, because I think he uses his the side rails to kick himself over.  He still enjoys tummy time, and can lift up his entire chest and head for around a minute at a time.  He "stands" with assistance, which is one of his favorite things to do.  He get so proud when he stands up.  He even lifts his feet as if he's taking steps.

This past month also included a trip to the pumpkin patch and Halloween.  I felt really lame taking my son trick-or-treating when he can't eat any candy.  Obviously, everyone would know the candy was for his parents :)  We decided to make a few stops to see friends, and spend the rest of the night at home welcoming trick-or-treaters.

We made another trip to Oklahoma to see family.  Since I was working Thanksgiving day, we went up to Tulsa the weekend before.  Oh, what a mess.  We were supposed to fly out on Friday at around 9:30 pm, but by 10 am that morning the flight was already 2.5 hours delayed.  Ouch.  I was not looking forward to flying with a 4 month old at midnight.  So, we packed up the car and decided to drive and save our flights for another time.  The trip was a little tougher than last time.  Since Henry is awake quite a bit more, he got kinda bored and restless sitting in the car for 9 hours at a time.  He had one breakdown on the way up, and one on the way back.  Not too bad for 18+ hours in the car.

Henry's aunt Kerry graciously agreed to keep Henry on Saturday so JP and I could go with the Miller family to the Baylor-OSU game.  Another Ouch.  I'm going to guess the wind chill during that game was somewhere in the ballpark of 15-20 degrees.  I cannot remember ever being so cold.  Add the fact that Baylor played the worst game I have seen in a while, and it was a pretty miserable day.

We ended up getting "iced-in."  There was snow and ice south of us in Oklahoma, so we decided to stay an extra day to avoid some potentially dangerous roads.  Still, it was a nice 5 day change of scenery.

Wow, what a month!  We have been so busy, and the days just fly by!