Thelonious James

Times are a changin’ and Theo is growing like a weed. It will be his first Thanksgiving in a week and, although he may forego the pureed turkey, he will enjoy being in Portland. That is if we are able to escape his first snow and make it down there.

Theo grew his first tooth! Little tiny white sharp shark bottom tooth. He loves chewing on people. He’s started intentionally reaching and grabbing with his hands and, for the first time, grabbed mama’s mouth and then proceeded to pull himself to eat mama’s nose. I’m sure he just meant to chew it but that was not a favorite first.

Theo petted Shilo and Maggie for the first time last week. Shilo was tolerant but Maggie was downright thrilled. She’s not picky at all about her attention givers. Even though Shilo acts ambivalent, we hear her sneaking into his room every single night to check on her little brother. She also gives him secret kisses when we pretend to look away.

Did we mention that Theo slept through the night? Well, that’s a little generous but he is sleeping in 8-hour stretches. If only we could stretch it to 11 he would be perfect. This milestone restored our sanity and gave mama her evenings back. 8PM bedtimes are no longer a requirement for survival.

We watched Sesame Street for the first time this morning. Just a little bit but Theo is well on his way to be a huge muppet fan just like his parents. It’s true that TV has magical powers on the most innocent of human beings.

His first favorite song is still his favorite, but we can add all sorts of genres to his repertoire. The Beach Boys are near the top of his pops with Barbara Ann leaping up the charts with his first listening.

More Holiday Firsts to follow.

Smackdaddy keeps adding more pictures to the mix. New ones of great-grandparents Harry and Ruby, and more friends and family fotos to follow…

Saturday morning, 5:30 AM.

I hear Theo doing his “I’m up and hungry” cough, so do the flip and roll out of bed, grab the bathrobe, in to un-swaddle him and then bring him back in to his mamma. This is all on auto-pilot, of course. Muscle memory can get you through a lot of middle of the night feedings.

But then it hits me – as I’m walking out of Theo’s room and back into ours, I notice it’s 5:30 – and I can’t remember the feeding before this one. The one in the middle of the night. I ask Erin if she let me sleep through a feeding, and there’s a beat before we both realize – he’s slept through the night. He went to bed at about 9PM, and slept all the way through to 5:30 AM.

Woo hoo! The bar has officially been raised. We know he might not do it all the time, but it sure felt good and it will be so much better for all parties involved if we can all get a little more sleep.

We all made it to his official three-month birthday! Now we can stop counting in weeks. This seems like a big milestone and we’re all happy and relatively healthy. Steve and Erin aren’t *that* bad of parents. Job #1, keeping child alive, has been a success.

The birthday boy in his birthday suit.

Theo had a busy busy birthday weekend. He met his aunt Margo and uncle Stan on Saturday at his grandma’s, played in his Rainforest Jumparoo for the first time (oh the pure joy!), watched dad give the kitty cat a bath (eyeballs a’buggin), blew through a record number of onesies (:p), and caught his first cold. Fortunately, the mama seems to have been hit hardest of the family with this bug. ha.

So much to talk about. Theo started sharing his nanny Marisol with little Walter last week and was a jealous guy for a day or two. He looooves his baths now and splashes like a champ. The tiny little starving monster is back and hungrier than ever. His sister Shilo has started liking (read: licking) him and the bond is forming. He takes after his dad and really doesn’t shut up once he gets started babbling. But he takes after his mama and hates taking naps – can’t miss out on any fun!

A week ago, Theo got to go out to dinner at an all-ages pub with his buddy Devon. It felt so civilized for all. Big news is he has a brand-new friend in London – Santino Shea was born on the 23rd. Big Congrats to Mark and Marcela! Theo and Santino will soon be gallavanting around the world like their parents. It’s very exciting to have arranged international pals! Well, exciting for the parents.

Steve will be uploading some new photos and videos soon. We will try to post updates more regularly. For the record, Twinkle Twinkle is still his favorite song.

“You know, at around five or six weeks, just about the time when you’re ready to throw them into the ocean out of frustration, they learn how to smile.”

Or something like that. Ask Erin for the exact quote.

Of course she was right. Erin said he was smiling, but I wasn’t privy to any of them… until Thursday morning. And right there, on the changing table, first thing in the morning, he gave me the biggest smile ever.

<swoon>

It just gets better.

And really, he’s such a good guy, we’re not even close to losing it. Tired, sure, but he’s down to one wake up a night for the last three nights, thanks to Alys’ tip to top him off with formula for the night feedings. Works a charm. Give him a couple of ounces of formula on top of his normal feed, and presto! 4-5 hours of continuous sleep.

Woo hoo!

Yippee – we made it past the one-month mark and we still have a living breathing infant! Theo does not appear to have colic – praise the powers that be. Plus he’s well ahead of the mark in his ability to flip from his tummy to back within about 30 seconds of tummytime. Guess that’s a big deal. It likely would have been bigger had we reported this a couple weeks ago when it started. All those pushups in his mother’s tummy built strong biceps.

Now the search for a (gasp) nanny begins in earnest. We’re both back working and need someone to hold the baby on a more regular basis. Shilo tries to cuddle him but needs opposable thumbs to pick him up.

Thanks to Vince and Sara for the new photos of the wee one. We hope you enjoy!

We’ve got new grandparents visiting this weekend, great grandparents in a couple weeks, and another grandma after that. Everyone wants a piece of the TheoMonkey. I don’t blame them – he is quite tasty.

Oops – and noisy. Back to it!
Cheers.