Forest Firsts

Forest has reached an age where he’s changing and developing so quickly that he’s experiencing and accomplishing new things nearly everyday. His biggest ‘first’ over the past 2 weeks was rolling from his back to his belly. Once he got the hang of it, now he won’t stop. If I put him on his back, I literally cannot count to 3 before he’s belly down. 

It has made changing diapers very challenging with this roly-poly. It also means that we had to push up some additional firsts such as sleeping unswaddled and sleeping in his crib (well, his crib is on a ship somewhere so for the purposes of this blog, crib means ‘pack and play’). 

He seems to prefer sleeping on his belly which is pretty terrifying when viewed from the monitor. 

I have not been sleeping very well at all these past few nights...  

Also, most kiddos start solid foods between the ages of 4-6 months. Originally we had planned to wait til closer to 6 months but we kept seeing facebook pictures of babies his age and younger chowing on green beans so we decided to give it a go. We started him on rice cereal mixed with formula. 

He doesn’t quite get it just yet, but that’s ok. Its not supposed to replace any of his daily nutrition, just get him used to the practice of eating. 

 

On Sunday, we made some guacamole and had some avocados left over. I mashed it up pretty good and gave him a tiny spoonful. 

He was all smiles, but I’m pretty sure that was from the attention he was getting from momma and daddy as we anxiously awaited his reaction. He swallowed a sliver of it, but most of it ended up on his chin. It’s the same story with the rice cereal. It’s not til after 6 months that they need nutrition from sources other than breast milk and/or formula so we have a few more weeks to practice. 

For now we are just trying 1 or 2 times a day to feed him a few spoons worth. He likes the attention, that’s for sure. Such a ham! 

Other recent firsts include riding face forward in the BOB stroller instead of rear facing using the baby seat. 

Jury is still out on whether he enjoys this or not. The only time Forest gets really cranky is when he is tired and I think the stroller tends to make him sleepy. 

This means that meltdowns sometime result from our evening strolls which is not as relaxing and Jonathan and I would like. 

Sometimes instead of joy riding we take strolls to one of the neighborhood parks (...seriously one on every corner. So nice!) Most of the playgrounds are built for the toddler and elementary set but most of them have infant swings that he can use. Last week I decided to see how he enjoyed the swing and here is the result of his first swing experience: 

Not too impressed. But I did manage to get a few smiles out of him. 

We take him to swing several times a week and each time he’s just like ‘whatevs’.    

Another first he experienced recently was his first St. Patrick’s Day!

I didn’t buy my kid special outfits for Christmas, New Years, Valentine’s Day or Mardi Gras but by golly he was gonna have a special outfit to honor his ½ Irish side. 

His Scottish side also experienced a pretty awesome first recently: wearing shorts! 

It got up in the 80s two weekends ago so we had him all decked out in his California duds. 

He also went for his first big boy hike that weekend, but that deserves a separate post...  

He’s VERY close to sitting upright unassisted so I'd be expecting that first just around the corner. 

Also, crawling isn't too far off (*gulp*)

That's about it for the moment. Stay tuned for posts about our new casa, hiking in the Las Trampas Regional Wildnerness, my 3-5 month baby survival guide, and Forest’s 5 month guest post.