Last year's birthday (a post 12 months in the making!)

So. My birthday is today. My 30th birthday (BOOOOOOOO). I have absolutely no idea how any of this happened. Isn't it still 1998 and right now it's time for me to go watch Carson Daly host TRL where my favorite "band" in the world, 'N Sync, has the no. 1 video for the 126th day in a row?! Yeah. Pretty much in my head that's where time stopped for me. My life rules. 

P.S. I still love me some Justin Timberlake. And I may or may not be kind of, sort of, ridiculously excited that he's fine.uh.lee making some new music. About dang time, Mr. J.T.!

P.P.S. Don't judge me.

Last year for my birthday, I woke up in the middle of the night with what I thought was a wicked case of food poisoning. (I'll spare you the details other than to say what a dear, sweet husband I have since he traversed to Smith's at 3 in the morning to buy me Sprite, saltine crackers and Pepto-Bismol.)

Breakfast in bed for me last year. Bah.

John and I had both taken two days off of work and made reservations at the Anniversary Inn up in Logan to celebrate, so in between bouts of nausea we eventually made our way up there so we wouldn't lose out on our money. Our room was pretty dang amazing, but sadly I was too sick to really enjoy it. We did manage to get pictures, though, don't you worry. 

Well, the nausea didn't go away over the course of the weekend (to this day, thinking about the breakfast we were served at the hotel makes me want to throw up), so I figured I had a nasty, nasty strain of the flu. Going to work the next week was a nightmare and I'm not quite sure how I managed to even make it out of bed...I spent my days ridiculously nauseous, counting the seconds until it was time to go home. And when I got home I would just lay on the couch for the rest of the night. All I could even think about eating were ramen noodles, grilled cheese and baked potatoes. 

Fast forward eight months later and that "flu virus" was born. And this year, that stubborn, vicious flu bug that turned into my darling, darling little John Max is here to celebrate my birthday with me. Here's hoping my day does not involve vomit this year! (Not counting spit up, because my sweet boy may have already spit up on me when he gave me the most generous gift of waking me up at 3 a.m. to feed him. Happy birthday to me!)

Four months.

Yo. So my baby suddenly became four months old on the 21st. You know how people who've experienced something before you have always tell you what to expect, and how things will go, and you kind of think to yourself, "whatever, my experience is going to be totally different than that!"? Those people are actually kind of right. When I was pregnant all I ever heard was how fast babies grow up, to cherish every moment while they're still little and will let you hold them, and to try on their clothes earlier than you think you need to because they'll probably outgrow things before you even have a chance to put it on their little baby bodies. And I thought to myself, babies are babies for a long time, and my baby will be the snuggliest baby EVER, and besides, I'll have a little pipsqueak baby who will stay in newborn-size clothes for months and months and months. 

Well, here I am with a four-month-old who is, indeed, growing faster than I thought possible, with a closetful of darling clothes, some of which he's never even worn and perhaps won't get a chance to since he's growing so dang fast and is practically in 6-9 month clothes as we speak. Oh, and the snuggly baby thing? Not so much. Max is much too interested in things going on around him to take the time to lay that cute head of his on Mom's shoulder. He's got throw pillows to look at! And walls and ceiling fans to stare at! And hands to eat!

Max had his four-month well-child appointment this morning (and another round of horrible, awful shots that this time I braved alone!) and here are his stats:

Weight: 15.43 lbs. (61st percentile)

Height: 26.77 inches (96th percentile) (!!)

Head circumference: 16.7 inches (50th percentile)

So essentially, we have a skinny, tall, very healthy baby. I am kind of blown away by how tall he is (maybe because I'm such a shrimp myself?)--our pediatrician said he's as tall right now as an average seven-month-old. Sheesh, kid. He's also developmentally on par in some ways with six-month-old babies, what with his new-found ability to roll over from his back to stomach, desperate attempts to sit up by himself and constant need to stand. We have a wonder child, folks!

Here's a little bit about our cute boy at four months old:

Likes: 

His binky

Having his diaper changed

Playing under his activity mat

Standing

When Daddy comes home from work

When Daddy holds him upside down (Mommy is not such a big fan of this one, however)

Looking in the mirror

When Mom and Dad make funny sounds for him

Being pushed in the stroller
Listening to Daddy sing and play the piano or guitar

Dislikes:

Being burped

Being cradled like a baby when he's tired (seriously?! What baby doesn't like to be held like a baby?)

Having his nose suctioned out

Being put in the carseat

Having clothes put on him (seriously, he cries almost every single time I put a onesie on him)

When he rolls over onto his tummy and gets stuck
Going to bed earlier than 10 p.m. (We have apparently passed our night owl tendencies onto him...but we're working on getting him on an earlier schedule. Not my favorite thing in the world, mind you.)

Man, we just love this boy to pieces.

Holidays wrap-up. And the startling realization that my baby is no longer a newborn.

I swear, it happens to me every year...December and Christmas just fly right on by, with hardly any time to just enjoy it. Next year all I want to do is sit in front of my beautiful Christmas tree, drinking hot chocolate and watching Christmas movies. (Yeah, like that's really going to happen with a 15-month-old running around the house, undecorating my beautiful Christmas tree, spilling hot chocolate everywhere and yelling during the movies. And oh my gosh, YOU GUYS. My baby will be 15 months old next Christmas!)

Anyway, we were able to get a lot of celebrating in, mixed somewhere in between bouts of illness (John had the most horrible of horrid sore throats for a couple of days and Max and I have been fighting colds for about a year now, it feels like), me officially quitting my job to become a full-time mom (post to come later about this one, kids) and John and I continuing to figure out this whole parenting thing.

 I absolutely love my Christmas tree. It is a hodgepodge of ornaments, but most of them have sentimental meaning behind them. We got two new ornaments for Max this year:

To my great delight, I discovered that Max liked to hang out on the floor and stare at the Christmas tree...saving my sanity and also allowing me to actually eat using both of my hands on more than one occasion. Sometimes he even took naps in front of the tree.

We had kind of a low-key Christmas, present-wise, which I thought was just perfect. I'm sure we could have gotten away with not getting Max anything, but I think he was pretty stoked about his new binkies, pajamas and outfits. Next year we'll splurge and get him some boxes and wrapping paper to play with, don't worry.

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning/afternoon with my family before venturing up to Logan to spend the rest of the week with John's family. I may or may not have spent the majority of my time there staring out the window at the hordes of deer (including a couple of rather large bucks) that converged in my in-law's backyard. Because apparently I've never seen deer before. It's not like I live near the mountains and see them on a regular basis or anything.

And somehow in the middle of everything, I realized last week that my boy is no longer a newborn. He has started grabbing anything he can get his chubby little hands on and he tries to put everything those hands get a hold of into his mouth. We are assuming he has started teething as evidenced by the constant crazy-long strings of drool that hang off of his chin and soak his outfits every day. And he has become somewhat mobile--he kicks his legs all day long and as of Monday can roll over from his back to his stomach! (We're still working on getting him to roll over from his tummy to his back--I have found that he'll tolerate "tummy time" a little bit better if I have him try it out while he's only in his diaper. I swear, that boy is so much happier if he doesn't have on any clothes. Maybe we have an exhibitionist on our hands.) The other day I left him flat on his back in the middle of his crib and went into the other room for one second, and this is what I came back to. Naturally I took pictures before I helped him.

Max is also becoming much more vocal and makes the sweetest little coo and gurgle noises I've ever heard. (He also makes these high-pitched screams and squeals that sound very much like a feral cat...) He has finally started laughing and I'm pretty sure that the heavens open when he giggles. He especially loves to laugh for John.

Apparently all I'm good for is SUSTAINING HIS LIFE by, you know, feeding him with my own body. No biggie.