Four months old...

Tennis anyone?

Nelson has had a big week.  This week marked his four month birthday.  Crazy how fast the time has gone by.  He continues to get longer... and continues to stay lean.  We sure wish those diaphragm muscles would kick in to prevent his spitting up.  Still, he's a happy, healthy guy.  Very happy in fact.  He's all smiles and this month marked his first "laugh".  Thought we'd share a few photos from this week.

Nelson and Grayson meet in Denver...

We got Nelson on the road again last weekend to visit my sister's family in Denver.  This was the first opportunity for us to get Nelson together with his cousin, Grayson.  Gray had his first birthday and his baptism over the weekend.  It was such a great time as it was the first time we had the "Bohn clan" together at once since Nelson's birth nearly four months ago: my parents (Grandpa Jim and Grandma Arnita), Aunt Kristy and her husband Uncle Drew, and Cousin Gray.  We were also blessed to be joined by Drew's parents, Toni and Mike.

Nelson did great on the flight out.  It was nice to get out of the 100+ summer days of Dallas and into the comparatively cool air.  We managed to play some golf (and pretty good golf at that) and ate really well.  Of course, the highlight was getting Nelson and Gray together.  I imagine that these guys will be great friends for life - so planting the seed over this weekend was so much fun to watch.  Gray, at one, is mobile and such a bright, entertaining kid.  He was wanting to interact with Nelson, but four month olds don't do much more than lay around.... well, and smile... Nelson was entertained by Gray and smiled frequently at him.  Here are some of the highlights with our family:

We'll all be fortunate enough to get together again for Christmas in Flagstaff, AZ at my parents house.  By that time, Nelson will be nearly eight months old.  So much looking forward to seeing the two cousins together again then.  Thanks to Drew and Kristy for putting us up at their beautiful home in Denver.  Love you guys...

Big boy toys & reflux...

Nelson had a big weekend last weekend.  We decided to see if he'd be ready for his jumper and activity center a few weeks early.  The two toys are meant for babies four months and up, but with Nelson's height we thought he might be ready for them, so Brian assembled them and we tested them out.

The jumper is an ingenious concept that you all probably know about.  It's a soft seat harnessed by four cords that attach to a bungy.  The bungy is then mounted to a doorframe in order for the baby to bounce up and down, encouraging them to walk and jump.  We decided that if Nelson has any hope of dunking a basketball ("white man's disease", the inability to jump, is passed down from father to son), we need to get his calves developed.  He loved it.  Here's a couple of shots.

The activity center doesn't appear to have changed in years.  My only complaint is that should you error in putting the toys in the wrong place, they are impossible to get back out without seemingly ripping the thing apart (in other words, read the instructions...). We might have been a little aggressive getting Nelson into the activity center.  We think his neck muscles and core might need a bit of development yet.  Maybe we will get him into pilates to get that accelerated.

Finally, I snapped a few shots of Nelson in his crib yesterday before putting him down for a nap.  They were too cute not to post, but that's not the real reason they are here.  Nelson has had some issues keeping his food down.  Obviously, all babies spit up.  Nelson takes it to another level.  It doesn't seem to hurt him, so the pediatrician doesn't think it's reflux, but the volume is excessive.  I've caught it on film.  Needless to say, we had to change the sheets...

An update from Nelson at 14 weeks

Nelson's attempt at mommy and daddy's age old remedy for getting rid of the hiccups to no avail.

Kristen took this video one day when they had come home early from work. It's been a monumental week for Nelson and mommy. Her second week back at work proved to be better than the first, but instead of Nelson staying home with Granny Di, he had his first week at what Kristen prefers to call school (a.k.a. daycare). Nelson has seven little friends in his class - Parker, Amelia, Oscar, Bethel, Aidan, Tanner and oops - Nelson can't remember the last one. Kristen is able to go and see Nelson during work, as it's right next door to her office. His teacher Miss Leticia has taken very good care of him. Mommy missed the first of probably many milestones as Nelson turned over from back to stomach in his crib. We'll just pretend that didn't happen and wait for it to occur again on our clock.

We are enjoying a lovely Saturday morning after returning from the farmer's market. We've got lots of chores to get done as we were out of town last weekend for Nelson's first road trip. We went to Austin to see our friends Jim and Nancy Argent. We left Nelson with Nancy's long time nanny for a nice dinner on the town with the Williams and Argents and a day on the lake with the Mancinos. Mommy and daddy got just a little taste of how expensive it is to go out with a little one. Well, we're on to the laundry and making a chilled gazpacho to try and beat this record heat, 30 plus straight days over 100 in Dallas. It's miserable. Thankfully, we have Nelson to stay indoors and cuddle.