We've been very busy since the last blog post!  The trip to Dallas went well - Toby fussed a little on the flight there and quite a bit on the flight back, but both times he settled well before we reached altitude and snoozed in my arms, causing them to go numb.  Kudos to Matt for getting a truly WAILING baby to fall asleep without getting up.  We even got a picture (using my phone, which is why it's not up to my usual standards) to document Toby's first flight.

This was obviously before Toby pooped, but after we discovered that we couldn't take our carefully packed carry-on into the cabin with us.  All the toys, diapers, and extra clothes got last-minute gate-checked.  Aaaargh!  And yet we survived.

A brief summary of the trip: I got an award from the Society for the Study of Evolution to give a workshop on a lesson I developed for high school students at the National Association of Biology Teachers annual conference.  The lesson uses a free web-based program called BoxCar2D to evolve online cars; it looks like a video game and is SUPER fun to watch, so students love it.  If you want to hear the dorky/cool details, just ask me sometime.  Or read the website's FAQ and Algorithm links.  Matt came along to take care of Toby and enjoy a king-sized bed and lots of free food.  We also got to visit my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Jim.  Sadly, my phone got fussy, so I don't have any pictures of them, but we had a good time.  On the last day I skived off and we went to the Aquarium.  Matt and I loved the neotropical birds (toucans, toucanettes, aracaris!), and Toby's favorite was the glowing jellyfish.  (The seadragons were too cryptic.)  I learned there are amazonian manatees...

Shortly after our return from 80ºF weather (sniff, sigh) it was ELECTION DAY!!!  Toby didn't wear his elephant hat, because we don't have a donkey one and didn't want to be partisan, but he DID come to the polls with me.  He was super helpful - in the past, I always wasted time filling in the bubbles even when two people were running for two openings.  I felt bad for them - what if they won with 15% of the vote, wouldn't it be bad for their self-esteem?  Toby helped me realize that what really mattered was getting out of there fast.  Matt stayed up until 11:30 clicking through 8 different websites.  Toby and I went to bed and trusted Daddy to tell us what happened.

It's been a big few weeks in physical as well as political development for the tot.  His sitting skills are advanced enough now for him to try sitting on Daddy's shoulders for the first time!  About 1 minute after I took this picture, somebody got spit-up in their hair.  Joelyn and I laughed; Joelyn's husband Mridul helped wash it out.  Toby tried it again (the sitting, not the spitting) on a hike with us yesterday with great success.  It's fun to be super tall.

Another fun thing about sitting up well is that people can stuff you into chairs and take a picture really fast before you fall over.  The first time Joelyn put him in the big rocker, he laughed and  laughed.  By the time I got him in Nana's little rocking chair, he was already a pro.

Another grand thing that comes with sitting well is solid food!  Most of our books recommend waiting until 6 months for solids, but Toby was staring mournfully at our food as it made it's way from plate to mouth, reaching for our plates, and making num-num mouth motions.  So we decided to give it a try.  First food: pureed banana.  He LOVED it.  That sealed the deal for me - the kid is ready to eat.  He ate a banana over four nights, and hardly spit any of it out.  Applesauce didn't go over so well; ours is homemade, and I like it sour.  It was fun to see his baby sour-face, but after two nights I gave up.  Next I think we'll try sweet potatoes.

Our biggest challenge continues to be naps.  After a week of lovely naps, he's back to wailing and thrashing his way to dreamland.  Maybe he's teething?  I didn't think so at first, but a couple of nights ago he started waking up every hour or two all night, and waking up crying (usually he wakes gently and briefly at night).  If anyone has a favorite sleeping or teething tip, please do let me know.  We mostly continue to have a sense of humor (2-5am is when mine goes missing).

Last weekend was another new experience for Toby: visiting his brand new cousin, Isaac Wynn, at Noni's house in Ohio.  Have three small children in one place proved overwhelming to the grown-ups, and we failed to get a picture of all the cousins together.  I managed to get several cute ones of Toby with the cool older cousin, Alten Lee.  Alten played nicely with Toby - he even made funny noises to turn crying into laughing several times.  I think this bodes well for his older brother potential as 3-week-old Isaac becomes more aware of people around him.  Sorry about the lack of newborn pictures; you'll have to take my word for it that he is cute and snuggly.  Or you could check out his parents' blog.  We're thrilled to have another nephew.  (The other fellow in the pictures is my brother Dan).

 On November 16th Matt saw Toby suck his lips for the first time.  Super cute!  He kept it up, and yesterday I got a picture.  Matt thinks this gives us a better idea what his face will look like, since currently he spends most of his waking hours with his mouth wide open (see the shoulder-sitting picture).  I don't mind, since it's a happy face and it's cold here, but I do tell him that in the summer something will fly in.  Anyway,  this afternoon the new lip-sucking habit bore fruit: Toby's first "buh" sound!  He's done it several times now.  He even said "wubuh!"  Obviously a genius.  I took these pictures last night.  They also display the cuteness of his blue eyes and his propensity for scratching himself when I don't cut his nails fast enough.

This week brings Toby's longest car trip yet, 7 hours to the Schultz homestead in Ligonier, PA, and of course the little fella's first Thanksgiving.  This is a treasured holiday for both of our families, so we're pretty excited.  Perhaps he'll sample the mashed potatoes?  

Happy Halloween!  For his first Halloween, Toby went shopping for a pumpkin with Grandpa Royer and Uncle Jacob.  His good vibes helped me pick him the coolest pumpkin, and after he went to bed we got to carving.  I think it turned out nicely.

We're flying to Dallas on the 31st, and Toby will be wearing his elephant costume.  Okay, it's just a hat, but it's cool!  Thanks, Aunt Becky.

To finish off the seasonal enjoyments, Daddy took Tobers out in the yard to watch the leaves fall.  He COULD have watched Daddy hang diapers on the line, but leaves are way cooler.  He happily gazed at them for a long time... I caught the action through the kitchen window and had to join in.

In general 4.5-month-old news, our little fellow is doing lots of new things.  He went through a phase of only wanting to nap in arms.  This was really cute for about two days.  Thankfully, he's worked through it and moved on to fussing royally BEFORE falling asleep, but then consenting to be put down.  He's still eating enthusiastically, and has started taking breaks to look around or chat (still mostly vowels, with the occasional 'g' or coughing sound).  After he's done eating we sometimes get a long soliloquy.  I just nod and ask a few leading questions.  With all that eating, he's getting a lot longer (and maybe a little less chubby?).

Nice development: less spitting up.  Less nice: more drooling.  A LOT more.  And chomping.  But other than that, no sign of teeth as far as we can tell.  (Note intact double chin)

He still sneezes quite a bit - as he has since birth - but now after a really big one he says "aooooeeow!"  I think this means something like, "wowza!" or perhaps "bless me!"  He's smiling a lot more, and even laughing, but one of the funniest things is the open-mouth-smile.  It looks like he's surprised. 

I'm now convinced he's right-handed; he will sometimes roll halfway over to the left to grab a toy with his right hand.  On the playing front, he's getting better at sitting up and enjoying manipulating his toys, including his favorite book, Fuzzy Bee and Friends.  It has a crinkly first page, and is one of the only ones he's allowed to chew on. 

In other video delights, here are two new fun bath games: getting a shower and zerberts.  We were trying to get him to exhibit his new, full-blown laugh (I heard it first today), but he refused.  Getting tossed in the air, hearing silly noises, or diaper change capers can elicit it.  Maybe in the next post...

He's also recently enjoyed his new baby-safe mirror - thanks, Grammie!  I can almost hear him asking who that handsome, albeit noisy, baby could possibly be.

We look forward to telling you about our first big trip in the next blog post... for now, I'll leave you with fresh evidence of Hoosier brainwashing.  I'm sure this will be treated at some point in the future with a dose of Pittsburgh Penguin Onesie.

The blog website is complaining about loading longer videos, so we took these short ones as a consolation.  Hopefully it shapes up soon and I can share some footage of the tyke rolling over, grabbing, and babbling.  He's 4 months old now! 

Here's a fun picture from his first real play date (when he could make eye contact).  Benjamin is about 3 months older than Toby.  We laid them down side by side - Ben used his superior hand-eye coordination to grab Toby's pacifier out of his mouth, and almost popped it into his own before he was thwarted; then they both burst into tears.  I think it's a good start.  :)

Peak cuteness?

I used to have a theory that babies achieve peak cuteness at three months, and it's all downhill from there.  Then I met my nephew Alten, who continued to accumulate additional cuteness for a long time... but Toby seems to have attained a level of cuteness that can't possibly be surpassed.  Last weekend when we were grocery shopping a lady actually came up to us and said, "That's the cutest baby in the WHOLE WORLD."  I said, "I know."  I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens next.  Will we be able to handle it?  Only time will tell.

There are no huge milestones to report in this post; the next big one would be rolling over from back to front (Toby doesn't believe in it - who wants to lay on his belly?  Dumb idea), or sitting up (that will be a few more months, although he's getting better at doing it with support).  But he's getting expert at rolling from belly to back, grabbing (and manipulating!) things, and making cool noises.  He's also refining his flirting skills (exhibit A: grocery store lady); thankfully at the same time he's showing his preference for Mama and Daddy, which makes us feel special and turn people down when they offer to take him home. 

Thumb sucking is an everyday thing, but he still likes the binky when he's really tired and fussy.  It's nice to have options, though.  What else?  He doesn't "sleep like a baby" anymore - we have to tiptoe around when he's napping, which means we put him in his crib to nap as often as possible.  Sometimes he's happy to fall asleep there, sometimes he fights it.  Most often he falls asleep easily but doesn't stay that way - same story at night.  We often get one 4-hour stretch of sleep, but the rest of the night he's up every couple of hours to eat.  Unless I go to bed late, I'm usually not too tired - I only get grumpy and sleep deprived on or two days a week now.  :)

Toby's hair continues to grow in - some of it is getting longer, and a new crop appears to be filling in the (substantial) gaps.  There is just a tiny patch of his original hair left in the back, and still shrinking.  He still looks like a bald baby if he's not in JUST the right light, but all I care about is have some fuzz to stroke (and to hold that sweet baby smell), so it's fine with me.  My hair seems to be done falling out as well - thank goodness recently pregnant friends warned me that was going to happen.  Lucky I have enough curl to handle losing a lot more.

I was shocked to see I haven't posted in three weeks, but then I just finished my second week back to work, so I guess I can be forgiven for losing track.  The worst part is that now I've accumulated more videos than I can easily post (they take a LONG time to load), so I'll just have to try harder to post more frequently.  Working full time has been better than expected; there are still hard days, but mostly it's nice to be teaching and making dissertation progress again, and when I get off work I have extra energy and focus for Toby.  He's doing fine with it too, thank goodness - I figure he benefits from the different strengths Matt, Joelyn and I bring to caring for him, and we benefit from getting breaks.  I have SO MUCH respect for stay-at-home moms.

The weather up here in Michigan has turned to fall with a vengeance, with below-freezing temperatures at night and even hail today!  The leaves are beautiful, and Toby likes looking at all the colors.  He was staring at the lawn yesterday, I imagine wondering why the green lawn had those bright yellow things on it all of a sudden.  We're treasuring all these little firsts. 

I'll leave this post with some pictures of the cute new clothes Toby fits in now that he's bigger.  Thanks to all the friends and family who gave us such great hand-me-downs and new clothes!  I've got to go to bed, but I'll try to post the good videos in the next few days.

Toby had his 1/4 birthday last Thursday - he's three months old!  The fourth trimester is over, and he celebrated by starting on two new skills: grabbing (on purpose) and rolling over.  His attempts at rolling over may not look like much to the uninitiated, but to us it's a world of difference.  He's wriggling all over the place now - he can spin himself around 90º on the floor and once I actually saw him roll all the way onto his side.  (He happened to have pulled his legs up that time - he hasn't figured out it's necessary yet).  The video doesn't actually show grabbing, but some very advanced batting (and kitty action, the spice of life).

To celebrate this first quarter year, I'm including recent and first-month pictures of Matt with Toby.  Sometimes I forget how much he's changed, even though I admit he often seems to have grown when I've just been away for the day.

The great photographic victory of the last couple of weeks was getting a really good smile - bath time is usually a smiley time of the day, along with right after waking up.  MommaSue gets credit for eliciting the smile while I handled the camera - she kept us company while Matt was away for a weekend of work.  She also got to spoil the grandbaby rotten, holding him all the time.  She observed that he's like a puppy who goes and goes and then suddenly drops asleep - that's what happened in this picture in the rocking chair, I think.

As Toby gets stronger and more interested in the world outside, we're doing lots more fun things.  Reading together (he likes big bright pictures and rhymes), playing the piano (he's successfully hit the keys twice!) and facing the computer to smile and goo for Skype calls are just a few activities we've been enjoying. 

Getting bigger also means experiencing new clothes, including this cool hoodie from our friends Melanie and Andrey, with pants from local friend Bill.  I really enjoy dressing him up.  Matt thinks pants are annoying because they make diapering harder.  But we both agree that Toby is a dapper fellow in a collared shirt.  I'll have to get a picture of that for the next post.  :)

Another favorite article of clothing is the hysterical boobie-hat, which my friend Lorna knitted for Toby; she's a professional knitter now, with an Etsy website and everything!

In closing, a few pictures of our weekend at the cabin on Crooked Lake (as detailed in the last post - I just got these from Joe): evidence that we really DID waterski (Matt got up on his second try - the first time he's ever waterskiied(!) and I got up right away - like riding a bike, but sweeter).  Also a precious moment on the hammock with Toby. 

Toby has been a very busy fellow since the last post.  He's been using his hands to hit things!  The video below is also evidence of my recent developmental leap - I can use the camcorder much more effectively.  More recently, Toby is opening his hands more and grasping things we place in them.  I checked in Matt's baby book (thanks, MommaSue!) and found that he switched from pacifier to thumb at 3 months... everybody keep their fingers crossed (or perhaps more appropriately, 'press the thumbs' as the Germans do) for Tobes to figure this out soon.

Hitting things isn't the only new game our boy has adopted; he's also really into sitting up (Daddy taught him that one) and leaping into the air (with a little help from Mama - sometimes he gets a little surprised.)

Tummy time continues to be more and more fun; today he and Violet Kitty were noticing each other on the floor.  He can push up quite far and hold it longer and longer.  Crawling is beginning to seem more plausible - not anytime soon.  Good thing - we need more time to think about a mobile baby.

Last weekend our Michigan Baby received his first home-state sacrament: a weekend in a cottage on a lake 'up north.'  Matt's dear friend Joe invited us up to spend some time with his new wife Olya and their friend Drew at Drew's family house on Crooked Lake.  Matt and I went water skiing and Toby enjoyed looking at the lake (the smallest life jacket we could find wasn't quite small enough, but it will happen soon enough - then I can tell him lots of stories about his Great-grandpa Royer, who was skiing into his 80's.)  We ambled into town and checked out some very fancy yachts on the Lake Michigan pier.  Toby and Olya bonded.  Matt, Olya and I put together puzzles.  It was grand.

Back on the home front, I've been making more baby steps toward going back to work.  Having Toby's babysitter come in a few days a week has been helpful, giving her a chance to get to know his routine and giving me a chance to see that both Toby and I can survive being apart.  We might even have fun.  :)  We're lucky to have Joelyn - she is willing to be super flexible about scheduling, is great with Toby, and appreciates that he is the most fabulous baby ever.  Perfect match.  Plus she speaks Konkani to him, which will make him even more of a genius than he already is.

I'll part with one more video, illustrating 1) my mastery of Toby's laugh, even though you don't get to hear him do it, 2) more charming smiles, and 3) Toby's entertaining habit of looking straight into the camera.  I'm off to the left, and I could swear the camcorder is boring-looking, but he seems to be transfixed by it.