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.

The video camera arrived!  This first video shows a smile, but beware - I'm not very good yet, so it's shaky.  I recommend the first 8 seconds, after that it gets pretty rough.  Once I figure out how to use the editing software I'll get some better clips up.   

Toby's gaining new skills fast now.  He's definitely discovered his hands - especially the right one.  He likes to look at the fist, moving it forward and back.  He also likes to suck on it.  We've been trying to get him to suck his thumb, but he isn't quite there yet.  If you stick it in his mouth for him he thinks it's great, but doesn't know how to replicate that, and won't usually let you put it in for him.

Tummy time is getting more fun, too.  He can push up on both hands so that his head is 90º to the floor, and the reward of being able to look around seems to be motivating him.  I've started trying draping him over the Boppy (nursing pillow), but he's not quite big enough to really like that yet.

He's talking a lot, with regular three-syllable goos and coos.  Smiling more and definitely giggling.  And he's discovered his mobile!  This morning he was on his back it he crib staring and cooing with fascination. 

We've passed the two month mark, and Toby is becoming more and more interesting.  His hair is coming in - a few weeks ago he grew his eyelashes quite suddenly, and now they seemed to have reached their full length.  His eyes are still dark blue, although they sometimes look grey or greenish depending on what he's wearing.  He's also got eyebrows now (blonde) and hair on the top of his head (reddish brown?).  He's getting great control of his eyes, tracking things to the left, right, and up (down is still a little tricky).  He will often look at a toy or book, but seems increasingly interested in looking at US!  We're loving it.  Matt mastered they Moby carrier last week, so Toby can snooze while Daddy practices the piano.

The end of the summer is a time of transition at the biological station where I work, so Toby had to say goodbye (for now) to his friend Rachel Prunier, who has been an important person helping keep his mama sane in the first two months of his life.  We'll look forward to seeing her again next summer at the latest.

Last weekend he had his first big car trip, four hours to Richmond, Indiana to visit my side of the family.  He was a trooper, sleeping most of the way down and all the way back.  We're hoping he continues to like the car so we can keep traveling together.  Sleeping in a strange place did seem to mess up his nights a bit, but when he finally settled back in at home we got two nights in a row with only one waking between 4-hour stretches!  Matt had a night of nearly pre-baby quality sleep.  All you parents know that this is the biggest thrill imaginable at our stage. 

The best part of the trip was meeting new people: in addition to seeing Grammie, Grandpa Royer, Uncles Jacob and Dan, Aunt Margo, and Cousin Alten again (we even got a great family picture - they're talking about photoshopping Chris into it... maybe seriously?), Toby got to meet his Nana, Aunt Cathy, Uncle Kenny, Aunt Jean, and Ken's daughters Beth and Jill.  He was happy to be passed around, and seemed especially interested in staring at Nana.  We even got a picture of Toby with Margo and Cousin Baby Royer-Miller #2.  We are accepting bets on the sex in the comments section of this blog.  

This weekend we have been blessed with a visit from my dear college friend Emily Fine with her husband Aaron and their 6-month-old, Emet.  Emet thinks Toby is fairly interesting, and Toby doesn't seem to be aware of Emet (in spite of the constant squeals and giggles that the grown-ups find so diverting).  Matt and I are having fun getting a preview of what Toby will soon be capable of.

We've also been blessed with the coldest weather Toby has ever experienced - in the 50's at night, 70's during the day.  This has given us the chance to experiment with long sleeves, pants, and even socks.  And, of course, the cutest of baby gear: footie pajamas.  I love these things.  Toby's especially enjoying the leg warmers his Aunt Margo made him (enabling easy diaper changes) and the elephant booties from his Aunt Becky (cuter on his feet than I could have believed).

I finally actually ordered a camcorder last week, so there will soon be video (I'm desperate to record the sweet early smiles we're getting - especially common first thing in the morning).