Lauren to Visit at 6 Weeks...

Billy turned 6 weeks old on Wednesday and this week, he got a whole lot better at many of the key skills he's been working on for weeks. A little stronger neck that can now easily hold itself up in every direction except backward. Still need a good solid month or so of work before we're comfortable on that one. His vocalization continues to grow week by week. He's now attempting to occasionally interact with you and almost waiting for you to stop speaking before he attempts to respond. His smiling has improved and we find him smiling when he gets dried off after bath time and when something other than a face makes him happy. He had another major milestone in the body weight department as he now appears to top out at about 11.5 lbs. on our home scale. While this is not very scientific, we do get on the scale (both of us) and weigh ourselves and then get on with him to see the difference and determine his weight. At 11.5 lbs., he's on pace to have doubled his birth weight within two weeks and is now in the 75th percentile of body weight. We'll wait for his doctor visit to confirm, but if accurate, that's a nice move up from his weight at birth when he was in the 30th percentile.

He's also begun to laugh rarely, but occasionally. They are little giggles that he puts together, almost as a byproduct of his smiling + vocalizing combination. They began early in the week and haven't increased much, but maybe next week we'll see a little jump there. Another big developmental change for him is improved control of his hands. Not so much his feet yet, but his hands are capable of moving his blanket up to his mouth. You can see him actually attempting, sometimes in a frustrating fashion, to get a decent grip underneath the blanket so he can get it up that way. If there's no blanket present, we often catch him shoving what seems like his entire fist into his mouth. While I've never seen him suck his thumb, he does seem to enjoy the hand as a whole. He also started tugging on his ear when he gets tired.

We had visitors this weekend as my cousin Lauren and her fiance Chris came to town. Quite a drive from Chicago, they made the trip straight through in about 15 hours. Since we're considering driving home next time we go, it was nice to get a decent time frame on what that trip entails. They arrived on Friday afternoon and took off for Tampa this morning. In the meantime, they both got to meet little Billy while here and his picture this week is in the arms of his first cousin, once removed. As a soon to be newlywed couple, it was a chance for them to spend a little time around a newborn baby. And for her fiance, Chris, it was a chance to hold a baby for the very first time. He looked concerned he might break him. It was kind of funny actually. Things you hide that start with the letter "F": Anne Frank. Inside joke, but they'll find it funny. This was a very special visit because my cousin is the one who introduced me to Antoinette, so in a way, this little guy owes his very existence to her. Lauren brought Billy a gift which included his very first swim trunks, a sun hat, and a little shirt.

Today, we finally got around to ordering up the final pieces of the baby room decor. While he is still sleeping in his cradle in Mom and Dad's room at night, it won't be long before he begins to transition to his own room. Realizing that we're at 6 weeks and we'd like him to make that transition no later than 3 months, if possible, we figured its time to get a move on and wrap up the decorating. So today, Antoinette went online and she ordered up some giant wall animals that stick to the wall without tearing off the paint. Billy has a new elephant, giraffe, lizards, palm tree, and monkeys on their way to the house in the next couple days. They should go nice with the giant stuffed lion (of course) that he already has in his room. When his room is complete, which should hopefully be sometime this week, we'll probably take a picture and use it as the next baby blog photo. We'll have to figure out how to get him in that shot so nobody has to go more than a week without seeing him.

As we enter week 7, we should start seeing some more significant changes. He should get better control of his hands and be able to interact with them more and more. Also, his vision should continue improving. He's fully capable of tracking you as you move across the room, but his depth of vision should continue to get better and better as we work with his eyesight. His tummy time should be up to about 2 minutes at a time, but Billy is up to 5+ minutes now. He's doing quite well and with the early rolling, he's more than willing to tell you when he's finished by just flipping onto his back. Billy's ability to reach out and bat at objects should begin to develop about this time, so we'll keep practicing with him on his play mat.

Things should get more exciting as his little brain is going through a growth spurt of its own now. He has begun to exhibit longer periods of calmness and contentment, which are usually signs of optimal learning periods where interaction is key. These are prime opportunities for exploring new textures and practicing grasping or tracking with his eyes.

Finally, Antoinette has her first doctor visit this week since the delivery. All signs are great as she has no major issues to alert the doctor to. More or less, this is the "what can I get back to doing and when" discussion. I'm guessing with Antoinette feeling great and pretty much being back to her routine, the doctor will give her little to no restrictions, but we'll see. On next week's blog, I'll update you on that. Billy's first wave of vaccinations are coming up and will probably happen in the next two weeks.

Hopefully all of you have gotten the message about not coming next weekend. We tried to call or leave messages with everyone we can think of that received an invitation. We're still hoping to get home in August, but since we need to come home in November for my cousin's wedding, we may wait until then. We'll see how it goes. We'll try and send out a mass email this week to everyone as a reminder that the party is off. The next trip home, we'll probably be driving so that should be an adventure.