Going through some old pix today. Holy moly teeny tiny Augie.

hangin' with charlie & august

month 4 babybooth!

5 days before his 5-month bday but better late than never...

where does the time go?

Our nearly-5-month-old is looking sorta strawberry blonde these days! The biggest news lately is that he's sleeping MUCH better and so are we (hallelujah, dudes), thanks to the sage advice of Dr. Michel Cohen and my friends Megan, Amy, and Celia. After almost two months of hourly waking to nurse, we decided August needed to learn to soothe himself to sleep. He's a much happier baby as a result and nothing could make us happier than that.

Aug went for his 4 month well baby checkup last week and he's definitely tall (like 90th percentile tall) but kinda skinny at just over 14 lbs. He's doing great, growing so quickly and laughing lots.

august ♥'s the geetar

more from the weekend...

august's first road trip

We drove 5 hours to Salmon Arm to visit Nana and Papa this weekend. The car rides went surprisingly smoothly--Aug was happy to sleep for half and spend the other half playing with toys, stopping to eat and stretch his little legs, and admiring the view. He definitely had had enough by the last hour when we came home, though. Poor babes. We had lots of fun with the fam, though, and Augie just loved Nana and Papa's house in the country!

first sitting!

He started doing this in our Mother Goose class this morning. It's 'The Prop' rather than a full solo sit but he's well on his way to wobble-free sittin'! Go Augie!

augie's into books

...eating them, that is. Well, he does love his bedtime reads and pop-up books and not just for chewing. Pretty much everything goes in the mouth these days.

a boy and his gram's dog

Here's Augie hanging with my mom's dog Riley and his Auntie Kari. He thought Riley was pretty damn awesome and of course, he loves all his aunties to bits. Lucky boy.

the famous maxwell noggin

Not the best illustration of it, but we think August's cranium is very similarly shaped to my dad's. Yes, the famous Maxwell clan 'heed'.

Tough time last week. Chris was very sick with bronchitis (thought it was the dreaded swine flu at first), then Augie and I caught a cold bug that we both managed to fight off. Nana and Papa came to the rescue for a few days and hung out with Aug while I got some much-needed rest.

Emperor Augustus has taken to waking up every hour nearly every night and will take nothing but nursing to get back to sleep so I'm running on very little sleep. The ongoing obsession, it seems. Digging into the arsenal of baby sleep books now. Any tried and true solutions welcome!

our little pumpkin

oot and aboot

Augie's loving the fall leaves and colours on our daily walks. The top picture is our street as it nears its full autumn glory.

4 months tomorrow! Little pumpkin continues to roll over with a little more finesse, figure out how to grab things more precisely, and stick anything and everything in his mouth. He loves people and has big smiles and chuckles for everyone. His first Thanksgiving last weekend had a limited menu, naturally, but he loved hanging with his Gram n' Gramps, aunties and cousins. He'll get two Thanksgivings annually with the American one coming up next month, lucky boy!

pretty psyched

What you can't see is that he's butt naked from the waist down, which only adds to his delight.

rosy-cheeked, post-nap augie

month three photobooth!

the gift of gab

All day yesterday, Augie was much more vocal than usual, babbling away while we went about our day. He kind of blew our minds a little before bed last night--for about 5 minutes while he cuddled between us, he turned to each of us, one at a time, and cooed, jabbered, la-la'd, and babbled expressively while looking deeply into our eyes. Once he finished talking to one of us, he'd promptly turn back again to the other, and start up his tale again. He even wiggled his eyebrows for more emphasis and stuck out his tongue to form different sounds. Whatever story he was telling us, he was super psyched about passing it on. We were in total awe. I even teared up a little.

It's incredible to see him go from a tiny newborn to an expressive, loving little baby. We're just so in love with our baby Gus. I can't wait for every new change and day with him.

Oh, and just read this interesting article about baby's language development http://www.babble.com/jump-start-language-skills/

augie's day at the lighthouse

Augie's Gram reminded me that I've been slightly remiss lately with the blog updates, so I'll be posting a bunch of new pictures and tales.

On Saturday we did a small hike at Lighthouse Park. Pretty, sunny day but cold in the forest! We need to find August some long socks or leg warmers to keep those little legs warmer. Much to our amusement on the trail, we ran into the doctor who delivered August. Dr. Mark gave Augie a few pats on the head and we were on our way again.

happy 3 months, our big little baby love!

aug chat from beebs on Vimeo.

Thanks, Kate, for the tip on better video uploading!

Waaaait a second...

Today, at 12 weeks old, Augie decided he's bored with laying on his back and wants to grunt and squirm and roll his way over on to his tummy. He's done it four times today! Apparently back-to-tummy rolling isn't supposed to happen until ohhh, around 5-7 months?? We were already vigilant with him on high surfaces but now we'll be extra cautious and do things like belt him on the change table, etc.

It's not really surprising considering he rolled around so much in utero that he tied a knot in his umbilical cord. I later read a true knot like that happens in less that 1% of pregnancies.

AMH, our little go-go-go-getter.

First time in the Jolly Jumper (just a for a few mins) and he's into it. He beams when we stand him up in our laps and he can flex his legs, so I think he'll like a little Jolly Jumper time every once in a while.

no, really. he's been totally crabby.

Today's lesson has been on the full extent of August's go-with-the-flow, happy nature. Even on a day filled with bouts of inconsolable crying, he still manages to spend a good portion of time lolling around and beaming. His whole body squirms and wriggles in happiness when he smiles like this.

His fave new thing is when you make nom-nom sounds and try to eat him.

*NOM NOM NOM*

teef coming in already?

oh, almost forgot--thank you alex for the sweet little giraffe onesie!

I've already posted a version of this pic of August sitting in Auntie Lizzie's lap, but it's my achilles heel of cuteness.

Those little smiles keep coming even though it seems like he might be starting to teethe already. Rosy cheeks, drooling, gnawing on his hands, extreme crabbiness. I felt along his gums and there seem to be tiny ridges. He's only 11 weeks old. Poor sweetie. Someone told me about some natural herbal teething gel, but if anyone else knows of ways to soothe, let us know.

yep

little boy blue

A few new things have come to light about Aug: he's very much a blondie, has dimples (we're not sure where they came from), and is quite possibly a leftie, if his consistent propensity for grabbing with and sucking on his left hand is any indication.

ps, thank you, Cookie, for the cuter-than-cute blue cap!

New rituals

The plan is to do this once a month as August grows.

The only photobooth in Vancouver we know of is this one at the Pacific Railway Station. When we were all crowded in the booth, Augie and me on Chris' lap, a security guard walked past and said sternly, "Now you behave in there".

augie's love affair with trees

We went for another hike last weekend to Golden Ears. August spent it staring up in wonder at where the tree tops meet the sky. Definitely digs trees and his Snugli. When he fell asleep on the way back, I bet he dreamt about the forest.