Happy Halloween!!!

Joaquin: Baby Spokesperson

We seem to be in the middle of our friends as far as life development goes. We have friends who are slightly older than us who are much better established than us...better houses, greater income, more than one child, etc...and we have friends who are slightly younger than us who are just buying, just getting married, thinking about children, etc... Two observations about these groups:

Among the younger group, I often get the women of this group looking at Joaquin with fear. They ask questions and it is clear that they're scared of having a baby and going into this next part of their life. We were at a party the other night and that seemed to be the case, but Gideon and I have nothing but positive things to say about having a baby. "How is it?" she asked, and we said "It's fun" as she kind of regarded me skeptically. I told her husband later that we are great, walking advertisements for having a baby and that Joaquin was a great baby spokesperson. My pregnancy wasn't particularly difficult, neither was labor and delivery and neither is having him at home. Which brings me to my second observation...

Both groups, but especially the older group, likes to steal our sunshine on this. During pregnancy, when I said it wasn't particularly difficult, they said "Just wait, people that have easy pregnancies have awful deliveries." Then I had an easy delivery and people said something to the effect of 'your child will be the devil.' Now Joaquin is easy to be around and everyone says, "Oh just wait til your second one, you'll be in for it then!" What's up with that? We keep coming back to the idea that a baby might be more easy going if you are more easy going...self fulfilling prophesies anyone?

Anyway, here are a few photos of our beautiful, easy going 20 week old (20 weeks!). He is now reaching for things and people (mostly his mama when he is tired) and really likes stuffed animals. By the way, he was beyond perfect at the party and everyone remarked at what a great baby he was as we left : )

My son...soon to be triathlete.

Joaquin, Anjelica, Lola (Barbara) and Nate went to Hermosa Beach @ 6am in the morning to go cheer on daddy for the 'Day at the Beach Triathlon.'  It starts with an early morning swim in the ocean for a quarter mile, 10 mile bike ride then a 3 mile run.  It's pretty fun and usually you get to see something or somebody interesting.  Daddy struggled in the swim this year.  The water was pretty choppy.  You know it's bad when it's cooler out of the water than in it.  Can't wait till next year.  Joaquin will have to wait another 13 years and 8 months before he will be able to compete with daddy.

Joaquin has his first cold

Hey big boy!

26.5 inches, 19.1 lbs., 17.5 in. head

Our doc doesn't like to talk percentages, but I caught them on her computer screen this time...

98% on weight, 92% on height, 95% on head

It is funny because he started out on the small side and now his x is just barely on the chart. Doc said that they don't know why, but breastfed babies tend to get really large at this age and stay really large until they are about 2 years old. After that, breastfed babies thin out and have a much, much lower rate of obesity, but they get pretty big as babies. We love our little chunky monkey...wouldn't have our healthy baby any other way!

4 months old!

I just looked at his 2 month pictures...my how things have changed in 2 short months! It is really unbelievable. Joaquin turned 4 months old on Sunday and celebrated by army crawling on his own. Nate put him belly down and he wiggled his way over to his blanket. Since he has discovered playing with his hands he has been fascinated with them and likes to use them. He often looks at them while he is nursing and he has taken to holding on to some sort of blanket or rag most of the time.

A cute story...I propped him up on the couch while I was folding laundry and he had begun to like having some sort of rag with him, so I gave him a piece of clothing. He watched me folding clothes and took his piece and kind of handled it for a minute or so and then set it to his side and made a loud noise. I gave him another piece and he helped me 'fold' several pieces of clothing : )

Joaquin has his 4 month old appointment tomorrow with those awful, heart wrenching shots. On the plus side, we'll get to find out his height and weight...I'm thinking 24" and 16 lbs.