March 2009 – Fedibblety

March 29, 2009April 1, 2009

Scooching

Spencer shows off his scooching skills

On Friday Spencer was awake and happy for awhile, so Clare decided to play with him on the floor for a bit. I got a little video of him demonstrating his scooching skills. It seems like he might start crawling at any moment. He has the leg part down pretty well, but not the arms. When he is motivated though, he can definitely move his little body quite a bit. Later Friday night he was sleeping in his crib, and when he told us he was ready to wake up, we found that he had scooched from the middle of the crib all the way to the front, and was pushing his ahead against the rails. He had a little dent in the top of his head. And this is with the crib bumpers installed!

March 28, 2009March 28, 2009

First Smile
OR
Little mall rat

The beginnings of a smile

Today it seems like we got Spencer’s first smile. We also got a good night’s sleep last night. He slept from about 10:30 until 4:30, and then from 5 until 8:30. He was happy and awake for awhile this morning, then spent most of the rest of the day somewhat fussy.

We’ll call that your first smile Spencer

He seemed like he was bored, so we took him shopping. For some reason he really likes bouncing around in the baby bjorn in bright loud environments. All the sales people at the mall kept remarking on how content he was. Until we got him back home that is. Hopefully we can get him to fall asleep again tonight.

Looks a smile!

Spencer smiling makes Clare smile

Spencer adds a little tongue action into his smile

March 28, 2009March 28, 2009

April Buchheit meets Spencer

April, Clare, and Spencer all seem happy

This week April came to visit us for a few days. It was nice to get some tips from another mom with some very recent experience. She helped us better our baby burrito swaddling technique, and added some swinging and shushing a la “Happiest Baby on the Block”. Rob and Paul were nice enough to take care of the kids so that April and Clare could have some quality girl time. Thanks guys!

Spencer likes to suck his hands (any digit will do)

Spencer has been growing and developing quite a bit. Today marks the beginning of his 5th week of life. His head control is starting to get more refined and less jerky, he self soothes by sucking on random parts of his hand(s), and lately he has been making faces that resemble a smile at appropriate times. It only gets more fun to play with him.

Smile? Yawn? We’re not sure.

April updating her friendfeed

Clare and the ‘fly guy’ (that is what his shirt says)

April shows us her baby soothing tricks

March 21, 2009March 21, 2009

Congratulations on your first month Spencer

Spencer in one of his mom’s shirts

In celebration of this milestone, we tried to take several pictures today. This week was the first time that I thought Spencer was detectably bigger than he used to be, so we are trying to record the cuteness for posterity. Like that Spencer tends to sneeze in threes. Or his ever changing expressions. But most of all, I wanted to capture the little things we have been noticing about his body as we get to know him. Strong hands; long, narrow feet; newly minted belly buttons; detached earlobes; and the limb uncurling that comes with getting used to the idea of being out of the womb.

The yellow tie die t-shirt is one that my parents made for me before I was born, and brought out during their visit for us to let Spencer wear. It’s a good thing we put it on now, even though it says 6 months in the size tag, because it already shows off a bit of belly. The last picture is me with Spencer after a much needed nap. More pictures from today can be found in the One month old album.

Spencer and Rob hold hands

Spencer stretching his arm. He likes to stretch his left one more than the right

Spencer exercising

Tiny hands

belly button

Tiny feet

Spencer has Rob’s ears

Spencer has Clare’s forehead.

Clare and Spencer hanging out

March 19, 2009March 19, 2009

Red Rocks

Rob and Spencer at Red Rocks

Jagged rocks

Friday was a fairly nice day, so we decided to take a little outing to enjoy the weather and get some exercise. Clare suggested going to Red Rocks, which is only about a 20 minute drive. We walked around the ampitheater some, and also did a short hike around the Trading Post Trail. Spencer slept most of the way in the baby bjorn. It seems like walking around outside puts him right to sleep. More photos are at the Red Rocks album

March 14, 2009

The Dibbles visit

Clare, Spencer, Rob, Drew, Dave, and Ellen

Last weekend Drew and Ellen joined Dave to meet Spencer. For the most part we just hung around and marveled at Spencer. We did manage to get a few projects done, and also had the Hydes over for an afternoon. More on those later. One afternoon Clare took Dave, Ellen, Drew, and Spencer up to Lookout Mountain, while Rob did some data analysis for his job. But, like most posts lately, it is really all about the pictures. More pictures to be seen in the Dibbles meet Spencer album

Clare, Drew, and Spencer

Uncle Drew holding Spencer

Ellen holding Spencer

March 12, 2009

Spencer’s first trip to the zoo
OR
The little Michigan fan

Rob and Spencer with zebras

Our friends Sam and Charlie (and Ben) from Indiana came to visit us in Colorado this week. Charlie works at the Indianapolis zoo, and was able to get us free tickets to the Denver zoo. It turned out to be a pretty nice day – sunny and upper 40’s. Benjamin just turned 2, and he is really moving, and he really likes the animals. Spencer, at 2 1/2 weeks, slept pretty much the whole time. It was the first time we tried out the Baby Bjorn my cousin Jessie gave us; it works very well. I carried him for about 3 hours, and my back isn’t very sore at all today.

Sam and Ben checking out fish

It was also a great opportunity to bundle Spencer up in the University of Michigan gear that Carrie and Mark got us. It kept him nice and warm. Thanks!

Charlie, Sam, and Ben check out some animals

Spencer, the little Michigan fan

The little Michigan fan

There are more pictures in the zoo album.

March 7, 2009March 7, 2009

Bathtime

Spencer getting a bath

On Wednesday, Spencer had his first doctor’s appointment. He checked out just fine, and had gained back his birth weight. Spencer’s umbilical cord stub mostly fell off during the appointment. However, there was some scab left, which was mostly gone by today. The significance of losing his umbilical cord is that he can graduate from sponge baths to submersion baths. Which we tried for the first time today. Ellen and Rob did the honors. Spencer is still not a fan of baths, but it is nice to have a clean baby boy from time to time. The second picture features Spencer’s newly minted belly button.

belly button

March 5, 2009

Men
AND
Crawling

Dave and Spencer

A few pictures of Grandpa Dibble (Dave), and Rob holding Spencer. More pictures in the men album.

Rob and Spencer

In other news, the youngest man, Spencer, is getting really strong. He can kind of crawl a little bit. For example, when Clare got up at 3:30 to nurse, he had scooted from the middle of his crib all the way to the front, so that his head was right next to the side. I guess it was a good thing Ellen got us the crib bumpers. Otherwise we would have a little headbanger in our midst. We’ll have to try to catch this on video some time.

March 3, 2009March 3, 2009

Changing of the guards

Spencer says goodbye to Grandma Felty

Today Grandma and Grandpa Felty went back to the cold weather in Michigan, and Grandpa Dibble came in from Arizona. They were able to say hello to each other for a few minutes in the airport. Grandma Dibble will be coming in Friday for a few days. More pictures in the photo albums

Spencer meets Grandpa Dibble