Halloween!

We walked around Wilds Plantation, where, besides the friends we met at the beginning, we ran into a bunch more from school who have moved into this new neighborhood near ours over the past year and we didn't even realize until now.

October, Cheetah Run (school run)

A day of exercise at school (running laps around the track, yoga, games....):

Sonja with her best friend and classmate, Lydia, behind her.

Nikolas with his friend and classmate Nicholas :)

Mikica with his classmate Evan (also from the baby playgroup a looong time ago!)

October 10th: toes in the mouth

Not only does Stephen shove his fists in his mouth, but now he has progressed to his toes, too.  He still sleeps with his hand over his face.  This is something he's been doing since he was in the uterus--every ultrasound photo had a hand covering his face.

Sept 20th Shoving fist in his mouth; lifts his head

Stephen is still teething big time, but so far no teeth (even Michael is losing his--just lost his second front tooth, after he became convinced a few months ago that he was never going to lose his baby teeth).
He just started lifting his head, too!

4 fingers in the mouth!

Lifting his head!

Daddy's boy (love the remotes)

 

 

Always a happy face :)

August 25th-Stephen grabs his toes

Stephen started grabbing his toes (on deko's 96th birthday!)

Little thinker!

In mommy's carrier, during a walk.

Stephen's week 11

He's been talking to us for the past couple of weeks a lot.  Whenever he is lying down for a diaper change, or when one of us is in his face talking to him.  He enjoys it a lot!
I can't believe what an easy baby he is... maybe he'll turn around when he starts teething... and that may be happening soon: once he had discovered his thumb, he's been using it more and more as a pacifier and recently I've noticed that he's been drooling more.  Now that may be because of sucking his thumb (and a whole fist while he is looking for the thumb), or, which I really hope it's not the case yet, because of baby teeth starting to make their way. Whatever the reason, it hasn't made him cranky yet:  he wakes up around 7, shuffling in his bed, often grunting and pooping (his grunting noises are pretty entertaining to listen to), then I'd change him and feed him and put him in his chair in the living room from where he'd happily sit and look at us as we have breakfast.  Only when he gets sleepy will he start complaining, but as soon as I pick him up and either change him or feed him a bit more, he'll be asleep.  And if we were to go out of the house in the morning and he'd end up in the car seat, he wouldn't make noise for a few hours, just look around or sleep.  He is so unbelievably content.

 Just like Nikolas, when he was this age.... legs always attached up somewhere, on the sides of the stroller or chair...

 Fell asleep in the middle of the body pillow, thumb in his mouth and the hand grabbing his ear:

8th week

Stephen weighs 15 lbs! Sleeps from midnight to 6am.  He is starting to talk now.  He stares intently into a person face and tries to move his facial muscles and his tongue until a sound comes out.  Sometimes it's 'aaoooh', sometimes 'a-ghhh'.  I called him 'guguli' like I called the other kids once they starting talking, but then James immediately snapped back, "Stephen nije guguli, ja sam guguli!" (Stephen is not guguli, I am!)

7/23/17
Stephen starting grabbing his toes.  He can just barely reach them.  He is also grabbing my shirt when I try to lay him down.

James has very few moments of jealousy, and even then he is a good boy:  Robb was cuddling with Stephen on the couch and when he gave him to me, James immediately said: 'Now it's James's time!"
He is still his funny self, memorizing every expression he hears, like: "Who has two thumbs and is eating ice-cream?  This guy! (pointing his thumbs at himself)"  He is now learning chess-he's getting an idea of how to move pieces, and demands to play it all the time, so that when no one wants to play with him, he'll play by himself.  He calls it 'chest.'  He is also playing checkers with us--doesn't always follow the rules because he wants to win, but he is interested.  It's sometimes funny how he likes to participate in everything the older kids are doing--he now wants to be tested in math using flash cards.  Everything up to 10 he can do, and he gets excited when he gets right answers and wants to keep going...

7/7/17
We took the kids to St Pete's Beach where we met with Grandma and Grandpa to watch a couple of Red Sox games and enjoy a little bit of beach time.
Stephen was great!  He stayed on his regular schedule despite the noise and the change of environment: he slept through the night (11pm until 7 or 8am, waking up once around 2 or 3am to eat and go right back to sleep), and he even napped during the game when it was time to sleep.   

Stephen in a carrier on 6/30/17

Stephen, napping at the Red Sox game

Grandma and Grandpa with the kids

St. Pete's Beach: mommy with her kids (framed by a rainbow in the back)

Stephen's sixth week

Stephen has become a real chunk: starting at 8lbs at birth, he was up to 13 by week 5, and I'm about to weigh him again as I'm noticing how heavy he's getting daily.  There is no flabby skin left to fill out around his ankles, on his thighs, around the shoulders...
He's also been keeping his head up solidly since third week, and now that he is focusing his eyes well and becoming more alert, he likes to turn his head around and look.
He has also just discovered his thumb two weeks ago.  It's nice that it helps him calm down, but I also wouldn't want him to form a habit...

 

James went back to his school for a week of camp.  When I asked him how he liked it and what they did, he said he didn't like it because no one read books (niko mi nije nista citao!).  He kept his usual routine after drop-off, where he plopped on one of the chairs in the reading corner, grabbed a book and 'read' quietly.  Of course, I tried to compensate at home, but he didn't want me to read to him then because my reading is designated for right before bedtime (when be picks an average of 5 books) and he obviously doens't have patience for them during the day when he can play with his siblings.  Actually, the first thing that he requests after school, when he is clearly tired and in a need for a nap, is to watch cartoons, currently Smurfs (the purple smurfs episode, in particular), Zvonko or Masa i Medo (Masa and the Bear).  Last week he requested that he saw Crvena Jabuka videos on YouTube so he'd see what the band looked like since for the past year he's been singing several of their songs that he learned from my CD.  He wasn't very impressed by the looks, but he got a kick out of the tape cover with the lady butt painted as an apple (so now he jokes and calls them Crvena Guza).  Great.

 

Always with the hands close to his face: seriously contemplating his dreams right now...

Sonja and Michael's First Communion, May 20th 2017

Grandma and Grandpa visited us for the First Communion.  I wasn't expected to be there as Stephen was due the day before, but since he stuck around for an extra week, I was able to make it to the special event, too.

Stephen after 1 week

At his 3rd day appointment, Stephen weighed 8 lbs 2 oz.
At his 10th day appointment, he weighed 9 lbs 5 oz!

He is visibly chunkier and heavier, sleeps, eats, pees and poops, and alertly looks around during the short time that he is awake.  We took him for his first walk outside yesterday, and again today, and he slept the whole time, of course.  So far he is an easy baby, knock on wood, eats every 3-4 hrs during the day and every 3 hours during the night (I wish it was the other way around, but I can't complain, he is good, burps easily and goes right back to sleep).
Baka is here with us, and maybe he is just trying to impress her!  We'll see how he does next week after she leaves!

The kids want to kiss him all the time (as do the adults), no jealousy yet...

Here is Stephen in the belly, several days before delivery:

 2 days old:

 4 days old:

5 days old:

With daddy, 5 days old:

With Sonja and Michael:

With baka: