Keeping up with the Joneses: Kyle's ABC's at One Month

Kyle is brilliant. Seriously, he's already got his ABC's down at just one month old! See?

A - Attendance at pediatrician's office. Between a couple well-child visits, a visit to be circumcised, and a sick visit to check for infection (none was found in lungs -- just fighting off some cold or virus that had him super stuffy and full of mucus for a few weeks), Kyle got to know the pediatrician's office well in his first month. And he hated every minute of it -- at least his wailing screams at every appointment sure made it seem like he hates it there.
B - Bulb Syringe. That mean thing is his worst/best friend as it has pulled out many a booger chunk already. Poor kid.
C - Chin/Clavicle. He has the most adorable (and fat) double chin. We are in love. Also his clavicle is healing well from when it broke on the way out of mama. It has a nice bump on the bone, indicating the healing process is working fine. He is using that arm more and more and it seems to hurt a lot less than the early days.
D - Dry skin. Kyle had lots of it for a while, and even donated some to his dad. He had a bunch of dry skin on his scalp after a bath, and at church the next day I noticed the flakes stuck to Nick's whiskers on his chin since he'd been rubbing up with Kyle's head while he was holding him. Yum.
E - Eyes. He still has the funny, newborn cross-eyed thing. We love it. But he also is focusing a little better on things. I loved the first day when I noticed him becoming interested in the hanging stars above him in his Pack 'N' Play. He also can make some good eye contact with his parents, much to our delight.
F - Frog legs. He still has 'em and they are cute. They're also getting stronger every day, and he likes to sometimes kick off of us with surprising strength (and floppiness).
G - Grin. He has an adorable grin! It's still unintentional at most times (often signaling he's about to poop or he's full after eating), but it still melts my heart when he does it.
H - Hiccups. Rather, He Hates Hiccups. And by extension we kind of all do since he likes to freak out during/after the body-rattling hiccups that he gets at least every day. For most of the 3rd trimester he regularly had the hiccups each night around 11 or when I'd go to bed, and he even had the hiccups when I was in labor with him. The trend continues and he must just really be tired of them with how he gets so sad after having them.
I - Interest in pacifier, eating, etc. Who wouldn't want to be fed around-the-clock every day, am I right?
J - Junior. He's our little junior. And by that, I mean, does he look like either of us? We've heard differing opinions. Neither of us sees a resemblance yet.
K - Kyle. All things are Kyle around here, lately. Babies really change your lifestyle. But mostly, we love having all things Kyle. It just gets a bit taxing when we're running low on sleep and he gets to screaming so loud and long. Kyle, Kyle, Kyle - we love you! (In fact, I'mma go check on him now...)
L - Lbs. Last appointment (which was almost at one month), he weighed 11 lbs, 8 oz. Good job, buddy! You've gained a whole pound in your first month of life! :) At his 2 week appointment, he was 95.75% for weight, 99.54% for height, and 80.52% for head circumference. Rock on, big baby.
M - Movement. He loves it, and that's often what calms him down. Walk around with him, pat him on the back, he becomes a happy boy. (And Mom gets a sore back by the end of the day.)
N - Noise. He makes a lot and he likes some, too. He makes the cutest little grunting whimpers that signal he's awake. But, quick! Get to him before it goes on too long, or they'll become full-fledged screams really quickly. He also loves the sound of the shower. We discovered that when we had to get him in the warm bathroom to try and clear up his sinuses.
O - Outdoors. Going outdoors is often good for him, too. If we're in the stroller he usually falls asleep, but we also often just take a pop out-of-doors to calm him down from time to time.
P - Poop and Pee. He, like all babies, does these things often. And has already had many blow-outs.
Q - Quit everything else. Yes, sometimes we have to quit everything else and just watch him sleep or just cuddle with him. And he melts our heart so much! Many times a day we just look at each other and say things like, "He's so cute!" or "He's so precious! Ah!"
R - Random. Sometimes this kid seems so random. I'm sure there's a method to his ~~madness~~ behavior, but we sometimes don't get it. He sits peacefully or sleeps peacefully until random moments when he all the sudden screams or freaks out a bit. Poor dude.
S - Stretches and Sneezes. We just love his stretches! They are so big and cute, especially when he's first waking up and hasn't realized how starving he is yet. He also wrinkles all his fat rolls and double chin as he stretches, so it creates lots of lines all over. Yumm! Also, baby sneezes have to be one of the cutest sounds in the world.
T - Tummy Time. He loves it when you catch him in the right mood. He understandably hates it if he's too hungry or has a gas bubble, though.
U - Untouched newborn clothes. He popped out so big (and we were graciously gifted so many clothes) that he has many outfits that have gone untouched because they just didn't fit! He's already grown out of his swaddle, for Pete's sake. What a bummer -- he loved that thing when it worked.
V - Vertical sleeping is his hobby. He loves to be held vertically (especially when he was battling the awful congestion with that cold) and he could be soundly asleep in arms, but the moment he went horizontal he woke up. Did we mention those weeks of him fighting the cold were super hard on everyone? :)
W - Whine. He sure can whine loud enough for all to hear. Kyle will let you know if something's wrong, and if you don't fix it in about a second, he'll escalate to be super loud. He must just be ready and anxious for life, and the apparent slowness of getting him help worries him so much that he gets all worked up. Li'l buddy.
X - "X-tra" vocal when it's meal times or he has a burp stuck inside.
Y - Young and Restless. Literally, on some days.
Z - Zzzz. Sometimes he has slept for 4.5 - 5.5 hour shifts at night, and we are so proud of him!

Okay, so I jotted all these ideas down around his one-month mark, but haven't published this post 'til a bit later. Re-reading all I wrote, I realize many of the ABC's seem to show that Kyle cries and is sad a lot. Which was pretty true for a lot of his first month. But we don't love him any less for it. Also, better health and getting a bit older have helped him to be quite a bit more mellow the last week or so. We are very glad that things seemed to have cleared up in his system and that we are getting to know him better to understand what various cries and faces mean. It certainly is a learning curve that can be hard at times. Okay, let's be honest -- there's probably at least one point in every day where we hit a point that is frustrating. However, Kyle is worth all the effort, tears, loss of sleep, loss of showers, etc. He is a wonderful gift to us, and we are so glad we've had him around for a whole month!

Now for the part you've all been waiting for: pictures of the handsome dude. Cue the overload, NOW. (But really, a month is forever long in Baby Time. Can you blame me for all the pictures?)

Father and son together at last. This was one of the first times Nick got to hold Kyle for a while in the hospital before we left the labor and delivery room and got Kyle's newborn stuff all taken care of.

Kyle's first bath there in the hospital. You can tell he didn't much care for it!

Our little handsome burrito that got to room-in with us at the hospital.

The fat on his neck! And rolls on the sides of his back! Not bad for a new guy! We also kind of thought this made him look like a Neanderthal ...

Kyle's first time in a car seat as we left the hospital. You can still see a bandaid on his heel from one of the many times the poor guy was pricked to have his blood sugar tested. His heels continued to be abused with bilirubin draws and PKU screening, poor guy. At one month, he still is fully healing from all the heal pricks that happened in those first two weeks.

Kyle and his daddy, both being so cute. I believe this was when Kyle was still less than a week old. And he still fit in that swaddle pretty well since his legs were still so scrunched up all the time.

Kyle and Grandma Blake! We can't wait for him to meet Grandma and Grandpa Jones!

Mom made this cute sign and pennant banner for Kyle. You can see him there asleep in his little corner of the room, too. We've left the sign up, and now that Kyle can see a little better he often stares at it.

Our little cross-eyed Ewok. Mmm, so cute and chubby!

Haha, Nick playing with Kyle's mouth while he sleeps. See what I mean about that double chin? And it's only gotten fatter! :)

So many crinkles. I think this was the end of a yawn. I guess that it's not of him screaming, mainly because his face isn't bright red like it tends to get when he is upset.

"Are you sure about this, Dad?"

Cute li'l feet! They were so cracked and dry for a while! :( He even had some cracks that bled a bit because of how dried out he was. We treated him with vaseline and stuff, but it just took a while to get rid of all that dry skin.

Kyle's first blow-out. Yum.

Pondering life, I suppose.

An attitude already, I guess.

Mom and Kyle.

Hey, buddy, what's the matter?

Notice how he gets progressively more and more sad.

Um, eww, what's on your face, Baby? (Most likely it was an annoying black flake from the arms of the chair we sit in. You can see in this picture how the upholstery is falling apart. KSL steal of a deal, but we've just had to deal with black flakes all over everything.)

I love being a mother!

Well, you can't always win, right?

I love this picture of my boys so much, I just can't say.

After Kyle's first Sunday at church! We only went one hour and he slept for all of it, but he got all dressed up and everything. Cute, floppy chunk.

Probably bad timing to take the 2 week photo, but you get what you get.

This wasn't even posed for him to hold his own pacifier! :)

Aww.

Our little night-time Houdini. Once I found him with his arms still tucked away and both legs sticking out! How, I don't know.

At a couple of weeks, he started to really get big eyes when he looks at these wonderful Usborne Black and White books for babies. So enthralled! Thanks, Aunt Rebecca!

That bum, though! He's such a little frog.
(And you can still see the ouchies from the pricks on his heels.)

Is it just me, or does he look incredibly fat in the face in this picture?

He's lookin' at somethin'...

He frequently does this Superman pose with one arm out and the other scrunched up. I read somewhere that it's also the reflex they do for when they feel like they're falling. I promise I did not drop my child to capture this picture. No Kyles were harmed in the making of this post.

Cutie.

This is the beginning of a series I like to call "The Many Faces of Kyle."
This is the first little grin we've caught on camera. He normally grins much bigger, though.

Deadpan. Nothing gets past this poker face.
(Except maybe a little fingernail that scratched his cheek hard enough to draw blood. Poor guy.)

"Word."

"Man, I'm tired."

"Okay, now I'm just bored."

"Ah. This is nice."
(Also, this is another favorite picture of mine!)

"Wwwwhat? Are you crazy?!"

Yikes, excuse the nudity. This was Kyle's first bath at home. Yes, we're awful parents because it was so late in the game, but we're trying to keep him clean more regularly now. See how he pretty much came out with fat rolls on his thighs?! Mmm!

Post-bath snuggles.

Our cute little monster head!

Awww, so sleepy together.
I (mostly accidently) sleep with Kyle on a fairly regular basis, but Nick's either not home or sound asleep in bed and thus has never captured it on camera.

He's already signing about how he loves us. :D

He's got this adorable curly cue cowlick on his head that I had to capture. Can you see it?

So peaceful in sleep.

First football game for Kyle! At 3 weeks and 2 days, he was probably one of the youngest fans (and cutest football) there! BYU vs. ECU on October 10th for Homecoming.

What fun!

He only lasted for 15ish minutes before Aunt Jennifer babysat him for the rest of the night, but he was sure cute in his BYU onesie while he was there!

I guess we finally realized he could sleep in pajamas instead of just his outfit from the day.

I wanted to capture the size of his hand in comparison to mine. It seems so large for a little boy, but then so small when I compare it to mine.

Aww. #FamilesAreForever

Many Filipinos pose in pictures with their fingers like this. Kyle's already got his mother's mission culture down.

He looks so old in this picture. I think because you can see his neck.
You might also be able to see the large bump on his left clavicle, showing that his broken bone is healing.

We love hanging out at Grandma's house!

We borrowed a bouncer for Kyle, and he seems to like it.

Check out the concentration on those dangling objects.

He made it to one month! This was his outfit to church, which was technically the 18th, but it was before 9:59pm so we figured it counted.
Hehe, I like looking at his arms in this and the following pictures. It's like one of those Flip-O-Rama series from Captain Underpants books.