Five By Five

We have momentous news to announce! On two separate occasions, Monkey has slept for five hours in a row. FIVE HOURS IN A ROW. Our brilliant physician informed us that between 10 and 12 pounds most babies will start sleeping in four or five hour stretches. We're not ashamed to say that when we had that conversation with her we laughed, as Monkey had never slept more than three hours and didn't seem inclined to extend that. But lo and behold he's gone and done it, twice!, at just over ten pounds. We've looked for a relationship between these two events, and both days we saw Grandpa Terry. We're pretty sure he didn't slip him anything, but we're more than willing to repeat the experiment and find out.

The not so great news is that these big stretches are generally his first sleep of the night, which begins somewhere between 9:00 and 10:00 every night. Being a nocturnal creature herself, Mrs. Zookeeper usually has a lot to do after Monkey goes to bed, so she isn't getting the benefit of the longer sleep yet. After his longer sleep he goes back to his three hour pattern, and we're back to 2 hours by the time Mr. Zookeeper is getting ready for work. So we're still up a fair amount. But there may be some light at the end of the tunnel. If he's done it twice he can do it again!

Here is Monkey with the man of the hour:

With Great Uncle L:

Great Grandma M:

2 month check up

It's hard to believe, but Monkey is already two months old!! At his checkup on Friday he weighed 10lbs, 4 oz, which keeps him in the 10th percentile but progressing right on schedule. As a benchmark, he is still smaller than Aunt M when she was born. He is 21 inches long now, which drops him down to the 3rd percentile for height. Yes, he is a shorty, but he still grew a full inch from last month. Our brilliant physician was very impressed with how well he is doing developmentally. He did a great job of tracking her movements with his eyes, cooed and gurgled and carried on a whole conversation with her, wowed her with his head control and demonstrated his amazing ability to stand up (with assistance). He's getting a lot more control over his hands now and can almost always get them in his mouth when he wants them. He is a master at scooting himself in a counter-clockwise circle when he's on his back, and holds his head up and pushes with his feet when he's on his tummy. No one at the zoo will be surprised if he is crawling in the near future. He's got places to go, that's for sure.

The doctor increased his acid reflux medication to accommodate his weight gain, so we hope that he continues to improve. We've seen a difference in the amount of spitting up and he has been eating and sleeping better. Unfortunately, this week we began a new bedtime ritual of screaming from 8:00-9:30. There's a brief break in the action when he takes his bath, which miraculously involves smiling and playing. He is a swimming master and has been studying Michael Phelp's techniques. In the bathtub, he floats himself until he can put his feet on the infant seat and pushes against it while he works his arms. He's obviously working on his flip turns and Olympic gold can not be far behind. In the pool today at Grandpa Terry's house he even got a few dog paddles in, complete with kicking.

Enough with the wordy update. We know what you really came here for:

A rare sighting of the amphibious Mr. Zookeeper

We're ready for some football!
You know, the kind you watch with your eyes closed.

That's Mr. Gusto to you, punk.

Rattled

We are posting this video primarily as a test to see how this video blogging (vlogging, if you will) works out. While we do think that staring at Monkey for hours on end is highly entertaining, we don't expect that same enthusiasm from you. Hence, this clip is less than one minute long. So, here is a short video of the first time Monkey saw a rattle. Some tips for viewing: it is more amusing if you watch his eyes. The first coo is Monkey, then Mrs. Zookeeper repeats it with uncanny accuracy. We hope you enjoy it... and if not, that it at least helps you sleep.

In case you were worried, Monkey greeted his rattle with more interest and less alarm in the days that followed.

Monkey at the Fair

A week or two ago, Monkey enjoyed a day at the state fair. Surprisingly this offered fewer photo opportunities than we would have thought, considering that we weren't willing to feed our Monkey to the world's largest hog. So you'll just have to take our word for it that this is a picture of Monkey at the fair:

As further evidence, here are Monkey and Aunt B watching one of the elementary school riding classes:

And a gratuitous shot of people carving a sculpture out of a giant block of cheese:


Monkey doesn't tolerate milk, so we sadly had to forgo a milkshake at the dairy barn. Our disappointment was mitigated by a lovely dinner at the pork tent, however. Next year, Monkey will get to try an elephant ear!!

Cute Parade

We've had some rough times at the zoo this week as we have been dealing with Monkey's acid reflux. He started some medication on Friday and we hope to see some improvement in the next few weeks. Since we figured out what the problem is and have been keeping him upright we've already made some progress, resulting in much better sleep last night.

As of Thursday, August 7, Monkey has attained a weight of 9 lbs, 6 oz. For a little perspective, that's right around what Mrs. Zookeeper weighed when she was born. Today, Monkey is 7 weeks old. In celebration, we hold the following parade of cuteness:

Pondering the mystery of Grandma

Le Sigh

Aunt B <3 Monkey

Hand! Back again!

9 lbs, 6 oz of Cute

His eyes keep getting bluer, and he keeps getting cuter:

Aquaman

Loch Ness Baby

Chillaxed

Pool + Heater = Good

Worn out