He's a big boy now!

Gunnar went for his 1 month checkup.  The doctor and nurse were surprised at how much he's grown!

Gunnar has two bottom teeth and is cutting two top ones.  He is crawling all over the place and is as sweet as ever!  He had his first ear infection last month and currently has another double one.  He visited Santa for the first time last week and also experienced his first Thanksgiving.  We're getting ready for Christmas and Mommy bought him the biggest stocking ever!  It's 36" long!  She has a huge one from when she was a kid and always felt special!

This morning, I felt Gunnar's first little tooth starting to break through.  I was so excited, since it feels like we've been saying that he's been teething forever.  He's not so excited though, because it HURTS!  The past few weeks he's been "gumming" my chin-those days are over!

Well, we've been anxiously awaiting this milestone.  For a couple of weeks he's been rocking and "swimming" and trying to crawl.  Justin and I (plus numerous friends and family members) have been crawling around the house, imitating crawling-hoping to entice him.  It finally happened!  He's crawling all over the place and loving it!  He's a little wobbly, but quite efficient!

He did it!  His first word was "dada."  I was in denial about it for a second, but "mama" came shortly after, although he usually only says it when he's crying/hungry/wants something.  Sometimes "mama" is combined with "baba" and it sounds like "maba" which is cute and I suppose he wants mama and a bottle. 

Ok, so Gunnar rolled over from back to front for the first time this week.  Somehow he even managed to do it swaddled! He's been sleeping through the night...he has a new friend-his stuffed horse that he and Nonee named "Henry."  He also started "talking" which is about the sweetest thing I've ever heard. At about 5am Jusin and I just lay in  bed listening to Gunnar talking on the monitor for about 10 minutes.  I have to get it on tape at some point because it's adorable!

I've found my biggest fan!  All those years of choir...all the time spent learning silly songs...they are paying off.  Gunnar loves my singing!  His favorite song right now is an Arlo Guthrie song that Mom used to sing to me-the Motorcycle Song-it helps that it has the words "pickle" and "tickle" in it.  We also sing a special bathtime song "I've got something to tell you.." and I always sing him the Lullaby song at bedtime.  You should see his face light up!  One day he'll be mortified by my singing, but for now, I'm a star!

Oh, my...he's doing new things every day!  Gunnar is now holding his head up for long periods of time....laughing a lot.....sleeping much better (he started sleeping through the night the week before I started back to work)...He's just so much fun right now.  Can we freeze time?

Gunnar is growing so fast!  He has been laughing and smiling so much more over the past week.   Sometimes when I go to check on him when he's supposed to be sleeping, I peek in and he has this huge smile-wide awake!

We read a couple of books, trying to research baby names.  Justin and I both had our favorites, but we narrowed it down to Gunnar, Griffin, Gavin or Ryder.  We really liked Ryder until we realized that "Ryder Wiley Rudkins" is kind of a tounge-twister. Also, it would be difficult to pronounce in the unfortunate event that Gunnar had a speech impediment.  Aunt Jill sealed the deal when she repeatedly pronounced it like Elmer Fudd...

Gunnar also has a cousin with the middle name "Wiley"-Rhett Wiley Owens who lives in Louisiana.  My grandfather died when I was about 2 years old-I was the only grandchild he was able to meet!