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Liam is so happy that we finally gave him rice cereal. He’s been yelling at me for weeks now! It went really well and it seemed like he already knew what to do. He opened his mouth for the spoon, chewed (kinda) and swallowed. Of course, it got all over his face but he ate more than we expected. It’s once a day until he really gets the hang of it all, oatmeal next week, and veggies after that. Once he’s getting solids twice a day, the Dr. said he’ll sleep longer (fingers crossed!). You’ll see in the photos that he’s in The Bumbo instead of a highchair. Trina told me about it and it’s great; lets him sit on his own, and not slide out or around like a highchair might.

He had his four month checkup today, and it went pretty well. He weighs a little over 15 pounds (only 50th percentile) and is 26 inches long (90th percentile!). He got his shots too. From the symptoms he’s been displaying, the doctor does think he might have acid reflux so we got a prescription of Zantac. Poor little thing, that’s why he’s been such a fusspot. Apparently reflux is quite common at this age, but I bet he got it from his Mommy.

However, we did get the OK to start “solid” (mushy) foods! We’re going to try rice cereal this weekend. That should also help him sleep longer at night, since he’s only been doing 4 or 5 hours lately. He only did 8 hours for about a two week stretch- what happened!? The doctor thinks it’s because he’s still in our room, but I know he sleeps most soundly when he’s in our bed. I don’t know how well Liam and I are going to do with trying to have him sleep in his own crib! I don’t think it’s very fair to make a tiny little baby sleep in a big, dark room all by himself! It’s going to take a lot of patience for that transition…

Well, we attempted to hike to the Bridge to Nowhere.

The Bridge to Nowhere is a bridge that was built in 1936 in the San Gabriel forest. Basically, it was part of an extension of highway 39 (Beach Blvd, which goes all the way up into Asuza). It was to be an alternate route to the high desert. Shortly after construction of the bridge, however, the road to and from the bridge was washed out by a massive flood. So now there stands, 5 miles deep in the hills, a large stone bridge with no roads.

It was a J hike. J. Demars (Mike), Jason, Jason, John, and Josh. Mike and the Jasons planned to spend the night at a campground just past the bridge, while John and I were day hikers, and heading back the same day.

This was the best hike I have ever been on. There were several river crossings in which the water went past our knees. We stopped at a nice shaded, sandy spot overlooking the river to have our lunch. There weren’t very many hikers for quite awhile… but there were plenty of people in the river panning for gold. As well as a few adventurous fishermen.

About three hours into the hike John and I thought it would be a good idea to turn around. If it was really going to take us three additional hours to hike back we were sure to be late for other plans that night. We said goodbye to the three J’s and headed back.

The hike back went by at a much faster pace, and the trail was much easier to find. We probably only crossed the river three times, as opposed to the eight or so crossings on the way in. The three hour hike in turned into a one hour hike back.

Liam is now having long cooing conversations with us! and he is doing really well at grabbing for things. He loves grabbing for his new plastic keys, and Mr. Caterpillar, but lately he’s been most interested in my plastic water bottle!

I think he is really ready to eat real food. He always stares at us, fascinated, when we eat, and smacks his lips. It seems like he’s been fussing alot when he’s breastfeeding, almost in protest! I want to wait until our next doctor’s appt (16 weeks) before I give him anything, but it will most likely be rice cereal.

Trina, Mark and Miya Whiteley drove down to The O.C. for a visit over Labor Day weekend! We had alot of fun and we were so happy to finally meet little Miya who was born 6 days after Liam. She is terribly cute and such a good baby! When we finally laid them down on a blanket together outside, they held hands! Adorable. They might get married someday, who knows?!!
It was really great to see Trina since she’s one of my best friends from UC Santa Cruz. She lives in Palo Alto, so we don’t see each other often, but we accumulate a pretty good sized phone bill . It’s funny because the same things always happen to both of us, and at the same time- and now with both of us having babies- both C-sections no less, within a week of each other!? Weird… but as always, we have someone to talk to about it all!