This morning he showed us another trick. He figured out how to move a toy from one hand to another. That's a big step.
Oh, one other thing - it seems that he has my mom's lips, my father's eyes, my sister's nose and voice, his father's hands and my but. Yes, we were hoping that he would get his father's but, because it is a perfect guy's but, small and round... but no, he had to get my (pointy) but!
Also, his hair is falling out again, for the second time, and the new one is growing - blond! He was born with black hair, then he grew some brown hair and now he is getting this golden shiny hair! Hmmm... They say that you don;t know what the kid will look like until he/she is two... he changed so much already, how many more variations are we going to go through until then?

This week Luka is three months and three weeks old, and he made so much progress in the past 6, 7 days it just so amazing to watch. Every day he does something new. He is also a very good baby, cries very little and smiles a lot. I have a calendar where I used to mark his "firsts" - when he first discovered his hand, when he first smiled out loud... but now it's hard to do that because new things happen so often so here is a collection of what we/he discovered during the past week:

• he stated reaching for things. He will reach for his toys, for my t-shirt if there is something that stands out on it (like letters or pictures) or my face if it's close enough. Changing is getting hard now, since it seems that he has (at least) five hands because there are so many interesting things around him.


• he has been fascinated by faces for a long time now; he liked to stare at my face examining it, or he would stare at any toy with a face. but now he will reach for my face an examine it with his hands grabbing my nose, massaging my cheeks, grabbing my hair and ears. It seems to me that he is using his left hand more often but I might be wrong.


• he started imitating noises. His grandfather would whistle at him, he would smile, put his hand in his mouth and produce this short, high-pitched little scream that resembles whistling. And he can concentrate on doing this for quite some time.


• rolling on his side is a favorite thing now. He even sleeps like that during the day. The way he does it is, he pulls his feet up and then over, thus rolling on his side. Sometimes in the morning I find him facing the opposite side of the crib!


• he figured how to work the buttons on his mirror. His crib mirror has two big buttons - a green one and a red one - that make noises if you press them. He will now move until he can reach it with his feet and then hit it until he gets the buttons. Or he will roll on his side, facing the mirror. Then he will put his lower arm under the mirror, and then hit it with his top arm. He is not very skilled at getting the buttons yet, but he is definitely trying.


• he stated to get annoyed when he cannot do something! Is this a character trait? He pulls his pacifier out of his mouth, tried to put it back, can't do it because he rotates his hand, and then starts screaming out of frustration. Or, if his foot gets under the mirror so he can't hit it; or if he cannot put something in his mouth - like the mirror or other big objects.


• his favorite pass time is any kind of physical activity - pulling himself up by holding my fingers (with a little help from me of course, but he is very strong), jumping up and down in my lap, swimming in his "euro bath", lifting his head up while on his tummy (except he cannot do that for long because he gets annoyed by not seeing around very well)... He does not want to be in his chair or stroller anymore - he tries to pull himself up on his elbows. But if I move the back of the stroller up, to a more sitting position, he looks very uncomfortable because he can't really sit yet. But it seems that he will soon.


• he now makes a new noise every day. Today it was sort of a caughing sound - it sounded almost in between laughing and caughing. He started fussing today at some point, but I ignored him a bit, and then he made this noise, stopped and did it again, then again... it seems that he can hear himself make these noises and then tried to repeat them. He had a full 5 minute concert tonight when I put him in his crib. We are buying a voice recorder tomorrow!


• just yesterday he started this fake "I am shy" thing. If I hold him (facing me) and someone starts walking towards him saying "where is Luka" or something similar, he will look at them, smile and then bury his head into my shirt for a second , and then look up again. That's just adorable!

He is just so much more alert every day. He prefers being held facing away so that he can look around. And by making noises, he seems to be calling for interaction and responding more. He is a lot of fun!!

Our baby was born last year, 10/05, which means that I have been in the worst part of pregnancy, in the third trimester, during the summer. Summers here in Southern California are not that hot, especially if you are close to the ocean. We live close enough that in the previous three summers we did not need an airconditioner. We used a fan, oh maybe two days during the whole summer. Opening windows would generally be enough. But this, our fourth summer here, was definitely the hottest one. Or was it just me and the pregnancy?
I started feeling hot very early on, and that was really an unusual feeling for me, since I am always cold. Holding a cold drink in may hand would make both my hands and my feet cold in seconds. But when I was pregnant, even soaking my feet in ice cold water would not make me feel cool. My husband thought that it was unusually hot too, but when I mentioned it to a friend of mine, the one who thinks that summers here are NOT hot enough, he said that I was dreaming and that it WAS just the pregnancy and my hormones talking.
But I was sure I was right, and that my husband did not only feel the "sympathy" heat, so I looked for the temperature data. I thought it would be easier, I actually wanted to get the daily temperatures but all I could find was monthly averages. And here they are - average maximum and minimum temeratures. And was I wrong? Not completely! September really was MUCH warmer than other years we have been here. Not just the hormones after all...
For next time - better planning is needed. No babies born after June 01!!

The baby slept from about 9:30pm to 5am, two nights in a row!! This is the most I have slept without waking up for feeding, since 10/01/04! But will it last?
In the beginning of December, he slept from 8pm to 3am, also two nights in a row. Then something happened, and he went back to waking up every four hours or so.
Are we over the hill or is it just one of the cycles he is going through....

UPDATE: 01/15/05
Well, it did not last... He woke up at 1am last night and then sometime around 5am. Oh, well...

UPDATE: 01/25/05
He slept from around 8pm to 6:30-ish, with one additional feeding around 11pm, for two days in a row! Yeah, baby.... And, when he wakes up he plays by himself and sings for about an hour! Not too shabby... Maybe we have a system here?