Jacob at 4 months

Yesterday, He With the Soul-Melting Blue Eyes turned four months old. During the last month, Jacob continued his evolution from boy blob into plain ol' boy. When he is with me, he is just about the happiest baby I have ever, ever met. He is always smiling and cooing. He learned how to laugh about a month ago. It's pretty dorky. More of a chuckle, really. You get "huh!" and that's it, but it happens a lot and God, it is so adorable. Between that and the hypnotic blue eyes, he turns me into a zombie, hungry for baby ears. Yes, Master Jacob. I will do whatever you ask, Master Jacob. Just let me munch on your gummy ears a little while longer, Master Jacob.

When he is not with me, he is big whiner, even for Dada. "Meeeeeeeeh!" he says. "Where's that lady with the tasty boobies?" he says. Poor Pawpaw got the brunt of Jacob's aggression while we were home. I'd hand Jacob to him any chance I could, and at first Jacob and he were big, TV-watching homies. But it didn't take too long before Jake figured out our game; when he was with Pawpaw, the Boobie-Lady was making herself scarce. Best, he thought, to scream real loud and teach her a lesson.

Physically, Jacob finally remembered how to roll over. He'd been practicing for weeks. It started with his newfound yoga-instructor-like ability to chew on his toes. While we were in Indiana, whenever we'd sit him on the floor on his back he would instantly curl up like a pillbug and rock to one side. It appeared, however, that His Fatness got distracted by his hand in the way, and he'd choose sucking on his fist over figuring out how to roll over his chunky arm. Just once, and the day before he turned 4 months, he rolled the hard way, from his back to his tummy over his left shoulder.

More fun for him and me is that he's figured out how to grab things, so now begins a lifelong love affair with toys. And hot chicks.





Like good little Lutherans, we also had Jacob baptized on June 11th. He was baptized at my parents' church, where my brother was married the day before and Isaac was baptized nearly two years ago. My brother and his brand-new wife served as his godparents:


Pastor Fiene, who officiated all of the above spiritual events, also confirmed my brother back in the day. Lots of history there, so it was no surprise at all that I looked out in the congregation during the baptism to see my poor mother smiling and weepy-eyed. Jacob himself did well. Unlike his brother, Jacob was awake for the whole thing. When Pastor took him from me to do the deed, he struggled a little under Jacob's weight, with a noticeable pause while he was pronouncing Jacob's full name as Pastor tried to figure out how to fit Jake on his forearm, finally giving up and switching positions. And then he sprinkled Jacob's hairy knot, and Jake's eyes widened in interested surprise. Pastor handed him back to me, and suddenly Dada took him out of my arms, angling Jacob so that I could see him. He was grinning from ear to ear, I think to engineer maximum tear production in my mom.