The Art of the High-Five

Clearly, every little kid needs to know how to high-five, and as Titus' Dad, I feel a particular burden to help him learn this crucial social skill at an early age. How about less than 10 months? Not bad, Baby T!! Daddy

Titus the Tiny Tiger

Some of you know that my favorite name for Titus is some variation of his full nickname: "Titus the Tiny but Titanic Titan of Titanium." I may have to change that now to "Titus the Tiny Tigrous Titantic Titan of Titanium" -- Tigrous being an adjective I just made up that means "(1) of or like a tiger; (2) having teeth." So there you have it: the announcement that Titus has teeth! We just discovered this last night while hanging out with our friends Jessica and Todd Smartt. Pretty cool discovery.

I hear in baby circles that this is a pretty big milestone. Titus and I have already agreed (albeit, his consent is tacit) that he won't grow up to be a little boy, so I have a feeling Titus is already defying our agreement. Oh man... all at once, I'm 1) so excited to see him as a little boy, where we can start to converse with him and watch him learn so many things; and 2) so not looking forward to him being bigger than he is right now, where we can just hold him all the time and he doesn't want to be put down. So we cherish these moments, because before we know it, he'll be off and married and talking about the same stuff regarding his children. I know, I know -- getting way ahead of myself. But parents are allowed to be sappy about their own kids. :)

A Boy's Rites of Passage - Installment #1: A Trip to Lowe's

"Which Lowe's," you ask? Titus is insulted by the question! Lowe's home improvement, of course. (Seriously, why did they have to name a grocery store Lowe's as well?!?)

Lowe's home improvement is a man's dream come true. Power tools, hardware, lumber, grilles. The guy who invented Lowe's is a genius. I'd like to have him over for dinner sometime.

Anyway, so Titus took his first trip to Lowe's. Admittedly, Dad was more excited than Titus was, but it just may have been that his growing little brain just could not handle the full glory of it all. In time, my son; in time...

We took the opportunity on this momentous occasion to snap a quick Dad/son photo before we went inside:

After an hour or more of looking around for all kinds of stuff, he emerged unscathed. We should have had a before AND after photo, because you just might have found that Titus sprouted one tiny little hair on his chest.

Way to go, T-man. You make Daddy proud. Next, Daddy will show you how to act like you know what you're doing when trying to fix the sink. :)

Dressing Up

Graham despises Halloween. I don't like the concept, but I do like costumes (really any chance to dress up and be silly) and I know it can be a lot of fun for kids, so I'm a bit torn on it. Fortunately for Graham, we had some unexpected circumstances that prevented us from going to the Halloween party we had planned on attending. Since I love costumes and we were given four of them for Titus this year, I decided to take the opportunity to dress him up in each of them while Graham was at work and took some pictures... feel free to vote on your favorite would-have-been costume for him :)

4 Months Old

Titus is growing much faster than we'd like to admit - every day is such a joy. I had no idea how much I'd enjoy being a mom. He smiles and laughs so easily and loves to play and be held. He is a true extravert if I ever saw one :)

We had his four month appointment the other day... he grew a couple more inches and is in the 95th percentile for height. He is now only in the 50th percentile for weight though - a tall, thin boy... hmmm, that reminds me of someone ;) He had a great visit and seems to be right on track for everything... despite our doctor's frustration with me about not starting vaccines yet :)

Here are some favorite pictures from the last month:

Daddy and son love playing together...

Graham took a sick day last week to take care of me because I somehow hurt my back to the point of having trouble walking (fortunately, it only lasted a day) - so I took advantage of the care and took some naps with my precious son - here is one of us on the couch (I love these moments).

Titus is always very alert - I thought this was a fitting picture of his most common face. He's always looking around and discovering whatever he can find.

One night he was having a hard time going to sleep and had gotten a bit fussy... in desperation, I looked over and saw this cute stuffed elephant that Nita Youngblood got for him and thought maybe this was a good time to introduce him to it so I put it on his tummy. Unfortunately we didn't have a camera in hand right away so you'll have to take my word for it, but as soon as we put the elephant on his tummy, he looked at it and his tears went away and he immediately started laughing hysterically at it. Now he doesn't like to sleep without it... he loves to hold its trunk up next to his face and cuddle as he falls asleep :)

Sick But Still Smiley

Kate and Titus both weren't feeling well yesterday, but I caught a moment with Titus where he was just looking at me and smiling, then laughing when I made a face. It warmed my heart. Kind of reminds of my Dad when he would say, "Ticky-ticky-ticky!" while tickling us. All sons pick up things from their Dads. Maybe Titus will do that for his kids some day!

Vocal Boy

We're not exactly sure why Titus is so vocal (yeah right - he probably feels like he can barely fit a word in edge-wise!), but he's starting to make his needs known. We're not sure what he's talking about, but perhaps a baby across the street does?

Month by Month

Kate and I thought it would be cool to do a time warp of Titus - sitting in the same chair of our house. We didn't think of it right when he was born, but you can still see how he's aged. What a cool kid!

At birth

1 month

2 months

3 months

27 years?

Titus' 2 month appointment

This is now a bit out of date, but just so I can remember with future kids - I'm going to make a record of Titus' two month appointment. Turns out he really is a big baby - living up to his name of "giant" for sure! For height - he was 25 inches (97th percentile), for weight, he was 12 pounds 13 ounces (78th percentile) and for head size he was 15.5 inches (36th percentile) - aww poor guy - big body, little head :) Not sure what happened there!

His only two conditions were his belly button (which the doctor fixed there - I think it was called granuloma or something like that) and his curly toe (we call it his crooked toe) which we learned will likely have to be fixed surgically. They won't even consider it for at least a year because he's too little to handle the anesthesia and our hope is that by taping his two toes together each day in the mean time, it might naturally straighten out over the next couple of years... but only time can tell. Fortunately, it isn't bothering him at all for now.

Other than that, he got lots of praise from his doctor for his growth, eating, sleeping, etc. We're so thankful for such a healthy and happy little boy.

Some more favorite pics of Titus

Here are some more pictures of Titus that I like from the past few weeks...

With his Aunt Amy at Strider's football game

In his 2009 outfit (Amy got this for Miles, Titus and Addie to all wear since we're having such a big baby boom this year in the Wray family)

Titus' first time in his bumbo seat

Titus is 2 months old (Sept 29)

The new king of the house :)  He decided recently that he would like to sit on his throne with us during dinner.

Names Have Meaning (Most of the Time)

Turns out, however, that most of our names for Titus don't mean anything. All the same, they might provide a little entertainment. Like Katie's Mom, who has called her everything from "Katie" to "Boo" and "Bopper" (and calls her husband Bruce "Ralph"), we have carried on the fine Wray Family tradition of calling our son whatever comes out at the moment. A few of them:

• The Boop (the definite article is key here)
• Doodle-bop (taken from one of Titus' nurses in the hospital)
• Butterball (also taken from the nurse)
• Bubber (origin is obscure)
• Mr. T (you know where this comes from)
• Little Baby Titus (I mean, come on, that's pretty cute - plus, it has good meter)
• Bro! and Dude! (Graham's terms of endearment)
• Mr. Man (Graham's personal favorite)

He takes it all in stride. Another one we don't have time to say, but that I still like, is "Titus the Tiny But Titanic Titan of Titanium." I'd also like to add a "Maximus" and "Aurelius" in there somewhere.

--Graham

My Favorite Photo of Titus

Man, how adorable is this kid. (Rhetorical question - which is why I didn't put a question mark. Although, feel free to answer it. :)

This one's definitely going in the wedding rehearsal dinner slideshow. I know, I know, thinking too far ahead here. :)

--Graham (Daddy)

"Are you a smiley little boy?"

Titus hears this question about 52 times a day because we often get a very cute reaction...  he has been smiling a lot more in the last couple of weeks.  I love seeing these smiles.  Here are a couple of pictures of him just before bed about a few days ago... you can see a few of his big smiles.

And here are a couple of pictures when Titus got to meet his new, adorable little niece, Audrey Jane (Addie) born September 9.  She is absolutely wonderful.  It was fun for us to see her for a lot of reasons, but one unique one was to see a flashback to six weeks prior when Titus was born on the same floor, in the same hospital, in the same way (c-section) weighing the same and being the exact same height.  Pretty bizarre!  These two already have a lot in common!

Some More Firsts...

I'm trying to write down the various milestones that Titus hits so I'll have a record of them later.  A few days ago, he had two big firsts in a row...  He slept in his nursery overnight for the first time (it took me a while to be comfortable with this... I really was afraid he'd think we were abandoning him or something... but he had no trouble at all) and the next morning he ate from his first bottle.  He sure took it like a champ!  I think he was done in about 15 minutes with no crying or frustration!  Here's a picture of Graham feeding Titus for his very first time, Titus in his pajamas and just a cute picture of him in his Baby Papasan that I just think is cute :)

Right On Time

Titus has been ahead on some things and maybe behind on some things, too, but he was right on time with his first 6 hour segment of sleep... last night was his first time and he is six weeks today.  My sister, Amy, told me that the old wives' tale is that they should sleep six hours at six weeks and in this case, I guess it is right :)

He's also starting to smile all the time now, which I guess is about right as well (maybe a bit late).  What a joy!  I love seeing him smile up at me.  I read online earlier today that at about six weeks your baby can recognize the parents and will often smile when they see you to socialize.  I love it!!

Our Little Giant Can Flip Over!

So Titus seems to be living up to his name - not only in size, but in strength. At 6 days old, he flipped himself from his stomach to his back... we thought it was just a fluke, but he continues to do it just about every time I put him on his stomach now. For the doubting Thomases out there... here's a video to prove it :)

And while this has nothing to do with his strength, here's an adorable picture of him showing his softer side with the stuffed dog from my mom... she's getting him started early :)

Titus is One Month Old!

How did that happen already? I can't believe it has been a whole month!! It has been such an incredible month though – I am loving all of it – even when he cries or wakes up in the middle of the night. It is a joy to get to know this sweet little treasure – what makes him happy and sad, satisfied and frustrated. Here are a few of my favorite things about Titus:

• his sweet smile – I love seeing him smile as he doses off and now just a couple times in reaction to Graham or me, too
• his sneezes – I know this sounds funny, but there is nothing I’ve experienced that is as cute as his little sneezes
• the way he holds my fingers so tightly when he’s upset and trying to calm down while he sucks his pacifier
• his beautiful eyes
• how cute he is in his little white outfit (this is our favorite color on him)
• the way he reaches up after a nap and grabs my neck when I pick him up
• how he waves his arms around like he’s conducting an orchestra when he’s hungry
• how he looks all swaddled up with his hat on at night
• how strong he is – I continue to be amazed by this kid’s strength (rolling over on day 6 and continuing to do it – even multiple times a day now, doing his squats that even feel like jumps now, and holding his up so well when he’s on his tummy)