developing

Gabriel has done a whole lot of developing since he was five weeks old. He's been talking a bunch since he was under two months old, I don't remember exactly when he started babbling. He just continues to talk to us, and he loves conversing. He's been smiling a bunch since about six weeks. He laughs now, and giggles. He loves when Daddy plays with him, he gets the biggest smiles and laughs when he gets tickled. He also enjoys being sung to, and occasionally seems to want to sing along. He definitely has a good amount of cranky time, in addition to his happy times. Teething is bothering him, in addition to his gassiness and reflux. He's pretty difficult when he's cranky, he's hard to make happy. Handing him off sometimes helps, as does sleep, but not always. Gabriel kind of goes back and forth between being happy and cranky.
As far as physical development goes, Gabriel is sort of going out of order. He does really well at holding his head up when he's on his tummy, but he has yet to roll over. He's rolled over a few times from his back to his tummy, but only when he's on a foam wedge that props him up on his back. So that doesn't really count. But he is sitting up. I'm not kidding. The "normal" age for sitting up unsupported is six and a half months. He just started doing this last week. And it was only a week or so that he spent sitting up in the "tripod" position, where he holds himself up with his arms. He still does that, but he also totally sits up on his own. Its crazy. I took this video when he started doing it the other day. It was so completely unexpected that I think I sound kind of surprised in the video.
So we are all on target for development, and a little bit ahead in some areas. The no rolling over thing is a little off, but often babies are slower on that stuff these days, since they don't sleep on their stomachs.
Also, we went to the doctor last week for Gabriel's four-month check up. He weighs 15 lbs, 11 oz, and is a little over 25 inches long. Both of those values are just above average. His head circumference is quite a bit higher though. So proportionally, his head is a bit bigger than normal for his age. The doctor says he looks great. We talked about starting solid foods, but I've been a little bit resistant. I may start sometime soon anyway. It's supposed to help with reflux, and he's been struggling with that more lately (rather than growing out of it, like he should be). So we may be trying out some rice cereal soon.