Clothes ... Lefty??

The Little One is growing out of many of his clothes, and it's reaching a point that has us scratching our heads. As I keep saying, he's growing faster length-wise than he is outwardly. At the doctor's office, still technically a full week from turning a full 4 months, he was 27 inches long at his '4-month check-up'. I keep reading different things online, including other parents' random blogs like mine, and the average length I keep seeing is 22-24 inches.
The element that causing us a great inconvenience is that clothes-makers seem to go by these averages as well. Kole is wearing clothes that, on their tag, are for 6-9 month olds. And if you read the fine print of the tag, is actually for babies 24-27 inches long. So ... as you can see, Kole is about to out-grow "9-month old" clothes.
After the baby showers and all the initial infant stages, we were on clothes overload. There are some stages where he never had to wear an outfit more than once or twice because he had so many to choose from. Now?? We keep rotating and washing the same 5-7 outfits for every-day wearing, plus the PJs with the little footies for sleeping.
Kathy's been doing lots of shopping lately, but is finding that when babies get to that 9-12 month stage, most are at that crawling/walking stage and everything is pants and tops. Nobody really makes onesies with the snap-crotch at that age. But, here's Kole now needing clothes that most clothing makers are sizing 9-months and up.
It's still far from an issue that is at critical stage - but at this point it's on that border of frustrating and slightly amusing. More of the frustration is aimed towards the clothing makers who have determined that 4-6 month old babies, by average, are about 12 pounds and 23 inches. So, his wardrobe has been greatly diminished as a result.

I've also noticed a recent trend, watching him handle a rattle or little toy. With his right hand, he seems to only have control over it for a couple of seconds before losing grip and having it fall out. But with his left, he sustains a grip on it for 3 or 4 or 5 minutes, with vigorous shaking and constant motion. I don't know if this precludes him being a lefty, but he has shown some early left-hand dominance. Also, while being fed a bottle, I'm seeing some consistency in trends, though it could be the way we have him positioned in our arms. But, his right hand will sit idly on your hand, or the bottle, while his left flails wildly and happily to his side, rubbing his head, and gripping certain things around.
These are just things I've noticed, and not suggesting that either one of us thinks he'll be left handed or whatever. Just interesting observations.

First Holiday?

Don't know if this exactly qualifies as a first holiday. July 4th was technically his first holiday, where he got his first bath. But, at least there's an element of dress-up to Halloween, which more entertains the mother in this case than the baby. She found an outfit too good to pass up, so she bought it several weeks ago. The week of Halloween is also National X-Ray Technician Week (whether you knew it or not), so the skeleton suit was a perfect tribute to both. Since he won't be going door to door for candy, plus the fact that I'll be in Iowa on Halloween night, we decided to play around tonight.

1st Quarter Earnings

Four months old today - a full quarter year. I haven't been good about updating the milestones, so I'll update them now. Many of which come along so subtle, it's hard to define one moment as the milestone. Normally something just gradually happens, and it takes us a while to realize that it's repetitive, then we deduce that it is a trend and a new physical or personality trait.
Like this past week, we would notice a little noise coming out of him - different from his normal cooing and goo-goo noises. Finally we realized that when he would yawn, he would have one of these old-man groans that accompanies it. Very high-pitched and baby-like, but one of those long, sustained, almost sing-song moan and groans with a yawn. Then he'll smack his mouth. He's like a miniature old man. It's hilarious!!
One of his favorite things to do is to stand up and put weight on his legs and feet - like if you were to hold him up in your lap with his feet on your legs. I guess just the act of being vertical and upright is so cool, he will giggle and laugh and do his happy-howl.
Photos: One of the photos I'll attach is of us feeding him cereal this week - his first with solid food. He makes a big mess, but he loves that oatmeal cereal stuff and gets real happy when he's fed. Another photo I'll attach is with him wearing his mom's favorite outfit. We wish each outfit had a Post-It not on it or something to remind us of who bought it, but Kathy thinks his red pin-stripe jammies is the coolest looking thing on him. The catch is, the size on the tag is "6-9 months". We now have to look at clothes not by the suggested age of the tag, but the height/weight dimensions, as he's 27 inches-plus, and climbing towards 17 pounds.
He's a good, happy boy with parents who are slowly but surely getting the hang of things.

Update from Doctor's Visit

Little one had a visit with Dr. Carlson today for a 4-month check-up, though four months won't technically come until next week. He had some shots due, so he got FOUR of those. Kathy said he absolutely freaked - red-faced crying with tears in his eyes. She said she could barely contain herself just watching. But, he survived and came home with a smile.
He weighed 16 lbs, 6.1 oz., so he's more than doubled his birth weight in four months. He is 27 inches long. I'm tempted to say still 27 inches long, but I was probably off when I measured him at that three weeks ago at the 3-month mark. In fact, since the doctor's visit today is official, I'm modifying Kole's chart to reflect that he was 26 inches at 3 months.
Otherwise, Kole is healthy as a horse and everything is going well. The doctor's quote: "Whatever you guys are doing is perfect for him." And for what it's worth, his head circumference is now 17 inches. Otherwise, the weight and height chart since birth is ...
Birth: 8 lbs, 2 oz - 21 inches
1 Mo: 10 lbs, 9 oz - 23 inches
2 Mo: 13 lbs, 1 oz - 24 inches
3 Mo: 15 lbs, 10 oz - 26 inches
4 Mo: 16 lbs, 6 oz - 27 inches

Update II (10/11) Little guy had a rough night last night - crying or irritated pretty much all night. We ended up giving him a dose of baby Tylenol twice, then actually took our first toil with semi-solid food. We fed him rice cereal just before he went to bed to see if that would help knock him out, and apparently it did as he slept well all night. In fact, he's working on a solid 12-hour snooze right now.
It's Texas-OU week, and it's hard for me not to forget that it was Texas-OU last year that we found out that Kathy was pregnant.