Monthly Update - Four Months Old

Dear Little Monkey:

We have had you home for a little over 2 weeks now. It's hard to believe that you turned 4 months old on New Year's Day. Well, actually I guess it's not, since every time we get you out of your crib in the morning you look like you've gained another pound and grown another inch. You've changed so much in just a short amount of time.

The biggest difference (besides how much bigger you are) is that you seem to have much better control of your hands. When we first met you, you could barely hold something in your hand. Now you can reach for things, grab them, and (of course) stick them in your mouth. You seem to have a fondness for the hair at the back of mommy's neck too, OUCH. We are trying to find you some good toys for you to hold - many are too big and heavy for you now. Right now you play with some plastic chain links and a little bunny blanket toy that you suck on so much it gets soaked! You have a Sesame Street Excersaucer thing, but you only last about 15 minutes in there before you want to come out.

You are a constant source of entertainment, and crack us up on a daily basis. You make the funniest faces, especially when you are trying to concentrate on something. You are still your smiley self and still very talkative. When you are alone you like to amuse yourself by having a conversation with no one. We have a feeling that once you start with real words we won't be able to get you to stop. You do a great job of pulling your self up to a sitting position while holding our hands. You can even pull yourself up to a standing position and seem to like that best. I think this might mean you will be walking sooner than later! We have been placing you on your stomach more often so that you can get stronger and learn to roll over. You do alot of grunting and moving around, but you don't really get anywhere yet. After a few minutes you'll put your head down and suck your thumb to rest a bit, and then pop up again for another round of activity.

You LOVE the bathtub. You kick your legs and arms around so much that the tub gets filled with bubbles. You don't even mind when you splash yourself in the face, which is very often. You don't like getting dressed too much though...especially putting your shirt on. No matter how quick or gentle we are, you just don't like having to put your arms through the holes. Double crankiness if we have to take your thumb out of your mouth to do it.

You nap an average of twice a day...once in the morning and again in the early afternoon. You like to sit in the bouncy chair or bumbo seat and hang out with us while we watch tv or clean. We were thinking of changing your name to Linus because you really love your blankets when you are hanging out in your chair. You don't seem to be attached to any particular one, but you like to have them on you. You try to suck your thumb and hold the edge of the blanket with the remaining fingers. Sometimes you get frustrated when you can't get it positioned exactly how you like it. Your other hand holds the blanket close to your face just like Linus does. We know this will probably cause us grief later on when you can't live without a blanket, but it makes you happy and you look so darn cute, so what can we do?

We've taken you out a few times in the stroller, and you like it just as much as you did in Colombia, although you seemed to be a little taken aback by the cold. You don't mind a bit when we put a blanket over your face to block the wind. You do well in stores, you seem fascinated by all the interesting things to look at. The other day in the bookstore, you were talking so loud that Daddy heard you all the way from the other end. You were cracking us up!

Yesterday we took you for your first pediatrician appointment at Dr. Jetter's office. You were very smiley and active. You loved being half naked on the examining table...your arms and legs were going a mile a minute and you were laughing alot. You had a good check up and only cried for a little bit when you got two immunizations in your little chubby legs. At this visit you weighed 14 pounds 12 ounces and you were 24 and half inches long. She also gave us the green light to start you on solid foods!

We've started giving you rice cereal twice a day and it is quite the funny sight to see. At first you cried, angry that we decided to put some pasty gruel in your mouth. We learned to give you the bottle first to fill you up some. In the beginning you pushed most of it right back out onto your chin and chest, but now you are slowly getting used to the spoon. Now you look like a little baby bird...opening up your little mouth really wide for the next bite. You make quite a mess too. Especially when you decide to put your hand in your mouth in the middle of the feeding. Cereal everywhere.

You still sleep very well. We only feed you four times a day and skip your two night feedings because you sleep through them. We put you down at about 9 at night and you get up anywhere between 7:30 and 8:30 am. You move around quite a bit during the night, sometimes when we go to get you, you are facing the opposite direction of where you started. And most times you've kicked your blanket off too. But almost every morning when we say "Good Morning" to you, you smile really big, which certainly starts our day off right!

We are very much enjoying our time with you these last few weeks. It is very hard to put you down because we love to hug and kiss you all day long. Good thing you don't seem to mind. We can't wait to see what new changes await us in the coming weeks.

We love you very much.