4 months down...

To my growing baby boy,

Has is really been 4 months? Where has the time gone? You keep getting bigger and bigger, right before my very eyes! We took you to your 4 month checkup, and the doc says you are growing absolutely perfectly! You are almost 26 inches long, which is already over the 75th percentile for height (you're gonna be a giant!) and you weigh almost 15 pounds, which is right in-between the 50 and 75th percentile (just perfect!). Believe it or not, you are wearing 9 month jammies to bed! You can still wear most of your 3 month clothes, but the bodysuits are getting way too short for you, so you're in mostly 6 month stuff now, although those are huge in the width! If it's a one piece outfit, like your jammies or your summer short-alls, they have to be 6 or 9 months, or they won't fit you! Point of the story? You are going to be one TALL, skinny boy!

This month hasn't really been chock full of new developments like the past couple of months, mostly just fine-tuning the things that you already know how to do. You found your feet for the first time this month, and you haven't let go since! Every time you grab your foot, you look at it with a little sparkle in your eye, like you've just found a brand new toy! And you love to play with your toes; you wiggle them around, watching them all the time, and then try to stick them in your mouth.

In addition to developing that charming little personality of yours, you are starting to develop quite the little temper. If you don't get your way, you are not afraid to let us know. You have learned that you can scream - on demand, now - and if you start to get mad, the screeching begins; not just cute baby screeching, but full on, red-in-the-face-because-I'm-so-mad-that-you-won't-let-me-have-my-way screeching. And you especially like to do it in public when you get sick of sitting in your car seat. Sometimes it's funny, but most of the time it's not because the screaming quickly turns into a full blast meltdown for all the world to hear. I'm sure you'll grow out of it, right? Who am I kidding....

You are grabby, grabby, grabby, grabby, and some more grabby! Your little fingers and hands have been working overtime and you LOVE to reach for things now! Nowadays you are really good at actually grabbing what you are reaching for. Talk about making momma proud! The only downside? Now you can grab mommy's glasses and rip them off my face, leaving little tiny baby fingerprints all over them. And your new favorite thing to grab? Handfuls of mommy's hair! You always grab a big ole handful right at the nape of my neck, OUCHIE!! But I suppose the upside of you being able to grab a toy and quiet yourself balances everything out.

What comes along with being able to grab for things? Putting things in your mouth, of course! Namely, your hands. But the occasional teddy bear or shirt sleeve get stuffed in there, too. And on really special occasions, you try to get your hands AND a toy in there!

 You are on a roll! And you are getting super-de-duper good at rolling over. Sometimes you roll over multiple times, like you were rolling down a hill or something... it's pretty cute. You can roll both ways, but you like to go from tummy to back a lot.

 You know what else you do? You cry real tears now. It breaks my heart. You don't do it all the time; it usually happens when you wake up and realize that I'm not in the room with you... that's when the real tears come. It's so sad. But I suppose that just means you're growing up, right? You're a big boy now, making real tears. I think I might cry some real tears now, just thinking about it. But I don't have any pictures of your real tears, so here are some more happy ones.

We bought you a Bumbo seat and you L.O.V.E. IT! Mommy loves it because it's helping you learn how to sit up like a big boy, and you love it because you can sit up better now!

We started feeding you rice cereal about two days before your 4 month birthday. Your doctor doesn't want you to start solids until 6 months, but mommy thinks knows you are ready. You always stare and mommy and daddy while we eat, you watch every single bite that we take; you also are sitting up really well and have good control of your head; and most importantly, you are always hungry. You're supposed to be eating every 3-4 hours, but you usually eat every 2 hours (and you aren't even overweight after eating that often, you're just perfect) so mommy decided to let you try some cereal at 4 months and see how well you did with it. Result? You love it! You thought it was kinda gross at first, especially since I made the cereal with formula (whose taste you STILL don't care for), but you got used to eat and now you eat rice cereal like a champ!

And, as always, we'll end with some pictures of your perfect little feet!

Well, my love, that's about all we've been up to this month; like I said, not much new stuff going on, but you've been working your little butt off, keeping yourself occupied with growing and getting better at the things that you already know how to do. You are quite the little smarty pants!


No one else will ever know the strength of my love for you ; after all , you're the only one who knows what my heart sounds like from the inside. I love you more today that yesterday...

<3 mommy