Four Months

Dear Andrew,

Today you are 4 months old!  It has been a big month for you.  You can now roll over in both directions, and just this weekend during tummy time you were squirming and managed to lift your bottom in the air and get your knees up underneath yourself a few times.  Mommy thinks you are going to be an early crawler.  Daddy thought that was pretty cool until Mommy told him that means we have a lot of work to do in the next month to get the house ready for you to crawl around it.  You've started to squirm a lot and move most of your body parts with much more control, especially your arms and hands.  You rarely hit yourself in the face anymore, only if you get really excited do you forget and wave your arms so much that you end up hitting yourself in the head. During bath time you love to kick and push off the end of your bath tub.  You kick so much that it looks like you are a River Dancer during your bath.  In the last month you have discovered your feet, and now you love to grab onto your toes and roll from side to side.

You also tried your first cereal on your 4 month birthday.  You really liked it, even though Mommy made a mess and got food all over your face.  You thought it was so good that you even grabbed the spoon and started crying because Mommy wasn't putting it in your mouth fast enough.

You really like to hear yourself talk now.  Sometimes you talk REALLY loudly to yourself while you are playing, and you also like to wake up in the middle of the night and talk to yourself for a while until you go back to sleep.  You think this is a lot of fun, but Mommy and Daddy wish you would save all of your stories for daytime when we can listen to you better.  You've been practicing making lots of different sounds and are even putting your different sounds together.  You love to smile and talk all day except when you get sleepy.

You slept for 9 hours the day you turned 4 months old, but most nights you still wake up to eat once during the night.  Mommy's hoping you put on a little more weight soon so you don't have to eat during the night anymore and she gets some more sleep.  You are 11.75 pounds and 24.25 inches long, which puts you in the 10th percentile for weight and the 25th percentile for height.  You have a "banana" body right now-long and skinny.  Your eyes are still grey, and your new hair is starting to grow in and it looks like it is going to be dark still.  Maybe not quite as dark as Daddy's-we will have to wait until you grow some more of it to know for sure!

Mommy started working a few days a week this month, so you get to spend more time with Daddy and Grandma each week.  You like playing with them so much that you don't want to take naps.  You don't want to miss anything that is going on, and usually only sleep for 45 minutes at naptime on most days, and most of the time you wake up a happy boy with lots of smiles and coos.  You go to sleep by yourself like a big boy without crying and without your pacifier.  You are an ambidextrous thumbsucker when you fall asleep, but you like your left thumb a bit more than your right.  Maybe you will be a lefty like two of your uncles.

Your favorite things are still music and lights.  The other day you talked to the nightlight in the dining room while playing in your jumper for half an hour.  You recognize your favorite songs and will smile when they come on.  Your favorite toys right now are Sophie the Giraffe, your wind-up, stuffed music giraffe, and your jumparoo.   You like to suck on Sophie the Giraffe's ears and chew on her nose.  The wind-up music giraffe is your favorite thing to fall asleep with.  One day Daddy came in to get you when you were waking up from your nap and you were wrestling and biting your giraffe!  Daddy said it looked like you won that round.  You really like your jumparoo even though it is a little bit big for you still.  We have to put Daddy's old Calculus book underneath you so you can jump.  You really love books still, and will sit and listen to 3 or 4 of them in a row without getting distracted.  You even help grab onto the pages and turn them for Mommy now.  Brown Bear, Brown Bear is still your favorite book to read.

Mommy and Daddy love you so, so much and are so happy you are our little boy.  Happy 4 months!