Joanna, how are you four months old?

My beautiful baby girl is 4 months old today. While I'm glad she's getting old enough for things to start getting easier, I'm also a little wistful that she's growing up.

Joanna is still smiley and easy-going. She likes to be held a lot but doesn't protest too much when I put her down to go use the washroom or prepare dinner. She loves watching people and smiles at everyone. Oliver is her favorite person to watch. She also is very responsive verbally when people talk to her. I love whispering to her just to hear all of her cute coos in response.

She's still not very good at holding objects. This is quite the change from when Oliver was a baby, as he never really had a time when he didn't hold things. Jo will hold an object if I put it in her hand. She still has her grasping reflex. She understands how her arms work, though, and will bat at dangling items. A couple times, she's managed to grasp the rings in the bouncy chair, but I think those occasions have been mostly accidental.

She also doesn't show much interest in looking at things. I remember how Oliver wanted to explore everything at her age. He wanted to see the vacuum cleaner and coats and kitchen utensils and hairbrushes. Jo likes some things--the mirror and the toys on her exer-saucer--but she is not driven to explore all of the objects in the world around her. At least, not yet.

As far as rolling over goes, she's reached that milestone twice! Twice, she's rolled from back to front. It's not a regular thing yet, though. She found her feet earlier this month and enjoys grabbing them. Jo's also discovered thumb sucking. I read back on Oliver's 4 month update and noticed he did this, too. He outgrew it quickly, and so I'm kind of hoping Jo's the same way. It was nice not having to worry about pacifiers and thumb-sucking habits!

Joanna hasn't tried solids yet, but I made baked sweet potatoes the other night. I decided to make one for her, too. I pureed it with a lot of my milk and froze it in cubes for her to try soon--maybe this weekend. Speaking of milk, she nurses about every 2-3 hours during the day, and usually in much longer stretches at night.

Night. Wow. Jo decided to wake up every hour, all night long this month. I wanted to die. That's not true, but I really did fantasize about me getting injured and hospitalized so that I could finally get some rest. Sleep deprivation does crazy things. Well, we've been working on her sleep, mostly using the Ferber Method. For the past four nights, she's slept in her Pack 'N Play with her arms unswaddled, and she's been sleeping in a good 6 hour stretch. Ahhh, much better.

Here are Joanna's current likes and dislikes:

Likes
*Oliver
*Seeing Daddy when he gets home from work
*Being held by Mommy, especially facing outwards
*People smiling and talking to her
*Looking at the camera
*Baths
*Nursing
*The Bumbo
*The toys on her exer-saucer
*White noise

Dislikes
*Bottles
*Being put in the car seat
*Stopping in the check-out lane at the grocery store

Oliver is Four Months Old!

I can't hardly believe it! I know, I know, all parents say this, but he's growing up so quickly. Perhaps it's the sleep deprivation or the fact there's just not enough time in the day to do everything, but I truly can't believe that I've been a mommy for four months. We're a third of the way through his first year!

Oliver has changed so much this month, and I'm loving these changes. First, he let's us sit down with him for 5, sometimes 10 minutes. He'll sit on our laps, facing outwards, and won't throw a fit. Amazing! He's also started joining us at the dinner table. We put him in his high chair, and we eat dinner as a family. Before, we had to alternate who got to eat and who got to hold Ollie. Now, it's family time. I love it.

Oliver is also very, very interested in his environment. His new favorite toys are household items like the hairbrush. He also loves playing with his aspirator. When I'm holding him and walking around, he'll see something that interests him. He'll spin his arms like a pinwheel towards whatever it is that interests him and bounce up and down. I'll take him over to explore the fascinating object. Sometimes it's the DVD tower. Sometimes, it's Andrew's coat. He's been interested in the plants, in the bottle of vinegar upstairs. He loves looking at our vanity (especially at the toothbrushes). His favorite item to explore is the vacuum cleaner (and not because of the sound. He likes it off).

Also, he's a thumb sucker! He loves sucking his thumbs, and they're often sucked raw. When his thumbs hurt, he moves on to his fingers. Sometimes, he just sucks his tongue.

Oliver had his first solid foods this month. We started with rice cereal, but that made him constipated. We moved on to Gerber oatmeal cereal, and he loved that (really, really loved that).

Perhaps the biggest change is that Oliver's sleeping unswaddled at night. He's getting up twice at night now, but he's also sleeping until 6am more frequently than he did last month. This morning, he actually slept until 6:45am!

His personality is becoming more apparent. He gets frustrated when he can't do something or get to something. He still hates being alone and yells when I turn my back on him. Which reminds me; Oliver shrieks. That's special, haha. Oh well. He also laughs, which just makes everything worth it. When he laughs, his smile lights up the room, and Andrew and I giggle right back. Grandma Judy is the best at making him laugh; Ollie gets the hiccoughs from all the laughing he does around her. It's cute.

Oliver's also getting better at the car seat. We removed the infant supports, and that seems to have made him happier. He doesn't cry when I set him in, and we've been able to take him to public places without him freaking out. Which reminds me; Ollie went on his first trip this month to Texas!

One of Oliver's favorite ways to pass the time is to play roll over. I just need to gently pull on his hand, and he flips from his back to his stomach. He's going to be doing that on his own in no time. Twice last week, he rolled from front to back, but he hasn't done it since. He wasn't flat on his stomach when he accomplished the feat; he had his head and shoulders upright and flung himself over. Super cute.

In other news, Oliver got a walker this month. He loves playing with the toys on it, but his toes only barely touch the ground right now. He's only moved it once.

Andrew and Oliver seemed to have bonded a lot this month, too. Oliver worships Andrew and gets super smiley when he gets home from work. He loves to sit on his knee and watch him at the computer. He also loves listening to Andrew read to him and playing roll over and exploring with him. They're best buds.

I'm amazed at how much Oliver has changed this month, and I love seeing him grow and get more independent. He's still snuggly and loves to cuddle, so I have absolutely nothing to complain about. As we enter into his fifth month of life, I'm getting very excited to see all the changes he's going to go through.


Likes:
*Infant oatmeal! Mixed with breast milk, of course.
*Nursing
*Daddy
*Mommy
*The vacuum cleaner
*The vinegar bottle
*Playing with the spice rack
*Watching clothes in the washer and dryer
*Smiling at himself in the mirror
*Playing roll over
*Watching TV (that's so bad!)
*Being surprised (BOO!)
*Shouting people down (like the stewardess on the airplane)
*Naked time!


Dislikes:
*Vaccines (though he only cried a little)
*Delays between spoons of food (hurry up!)
*Red stop lights (but he's getting better!)
*Being alone in the room (don't you leave to get the laundry, Mom!)