All she wants to do is stand, stand!

My daughter is in a hurry to grow up. Only 4 months old and she already wants to be defiant. Doesn’t she know she’s supposed to be little for a lot longer? She’s not content sitting or lying, she wants to stand…all the time. While this makes her tired and helps her sleep at night, I don’t mind it that much. Girl has got some strong legs! Also, she’s always grunting trying to pull herself up. How dare she try to sit up by herself! . I aid her at times, let her sit in my lap or sometimes will put her on the glider while I put away laundry. She’ll hold herself up pretty well, but it’s amusing and sad at the same time to see her slowly lean over and then face plant into whatever is next to her. Most of the time she’s not phased by this. Most of the time. She gets frustrated that she’s not bigger, not able to do it right. The girl could care less about eating food though!!

Over the past couple weeks I’ve been trying to introduce rice cereal. Trying being the optimal word. The first time I tried I was all excited. I read and re-read the directions on the back of the box. Bought her little bowls and little plastic covered spoons to help. Got her a bib. Mixed it up so it was nice and sludgy for her liking. I set her in her bumbo, got the bib all situated. I appointed Jason as the cameraman for this “monumental first”! I give her the first bite, and…she’s staring at her feet. Then I see a bit of rice cereal dribble out of her mouth onto her bib. Hmm, maybe I didn’t get it far enough in her mouth. I scoop off her face and give her another bite. Stares at her feet, food falls out again. I blow in her face to wake her up a little bit. That does the trick, although the food still falls out. Appears she’s lacking the tongue control to actually keep it in. Sad! I cleaned it up and decided I would give it a week.

A week later, same thing. We’re waiting another week. In the meantime I’ve been trying to make more meals at home and sit her in her Bumbo on the table so she can see us eating with utensils.

This past month I feel like she’s been doing a ton of growing. Not in the way the lady at the pool says, “She’s really getting…” then proceeds to motion blowing out her cheeks like a balloon. NICE! While I think she’s around the 14lb mark, she looks proportional and is getting increasingly adorable.

She’s a roller. She’s mastered the art of going belly to back and back to belly. Just not at the same time. She started belly to back, which I got the very first one on video. Yay mommy! Then randomly one day she did back to belly. She’s so proud of herself that she can do back to belly that she doesn’t remember how to return to her back. One day I had to flip her around about 8 times because she’d roll to her tummy then get mad because the girl does not like her tummy time! She likes to practice in the night too. I think daddy has had to rescue her from her belly at 4am a few times.

She’s becoming more of a personality. She has her certain routines. Her daycare calls her “a very predictable baby”, which I assume is a compliment. Usually her night routine is bottle, bath, bottle. She’ll eat about 4oz, take her bath, then polish another 4oz and then go to sleep. Last night after her bath I go to give her the next 4 oz and she started fussing. Ok, sometimes she’s particular about where she takes her bottle. So I put her in her crib and started to give her the bottle. Fussy. Ok, I gave her the plug. She takes it then rolls to her side and goes to sleep. “Thanks mom, bye!” she said. I stood there for a minute, waited for her to move or roll back and say “just kidding!” but no! I said to myself, “Fine then!” and left. Of course she wakes up at 10 to get the rest of that bottle and then some.

She’s sleeping a bit more. We had a great week last week. She slept until 6:30 for a majority of the days. Jason had been doing the night shifts so there were a few times where he was all worried and would check on her at 4am. This week he hasn’t had to get up to check on her because she’s been waking up at 4 and will only go back down when fed. Growth spurt again? I hope so. Sleeping through the night was a glorious thing we can’t wait to get back to.

She laughs. There’s been only a handful of instances, but she has been belly laughing. It almost made me cry when I heard it the first time. I was playing w/ her and blowing raspberries on her feet and she let out the biggest squeal followed by a belly laugh. I was so happy, and my cameraman was close by with his iPhone to document it all. I’ve since pulled out all the tricks in the book to get that belly laugh back. I’ve only heard it one other time.

She likes singing. Zippity-do-dah: It’s her favorite song right now. I started singing it because she has zippers in her jammies and sleep sack, so I would sing it as I was zipping it. That was the second time I heard the belly laugh. SO FRIGGIN’ CUTE!! But she can be mad as can be, and I start singing that song, and she gets a big ol’ smile on her face and coo’s a whole bunch. Maybe it’s because she knows her mom will go to many lengths to get her to smile and laugh.

She likes hair. Maybe she’s just jealous because hers is all cool and spikey right now. Maybe she’s jealous of mom’s fro and really wants one some day. Sorry kid, you might not have a choice in the matter. But man, that girl has a kung-fu grip! On the nape of my neck, everyday that girl has the master grip that the Jaws of Life can’t break free! Owie! Go easy on mommy!

She loves clothes. She must because she’s wearing several outfits a day. Maybe I need to start drooling or yacking on my clothes so I can expand my wardrobe. “Hunny, I don’t have enough clothes to keep up with my yack demand, I must shop!” Heck, that’s my excuse with her because I’m sick of doing laundry every two days. That girl is WELL stocked! Everytime I lay something on her to see if it’ll fit, she grabs it and puts it in her mouth.

Which leads me to…

She’s teething. Can’t wait to see the pearly whites. Jason is hoping that the bottom few, which usually come in first, will act as a trough for her drool and keep it in her mouth a bit more. One could hope. She tries to put everything in her mouth: burp cloths, toys, her fingers, heck…her whole fist, my hair, etc. We’ve had to put a pause on the super flying baby because of the endless amount of times we’ve been slimed.

She likes TV. Occasionally when I come home I’ll turn on the news and put her on her playmate in front of the TV. I have her facing me though so I can keep a good eye on her. With all her scooting and rolling about, she manages to turn herself around a full 180 degrees and will just lie there and watch TV. Maybe I need to stick her in front of some “My Baby Can Read” so my laziness will be her genius.

She likes to cook. Now, if she actually could…that skill would come in handy! Until then, she is limited to watching mom skillfully attempt to make a marvelous, or quick microwave meal, one handed because she insists on watching all of the action. I might try Baby Bjorning her, but I’m worried about her little hands getting stuck in something hot. I think she’d be mesmerized though that it might not be a problem .

She likes to pull on her parents heart-strings. Her 4 month appointment is on Monday the 11th. Jason and I were talking about it last night and I said how I was sad because she has to get more shots. We both started getting misty eyed thinking about it! I asked him, “Do you want to come to the doctor with me and see our child get stabbed?!” He didn’t appreciate the analogy. I HATE shots. SO sad. She did pretty well with them last time, only cried for about a minute. Hopefully she’ll fair as well.

She’s growing. Stay tuned for stats next week! I’m thinking that head size is off
the charts now! 