Anna's Fourth Month

Anna turns 4 months old today!!

No longer a "newborn," she is officially a full regulation-sized Baby.

SOOO much is new this month!  I feel the length of her legs when I hold her and can hardly believe how big she's getting <sniff>.  Won't you stay my little baby for a little longer?  But it's so much more than just getting bigger...

Her voice has really come alive this month.  She coos a happy, sweet little sound to us most of her awake time.

Oh!  And Anna laughed for the first time this month!  Dave was tickling her tummy and called me over from across the house to hear it.  It is the very best thing ever.

Those closed little baby fists are now mostly open.  I love watching her practice manipulating toys with her hands.

One of her favorites is this purple elephant...its shape responds particularly well to her current level of ability (which advances every single day, and it's amazing).

She still gets pretty frustrated, though, even with her relatively high success rate (success = getting some part of it into her mouth).  And she doesn't love the feel of cloth in her mouth (she makes a very interesting 'sour grapes' kind of look).  The rubber giraffe, Sophie, is more satisfying to gnaw on, but she's still not great at getting it where she wants it without help.

Along with those opened-up fists, she has been mostly getting her index finger to suck on.

It's pretty cute when she smiles with that little finger hooked over her lower gums.

I think she feels like she's mastered tummy time, so she's just kind of over it.  When I put her down, she often quietly complains, puts her head down, and sucks on her hand.

When she does do tummy time well, she does it very well, though she's still not flipping back to front yet.

But what she much prefers is looking at things, particularly if she's being carried around to look at things.

Dave takes her to out to pick up walnuts, and she really likes that.

So it's a good thing we got a massive walnut crop this year.  I think last year we got all of 10 nuts?  This year is more like 500, no joke.

She also loves sitting in her Bumbo.

I find it's very effective to plop her in her Bumbo and set her where she can watch me work.

She likes sitting up to watch people washing dishes, dancing, running the steam on the iron, folding laundry, eating salad (it's super funny when the lettuce sticks out of your mouth a little), and other such interesting and exciting tasks (aka not peeling chestnuts).

She spends a good bit of time in the Bumbo.

This is not a paid post about Bumbo.

Anna has begun to notice and watch the cats as they enter and exit her field of view.

She doesn't really grab at them as much as I was expecting (no matter how much Daddy encourages her to)...she mostly just wants to watch them.

Monkey is interested in her, too, especially at bath time.

Mindy still finds her too loud and will leave the area immediately if we bring Anna too close.

She's really loving story time.

I think she knows that right after books is bedtime, though, because I can't do books any other time of day without making her really mad.

Speaking of bedtime, that's a thing.  For pretty much all sleep, we swaddle and pacifier her, turn on the white noise, and put her down, and she just settles and sleeps on her own.  It's been a golden month for that.  Length of sleep is a big crap shoot, but she no longer requires or even wants me to assist her to sleep most of the time.  It's a sweet deal, at least for now.  I'm hopeful, but I'm not holding my breath it stays this way.

Anna Banana, we love you very, very much.  Your sweet voice, your gorgeous smile, and that playful, exciting personality of yours delight and surprise us every day.  Won't you stay our little girl for a little longer?