Grayson,
I swear that this month has passed the fastest of them all. I am not sure where the time has gone, but my have you changed! Everyone has said, “Just wait until the fourth month. He’ll be really different then.” They were right. With my very eyes I have watched you morph from an itty-bitty human larva into the spitting image of your father complete with the “I want it my way!” attitude.
You take after your dad in so many ways. He was a very large baby and you are following in his footsteps. At your doctor’s appointment today you weighed 16 lbs 11 oz. and measured 25.25 inches long. Your head was 42 cm in circumference. You are not quite as big as your dad at that age, but pretty close. You look just like him when you smile and lucky us, you are now smiling all the time. We have now found all of your ticklish spots (under your arms, below your chin, and in the crook of your thighs) and we can get you to laugh almost on demand. Your laugh is infectious and I do not feel as if my day is complete without hearing it a billion times before bed.
This month you have found your voice and have learned how to use it. You do not “talk” much; usually only at times of boredom or crankiness…or of course when you are hungry for attention. Your squeal is absolutely delightful. It is entertaining to watch you tense your entire body, sucking your arms and legs into your core in an effort to gain the needed momentum to get that high pitched shriek out. Of course it works! Anytime we hear it Daddy and I immediately turn to look at you and laugh. I guess that we have positively reinforced this activity! The ladies at daycare say that you are very smart and know just how to keep the attention for yourself. Apparently, when you are bored, you will cry your little head off and when Ellen or Anita walk over to see what is wrong, your eyes pop open and you shine your biggest smile at them, as if to say “I am so glad you came over here…look at how cute I am.” That little trick has worked too! It seems that they keep you very close to them, no matter who they are tending too. Now don’t get me wrong, you’re not the most demanding baby in there. But my guess is that you are pretty close, although they would never say that!
In my opinion, daycare has been a wonderful change for you. I have watched your personality become a little less “demanding”. I guess you realize now that you are not the center of the universe and that sometimes you will just have to wait. You seem to love your teachers and never mind being dropped off by Daddy. Because of school, you are on a better schedule, going to bed between 7:30 and 8:00 and getting up for the day around 6:30. For the first few weeks of this month you were actually sleeping through the night. I am sad to say though that in the past week, you have given that up and have woken up every 3 hours to eat. I am hoping that you will go back to sleeping through the night. Getting up so often is very hard on Mommy! Luckily, we have figured out that you love your Snuggle Bear (and Duck), a soft blanket/stuffed animal, that when we put it in your hand, you will stick one thumb in your mouth and use the other hand to rub the animal body against your cheek. It works every time to get you to fall back to sleep, even when you are sick.
Yes, you have been sick this month. Twice actually. This first time was at the beginning of the month. You came down with a cold that then turned into an ear infection. I took you to the doctor (by the way you screamed to the point of no breath when they were checking your ears) and he prescribed an antibiotic. The cold and ear infection cleared up within a few days and you were back to your old self. (Whew, thank God!) Then this past weekend, your little nose staring running again. Not likely a cold since you are not coughing or running a fever. Perhaps it is allergies? Who knows? It really only seems to effect you when you are sleeping, so for the past three nights you have slept in your bouncy chair, in an inclined position. The doctor prescribed an allergy medicine to help with the running nose. I am hoping that this will go away soon too. I think that the stuffy nose is partly to blame for your frequent wakings at night.
On a positive note, you have accomplished a number of the 4 month mile stones. You can:
hold you head level with your body when pulled to a sitting position
follow an object 180 degrees
grasp a toy when held to your hands
reach for an object
roll from your back to your stomach
squeal in delight
turn your head toward a noise or voice
bear weight on legs in the standing position
raise your chest, supported by arms when laying down
laugh our loud
You are working on learning to sit up, bearing the weight of your upper body on your arms while lying on your stomach, and flipping from your stomach to your back. (Your teachers at school say that you have done this once at school, but we have not seen it at home.) I am sure that we will see a number of new tricks in the fifth month, as you seem to always figure out a new way to amaze us.
I guess you are officially a baby now and no longer a newborn. I affectionately reminisce about the days only a few months ago when your joints were floppy and your eye lids paper thin. The days when you would sleep curled up in a ball for hours on end and your legs reminded me of those on a skinny old man. You seemed so fragile then and were so dependent on me. Those days are passed and while I miss the tiny infant you once were; I love the little person you have become. In the same breath, I hate and love watching you grow. I really do wish that I could TiVo you. I would rewind back to those moments when you were sleeping in my arms peacefully and I would stare at you in amazement all over again (and yes, I would fast forward those moments of constant bouncing, trying to get you to stop crying). So while, I can’t slow down or rewind time, I do try to file away in my mind all of these seemingly mundane details of your life, so that I can replay them over and over again. I am sure that I will need these memories one day, when you are sixteen, screaming that you hate me and I am thinking that I might hate you too. Then I will need to remember that you used to love me unconditionally and that somewhere in that teenage mind of yours you still do! Should I be picturing those moments now? Probably not, but I am a realist, and know that they will be here before I know it. I mean look at how fast the past 122 days have passed. So I hope you are storing up all of these memories too! Of all these days and nights that I make you my number one priority! I am certain that you will want to replay these moments all over again too!
Love,
Mommy
