4 months

Weight: 16 lbs. 2 oz. = 92%

Height: 24.25 in. = 48%

Head: 42.3 cm. = 82%

Claire is a happy, chubby, average little baby with a slightly large head. Everything looks great. She did have her shots on Monday, which has thrown her off schedule a little bit. I never thought I'd like having a schedule so much. Go figure. I think it helps me balance my life a little bit better. However, she has been super clingy, doesn't want to go to bed, but worst of all, she's had a stuffy nose and not feeling so great. She hasn't learned how to manage her mucus, so she breathes in and chokes on her drainage and starts coughing. Putting her to bed has been quite ridiculous since then. For example, every time we laid her down in her cradle she would start gagging and coughing, but when we laid her on our bed....sleep. Hmmm..... curious. Little stinker wouldn't sleep in her own bed. By about 2 I was desperate for her to sleep, so I told Brian to go to bed and I would camp out on the couch until she went to sleep. She feel asleep within a half hour, I set her down on the couch. Sleep. GOAL! YAY! However, if I tried to move her, she'd wake right back up. I ended up sleeping on the ground while all 24 inches of Claire slept on the couch. We can see who's boss around our house.

I love that little stinker so much. Sometimes I even start missing her when she's right next to me. Weird. I think I need to start getting over the whole super attatched, over-protective parent thing. I mean, come on. I'm even having a hard time getting used to the idea of her sleeping in a different room. I blame my lamaze class for fear of SIDS, but I just like to know that she's there. Trust me, I'll get there. I'm having her take her naps in her room and she really likes how colorful her crib is, so I'm slowly getting the hang of it.

So, what does she do at 4 months?

• Refuses to take her pacifier and a bottle. I keep trying, but she just spits it out. She used to take them both so well. Maybe she figured out that bottles=parents on dates and she doesn't like that.
• Giggles a lot when we tickle her, but she's starting to laugh on her own now.
• Rolls over
• She's as feisty as can be.
• Still sleeping through the night and taking naps at the right times. Thank goodness!
• She loves to watch TV. I totally feel like a bad parent for this one. I don't want my kids to only watch TV, so I have stopped watching so much in an effort to be more creative with my parenting.
• She's really starting to like me reading to her! I LOVE this. I love to read to little kids and make up stupid accents for the characters. Kids don't care what you sound like, so I don't have to be embarrassed. The one time I read a book to Brian, he looked at me like I was a nut. That is when our reading endeavors ended.
• She loves to suck on anything. My face, her fingers, her toys, but most of all-fabric. My shoulders are usually soaked and her dresses on Sunday are more like a slip-n-slide with her drool all over it. Bibs were a great invention.
• Starting to pull on my hair and earrings. I'll count myself lucky because I've had my earrings ripped out before and it's not that painful, so I'm not too scared. She hasn't started going for my food yet, so that's nice as well.

Well, that's all I can think of. They really do grow up way too fast. Sometimes I'd like to slow life down a little, have it be summer all the time to maximize our playing possibilities, and have her be little forever.