4 months

Dear Helena,
This week you turned 4 months old. We've stopped counting your age in weeks and I can barely handle how grown up it makes you seem. If it were up to me I would count your age in weeks forever, but it might look a little silly to see "Happy Birthday Week 1173!" on your birthday cake. You have started to do some very new things this month, just when I started to get used to the old things. When I read you books at bedtime you look at the left page first and then the right, as if you were following along with the words on the page. If I linger too long on one of the spreads, you look up at me with those big brown eyes and give me a slow blink with those curly lashes, nudging me to turn the page.

You have officially found your toes and you can grab them with your hands into a perfect yoga toe lock. You can stand up with support and you have rolled over a bunch of times from your back to your tummy. You are very interested in holding hands with me and daddy when we feed you your bottle, you like to grab onto a finger or just feel around on the backs of our hands. You like to lie on your tummy and reach out for toys and stuff, you can hold your head up at 90 degrees, you are so strong. You have started teething, you are drooling all the time and you want to put everything in your mouth. Including mommy and daddy's face.

Yesterday you had your 4 month doctor's visit and you weigh 17.1 pounds and are 27 inches long. You got 2 shots and you only cried for a minute until I picked you up off that crinkly paper and then you just looked around mostly annoyed but already over it. You don't hold grudges, I can tell that about you already.

Like tonight, we spoon fed you rice cereal for the first time ever. You took a tiny lick and then pushed it all out of your mouth with your tongue, bite after bite. It was all over your dress and mommy's lap, but then we got ready for bed and you kept laughing hysterically when I would get really close to your face and whisper, "daddy goes poopy". You already moved on from the those moments right before when you were sitting in soggy rice cereal. See, no grudges.

Your hair is growing in so nicely, it fell out a little in the last few weeks. You have a little cowlick in the back of your head, your hair makes like a little swirl which is easy to see because your hair is so short right now. Auntie Traci calls you, "soft serve".

Two weeks ago, Mommy made the decision to not go back to her job as a web designer but instead to stay home with you and watch you grow up. It really wasn't a hard decision to make, you are the best boss anyone could ever have, and even though you sometimes scream in my face and are indecisive and unclear about what you need, you also give me the warmest hugs and fall asleep with your head on my breast and your hand on my heart, which is illegal in most offices if I remember the corporate company policy correctly.

Love,
Mommy