Four months of Avery

Four months is going to be a delight!  We are now a week past Avery's four month birthday, and this month is so far the best one yet.  Yesterday I was reminiscing about Avery's birth and how tiny she was; when we put her in her carseat to take her home from the hospital, it just swallowed her up.  She looked like a little doll.  And the newborn clothes didn't even fit her!  The sleeper I brought to the hospital was way too long in the arms and legs and the extra fabric was flopping off her tiny flailing arms.  She was so precious!  I could not believe she came from my body!  Just thinking about it makes my heart feel like it's going to melt out of my chest.  But now!  Now she is all baby.  She's growing and developing and changing by the minute and it's such a trip to experience.

Just look at her!  Oh my goodness, do you not see the little girl in this picture?  Sometimes I just see the little girl in her and it stops me in my tracks.

At four months old, Avery is very close to sitting up.  However, she still hasn't figured out how to roll over yet.  She can roll from back to side and side to back, but not tummy to back or vice versa.  She's now becoming interested in toys, too.  She reaches out for toys and grabs them, then promptly shoves them in her mouth.  So far her favorite toys by far are Sophie the Giraffe and this round teether ring with different colored stripes on it.

She belly laughs at the weirdest things.  A funny sound or bouncing her up and down can elicit the biggest laughs from her.  Then when everyone starts laughing in response, she gets quiet and a bewildered look passes over her face.  What?!  It's like she doesn't realize she was laughing.  She still loves to be carried around everywhere and is in arms much of the time, although she is now content to spend longer stretches of time laying on her play gym, sitting in the bumbo seat or high chair, or just lolling on the floor.

She will even tolerate her carseat for longer stretches.  This only happened once, so we documented it in photo, but one day she actually fell asleep in there!  AND took her pacifier!  I about fainted.  She still won't really take a pacifier, but sometimes she'll chew on it if you hold it for her.  She still needs walking and humming to go down for a nap, but about half the time now she will go down quickly and stay down for a solid 30-45 minutes.  This happens 3-4 times a day.

Baby sleep is the most precious!

We took her in for her four month pediatrician visit last week and the nurse who weighed and measured her pronounced her a "perfect baby" because all her measurements were exactly in the 50th percentile.   I just said, thanks for confirming what we already know! :)