The Four Seasons of Infancy

Also known as Callie at age four months.

(Yes, she's technically past the four-and-a-half-month mark now as I'm posting this.  

Better late than never, eh?)

It's truly amazing how much emotion can come from a tiny baby face in the span of a couple of minutes.  She definitely keeps us on our toes.  As far as stats go, from her four month appointment on October 14th, she weighed a whoppin' (haha) 10 lbs 10 oz (up two pounds since her 2 month check-up), and grew an inch in length (to 24.5 inches) and in head circumference (16.25 inches).  Her doc says she's a slow grower, but perfectly healthy.  And cute.  (Actually, I don't think he said she was cute.  But she is.  No bias here.)

Some of her latest tricks:

~ gives big open-mouthed "kisses" when she's being kissed

~ grabs at everything within reach (hair, glasses, clothes, her legs, wipes, burp cloths, toys, etc., etc.)

~ practices her squeals and coos quite often, especially at rather inappropriate times such as during prayers and at 4:30 in the morning

~ "purrs" (kind of a guttural g sound complete with saliva expulsion) when especially happy and content (this sound is also practiced in the wee morning hours in her crib, much to her parents delight/dismay)

~ finally sleeps in her crib for naps (consistency of said naps is still a work in progress, but we're getting there!) - one day she just refused to fall asleep in my arms like she had been doing for the first 3 1/2 months of her life, so I laid her in her crib and she fell right asleep; we haven't looked back since!

~ has set her own bedtime between 6 and 7 pm, and will usually sleep till 6 or 6:30 in the morning with a few wake-ups to eat - right now we're in the throes of the infamous "Wonder Week 19" aka "4-Month Sleep Regression" (just googling it helped me when I realized I wasn't alone in this hurdle) which has pretty much brought us back to newborn-esque night wakings (hungry (waaa!) every 2 - 3 hours instead of the bigger chunks of at least 4 and even up to 6 hours we were getting just a couple of weeks ago); I'm definitely feeling the sleep deprivation, but I keep telling myself it can't last forever!

~ has eaten a few swallows of rice cereal - she wasn't quite sure what to do with the stuff at first, but just last night the whole swallowing thing finally clicked and she was eager to polish off her tiny portion

~ still wears 0-3 months clothes (mostly - the orange onesie in these pics is actually a newborn size (say what?) and we have broken out a few 3-6 month items that seem to fit pretty well, but 0-6 month tights are more like "looses" (and are really quite comical) on our skinny little gal)

~ usually loves my (off-key) singing - this month our favorites are "Leaves are Falling All Around", "I Like to Eat Apples and Bananas", and "It's Autumn Time"

~ blows raspberries, sucks in her bottom lip, passes toys from one hand to the other, refuses to drink from a bottle, can fall asleep in the carseat (with assistance, but better than the crying nonstop that we had before!), loves being outside and watching out the window, chews/licks/slobbers on everything

Watch Callie grow: 3 months | 2 months | birth