Pterodactyl #2

Life at four months has begun to calm down quite a bit.

Miss E, does this month's calmness come from your age or better feedings? So hard to tell...probably a little of both.

We have been gradually supplementing the feedings more and more over the last month and half. At this point, you are only nursing once in the morning (and still drink another 4 oz. formula after). Unlike brother who seemed to eat constantly, you only eat 3-4 times a day. After I mentally did the math one day, I realized we needed to up your intake to 6-8 oz. of formula at a time. Much happier!

These mealtimes and consecutive naptimes are finally on a bit of a schedule too. Yeah! You generally have your first feeding around 8:30-9:00 am. Naptime around 10ish. You eat again around 12:00-12:30. Naptime again around 1:00. Then, you will not wake up again until 4:00 or even 5:00. After another bottle when you wake up, you are normally ready for a final feeding (or partial feeding) at 5:30-6:00 and back to bed for the night.

I know it sounds like you are a great sleeper (which you are at night), but you are an EXTREMELY light sleeper (despite constant loud noise around you). You also NEVER fall asleep in Mommy's arms or while playing, not even at bottle time after an exhausting day! You HATE your carseat and won't sleep there either. You are a very particular baby that wants to sleep only when completely spent and only when comfortably in your crib. And then only until some noise makes you feel like you are missing out on playtime and wakes you up. :)

However, you are very calm and content in your crib too. You will happily just lie there flipping over tummy to back (and I suspect vice versa) watching your mobile, enjoying your stuffed animals, and sucking your fingers until Mommy gets you. It is now confirmed you like your two middle fingers over anything else. (the paci is merely to placate nursery workers).

You are starting to enjoy holding objects (you have always seemed far more interested in/aware of your hands than big brother. You love to hold burp cloths especially...not so much the items that brother likes to push into your fingers.

We rarely use the swing anymore because if naptime is regular, you are pretty happy in between (you also like to attempt to flip over in the swing so not so happy then). You spend a lot of mealtimes with brother and Mommy in the bumbo.

You are wearing 3-6 month clothing quite easily and are still in size 1 diapers (although they are not as generous as they used to be).

You are most definitely a Mommy's girl! If you are fussing, even when being held by others, and Mommy takes you, you calm down. You smile best for me and have even chuckled a nice deep chuckle several times this month. You regularly show a preference for being on my hip over floormat, couch, Daddy's lap, etc...

Other than the laughter, you have also definitely found your voice. At first it started out a bit like Woody Woodpecker, but deeper. Sometimes we think you are our second high-pitched Pterodactyl. Overall, you do have a pretty deep voice for a baby though.

You are quite curious. You love to watch your brother at play (less so when it involves you). You also like to watch tv (if given the chance). You show definite signs of being curious about food too, but Mommy is pretty lazy- even though brother was eating solids at this stage for more than a month. (you did get one tiny taste of yogurt this month--yum!) It will happen this next month, I am sure.

It will be fun to see your personality bloom even more this next month, sweet Elizabeth!

a sweet decade plus one

Today marks our eleven year anniversary! Wow--that is starting to sound long (yes, I know we have just begun...)!

Thanks to the great God who equipped us for each other and then orchestrated the details so we would even meet. What an incredible matchmaker!

I love you Michael, so much more deeply today than 11 years ago. Imagine in 11 more years...

The countdown ticks on

David, you have only one month left until the big 3 years old! Once again, this month there seem to be leaps and bounds in your maturity levels. (as well as many backward slides into babyhood.)

You can buckle the top of your carseat by yourself! And even the bottom if given enough time.

You are speaking so much more clearly! We understand most of what you say now. You love to call your milk "my coffee" (since it makes you feel grown up like your Daddy...nevermind the fact that you have never actually had coffee). You also love to count everything now. Usually the counting sounds like this, "3, 4, 6, 7" or "4, 5, 8, 4, 6." Meaning, you get several numbers in order but often are all over the place with your counting. You also like to show us how many you are counting on your fingers; unfortunately, you still have a bit of trouble equating numbers to fingers and even holding up more than two fingers. It's a start though!

You are "Mister Social" and will talk to anyone that will listen, including yelling "hi" and trying to hold a conversation across the street with our neighbor who wishes to do nothing more than get back to work. You received a compliment from your teachers this month that you are great playing with others. That is so often true if you do not come on too strongly.

Gone are the days of the extremely picky eating. Yeah!!! You still are not ideal, but you are far better and mostly eat what we eat now. You are still quite content to let Mommy feed you much of the time. (in fact, often you insist on it.)

You have a renewed fascination with books. You will even read some to yourself and love perusing magazines (especially car ones or Popular Mechanics). You also like to spy out hidden objects (puzzle finding like Mommy). A current favorite is a phonics book that has hidden duckies in each picture.

And like Daddy, you enjoy playing Mario Kart (and you're not half bad), and you absolutely adore music still! You like to turn on all your music toys at the same time and then dance and sing along with the music. Nevermind the fact that you often sing to wordless songs or totally off-key and off-words to worded songs. You especially love singing songs to Jesus. We began singing hymns together out of a hymnal. You like to sing along with Mommy (even if you don't know the words). You also like to pray aloud with Mommy and be a little echo to everything that Mommy prays during prayers. Occasionally, you will pray your own prayers...never too understandably yet. We have seen some neat answers to prayers that we have prayed together -- like finding Edward, the missing train.

Your favorite toys? Your previous love of Thomas and matchbox cars is still going strong. I am amazed that you can name all the Thomas characters far better than I. And you really enjoyed your first movie theatre experience this month watching Cars 2. Anytime I try to take a picture of you playing with your toys, you constantly ask me to take a picture of your toys. Another of your favorite toys broke completely this month (after months of being partially broken). We "broke down" and bought another Little Tikes Handy Hauler after searching high and low to find a used one at a consignment store (still overpriced, but a favorite that will hopefully last us the next year until you are too old to care).

You show such sweet tender sides with lots of kisses to Mama and others. Sometimes this same affection will turn your sister to tears as you try to love on her or make her hold whatever it is you want to show her.

While you are still a big helper often, you have shown many jealous tendancies this month also that have brought you back to babyhood: asking me to burp you, asking for me to not kiss sister--kiss David, asking to be picked up, wanting to sit in my lap when I am feeding E, lots of crying, etc... I have tried to combat this with plenty of "David" time and lots of special love, but sometimes it just happens anyway.

What a complex bundle of love you are!!! We are so thankful to the Lord for you!

Doubly Happy Cows (and a Fatted Calf)

We did the annual Chick-fil-a run today. D and I dressed up as cows for a free lunch (E just came along for the ride this year).

The lunch Chick-fil-a had a live cow (see last year's post for pictures). The pictures, alas, are not to be this year. D was fascinated and approached the cow. However, when I asked him if he wanted to touch the cow, he said, "no, the cow is dirty." I tried explaining to him that the spots are normal and that they were like the spots he was wearing. Another emphatic "no" followed by..."the cow is dirty; the cow go pee-pee." I had to burst into laughter! He had seen a puddle under the cow and watched the owner milk the cow. (At least D realizes that pee-pee is dirty; perhaps there is hope in the potty training department eventually after all!)

Then, D, M, and I dressed up again for a free dinner. Halfway through dinner, I realized that I felt just that...a fatted calf! Mooooo...