Four months

Dear Rosa Jane,
A few days ago, you turned four months old!  You celebrated it by taking a big car ride to southeast Oregon to attend a family reunion.  You have been quite the hit amongst our family, with everyone commenting on what a great baby you are.  In light of that, we thought we'd let you know what you've been up to recently.

First of all, you have learned how to grab!  It started with seemingly inadvertent gestures and now has progressed to full-on grabbing of things:  on your playmat, when you're being held, and when something interesting comes into reach.  It boggles our minds that you've gotten old enough to grab already.  How did this happen so quickly? 

Speaking of your babyhood passing, you are definitely out of the so-called fourth trimester and into babyhood now.  You are getting chubbier by the day, drinking mostly Mommy's milk with a bottle or two of formula every day.  We have to make sure that you keep on liking the bottle, so that the transition to Mommy going back to work will be easier.  Luckily, you are perfectly happy with either Mommy's milk or bottle, which makes life nice for all of us.

In terms of sleep, you've slipped back a bit, wanting to wake up several times at night to nurse.  We're working on getting you back to your amazing initial sleep habits, because we're much better moms to you and your siblings when we sleep.

Let's see, what else?  You love to babble and to have little conversations with other people, and you also love to watch everything around you with big, big eyes.  You especially watch us eating, which makes us think you might get into that on the early side, and you love things like fans and other things that move.

You also seem to like tummy time.  You can raise yourself all the way up on your arms and look all around you.  We're working on giving you more time on your tummy, so you can keep building strong muscles.  You have an amazing ability to roll pretty much every time we put you on your tummy, which always surprises you and makes us smile.  

You are adored by both Mateo and Natalia.  They love to hold you and help feed you and talk about you as their baby.  Your little smile lights up our whole family, and you are kind enough to smile a lot.  You tend to fuss only for a reason (tired, hungry, diaper change, etc), which is an amazing thing.  At four months, you have a sunny disposition that we hope you keep for a long time! 

Rosa, we love you more than we could possibly say.  You are the perfect addition to our family and we love you just the way you are right now.  We look forward to what the next month will bring!

love, Mama and Mommy