Calendar Girl - Four Months

One of these days I'm going to get this post up before she gets so close to turning the next month, I swear!  This month I was all raring to go, but then I realized her month sticker is orange.  And I didn't have any blankets or (big enough) fabric that was orange.  Or so I thought...  This month, she is laying on the fabric that is supposed to turn into a slip cover for her ottoman!  It's been kind of wrapped around it like a package since we went to the hospital for her to be born.  My mom (who doggie-sat for us) saw it just sitting there in the nursery, and arranged it like that to make her room more homey.  There it stayed!  Slip covering an ottoman is so dang simple, I need to just sit down and do it!

She's been waiting 4 months to show you that 4 with her fingers!

Oh yeah, then I realized I didn't have a headband to match, either.  So I had to make one of those, too.  And I couldn't decide what color to put the flower on, so... yeah, it changes.

Anyway...  Enough of my crazies.  Onto Miss Ruby in her 4th month!

If I thought she was putting her hands in her mouth last month, I hadn't seen anything compared to this one!  This girl is sucking her fingers all. the. time.  Mainly the first two, but she isn't too picky.  It means she's not that interested in a pacifier, but it also paved the way for losing the swaddle!!!

That's right.  Baby girl is no longer swaddled at night!  She was busting out constantly, but we started to notice that she was starting to be ok with it.  Mostly because she'd pop her fingers in her mouth and suckle them back to sleep.  I was SO apprehensive about it (we'd tried before with no success), but we haven't looked back since the first night.  Naps are a different story, though.  Little Miss No Naps won't take one without the swaddle, and even then naps are hit or miss.  I can usually get one out of her if we've had an outing that day, but otherwise, no.

Speaking of outings, Ruby was a lucky girl this month.  She got to participate in a Kindermusik class.  For free!  A representative came to our parent-baby class and did a mock music class for the babies.  Then emailed us a coupon code to use for a month of free classes.  Because it was summer, they were running month long "camps", which meant we got to do a whole camp for free.  I wasn't sure how much she would get out of it, but she really seemed to enjoy it!  I think her favorite part was getting to see and interact with the other babies.  This month she has really been into her buddies.

We're definitely getting tons of smiles out of this girl, but she is kind of stingy with her laughs.  Embarrassingly, a good way to get her to laugh, is to sing LMFAO's Sexy and I Know It.  Specifically, the "wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle, yeah" part.  It gets her every time.  It reminds me of that episode of Friends where Ross & Rachel sing Baby Got Back to Emma.  Another thing that gets her laughing is so sucking out her boogers.  Especially if you say, "boogie woogie woogie".  Yep, my kid is weird.  =)

Ruby had a doctor's appointment this month, and my suspicions from last month were correct.  Her growth has slowed.  I had a feeling, as she still has room in the 0-3 clothes, and her diapers are on the same snap setting.  Still, when we put her on the scale, I was kind of surprised.  She was 11lbs11oz.  My girl is a tiny peanut.  At only about 10th percentile for weight, she was at least 50th for height at 24.25".  Her head was 10th percentile, too.  At least she's proportionally small?  Her pedi isn't concerned, however, and she's a great eater.  She nurses at least every 2 hours during the day (which I attribute to her sleeping ~12 hours at night).

She had her 4 month shots at this appointment, too, and I was scared.  They were the same vaccines as last time, but luckily it wasn't so bad.  A little nursing right after, then home for a 2.5 hour nap to sleep it off.  At the end of the day, I think her legs hurt (based on her cries), so I gave her some Tylenol this time and it did the trick.  Phew.

This month, Ruby also got a lot more proficient using her hands.  She reaches out with both to grab things that she wants.  And she actually knows she wants them!  Lamar, her moose, is her favorite, but she also digs the o-ball and her taggie blanket.  Oh, and her burpies.  She likes to shove those into her mouth two-handed.

Blurry hands (oh, how I need a new camera!), but still a cute pic!

Finally, at the end of this month, Ruby sat in her high chair for the first time.  Her doctor gave us the go-ahead to start solid foods when we see signs of readiness.  She's not quite there yet, and I'm in no rush to get her started.  It is great, though, to have her practice sitting in her chair!  It is the kind that straps to a regular chair, so we have it on one of the barstools in the kitchen.  Which means I can strap her in there and actually eat my own breakfast, yay!

I knew the crying pics would be back.  Haha, her moods can change by the second!