Tenley Louise || 4 Months Old

Sweet little Lou, you are 4 months old now!  I still look at you and stare in disbelief that we have a little girl to love and call all our own!  Daddy and I giggle over how girly you are!  You have the girliest cry and when you get hurt (for instance, with shots) you make sure that everyone around you feels sorry for you by whimpering as long as it takes to get all our sympathy.

You love tummy time, especially when you are in front of the TV watching basketball.  So far it seems to be your favorite sport to watch - all that action of players running back and forth across the screen!  But your most FAVORITE thing to watch is your big brothers!  They are awesome entertainment for you!

You like laying on your back under your play mat/activity mat.  There are 3 stuffed animals that dangle just above you and now you can reach up and work to grab a hold of them.  That will keep you busy for quite some time now!

You aren't into holding onto toys and rattles quite yet - I put them in your little hand and you wrap your fingers around them only to let go right away again.  That will come soon I'm sure.

Besides laying down you enjoy sitting up in your Bumbo and Jumperoo.  In your Bumbo you ALWAYS lean over to your left so all of your weight is shifted to that side.  In your Jumperoo you ALWAYS get your little right hand stuck down in the seat with you -- I can see your little hand almost sticking out of the leg hole with your leg!  You jump a little while in there, it looks like you are practicing your tap dancing steps!

You have the biggest, brightest smile!  You light up like a Christmas tree when me and Daddy come around.  One of my favorite times of the day is right after you wake up in the morning - you are one happy little girl!!!  You give me a wide open mouthed smile and make a little inhalingwhilescreeching noise - my favorite!  It's pure joy!  Tate loves it when you smile and he always points it out -- "There mile!!!"  He really loves and adores you!

You are not on any sort of schedule where napping is concerned.  I think you are working your way to a 3 nap per day schedule but we just aren't there yet.  Over the past month you have given me quite a few full nights of sleep.  But about 2 weeks ago you woke up 3 times per night 2 nights in a row - that about did me in the next days!  Then it was 2 times per night for 2 nights then just 1 time per night.  That I can handle but it'd sure be nice to get back to full nights of sleep permanently.  That time will come I'm sure.  For now I enjoy the extra snuggle time at night.  You tend to go to sleep for the night about 8:00 which is awesome because that's your brother's bedtimes as well.

We are still 100% breastfeeding but I was about to throw in the hat a couple weeks ago (about the time you reverted in your nighttime sleep habits).  I think I figured it out though -- I wasn't drinking enough water.  Once I picked up the pace on drinking more water you settled back into nursing like a pro and started sleeping better again.  Add to that you were back to my happy, content little baby during the day - hallelujah!  I'm glad we didn't give up on nursing!  My goal is still to make it to a year old -- we are 1/3 of the way there!  Wait, 1/3 of the way to your first birthday???  Sniff sniff, let's forget I mentioned that stat!

Another consequence of our blip in the nursing routine is that it slowed down your weight gain.  At your 4 month well baby check today you dropped from 90th percentile in weight to 25th.  Ut oh!  Your doctor, Miss Amanda, isn't super worried since I explained the whole breastfeeding thing but we are to go back in a month for a weight check just to be sure that's really all it is.  Because of this you are still a skinny little girl (dare I call you 'Runt' like Papa called me???) and able to still wear 0-3 month clothes!  I can't believe this! Your brothers were out of 0-3 month clothes by 1 month of age!  Your pants are a tad short and the shirts a tad short in the sleeves but when I tried putting you in 3-6 month jeans you swam in them! They would have fallen right off had I held you up with them on.  You do wear 3-6 months clothes as well but it's kind of fun to say my sweet little Lou Tahlou can wear 3 month clothing.  You are much too long to wear 1 pieces that are 0-3 months, though.  Here are your stats this month:

Weight: 13lb 4oz, 25th%
Height: 25", 75th%
Diapers: Size 1 Pampers Swaddlers
Clothes: Mostly 3-6 month but a few 0-3 month two piece outfits

I have to mention that even though these pictures make your eyes look very dark you actually have the prettiest blue eyes I've ever seen!  There are, for lack of a better term, stripes of light brown that run out from your pupil to make the most beautiful colored eyes.  I wonder if this is your permanent eye color or if they'll still turn brown like your Daddy's or green like mine.  Only time will tell!

You are a joy to have.  I kiss you nonstop. We chatter quite a bit but you definitely aren't as talkative as you were a month ago.  You clasp your sweet little hands.  You love to stand up on my lap and while being held you want to face out so as not to miss anything!  You seem to enjoy church quite a bit because you tend to always fall asleep mid-Mass - it relaxes you.  You are quite the snuggler but not with me or Daddy -- with your soft, fluffy, pink with white polka-dots blankie that your Great Aunt Jackie gave you.  You grab it in your little hands and stuff it in your face and mouth.  You rub your face in it, and when time to fall asleep I put it up by your face where you turn your cute nose into it, sigh and shut your eyes.  Be still my heart, reminds me of another 'Runt' with a soft pink blankie (I'm referring to myself,  Loulie Lou, in case you didn't catch that!).

I love you, love you, love you Tenley Louise!  I'm excited for the next month of fun with you!