Hitting the 4th Month!

It was so cute the other day to watch Judah and Maestro. I had just finished feeding Judah as he was sitting on my lap doing his secret agent gaze and Tim was sitting next to me on the couch. While Maestro made his way over to Tim's open lap, Judah just started laughing. We looked down at Judah in time to watch him squeal in delight at Maestro, trying to pet him and instead getting a fistful of fur. At four months, Judah's world has swelled into a world of increased discovery and play and more growth and development.

He loves to watch Maestro and continues to grab at him. Whenever we see Maestro, I say, "Where is Maestro?" and Judah has learned to look for the cat. Maestro has also become more aware of Judah despite obviously staying clear of his hands. During bed time one night as we were changing Judah's diaper and clothes, Judah was just laughing and screaming. Tim caught Maestro sitting on the nearby bathroom counter peaking around the door to see what was happening as if to say, "Is he OK?"

It is fun and often amusing to watch Judah play as he continues to discover new tricks. You can see the wheels and thought processes turning in his head as he plays with the toys on the Excer-Saucer. As much is true when he now drops his toys; he plays with his Binky this way, taking it out of his mouth, putting it into his mouth, and then waving it around before dropping it on the floor.

Many times you will find Judah playing on his mat with one hand on one toy, the other hand on a different toy, and his feet still kicking yet another toy altogether and all at the same time. Other times, he is content to talk to himself in the mirror on the play mat. If we hold him up to the mirror in our dining area, he just smiles at his reflection. Since he tries to stand all the time, we finally put him in his jumping swing. He does love the freedom to move around on his own (we have a feeling he will skip crawling and go right to walking). Also you will find him just turning around in his Excer Saucer. We do still practice sitting up though and each day he will sit a little longer and more upright by himself. When he is laying down, he does his stomach crunches on the floor by holding up is upper body and his legs at the same time or he is rolling over and over.

Judah loves to play with faces and hands too. He likes to feel your face by grabbing your mouth or pulling your hair. One night we were watching a musical (another to add to our musical repertoire) and Judah just outright laughed at one of the dance scenes. Even more so, he will actually sit and let you read a book to him. Finally, we pulled out the Baby Einstein and Your Baby Can Read! videos and let him watch those for the first time. I just put him in his pack and play and he will look up at the screen for about 15 minutes.

Judah has really blossomed in two main areas showing that he continues to grow: feeding and sleeping. Gone are the days when Judah took like an hour to eat to now eating about 10 minutes tops for each feeding. He continues to sit with us at the dinner table in his bouncy seat or Bumbo but now he intently watches us eat. If we happen to sit him on our lap, he likes to grab our plates and even reaches for our food. Everyday the plates get scooted further back out of his reach. At his four month check-up the pediatrician said that Judah was now ready for rice cereal (which we will any day now once we find the right recipe). He is definitely ready.

Once again almost overnight (literally), Judah has wanted to stop being swaddled. He now prefers at night to have his arms out near his head. He has also settled into taking two naps a day, a short one in the morning and a long afternoon nap. He still gets fussy in the evenings causing us to continue pushing up his bed time where now he will fall asleep, wake up to eat around 10:00pm and then go back to bed. Ironically though, Judah still likes to be swaddled during the day. In fact, he just laughs at you when you try to wrap him up in the blanket for nap time. However, by the end of the nap, you will find his arms or even his feet loose from the swaddle.

Since Judah's 4th month doctor's appointment, he has grown to over 14 pounds. Judah is already out growing his 3-6 month clothes and moving into the size three diapers and 6 month clothes from his long torso and legs. Most of the clothes fit as high-waters or 3/4 sleeves on Judah otherwise. He still is 50% height, 25% weight, and 5% head size. If he continues along this pattern, he will end up just like daddy. His hair remains lighter but has become more wispy and thicker. Everyone still comments on his big blue eyes and they melt your heart when he looks up at you.

To add to the 4 month milestones, Judah is cutting teeth and is experiencing his first ear infection. This has totally messed up any sort of schedule lately as he has been waking up at night and sleeping longer naps during the day. After about a week of what we thought was symptoms of teething cause of no fever or runny nose, we finally took him to see the doctor who diagnosed an ear infection on top of teething. Getting his first taste of the famous Bubblegum medicine, we discovered to give it to him naked between changing clothes (as it makes a mess). So this week, Judah as been either really mellow from a mixture of pain and Tylenol or extremely fussy. We hate to see him not feeling good but on the flip side, he is definitely more cuddly. But we certainly can't wait to sleep through the night again.

The season of Fall has also brought about apples, leaves, pumpkins and yes, snow. On the last nice sunny day, we took Judah out for a photo shoot. Unfortunately the leaves were still brown but we got a few pictures. Judah did not like the leaves though. One Saturday we also took Judah to the Orchard to get apples and it appears he already enjoys the family tradition. The cold weather has made us dig out the hats, coats, and gloves and turn on the fire place and furnace. This means that Judah has not been able to go strolling outside as the weather turns to winter.

Tim has been busy with working at fundraisers, updating web sites, attending meetings and of course his October YLI class of Leadership Passions. Tim is driving better these days due to his new glasses he is wearing. As a family we went to visit some relatives to help them put up a shed (and Judah played with his cousin Isaac). Both sets of Grandparents have been down recently to see how much Judah has grown. Two weekends in a row, we took Judah up to Ames to see his aunt Rachel on campus (perhaps he will be a Cyclone). When Judah and I are not either running errands, napping, or cleaning the house, we have been playing, reorganizing the kitchen, and trying new recipes.