Happy 4 Month Birthiversary!

This has been a big month! No more do we have an adorable, helpless, immobile infant. We now have a baby that is moving toward a toddler at what feels like light speed. I feel like any time I read something like "your baby might be doing __________ right now" she starts doing it that very day. She now weighs just over 17 pounds and is 26 inches long! Nine month clothes here we come!

This month she learned to roll over from her back to her tummy -- first to the right, then to the left. Fairly quickly after that she figured out how to roll from her tummy to her back. She still prefers rolling over her right side, but she can manuver herself across the kitchen around her playmat using her system of rolling. Right now it doesn't seem very purposeful, more like she just likes the freedom of being able to control her body and isn't really choosing where she is going, but I'm sure that is not far off.

In month 3 she developed these sweet little coos. We called it her library voice. This month these noises disappeared and were replaced by an almost caveman like grunting. Sometimes it seemed like she was in a competition to see how long she could grunt. The last few days her sweet little coos have resurfaced and are intermixed with her now perfected grunting.

Another development has been her use of her hands. She now reaches for and grabs just about everything she sees. She enjoys examining her toys and attempts to put everything in her mouth. Lately she has been feeling her legs and reaching for her toes. She's managed to briefly grab them once or twice, but today she actually pulled her foot into her mouth.

Magnolia's hand sucking has continued. Recently she has gotten more coordinated and developed a preference for her right thumb. The strong tradition of Gracey thumb-sucking continues: when I was four, after trying everything short of amputation, my dad, exasperated and confident I would fail, offered to buy me a pony if I stopped until my birthday. I was a determined little girl--and come on, a pony?! I stopped cold turkey and my dad actually delivered even though he knew--maybe because he knew?-- we were moving to Alaska in a few months. Brian and I told Magnolia that we will not be getting her a pony. Maybe she'll have to hit up Grandpa.

For over a month now we have been trying to figure out if she is teething. Its a bit early, but since I cut my first tooth at three months its not out of the question. Her increased fussiness is one of the possible indicators. It is still not very much and could be due to the frustrations she is experiencing as she wants to do more than she can.

As parents our new development is that we decided to try to put Magnolia on more of a schedule. Both Brian and I are pretty laid back and with Magnolia being such an easy baby we didn't really see the need. But since we were in month 4 and hadn't had a full night of sleep yet, we thought we would give it a try. Family obligations have thwarted us left and right, but we're still trying. So far we have had a couple of 5+ hour sleeps and she now goes down pretty easily alone without rocking.

Brian will be in California for school this next month, so I will be a "single mom." He's hoping that she doesn't change too much this month.