4 Months: Look at what I can do!

It's hard to believe that four months have passed since we became a family, and two since Danny and I had our perfect wedding. As a new stay-at-home mama, I am able to observe every amazing thing that Gloria does -- learning all about finger dexterity, identifying fun toys and noises, laughing, smiling, and "talking," playing and kicking -- what a difference every day makes! Gloria has requested to publicly demonstrate some of the skills she has acquired over the past couple of months.

After realizing that she loves to put her bib in her mouth, we moved on to the extremely soft, washable cloth toys. She just loves to feel the fabric on her face and lips, grabbing and pulling the toy to her face. This is her "chewing lion."

                        


Only performing this trick if diaper-only from the waist down, usually on the changing table, Glo can now grab and eat her feet! Mama eats her feet a lot, so that's one of our favorite activities to share. Nom nom nom!

I decided to sneak in photo of my favorite naked baby!! For those of you unaware, Gloria had a herniated belly button -- it was no big deal, but caused her belly button to heal quite slowly and it stuck out more or less, depending on the situation. No longer!

"Let's hang out in here for 30 minutes to play, okay?!"

Preparing to grab her feet. Her belly button has gone down even more since this photo was taken a few weeks ago.

Feets, feets, feets!!











This past week, Gloria and I started our "Beyond Newborns" class at AMMA. Only one session, and our tummy time problems are over!! Mama has very little experience with this sort of thing. She would only last about 30 seconds directly on her floor blanket, and would spit up all over it anyway. So, we haven't done much tummy time. A couple of weeks ago, I started "flying" her around, but was unsure if this was equivalent. It is, I discovered at class. We also learned many other variations to try; one of which is to lie on my inclined legs. All three of us are THRILLED about this development!

Looking around at toys, her room, and her favorite -- daddy! This lasted upwards of three minutes (or so it seemed).






Another thing we learned at our class -- baby girl LOVES noise making, light-weight balls. She can grab them, and surprised the heck out of me when she picked up a much larger one (which we promptly went to buy at Target after class) and hurled around while I was supporting her in a sitting position. Never thought I'd be so impressed as I am when she now reaches out to grab it with both hands. And then of course, the obligatory attempt to eat it, laughing all the way to the bank.

        



So, on November 10, 2012, our baby girl is four months old. We are enjoying every moment, every smile, every new noise that she gives us, and can't wait to see what she does next.

(As the following pictures were being taken this evening, Gloria did her real laugh for a solid twenty seconds, proceeded by another short burst. This is the longest that she has done so; the photo shoot turned in to a laughing party and a teary-eyed mama. It was the sweetest sound to ever fall upon my ears. Please note her crossed legs -- she did that herself. What a lady!

There were too many photos that we love to pick just one. Here is the Month 4 Gallery.)