Fish Bite Moonbeams: FOUR MONTHS

FOUR MONTHS

Weight: 13 pounds, 3 ounces. 30th percentile!!!
Length: short girl at 23.6 inches, 15th percentile
Head: 39 cm
Clothing size: So, funnily enough, here I am thinking that my baby is in 6 month clothes when in reality my super super hot dryer has been shrinking her clothes by INCHES. My mom graciously did a load of laundry when I bought Jordan new baby clothes (it was International Bereaved Mother's Day, no one cared, so I spent hundreds of dollars on clothes for Jordan that day to make myself feel better) - and the ones she washed are big on her. I compared them to the clothes I bought in the same size, same brand and the difference is huge. So, I don't know what she wears. She can still wear some 0-3 month clothes, 3 month onesies, and 6 month pants and dresses. She's all over the place. Baby clothing brands really need to streamline their sizes and make something easier for mommies.
Eye color: Gray. Turning brown. They looked hazel the other day. It was a good run, blue eyes, good run.
Hair: Hysterical. Messy. Long. Likes to stand up. Still dark. It is a fashion statement on its own. Everywhere we go, strangers are like "LOOK AT ALL THAT HAIR!!!" Someday, just to be funny, I'll pretend like I have no idea what they are talking about. "What hair?"

Heard her talking to herself at 5 am. Walked into her room and this is how I found her... and her hair.

EAT
Five times a day, four hours apart with the exception of her last nursing session that is an hour early. She goes 8-9 hours at night without eating now and still wakes up a very happy baby. Also, if you ask her, "are you hungry?," she gets a HUGE smile on her face and sometimes starts kicking her legs because she knows it's time to eat. I usually nurse her in my bed, with the tv on, because that is the most comfortable. So now, every time we are in the master bedroom, she's all like hey mom, where's the boob? This girl has a great relationship with food. Just wait until she is on solids. I'm thinking of buying another memory card for my camera just to document it all.

SLEEP

We have our bedtime routine down. Feed her around 9 or 9:30 pm, check her diaper, turn on her sleep sheep to ocean noises, and sit with her in the glider. Down in her crib by 10 pm. It doesn't matter if she is sleepy or wide awake by the time I sit in the glider with her - she knows her bedtime routine and she knows it is time for sleep. She relaxes, closes her eyes, and it isn't long before she's tired enough for me to put her down in her crib. I still walk upstairs to our master bedroom like a boss thinking I have done the impossible by accomplishing this. Sometimes she sleeps soundly all night, other nights she is fussy and starts clawing at her face trying to find her pacifier. I'm already dreading weaning her from it. I never wanted her to use it in the first place, but here we are.

LIKES

Violet. I recently bought her My Pal Violet and programmed the dog to say Jordan's name, along with her favorite things (pink, milk, dogs). Jordan doesn't actually have a favorite color or animal and she only drinks milk, so I just picked pink because she looks so good in it and dogs because well, we have a dog. Anyway, Tim was burping her before we put her down for the night while I programmed Violet. I brought her upstairs, pressed Violet's paw, and Violet said "HI JORDAN!" and this is what we got...

Cue her looking back and forth from the dog to me, looking for an explanation.

Jordan has loved Violet ever since.

Pacifiers. Her wubs, as we call it. She likes the Dr. Brown ones the best. I hate them all.

No Pacifier? No problem. I got a thumb!

Anything that lights up. This includes toys, ceiling fans, and the like. Sometimes she will say
"ooooooo" looking at her toys light up. This could quite possibly be the cutest thing that she does.

Piano. Hopefully she will play it, because I sure ain't anymore.

Stroller. Just a few days ago, we went for a walk and she stayed awake the whole time. She loves being outside. I think when she grows up, she will be a professional going-outsider.

They see me rollin', they hatin'

Daddy talking to her. Not holding her, though. That's a totally different subject. But she loves when daddy comes home and talks to her - she laughs and smiles and kicks her legs until she thinks he is taking her away from me.
TV. Sofia the First, to be exact. I guess this is better than the episode of South Park she couldn't take her eyes off of.

At least it was the Sarcastiball episode

Tummy time. You read that right. No longer a hater, she is getting stronger by the day and can do 15-30 minutes at a time. She can play with her toys on her tummy, that is, until she gets bored or tired and then either face plants onto the floor or, if she's on her boppy, crawls out of it (and then subsequently face plants).

Hooded towel. She loves her bath, sure, but her favorite thing about bath time is getting wrapped in her warm hooded towel right afterwards. I snuggle her up in it, she looks up at me, and gives me the biggest smile.

Breast pump. It's like white noise to her. I get up half an hour before her to pump and get ready for the day. The pump is right next to her crib and she doesn't even stir when I turn this loud, obnoxious thing on. If she's fussy before I turn it on, it quiets her down.
Lunchbox. Her favorite toy, ever. The second I bring it out, she gets excited. It can even stop the tears when she's tired of tummy time. I constantly have the phrases "bananas are a healthy snack!" and "red apple! crunch!" in my head.

DISLIKES
Lotion. Her least favorite part of bath time. But her skin is so dry that I have to put it on every morning now. I wonder when she will realize that the lotion will not eat her.
Loud noises. More notably, loud children. She is also not a fan of mommy and daddy inviting people over for a bbq. Get them out of the house, mommy. They're loud!
Velcro. Could seriously be the most annoying thing to her. No matter how deep of a sleep she is in, she will hear velcro - even on the other side of the room. She reacts to it the same way I would react if a velociraptor came into the house.
I think that's about it. The other day, Tim's mom (who recently counted that she has taken care of 22 babies, not including her 5 children or 6 grandchildren, and who practically runs a daycare) mentioned that Jordan was a really good baby. I looked her, looked down at Jordan, and said, "wait.. this baby?" and she nodded. "Jordan?" ... "yes," she said. It took me a minute but then I realized she was right. Jordan is VERY outspoken and lets you know when she doesn't like something, but the second you remove her from said unlikable thing, she is super happy. And as you can see here, there are only three things that she isn't really a fan of. Plus, a good eater and a good sleeper? So amazing.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Rolling over. Right after she turned 3 months old, Jordan was doing some tummy time on her pink car playmat. Then she rolled over, just like that. I almost missed it. I watched her do it. She was so nonchalant about it. It took me almost a full minute to realize what she had done. Hey, wait a minute.. you're on your back... GOOD JOB JORDAN!!! Then I realized that my MIL asked me if I knew she was rolling over just a few days before that. Duh, of course I knew. But I thought she meant Jordan was rolling side to side. I texted her to check and sure as hell, Jordan has been rolling over for Grandma for days now. So, suspicious, I checked with my mom as well (who had almost mentioned rolling to me, but I was too stupid to realize what she meant). Turned out Jordan had rolled like, a week earlier with her. No wonder this little girl was so laid back about rolling over. She was all like "I've been doing this for awhile mom, chill out. Now roll me back onto my tummy, woman."

Blue bear, you make a good snack!

Grabbing things. She still needs some work on this, but she really likes grabbing blue bear and putting it into her mouth (so yummy in her tummy), Pat the Bunny (that she got for Easter), her wubbies, aaaaaaaaaand that's about it.
Tummy time. She can do half an hour at a time, ya'll.
Pressing buttons. Especially on that lunchbox. She practically punches that thing. She also has a treasure chest that you can put coins in and the box lights up and teaches her colors. She likes to hold the coins and is SO CLOSE to being able to put the coins in the slot by herself. Her aim is getting better every day!
Bear weight on legs. I am convinced she will be an early walker. When she's crying or fussy, if you hold her and let her bounce or help her walk, she stops crying. She's putting one foot in front of the other like a pro. Her massive thighs must help with that. Jordan is definitely bottom heavy. She is bringing booooty baaaaaaaaaack (she'll all about the bass, bout the bass, no treble).
Turning pages in her board books. She even lets me finish reading the page first, and then I say, "okay, turn the page" and she wildly swings her right hand until the page turns.

Borrowing one of her brothers' books

Talking. All. Day. Long. Tried to upload a different video but Blogger says HELL NO, FILE WAY TOO BIG BECAUSE YOUR DAUGHTER WON'T STOP TALKING. So just imagine this jibberish times ten.

Learning language. She's good. If you ask her where mama is, she turns frantically until she finds me. Ask if she's hungry, and she gets SO HAPPY. She knows what's up. If I ask her to touch something, like a blanket, she will reach out for it. She can definitely understand much of what we say now, and I can't wait until she can start talking back! I'm pretty sure her first sentence will be a demand, probably "FEED ME."
Being super cute. Every time I see her, I'm all like:

DEAR JORDAN,

My babykins! You are getting more and more fun every single day. You laugh, smile, and "talk" to mommy all the time and it makes my heart melt. But my favorite part of the day is probably bedtime. You and I sit in your glider, and you look at me until you close your eyes and fall asleep. I love this quiet time, just you and me, and I take all of you in. I remind myself every day that you will never be this little again. I can't believe how full my arms feel lately. You used to be this little thing, under five pounds when we brought you home. Now you look like you can eat other babies as a snack. You've probably thought about it a time or two. You are starting to put everything in your mouth now, including mommy's shoulders when I hold you, so I'll be sure not to put you near any humans smaller than you so that you don't get any ideas.

Your personality is really coming forward now. You are extremely outspoken - you will tell me (or anyone, for that matter) if you don't like something by screaming at it. Remove you from said thing, and you are fine. You have no issues communicating by making facial expressions, and it seems as though you think everything is either hilarious or disgusting. You don't feel like you have to be the center of attention - in fact, you kind of hate it. I think you get that from me. You don't like crowds of people and you would much rather take a walk in your stroller or be outside, away from all the noise, instead of near any kind of party. I think you like the color green. You are happiest on your changing table, where you can have full blown conversations with whoever is changing your diaper. Are you telling us all about the screenplay you plan on writing, or about your plans for the day? We will know soon enough.

I'm looking forward to all sorts of "firsts" with you: Fourth of July, vacation (to the Caribbean in September!), Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas. Some of these things are several months away, but I know that I will blink and we will be opening your first Christmas presents. My eyes fill up with tears just thinking about it. You will never truly know how special this is, or what all of this means, until you have children of your own. Every night I pray that you have a world full of blessings in your life, including having children and grandchildren of your own. And now I'm thinking of you all grown up, married, and not needing me for a single thing. I'm incredibly sad that someday this will happen, because you and I are best friends right now. I hope it always stays that way.

Right now, I am just trying to plan for the immediate future: baby wading pool party with your cousin once you can sit up on your own, what headband you will wear for the 4th of July (I bought four), if we should attempt bringing you to Galena this summer, and trying to break your obsession with television. Seriously. Please stop. I am terrified it is ruining your fragile little brain. Plus, I can only watch so many episodes of Sofia the First before my brain explodes.

I sound like a broken record every month. Basically, I love you, you are the cutest thing to ever happen on the planet, and please stop growing so fast. I cannot keep up.

Love always,
Mama

4 month photo dump: