Lily @ 4 Months!

Our sweet Lily Kate spent the month growing from a 3 month old to a 4 month old as she steadily worked on rolling over and mastered this key skill.  Through the month she has started to grab toys more and is more observant and aware of the world around her. She slept well from 2-3 mos, but the exact day she hit three months we dove into an enthusiastic growth spurt and she hasn't slept well since as she was trying to roll over in her sleep or after she had learned to roll over, she would turn over in her sleep and then wake up screaming because she didn't know how to roll back.  *sigh*  To Lily's credit, she learned to roll from back to front first - which is a far more difficult skill than front to back (babies usually throw the weight of their head around).  She very quickly adapted a trick of pulling her knee towards her chest and then twisting her body and boom, tummy time.  She loves tummy time more and more now that she can actively choose it and I think she really likes seeing the world from the "right side up" view she gets when she is on her belly looking out.  

Lily is a little chatterbox who loves to softly coo and babble.  She throws in shrieks for good measure on occasion, but they are usually happy or excited shrieks.  And she frequently opens her mouth as if she is talking.  She smiles when she sees Hannah and gets very excited when we pick Hannah up from her classroom down the hall at daycare.  

Lily also loves it when I hold her up and sing her songs, while helping her dance.  She has the biggest, goofy, open mouth grins.  So much so that I strained a tendon in my thumb doing so and had to completely rework how I was holding her and get a brace for a week!  It has thankfully resolved on it's own, but is the issue affectionately referred to as "mommy thumb" - I was a textbook case of it and have majorly adjusted how I hold and pick up both girls!
  

She has an obsession with ruffles and stuffing them in her mouth.  

The puppies are falling hard for Lily - they continually try to snuggle up to her and are her "watch dogs"

Lily has more and more of a sense of humor - and the number one person who can make her laugh more frequently and harder than any of us is Hannah!  

Hannah is still our force of nature child - it is so much more apparent now that we have a more laid back child as well.  Hannah is still so quick and ready to laugh and her sense of humor is becoming more sophisticated.  She has an infatuation with popsicles this month and with telling you things are "yummy tummy!"  We have all failed in love with the Outshine Fruit & Veggie popsicles that are really delicious and manage to contain pumpkin juice, cauliflower juice, sweet potato juice, etc.  

Each morning when her dad wakes her up, he says "wakey, wake!" and she now repeats that frequently too.  Hannah has been very interested in small puzzles lately, provided she has lots of help from me.  I continually try to verbally explain my logic of why a piece would or wouldn't fit together/where to put it but really wasn't sure if it was making an impact at all, until one day Hannah was like "grass, so this goes on the bottom, and this one has legs," etc.  Her speech is steadily getting clearer and she is stringing more words together than before.  She has frequently been asking "What's that?  Who's that? or What are you doing?"  At bedtime she intently studies my facial features and will continually practice the names of smaller things, like eyelashes, temple, eyebrow, etc.  She still can't pronounce "R's" and it melts my heart when she says "mommy!  Lily "kai-ying" (crying)"  

  

This month also included some fun events as well!  My parents came to visit for a weekend and we spent the weekend hanging out, catching up, and enjoying the pool at their hotel.  We also threw a Sip 'n See to introduce Lily to our friends, really enjoyed the county 4H fair, and managed to squeeze in another relaxing day down at the river.  

One of my favorite former students meeting our sweet Lily at her Sip and See!

Proud Mom of these two sweet girls!

Lily loves other babies!

The sign our friends helped us hang for the party!

Work has been busy for both of us - I'm in "crunch time" interim between summer school and the beginning of the new school year "launch."  Daniel's programs are steadily progressing.  And the whole family is preparing to head down for Emily's wedding in just another week!  

Our sweet family of four @ 4 months!  :)