Gretchen Margaret is four months old today! She is growing so fast! Anymore, she wants to be big like Kaelyn. Here's what Gretchen is up to these days:
- She weighs between 13 and 15 pounds.
- She wears size one diapers.
- She wears size three to six month clothes.
- She "talks" all the time. She babbles instead of coos now. She is starting to make sounds that sound like first words. She will be talking in no time!
- She laughs out loud. She has the best laugh!
- She has two teeth -- bottom front right and left.
- She is working on her four top teeth and two more bottom teeth. She is a slobber box!
- She loves lying on the floor and playing with toys. She is finally able to grab and hold toys by herself. She is fascinated when she finally grabs and holds a toy that she wants.
- She loves to play on the floor on her tummy. She raises herself up on her arms and smiles at everything she sees. She thinks she is a big girl when she plays on her tummy!
- She can roll over from front to back. Every time she rolls over, she surprises herself and she laughs.
- She sits in her high chair to eat her cereal and fruit. She also sits in her high chair at the table with us when we eat dinner. She thinks she is a big shot when she sits at the table with the rest of the family!
- She is a thumb-sucking pro! When she is tired she sucks her thumb and grabs her hair in the back. We think she is going to be a hair twirler!
- She loves to listen to stories and look at books.
- She loves to watch television. Her favorites are Elmo and football with Daddy.
- She still loves to be held in the rocking chair. I rock with her right before her long afternoon nap and right before bedtime. She really relaxes and falls asleep fast when being rocked.
- She takes six ounces of formula every five to six hours.
- She has started eating yellow vegetables -- squash, sweet potatoes, and carrots. Carrots are her favorite. She literally sucks them off of the spoon! She eats vegetables with rice cereal for lunch. Next month she gets to start green vegetables.
- She has added peaches, apricots, pineapple, and mango to her fruit regimen. She eats fruit with oatmeal before her last formula feeding before bed. She loves all of the fruit -- she is even eating pears like a pro now!
- After her last feeding, she sleeps between 12 and 14 hours before her next feeding. This makes Daddy really happy as he does not have to get up with her every night to feed her!
- She is sleeping in her crib in her own room. What a big girl!
- Most days she naps one hour in the morning and two hours in the afternoon. Some days she power naps for 30 to 40 minutes. The rest of the day she is wide awake. She sleeps so long at night that she really does not need to sleep during the day anymore, except to nap.
- She still loves to sleep on her tummy.
- She loves the Jumperoo. She laughs when she jumps and activates the lights and music. She thinks she is a big shot when she is standing in the jumper!
- Our neighbor let us borrow their Exersaucer. At first Gretchen was not crazy about it, but now she loves it. She has even figured out how to swivel the seat by herself. She is such a big girl in the Exersaucer!
- She still loves to sit in her bouncy chair and look at the toy bar. She loves the lights and music and cries when they stop.
- She loves to sit in her swing. She has figured out how to make the music work by pulling on the toys attached to the swing. She thinks she is a big shot when she makes the music work.
- She loves, loves, loves, her big sister. She smiles and kicks her legs whenever Kaelyn talks to her. She watches everything that Kaelyn does. We think she is collecting information so that when she is able to sit up and play, she will know what to do!
- If Kaelyn is in the room with Gretchen and is not paying attention to her, Gretchen will make a loud noise to get Kaelyn's attention. She almost demands that Kaelyn pay attention to her if they are together!
- She still loves when people talk to her. She smiles and "talks" to anyone who talks to her. She moves her mouth around like she really has something to say. Someday we will find out just what she is thinking!
- She still loves, loves, loves her bath. She is almost strong enough to move the bathtub from the sink to the bathtub in the bathroom.
- She tolerates her car seat and stroller as long as there is a toy to look at and talk to.
- She is still a very spoiled baby! Whenever we have free time, we hold her. She loves to be held. We hold her more than we put her down. This may come back to haunt us later!
- She is still a very happy baby. She is smiley all the time. The only time she really cries is when she is hungry or tired.
Gretchen is getting big in a hurry. She wants to do everything that Kaelyn does and tries really hard to be big like her big sister. We keep telling her that, soon enough, she will be big and be able to do big girl things. For now, though, she should enjoy being a baby. We highly doubt that she understands what we are saying, but we tell her anyway. We can't wait so see what she is up to next month!
