Finally

It's been a crazy week or so. We've weathered our first nursing strike, which we think was brought on by a combination of teething pain and achey, innoculated legs. There was some fun new night waking/hysterical crying too. It really wasn't fun, but it puts things in perspective. I'm sure one day I'll look back on these as the easy days. In the meantime we're still waiting for new teeth to poke out.

Let's see. . . At the four-month appointment height was 27" and weight was 18 pounds, 11 ounces. Less than I expected, but with the teething and holidays making feeding schedules wacky at best, I wouldn't be surprised if she lost a little bit. There's absolutely nothing to worry about, though, because she's still above the 97th percentile for both height and weight, and she's perfectly proportioned. She's a big baby, but she's in no way overweight. Her development is right on target for her age, too. All good. This was the first appointment where she didn't cry the whole time. Until the needles that is, and even then she was all smiles until she got stuck the first time. She quieted pretty quickly, too, and remained relatively calm on the drive home. She's getting to be so big.

She's much better at sitting now by herself. I stay close by whenever I've got her sitting (especially on the couch) but she keels over much less often and when she flops forward she either chews her toes a bit and rolls to her side or pushes herself back up. She's getting really, really close to assuming the position for crawling. Just waiting for those core muscles to firm up and then look out, folks.

The other new thing is grabbing. Grabbing at anything and everything: the colander, any thing on or comprising my face (especially my lower lip), food (she's totally uninterested once she's got a handful of rice & beans, but I guess that's not the point just yet), anything with words on it, cups I'm drinking out of, everything on the coffee table, and . . . well, anything within view. She reaches and complains if she can't get to it and/or if I interfere. We're learning the fine art of distracting her from what she wants to grab and substituting something that's okay for her to get her hands and mouth on.

In among all these things, we had a great visit from Grandma Judy and Grandpa Will, who did us an enormous and most appreciated favor in taking over day care duties while Babysitter Lisa was vacationing. Gaz is very lucky to have such great grandparents, and we're lucky to have so much support from both our families.