4 months

GV month by month

[click image to enlarge]

Four months old has been quite an adventure so far.  Of course, GV is still growing like crazy.  I really hope this slows down a bit soon, he's more than doubled in size in just a couple of months.  It scares me a little that he's already the length of my legs, that's not saying too much, but still!  

But bigger than his body is his personality.  When I find myself wishing that he was still just his itty bitty newborn self, I am reminded of his funny little personality.  It's so much fun to watch him transition into a little person.  He's got a stubborn streak.  When he's mad, which thankfully isn't too often, he lets you know.  For example, if he wants to eat and he thinks you've waited just a minute too long, he will put up a fight to try to teach you a lesson.  The fight is worse if he's mad and you're attempting to put a bottle in his mouth, but it's not impossible to win him over.   Most of the time he's good mood Griffin though.  He loves to talk, especially to groups of women that gather around to look at him.  I thought it was a little to early to flirt, but I guess not.  Most of the day he spends content and happy, just getting a little whiny when he's tired.  I can't complain.

He still LOVES to sleep.  He's sleeping 10-11 hours a night and taking about a three hour nap in the morning and an hour nap in the evening.  This keeps me a happy mom.  Playing is his second favorite passtime.  He's entertained easily by toys dangling above his head , by kicking the keyboard in his crib, or even by sitting in his chair watching whatever is going on.  His favorite toy happens to be the cheapest one too--his hands.  He doesn't need things in them, he's fine just chewing on his fingers for hours at a time.  I get lots of entertainment from watching him play.  It's terrible to admit, but I love to see him frustrated with something.  He gets this intense look of determination on his face, with furrowed brow and bugged eyes, and sometimes he shakes a bit.  Then he slaps his arms around and yells until his plan is carried out.  I could watch that all day long.

We do have one problem in our house, one I hoped and prayed that we wouldn't have.  He LOVES the T.V.  Ugh!  I had planned on having a child that despised the television and would rather draw or run around outside.  Now I know that it's too early for those things, but this kid will roll and scoot and do things you didn't even know that he could until he's looking at the screen.  He is obsessed with it.  My plan may be just a little harder to carry out than I hoped.  On the subject of rolling, he's a pro.  He had rolled (tummy to back) a month ago and did for several days, then just stopped.  But now he's back on board and has even rolled back to tummy too.

You can tell by the picture that he is much stronger, his back and neck especially.  He hates being held like a baby, preferring to be sitting up if you'll let him.  Another thing you can see in the picture is his belly button, or his knob, as we affectionately labeled it is now normal.  It used to be herniated, it stuck out a good ways, and was noticeable through his clothes.  The doctor said that this was normal and could take anywhere from a couple of months to a couple of years to fix itself.  Hallelujah!  It only took a couple of months.  It was fun while it lasted.

Here's his stats

Nearly 26 inches long-75th percentile
15.1 lbs-75th percentile
Head circumference- 50th percentile

And the Little One Said

Roll Over, Roll Over!

At 3 months and 1 week old GV decided to wake up this morning, stretch out on the floor, and roll himself over.  Dave, who happened to be working from home, and I both had our eyes on him, witnessing his first EVER roll.  GV acted like his feat was no biggie, but his Dad and I, squealed with excitement.  We may or may not have slightly frightened our little baby.

Batter Up!

I think it was about two or three weeks ago when GV began to notice the toys hanging from his bouncer seat. He would stare and stare at them, sometimes moving his little hands a bit, but never touching the toys. Last week as he would stare at the little squirrel, owl, and hedgehog; I saw that he was more excited, kicking his feet and raising his hands a little higher. Then today. Today I decided to hang some toys from his swing. Since it doesn't have a toy bar, I used my mom ingenuity to make a chain of his links to hang a few things from. (For a moment, I was proud of myself.) I hung his little frog toy on the chain and walked away. Then I heard a loud rattle! I ran back to see if I could catch the next one, and I did! He was swinging away and making lots of happy noises. This is so much more exciting than I ever could have imagined. I'm not sure who was entertained more, although I'm pretty sure it was me.

Developmently, so much has happened over the past few weeks. He has gone from smiling once or twice a week, to doing so whenever he is asked. He is also bringing both hands to his midline, which Dr. S told us to expect by his four month appointment. Who knew that I be getting a kick out of that?! Now he's interacting with his toys. I remember asking a few moms when this would happen, and now, it's happening now! He also has gone from disliking tummy time, to being able to hold his head to look at us for more than a minute. What's next? I'm beyond excited to see.

*Side note: Dave and I sadly realized that we didn't have any videos of GV as a newborn. We were busy taking so many pictures, we forgot to use the video function on our camera. :tear: Now, nothing worth recording is going to get by us; as we've both vowed to press record on our camera every chance we get.

He's got a lot to say.

Lately GV has been smiling much more frequently, and of course, this sends me to the moon!  In the last week he has basically been smiling whenever you smile at him and we'll catch him smiling for his own sake too.  He also started "talking" to me.  One day I was talking to him and when I stopped, he cooed and gurgled back at me.  We carried on for a while, almost long enough for my heart to explode with joy.

This morning we were having a conversation and I happened to notice the camera sitting next to me, so I captured it to share.  I apologize for the awful angle and tv noise in the background, I obviously didn't plan this one out.