four months

What an absolute blessing you are to your Daddy and I!

We love you so much!!

I cannot imagine life without you and yet remind myself that all of our lives are in God's hands. You are ours to raise for His glory but not ours to cling to. You are His. He has graciously given us to each other to be family.

Your fourth month of life has included more travel - to Colorado and to Pittsburgh to visit grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, & cousins. You have already taken 10 airplane flights in your short life. You are a great flier. You usually sleep most of the flight but even when you don't you're just busy charming the flight attendants and all of your fellow passengers.

Two of the words that people often use to describe you are "strong" and "alert". Both of these make me proud. I pray that you will continue to be strong in the Lord and in His might and that you will continue to be alert as you grow in Him.

You have begun to laugh so much more! Daddy and I love to do things that we think will make you laugh. Kissing you all over, growling at you and even getting a tight hug have been known to make you break out into your great open mouthed laugh.

You are soo close to rolling over from your back to your front. You roll around on your back with both feet held tight in your grasp. You are enamored with your feet. :) It's really adorable.

You're teething. Lots and lots of drool, everything going into your mouth to be gummed HARD including Daddy's finger or anyone else's you can get ahold of, cute squeaky sounds on your pacifier as you chew on it . . .

We read your first book at the library. We sat in the children's section, you in your stroller and me on the window seat and read a Duck and Goose book. If you take after your Mama and Daddy at all I'm sure one day we will be checking out heaps of books from the library. You are enjoying books more and more and are happy to sit and listen to several in a row. Nana enjoyed reading to you when we went to visit her. You have also started handling books on your own. It is so neat for me to see you with a book in your hands. You chewed on Moo, Baa, La La La very enthusiastically last night while Mama and Daddy, Grandma and Uncle Edmond were eating our gelato.

You went to your first baseball game!! You loved it. Pirates vs. the Marlins at PNC park. It was a really nice night and you loved being out and about. You watched everything and seemed to take it all in. Grandma's arms were a great place to watch the game from. The only thing you didn't like was when we didn't think to cover your ears at first and the crowd erupted into LOUD cheers. That bottom lip stuck right out and big ol tears came.

You got to have some special times with Grandad, walking down to the busy corner to watch cars go by and going to see a train.

You got to meet lots of family members this month, your Aunt Mandy, Uncle Jeremy, cousins Caleb and Aaron, Uncle Edmund, Great-Granny, Grandad and cousin Alisdair.

You learned to love your bath and kick and splash all around. I think you cousin Aaron helped you learn this when we went to visit. It was so fun to see you guys together. You gave Aaron a couple of wet slobbery kisses.

Cousin Caleb was really cute with you. He would say, "He's really cute." and when you'd cry during dinner he go over to you on the floor and pat you and say "It's okay."

You went to a park for the first time. The first time you laid in the grass and the second time you rode in a swing with Mama holding you for a few minutes. You liked it a lot.

You continue to mostly sleep through the night. Traveling seems to mess up your sleeping schedule a bit. Ducca worked his rocking magic on you putting you down in Colorado one night.

You are very vocal making all kinds of coos and screeches and sounds. Sometimes it really does sound like your saying "hi".

You've got quite a grip on you and love to grab Mama's hair and Daddy's ears and our arms. You look like a little tree climbing baby when we change your diaper. You grab hold of our arm with both of yours and hold on tight.

You are very flexible. You go with Mama and Daddy all sorts of places, go to lots of different people and enjoy visiting. You are a very happy baby and we are so thankful for that.

If you're crying it normally just means that you want attention and interaction, you're hungry or you're ready for a nap. You still fight going down and keep at least one eye open as long as possible so you don't miss anything. You like to have your pacifier to go down for a nap.

You're a spit-up champ right now. Especially if you've just had a bath or Mama or Daddy is wearing nice clothes or have just had a shower, you keep things interesting. We've got lots of laundry to do. You'll grow out of this though.

You went to cradle roll for the first time at church. Your teachers said you enjoyed it, especially the little animals and things they gave you to hold.

You learned to put your paci in your mouth by yourself! That feels like a huge breakthrough.

You and Daddy watched a Switchfoot concert live on the computer and you really seemed to like it.

We love you, Little Man and look forward to watching you grow and learn even more!