Four Months Old!

Vital Stats:

- Height: 26.25 inches which is above the 97th percentile

- Weight: 13lbs. 15oz. which is in the 50th percentile

- During the day we follow an eat, play, sleep routine and she is eating about 6 ounces of food at every meal.  She is a hungry, hungry catepillar.  She WAS sleeping through the night, but starting the second week of summer she began waking up several times during the night and struggling to fall back asleep.  Our first line of defense was to toss out the swaddles...she now sleeps free form in her crib like a big girl.  Tear.  When that didn't completely cure the problem, we began feeding her a bit more right before bedtime...maybe she's going through a massive growth spurt and getting hungry in the middle of the night?  That helped a bit - she is still on and off with good nights of sleep.  Last night was an off night.  The night before was an on night.  Such is life I suppose.

- She has really started "playing" with her toys.  She loves her stuffed monkey and giraffe and her crinkly turquoise elephant.  And by playing, I mean stuffing them in her mouth.  If you hold her toys out in front of her, she will reach and grab onto them...and then stuff them in her mouth.

- One night while I was putting her in her jammies (Craig was at a baseball game) I was trying to stuff an arm through the armhole, but she kept trying to put her hand in her mouth.  She would look up at me and grin like "Ha, ha, ha Mom!  I know I'm making this difficult for you!"  She was playing a little game with me!  I started tickling her tummy and cooing at her about trying to trick Momma...and then she giggled.  And I giggled.  And we giggled together.  And it was awesome.

- She is recognizing and differentiating between people which is awesome because she knows Momma, Daddy and Angie but it's also not awesome because she knows when it is NOT Momma or Daddy.  The other night I had her in my lap in her rocking chair and Angie jumped up to be part of the cuddle and Natalie's legs started kicking, she was giggling and stretching her arms out to touch her puppy dog.  Angie leaned in for a big kiss while Natalie wrapped her arms around Angie's neck.  I love that my babies get love each other...at least for the time being.

- She has found her feet and it just happened over night!  On Friday, July 1st...no feet existed.  On Saturday, July 2nd...she had her feet in her hands and was trying desperately to get them into her mouth.  It's amazing how quickly she is growing and learning.

- I think Craig and I have noticed the biggest changes in her socially and physically in the last two weeks.  Physically she is more solid and getting some "baby chunk" on her (but she is still a slim and trim baby by most standards) and she is so long.  The other day while I was nursing her with her lying on the Boppy Craig remarked how her little body used to completely fit on the Boppy, but now she is draped all across it and the majority of her legs are hanging off the side.  Socially she is responding to her name and when Craig and I speak to her and she certainly knows when it is time to eat because she gets super excited and starts these breathy grunts in anticipation.

Here are some pictures of what Natalie has been up to this month:

Playing on the floor with Daddy - listening to his funny noises and watching his silly faces.

Gotten REALLY good at holding her head up - she is starting to try to push up with her arms.  She rolled over from front to back too!

Celebrated Father's Day with Craig.  She gave him a box of baseball cards, I gave him two tickets to a Rangers game, Angie gave him a Dallas Mavericks championship t-shirt and my mother gave him a gift card to Buffalo Wild Wings.

She figured out the right team to root for this upcoming college football season.

She went to her very first Flower Mound HS basketball camp which is run by her Aunt Sis.  She wore a navy blue and white (the school colors) Under Armour baby onesie with a white headband and bow and then white socks and her pink Converse.  It might have been one of my favorite outfits that she has ever worn.

Natalie and her daddy with her basketball camp award.

Celebrating her very first 4th of July at Grandaddy and Nonna's house.  The bottom half of her outfit had the cutest silver sandals.

She is putting everything into her mouth...here she is attacking her giraffe.

Here she is attacking Daddy's thumb.

And apparently I need to hand the camera off to other people more often because all we have are pictures of her by herself or with her daddy - not a lot of Momma and Natalie pictures because I'm always taking charge of the camera!