Dear Jack: Four Months

Dear Jack,

Here we are at four months!  That means you are a third of the way to being a year old.  Goodness!

You have been growing great.  You are wearing size three diapers and six-month clothes.  I'm not sure of your exact weight right now since your appointment is a few days away, but you seem to be about fourteen and a half pounds.  You look so different from your newborn photos, and it makes me so glad that I took tons of pictures all day (even if they were just on my phone at times).  One thing seems to remain the same, though:  those eyes are still blue blue blue.

This month, we've tried putting you in the jumparoo.  You are able to bounce some and enjoy it until you get your hand stuck or something.  Tummy time has really been paying off.  You can roll over from back to tummy.  You lift your head turning tummy time with ease.  You scoot around and spin in circles when playing on the floor.

You are still sleeping in our room in the portacrib by my bed.  I was going to try to transition you over to your own room, but you've been waking up more lately.  Sometimes I blame teething (did I mention that you are working on two teeth already?). You sleep better than your brother did still, thankfully, but you are a little bit of a rough sleeper lately.  You start getting tired around 9:00 pm and sometimes sleep, but you almost always wake up screaming at 11:00 pm.  Then you wake again around 3:00 am, 6:00 am, 7:00 am, and 8:00 am.  Sometimes I let you grumble yourself back to sleep, but I don't leave you crying.  I'm no good at cry-it-out.  I'm trying to work on getting you used to the crib, though, during the day.

You're such a happy boy.  I love watching you smile and laugh in the mornings.  You love to kick, pull on my hair, and watch us blow our lips at you--you try to blow back!  You are so vocal and make all kinds of noises.  Sometimes you sound just like a cat.

These days, you are so alert.  You love watching the fish at the aquarium.  You laugh at the salty breeze of the ocean.  You are fascinated by your brother.  You like watching football with your dad.  You also like You Gabba Gabba, just like your brother did.  I wonder what things you will grow to love as your personality grows.

Your brother is getting to the age where we are trying to get him more active.  We're looking into soccer and swim lessons....  It's a lot of fun to see him get excited and I'm looking forward to it, but it also makes me appreciate this simple time I have with you.  As a baby, you are so different from your big brother.  The challenges are as different as the rewards.  I love the two of you together--you complement one another and shape us into a great family.

You are my little buddy, Jack.  We are always hanging out.  The longest I have been away from you has probably just been an hour or so when I have gone down the road to my parents' house for a small visit.  It seems strange that it has been four months of having you by my side all day and all night because it seems so incredibly normal.  I love our "new normal" and the family we have grown into.  This month, it was a year ago that we learned about you.  What a wonderful, amazing, happy day.  Not a day goes by that I don't thank God for all of you--my boys.