Secret Agent Josephine

Today Baby Bug is four months old. FOUR months! I can’t believe time is passing so quickly. She’s getting so big and has so much personality. She has different cries for different things. When I do something she doesn’t like, (for example: pick her up when she wants to be down or vice versa) she lets out this exasperated cry like, “Maaah-om! I was just getting comfortable! Why do you have to always mess things up?” or when she’s hungry or tired she squawks. And when she really doesn’t want to go to sleep, she moans at half volume.

She cracks me up. Just the other day she started laughing at me. I’m always going on and on about how much poop she can make while I’m changing her. Sometimes when I say something like “Oh my goodness! Look at the poop!” She smiles from ear to ear and lets out this funny guffaw like it must be the greatest achievement in the world to be able to make such quantities of orange foamy poop. I’m so proud of her.

Today was also her four month check up. She was a brave trooper. Either that or her memory isn’t long enough to know that going on a fun adventure to the doctor’s office also means four ouchie shots in the leg. Lately she doesn’t fuss so much about getting into her car seat. She used to scream bloody murder when I wrestled her wiggly arms into the tiny straps. But now I think she’s equating getting strapped in as “we get to go out!” and she LOVES going out. Anywhere besides staying inside all day long. She hates staying inside because our house is soooooooo boring to her. I don’t blame her. I think it’s pretty boring too.

The thing is we go out so much…. I take her on so many walks that she’s starting to get a tan like her mommy. I’ve been trying really hard to protect her perfect skin from the harmful rays of the sun but it’s impossible. She wants to be free in the sunshine with her fuzzy hair ruffling in the breeze. She doesn’t want to wear a floppy hat or worse a flannel blanket draped over her head. I try and I try… but I admit it: her head is a little bit browner than the rest of her body. Just like her mom. Seriously, I never try to tan. It just happens. I hate wearing sun screen and it’s going to be the death of me. When Baby Bug turns six months, I’m going to have to get over my aversion to slathering on the sticky stuff. I really don’t want her to grow up to be a wrinkled old raisin like me without choosing to be that way.

But back to her check up…

It turns out she’s going to be a little squirt. Here I was thinking all the other babies were so chubby when actually she’s just little and skinny. At her last check up she was in the fiftieth-percentile but now she’s dropped to the 10th percentile in height and 25th percentile in weight. At first I was shocked and worried that I haven’t been feeding her enough but the doctor said her growth pattern was very normal. She’s growing steadily. I guess when you think of all the babies in the world and these “percentile” numbers are based on averages it’s not so bad. She does have plenty of baby fat, just not rolls and rolls of it. And it’s not like her mom and dad are huge huge people.

The doctor also recommended we start feeing her solids. I’m so excited. I’ve been waiting for this day. I’m also a little bit scared. Can I do this? I barely remember to feed myself three meals a day. Am I responsible enough to remember to feed a baby every single day? Whipping out the boob is easy. She cries, I try all the multiple choice answers until I find the right one. The boob is usually the third thing I try. But feeding solids? That requires pumping 3-4 table spoons of breast milk and mixing things and making sure it’s the right temperature and then there’s the spoon and the bowl and …. and I have to feed it to her when she’s hungry so she accepts it. It all seems way too complicated to do when she’s starting to fuss because she’s hungry. I can’t even concentrate when she starts fussing.

But like everything else, we’ll probably figure it out in no time. The doctor says she’ll gobble it up. We’ll see. I wanted to give her some today but she was extra fussy because of her immunizations so I decided today was already too stressful to throw rice cereal into the mix. Tomorrow will be the big day. Maybe I’ll even film it for a movie.

Speaking of movies… I have one for you! (1.56 megs, quicktime) Or for me actually. I edited it like crazy to avoid boring everybody to tears but I’m starting to realize that these movies are always going to be fascinating to me and dull for everybody else because she’s my kid and I think every single drool bubble and eyelid blink is earth shattering. So view it if you will and skip if you don’t. I won’t be offended at all.

Happy Four Months Baby Bug!