Okay, 'nough about me...on to the cute one! Isn't she just great?! I'm loving this girly more and more each day!
New this month...
Last month her personality was just starting to peek though the baby fog and this month it has continued to bloom! One of the things I prayed for most fervently was for McKenna to have a fun sense of humor/personality. That has been my favorite part about Austin (even more than his killer eyelashes - and yes, I prayed for those for her too!) and I just hoped that McKenna would have the same spark that he does. I would have even traded the "easy baby" part for personality. (Glad I didn't have to though! phew!) You can definitely see that same spark these days! She likes to smile at just about everyone. (Although, if you were one of the people she burst into tears at the sight of, please don't take it personally! She still has her anti-social moments!) And her smiles are more like full body smiles these days. Shoulders go up, body wiggles, head tilts, etc. Much enthusiasm! Oh! and I've forgotten to mention before that she has a cute little dimple! It only shows when she smiles big!
You still have to work some for giggles though these days, but they are slightly more abundant than last month. Her main trigger of giggles are Momma's tickle kisses one her neck and ribs and being "tossed" or bounced in the air. But the other day she started belly laughing watching Austin rough house with Brian. What a sweet moment! Well, I'm pretty sure she was laughing. We tried to repeat the scene the next night and she started crying. I think he was being more shrieky and scared her though.
She's really starting to be into her toys this month. She had just started batting and playing with them at the end of last month, but now she "gets" them. Well as much as a 4 month old can. Her face does light up, though, when I put her carseat toy up and she knows how to work it pretty good! She loves the Taggie ball and her ladybug book/stuffed animal. (Thanks Phyllis!) With both of those her play consists of grabbing it with both hands (got that milestone) and attacking it with her face (got the bringing objects to mouth milestone too!) Unfortunatly, she has a hard time falling asleep in her carseat if her toys are up. When she'd usually fall asleep, now she's too fascinated to do so!
We're phasing out the swaddling pretty well. I do both the occasional nap and the occasional bedtime with minimal swaddling, just depending on how vital that nap is to the plans we have for the day or how wound up she is. If she's a "jittery" tired, she needs to be swaddled to calm down. And most mornings she escapes from her swaddle but goes back to sleep. I'm thankful we're getting it figured out before it gets too hot, cuz even with one of the lightweight swaddlers, she's still pretty warm.
She's settling into a very nice schedule during the day, to the point where I can pretty well predict what our day will look like! It makes planning outings and getting some housework done so much easier! As long as she's not having a bad reflux day, she's relatively consistent.
At the end of last month, she was just starting to acknowledge Austin's presence. Now she knows him well...and fears him! She's not fond of his "love taps" (ie bonks on the head) and winces whenever he comes near her! :( We are working on gentle, I swear! She's a pretty good sport though. She hardly cries now when he whacks her, unless she's tired and feels like tattling.
She decided to make me out to be a liar. I said last month that she's pretty at rolling and the day I posted that just happened to be the last day she's rolled! I think it's mostly that she's more content on her belly now and doesn't feel the need to escape it as much. She's actually getting somewhat close at rolling from back to front. She can make it about 1/2 way over, so prolly in the next month or so she'll have that figured out. I have to watch her much better on the couch now!
Not technically by 4 months, but because she started it the day after, and I'm a week behind in posting this, I'm gonna include it - She started blowing raspberries last week and it has to be the cutest thing ever! For this phase at least! She's really concentrating on it and will study you intently when you do it. She's figuring out she has a tongue too and will occasionally stick it back out at you when you stick yours out.
McKenna has hair! I can't tell you how excited I am that she didn't look like an old man! She still has some dark baby hair around the back and on top, but her new hair is growing so good! It shouldn't be long before I can put cute little clips and bows in it! It's very light brown, with significant red highlights. When she's outdoors, she looks like a redhead. And her facial coloring goes with the red too. (Very fair and pink!) Definitely of Irish decent! Although both my mom & I have red highlights, so really I don't know where she gets it from.
Her eyes are blue, her eyes are blue, her gosh darn eyes are blue! (Sorry, I always have the scene from "Liar, Liar" in my head when I think of the color blue. =D) Each month I cross my fingers that they'll stay! Maybe I'm hoping so much because I always though my eyes were such a boring brown? I guess I have eye color envy issues.
McKenna is finding her voice. She talks usually when she's tired and kinda cranky or hungry (so really she just has a sweet cute way of yelling at me), but is starting to just coo and talk when she's happy too.
I don't think I mentioned it in previous updates, but McKenna has some reflux issues. We were pretty skeptical of trying meds, since reflux seems to be the diagnosis de jour. But when it was pretty obvious she was in pain, we decided to try Zantac and it made all the difference in the world! The week before she turned 4 months she suddenly started having a hard time eating again. I guess it turns out that reflux peaks at 4 months, so she was right on schedule. A quick adjustment to her dosage and she's a happy girl again. Happy as long as I'm not currently giving her the meds. It is an intense struggle every time! Hopefully she'll outgrow the need soon so I can stop torturing her
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