Four Months

At four months old Scarlett has two new developments that no one was expecting! 

Teeth! You can see the tiny pearly-whites right next to the tip of my finger. They are completely broken through her gums, with the one on her right side being the first of the two. She is much happier now, with Sunday and Monday being the hardest days for her poor little gums.

Her daily schedule is pretty strict in terms of sleeping patterns. She takes a nap almost exactly 2 hours after waking up in the mornings, no matter what time. 

Here she is in my arms at 9:30 this morning after waking up at 7:50. Her naps are between 30 and 50 minutes, and are up to 2 1/2 hours if I lay down with her in my bed. But I don't really have time to nap for that long on a regular basis, so we only do that if we have had a rough night. 

She goes to bed between 8 and 8:30 every night and wakes up at 2:30 am and 5:30 am. Then we sleep in until and where from 7:30 to 10. But mostly 9 is our normal wakeup time. 

She has recently started to enjoy standing in her exersaucer. She looks like a busy little secretary at her desk. All alert and grabbing onto everything..

And although she is great at holding her head and neck, her spine still needs some strengthening before sitting upright will begin. She needs full support of her back still, but soon enough I'm sure we'll have those first wobbly attempts. 

My favorite thing, beside her cooing, is when I pick her up and she nuzzles into my face like she's so happy to see me. Even if I just set her down for a moment. She loves to touch our faces now, and it is so much fun to see her reaching for us. It really is the first sign of our love for her being reciprocated through touch. Whereas before I knew she loved me by the look in her eyes, but now she says it by patting my face and pulling my hair. Here she is giving Daddy some love before he left for his trip. It was hard for him to say goodbye. 

Recently, Texan went to the north east with his boss to pick up two new pickup trucks that they had won in an online auction. They flew to Philadelphia and drove back down to texas, seeing sights along the way. They stopped in Maine to see the shoreline dotted with beautiful lighthouses:

New York City:

Ellis Island

9/11 Memorial in progress 

Empire State Building 

And then they went to Washington DC and his favorite monument was the Lincoln Memorial. And we got some pretty sweet souvenirs.  

And notice the Capitol building bib in her exersaucer pic.../

While Texan was on Holiday, Scarlett and I went to Grammy and Grampy's. We had lots of fun shopping for new clothes at the mall and handy gadgets at IKEA on Friday. Then Saturday we had lunch out and lounged around the house the rest of the day watching Pride and Prejudice and napping. And although those were the first two days that I suspected teething had begun, the only fussiness occurred around bedtime/nap time. She would arch her back and growl like a baby grizzly bear in the angriest disposition I had ever seen from my sweet baby. Other than that she was as good as gold for the grandparents and they got to witness the full spectrum of her personality.

We are so grateful for a boss who turned what could've been a boring road trip into an exciting tour of a couple awesome cities, and for family that lives close by. We are thankful for a healthy four-month old, who will get to meet her Aunt Nikki tomorrow when she comes for a 4-day visit! Oh, and I am grateful that we get to celebrate Mother's Day this Saturday, since Texan was out of town and Scarlett didn't get a chance to go to the Brighton store...