4 Months : May 2

The faces just get better and better these days.

Ineke weighs in at 17 pounds, just four pounds shy of her 19 month old cousin.  She looks an awful lot like the baby grinch, but in the most adorable way.

At around 7:30/8:00 every night she gets fussy so I get her all cozy for bed and I start nursing her.  She lingers a bit and I let her.  I wrap her snug in her blanket, tight but with atleast one arm out; her Papa gives her a kiss and a whispered bedtime wish.  His beard tickles her and her eyes and nose twitch.  She wakes up again.  I take her over to her cradle and give her my own sweet-nothing whispers and kiss her chubby little cheek- and she gives me the sweetest, brightest, most joyful grin  in return and then she lays down and eventually falls back to sleep.  In the beginning, I was always so afraid that when she woke back up that she would fuss and need to be rocked to sleep but it never happened.  Her cradle is in the living room and even in the midst of living room noises, she sleeps.  We had a game night last night in which there were 8 children and 6 adults downstairs goofing around and still, she just laid there quietly, in the midst of the noise and chaos, until she finally fell asleep.  She is an extraordinary child.  

Since her head is bigger, her hair looks smaller and she is getting more bald.  And the darkness of her newborn hair is turning lighter.  Her eyes (so far) remain blue, but not a light, bright blue like I think of blue eyes but more the dark blue of stormy seas, churning and engulfing before the lightening strikes.

She loves sucking her lower lip and has just the sweetest voice when she talks.  I need to videotape it~ I don't ever want to forget that sound.

She is almost sitting up by herself already and she has entered the phase of the horrible, awful neck ligament pinches that do.not.end until you pry those little finger vices open again.  Ouch.  She has started playing with toys and laughing at her siblings' antics- and she doesn't cry as often when Judah kisses her.  

She still loves being held in close with my Moby wrap although after a while, my back doesn't love it. 

Four months old.  Oh, it's so great.