Keeping Up WIth the Smiths: Chapman is FOUR months old!

What?? I know it was just yesterday that I was writing about you turning three months old. Anyhow, a month has passed, and you are now 4 months old. We went to the doctor this past week, and you got a perfect report. Dr. Koenig said you sure know how to grow! You are certainly not a little baby anymore. You weigh 15 lbs. 7 oz. {you've almost doubled your birth weight}, and you are 25 3/4 inches long {you've grown 5 inches since you were born--that's crazy to me}. You got two shots while were at the doctor and you did not, I repeat, did NOT like them. You screamed bloody murder--your little face was redder than I have ever seen it before. After they were over, and Mommy picked you up, you were all better though. We are thankful that you are growing and healthy. Keep it up, kiddo!

Last time I checked in, you were trying to get the hang of sleeping through the night on a regular basis. For some reason unknown to us, you still wake up around 4:30 every morning. I continue to let you cry yourself back to sleep in hopes you will get the clue that you are not supposed to be waking up that early! Once you go back to sleep you sleep until about 7:00; I can handle that. In the past month you have become quite the napper--that's a big change from last month. You now take less naps, but they are more solid. You usually take 2 two hour naps and a short nap in the early evening. Your awake time is so much longer these days, and I love it! I almost forgot--we weaned you from your swaddle!! I was extremely worried that you would not take well to having your little arms free while you sleep, but you surprised us. We let you sleep with one arm out during naps for a couple of days, then basically went cold turkey at night. Everyone told us we would have sleepless nights for a week or two, but you proved everyone wrong. Thankfully you were able to transition from swaddle to no swaddle very easily.

Eating...mhmmm. You were doing great eating. You were eating close to 6 oz. at each feeding. Then something happened. The last week or so, you have been fighting eating. We consider it a success if you to eat 3-4 oz. at a time right now! This does not seem to bother you, though. You are still happy and do not act like you're starving. I am hoping it is just a faze and you will start eating better again soon. We introduced you to rice cereal right before your 4 month birthday. You don't seem to know what to do with it. You open your mouth for more, but you can't quite grasp how to swallow it yet! I'm sure with more practice, you will become great at eating solid food. You come by a love of food naturally--if you don't like to eat, I'm not sure you are ours!

You have finally grown out of some of my favorite little sleepers. They were mostly 0-3 months. Now you are in 6 month clothes. I can still squeeze you into a few 3 month clothes, but you really need 6 months these days. And it's a good thing, too, because we bought you a lot of cute winter 6 month clothes after you were born. I am so glad you can finally wear all of it! You are still in size 2 diapers; you've only got about 2 more pounds before you're in size 3 though...slow down, little boy!

You continue to learn and change daily. You still love your play mat, but you have also started playing in your jumperoo. You play with your toys while you're sitting in your Bumbo seat. It's hard to get in much tummy time these days, because as soon as I put you on your tummy you roll over. I can't seem to stop you! I get on the floor with you in hopes of keeping you entertained while you're on your tummy, but you roll over anyway. You've really started to laugh this month. Daddy can get you laugh easier than I can. You laugh when I tickle you, but you really laugh at Daddy when he's talking to you. When we have story time you are very interested in the books. You put your hands on the pages and it looks like you are helping me turn them...I like to think you really know what you are doing, but I know you are just exploring! You put anything and everything in your mouth. Your hands are never not in your mouth. It makes for a lot of drool! You finally don't mind being in your car seat, which makes it A LOT easier to run errands--I'm not constantly in fear that you're going to have a meltdown because you want out. You're such a good baby--I know I am biased, but you're very predictable and happy. You only cry if you're hungry or tired {mostly tired, because we usually feed you before you are "starving"!}. Thank you for being such a happy baby! You make this parenting thing seem pretty easy most days.

You celebrated your first Christmas this past month! We went to see Santa, and he must have thought you've been a good boy because he brought you some fun toys. I'm know you did not know what was going on for Christmas this year, but we sure had fun celebrating with you!

You had another first this month...Mommy and Daddy left you for 5 days. We went to California for the National Championship game {that's a whole other blog}, and you had LOTS of great caretakers while we were gone {ie, Mrs. Cynthia and Hodges and their girls, Grandmommy and Granddaddy, Becky and Randy, and Mrs. Corky}! We were sad to leave you, but you got so much loving while we were away; everyone spoiled you rotten. I missed you so much while we were gone. Everyone was so kind to send pictures and videos of you; thank goodness for technology! I don't think we will be leaving you for an extended period of time anytime soon...

I'm so thankful for the digital age...I would not have near the amount of pictures of you if we still used film, I'm sure! {If I did, there'd be a lot of blurry ones!}