Claire is 4 Months Old!

Claire turned 4 months old on Saturday. I had great intentions of doing this post then, but weekend posts rarely happen because we are so so busy! Warning... this is long, but I want to write all of this stuff down.

Claire has changed so much this past month. She is really starting to develop more personality and she is so happy most of the time. She is sleeping pretty well. She had been sleeping all night long until the week I came back to work. Then, she started waking up around 4 am every night and would then go back to sleep for several more hours. Just this week (Friday night), she started sleeping all night again. She's done it 3 nights in a row. I'm hoping this is the beginning of a pattern. I couldn't ask for a better Mother's Day present! She goes to sleep so well on her own. I just lay her down and pat her bottom a few times and then leave. She flips her little head a few times and grunts and then she's out. I'm really trying to avoid all of the issues we had with Grant's sleeping.

Just this past week, Claire has really started rolling over lots. She rolled over for the first time 2 months ago and has done it a few times in between, but all of the sudden she's really figured it out. Now, when she wakes up in her bed, she'll roll over onto her back. She did it several times last night when I was trying to lay her down for bed. I lay her down on her belly, and she'd flip right back over and look at me. She's rolled from back to belly only a handful of times, so she's not as good at getting back to her belly.

She is putting EVERYTHING in her mouth. I don't see any teeth below the surface yet, but Grant got his first ones around 5 months, so they may not be too far off if all of this chewing is any indication. She tried to drink out of Grant's sippy cup this weekend. It was just water, so I put it in her mouth and she really tried to suck on it. She is also grabbing everything! She tries to pull food off your plate, the table cloth, or anything else that's in site. It's amazing how quickly they go from totally uncoordinated to being able to grab pretty much anything you put in front of them.

Last week, Claire got to try out cereal for the first time. She did pretty well with it the first night, but she didn't want too much of it. We did it several nights in a row, but these last few days have been so busy that I haven't bothered with it. She doesn't seem extremely interested in it yet, and I know she's getting enough to eat elsewhere from the rolls that seem to be everywhere on her little body! We go to the dr. Thursday for her 4 month check-up, so I'll have to update then with height/weight stats.

Lil Miss loves to talk and be talked to. She just babbles and it's so sweet. I could just eat her up. My babysitter is off for 2 weeks starting next week and I'm bringing her to work with me several days. I can't wait to spend all day with her again. She's so much easier to take care of now than she was when I was on maternity leave. She still likes to be held (by me) and sometimes my arm aches at the end of the day from holding her. She's starting to do better with other people though and actually didn't cry when I left her in the nursery yesterday at church.

Grant is doing so much better with her. I think it's really helped that they're spending more time together at nanny's now. I think the problems we had at first may have been more of a result of us taking him to nanny's when he knew I was at home with the baby. I don't regret it because I couldn't have dealt with both of them effectively, but I know it was really hard on him. Claire just adores him. All he has to do is talk and she grins ear to ear. I hope it stays that way when he's stealing her toys. I got the first glimpse of things to come one night last week when they were in the tub. Grant has this stuffed Elmo that is for the tub and Claire was holding it (chewing on it) while I was washing Grant. When I got done with him, he wanted Elmo. He tried to grab it from her, but she was holding on tight so he didn't get it at first pull. The look on his face was hilarious as he grabbed it again and snatched it from her. She just started laughing, but I know it won't always be that way.

I just can't believe how fast they are both changing. Grant will be 3 in less than two weeks and that blows my mind! It seems like just yesterday we were going through all of the baby stuff with him. They are so different from one another and both so much fun. Hope everyone had a Happy Mother's Day. My husband did remember to buy me a card this year (before the actual day). This is an accomplishment! I let him off the hook by saying we'd join the gym for Mother's Day/Father's Day presents...it's something we needed to do and I don't need anything and his birthday is right around Father's Day. How many presents are really necessary all at once?!