Rachel: 4 Months

     Today Rachel is four months old!

     She went for her four month check up and shots last week and weighs 13 pounds and is 24 inches now. Thankfully, she fits fairly well into all of Laura's hand-me-downs for the correct season (except shoes), even though Laura was born three months earlier in the year.
    Rachel is just the sweetest little baby, and can go days without crying, providing a nice contrast to her... shall we say 'high maintenance' sister. She always has tons and tons of smiles, especially for Mama, and has been laughing more often now. She is even starting to get a little ticklish. So cute. I feel bad because I have to take advantage of her easygoing nature to attend to Laura a lot of the time. But, at least Laura is in school twice a week now so I have a little more 'full attention' time for Rachel. Hopefully she doesn't sleep all the way through it. ;) When she does cry, though, she really cries. I refer to her as the Drama Queen because she is just so... dramatic. When we were at the doctor's last week, he put the cold stethoscope on her chest and she wailed. Good set of lungs on that one, but a bit of an over-reaction if you ask me.
     She has become quite wiggly in her old age (hence the less than stellar picture), and will immediately alternate arching her back when propped up in a sitting position with scooching her bum forward so that she wiggles all the way down to laying flat again. You'd think she likes the view? She still really loves grabbing onto her toys hanging from her activity gym, clothes and hair, and really anything she can get her hands on. She has also taken to this fairly hilarious 'grumbling' that she does when she is slightly unhappy (bored or mildly hungry, usually), but will carry on for half an hour or more. Grandma says we better watch out when she learns to talk because she'll never stop!
     She has yet to roll over again since she first did those two times at 3.5 weeks, and still hasn't slept through the night, either. She usually goes to bed around when Laura does now (8:00 - 8:30ish, totally awesome) and will sleep for at least six hours, but not all the way until morning. Most days I am still having to bring her into our bed in the early morning or else she wakes up several more times than is necessary (I think because she is cold, but it is too hot to put a sleep sack on her when she goes to bed, and she's too little for blankets yet!)
     We've been battling the neck stinkies the last month or so, as well. Mostly only when it's hot, she gets funk built up in her neck rolls (disgusting, I know) and it smells so bad, and gets all red and irritated. Looking forward to her outgrowing that! She also, as of today, has acquired her first cold, with special thanks to Laura for bringing that one home from school. Poor kid.

Rachel grumbling (and farting. Sorry, Rache.)