Four Month Milestones

Blanche is now well into her fifth month, and her personality is really starting to solidify. There was a time when we were able to say, ‘Blanche, it’s time to sleep now,’ and she would. Our will was stronger than hers. Once, we could say, ‘Blanche, just hang out on your comfy bear blanket while I take a shower,’ and she would. The sound of flowing water still held her curiosity. We used to say, ‘Blanche, this bar is a great place to hang out,’ and she agreed. Bars were cool.

But now, now that she knows there are things to be seen, heard, felt and learned, she is ultra curious. And not in sleeping, listening to the shower’s rhythm or hanging out in dark, noisy bars. So, I call it personality, but in my mind I’m saying so the disobedience begins…how early is too early to medicate?

Daddy kids

Kidding. You know, tone is difficult on a blog. But Blanche knows when I kid. See! So what are we learning about Blanche? Well, she is generally one happy baby. Smiles are easy to induce these days, and she’s really begun to discover how fun it is to giggle. Kristie gets automatic giggles when she buries her face in Blanche’s belly, allowing Blanche to death grip some hair in the process. Blanche also loves when I scratch my five-day whiskers on her tummy, too. It seems the stomach is a ticklish place.

So, she’s hitting some fun milestones. She’s doing things a typical four-month old might do, such as:

Rolling over. She hates ‘tummy time,’ and I’ll be happy when I get to stop saying it, so it’s just better that we all move on. I expect her to have this mastered in the next couple weeks.

So tasty

 Bringing everything to her mouth. She hasn’t quite yet realized what her hands are and that they are the vessel by which these items make it to her mouth, but it’s only a matter of time. If you put something in her hand, or close by, it’s going to her mouth, as this delicious baby paper illustrates. Her grip is vice-like. But we’re still waiting for that lightbulb moment where she sees something, realizes these magical ‘hands’ are connected to her body, and grabs it. There’s no telling what that will lead to.

How does plastic taste?

Loving things that make music and light up. Who doesn’t. All of these things play classical music, which is lovely, but why are there no pop music mobiles or bouncies or hand held toys? I’m not talking about Justin Bieber. I sang her Beach Boys songs last night and she loved them! So if I had to choose four artists, I’d skip Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn, and go with the Beach Boys, Stevie Wonder, Prince and Radiohead. Hit all the decades.

7:10 is Twins time.

Watching the Twins. OK, I had a little something to do with this one. It just so happens, you see, that I’m often cooking or doing dishes around 7 o’clock, waiting for Kristie to get home from work, and the Twins magically appear on my television! And Blanche happens to be sitting right there in her Bumbo, perhaps too close to the TV, but we’ll have her identifying players by face when she’s two by golly! I can’t help it; the girl likes baseball. I figure it can be our thing together.

I have a giraffe and you don't

Strolling the aisles of Target. They’ve got her in their clutches already! I prove it: On the left we have B inside

But giraffes make me cranky

Target, loving it. On the right we see her seconds after leaving the store, crying in the parking lot. These pictures were taken on the same trip, not a minute apart. Oh Target. However, there’s one aisle in Target that Blanche, dad, and dad’s friend agree is the most boring in the store:

 

 

 

 

THE SCRAPBOOKING AISLE.

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