January

January 18, 2009
You are almost four months old. You love being tickled by your mama. I can tickle you in three places- when I have my hands on your back and tickle between your shoulder blades (your favorite place), then, under your armpits, and then, where your thighs meet your belly. Your daddy likes to tickle you with his scratchy beard. He nuzzles your neck and you chortle with glee. You are laughing all the time now. Especially in the morning, when you are at your happiest and most relaxed.

January 20, 2009
Standing is your all time favorite thing, other than the boob. If you are getting grumpy and starting to kvetch, I will stand you up so that you are sitting on my belly, and you usually immediately stop frowning and give me a leery flirty smile, and a little waggle back and forth, a fistpump or two, and then strain upward in one straight line and gaze about your domains with the satisfaction of elevation.

January 21, 2009
A new voice was unveiled for Obama’s inaugeration day. This really lovely scratchy squeal like a alleycat in heat. It can mean a variety of things… it is not unhappy though it can signify the beginning of a meltdown. Mostly it seems to be when you have something really important to say, and you want to trumpet it. Also, it seems that you are really enjoying just trying out different sounds with your mouth and throat, so it feels experimental.

January 29th, 2009
You rolled over by yourself for the first time today. 4 months and 1 week old! I lay you on your back on your play mat in the living room, and you started doing this thing you have been doing the past four days, which is to bring up both your legs to your chest and roll to your left. You just kept touching your knees to the floor, and then rolling back onto your back. You were pretty happy and calm- engaged but not overly excited. I left to go into the kitchen and when I came back, you were on your belly!!!

January 30th, 2009
The firm floors help with this- you can’t roll over on the bed yet. You did it again on the bathroom floor this morning. This time, you weren’t as happy- you seemed to get frustrated by the effort and got lodged in an uncomfortable position against the cabinet until I could rescue you. But you are going to be crawling soon. You were trying to do the crawl on the bathroom floor after you rolled over, legs kinda pushing back against the rug and your whole body arched up and straining, and I could see the wheels turning in your head.