So, like I did last month, let me recap what's new in our Cate world in the past month.
Right after she turned 3 months, and while Daddy was away in Astoria, our over-achiever decided she would go ahead and roll over. Jason called it, telling me she was going to do it while he was gone, but I didn't think she'd do it that early. I was wrong, and we spent a couple days having fun practicing that skill. Thankfully I got video, because she hasn't really done it since!
She was doing ok with holding her head up back at 3 months, but now she's a champion. The only time she gets a wobbly noggin is when we put her on her tummy and she tries to hold it up high enough to see everything. That takes a LOT of effort. Otherwise, she's always alert, swinging her head around, and trying to see everything she can - when she's awake.
As for tummy time, we do that in short bursts because of the heavy noggin issue. Right before she turned 4 months, she started to sort of do a superman kind of thing, lifting her feet up off the floor, too, and balancing on her belly. It's pretty funny to watch. Her other favorite activity while laying down this month was to grab her toes when on her back and roll from side to side. She's also digging her ocean-themed activity mat, and loves to kick the whale pillow and chew on everything else dangling from it. Michaela likes to turn the music on for her, which I'm good with for about 3 minutes. Ugh.
Her other major skill is blowing raspberries. She could win contests for spit distance (Michaela has complained of being hit in the back seat of the car) and also for volume. She's definitely an expert. She's also started making this really weird noise that's a cross between a sneeze and a cough sound when she gets frustrated or mad - usually when she's alone and her pacifier falls out, or when she's hungry and the goods aren't forth-coming fast enough. It could be the most annoying sound to ever come out of a baby. I'd take wailing-style crying over that.
Speaking of the goods, eating is an interesting endeavor these days. Cate is highly distractible, so I've started to nurse her in complete silence, or, at least, in the bedroom and away from Michaela, especially first thing in the morning. If she hears something that sounds interesting (especially Michaela or Daddy talking), she'll unlatch, look around for the cause of the noise, look at me and smile, and then go back to eating. This can repeat about 20 times in 3 minutes. Thankfully, she seems to be a very efficient eater, so she can get a full meal in about 5 minutes only, even with the distraction issue.
Cate is definitely a sleeper, and thankfully a lot of it even comes at night. We usually wake her up between 10:30 and 11 to eat one last time at before we go to bed, and then she sleeps anywhere from 4.5 to 6 hours, depending on the night. Usually we get at least 5 hours in a row, which is heaven. She is known to wake up less than an hour before an alarm is going to go off, though, which isn't the best. Jason and I both have the same reaction to it - initially, when we roll over and see what time she starts making noise, we're all happy that it's 5:30 or so. Then we realize it's 5:30 and that, once we get back to sleep, there's less than a half hour until it's time to get up for the day. The excitement quickly fades. I won't complain, though, since it could be a whole lot worse. She usually just eats once in the middle of the night and then again about a half hour after she wakes up in the morning. That's pretty good for 4 months! She also sleeps a lot during the day, with her long nap in the afternoon happening at about the same time as Michaela's nap, which is a little bit of heavenly quiet for me!
Overall, Cate is just such a happy baby. She's quick to smile at a familiar face, wakes up happy even when I wake her early from a nap, and goes to sleep happy. Oh, and Michaela made her laugh for the first time this month. I thought my heart would burst from the happiness of the big sister being the first one to make her laugh. So far we've just gotten a few chuckles, so we're still waiting for that first real belly laugh, but I'll take the chuckles for now!
So onto the pictures....
The first one is self-explanatory. The second one just cracked me up. Every month so far, Michaela has had to get in on the pictures. Back in September, she even wanted to hold Cate. And last month I was able to get a cute picture of the two of them showing off their smirky smiles. This month, Michaela decided Cate smelled like spit-up (she did not... at all) and didn't want her to touch her. It's a good thing Cate will have no memory of that rejection (except this picture!). Ah, sisterly love!
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