Already?

Our sweet Lil has been with us now for four months, which is hard to believe.  I felt like my pregnancy took forever this time around, and yet the past four months have flown by in the blink of an eye.  When she was born I promised myself that I would cherish every second, cuddle her more, and somehow manage to make time pass more slowly, but with all the craziness of life, I lost the battle.  We have no control over the passing of time, and I am baffled at its speed now that I have two kids.  Granted, I'm still baffled at the idea that I have two kids at all!

So what's she like at four months?  Oh sweet Lil... you are wonderful.  While a bit of a chunky monkey, her smile can light up a room.  She is weighing in these days at 16 lbs, 5 oz. (95th percentile and almost double her birth weight already!) and is 25 inches tall (75th percentile).  But oh how I am in love with those rolls!  We often say that she has rolls on top of her rolls, and I could just squeeze them all day long!  Her wardrobe consists of mostly six month items, but she can actually wear quite a few nine month outfits as well, particularly in the waste, but not so much in length.  And we're already up to size 3 diapers, mostly because the size 2's were no longer containing that oh-so-fun poo up the back situation!  That's always our tell-tale sign that it's time to go bigger.  At her appointment our doctor told me that we can start her on cereal, but that it was up to us as she's doing so well on just breastmilk.  We often joke that I must make cream as our kids have never had any problems putting on weight.  If there were a way for me to pump and ship it to the hungry kids in third world countries, I would gladly do so.  We'll probably start giving her cereal once a day in the evenings at least in the hopes that she will sleep through the night.  Bigger babies (and particularly nursing babies) have a more difficult time making it all night and she's usually up around 2am and 5am to eat, even if it's just a little.  One thing I have been successful at is the goal of cuddling her more as she pretty much winds up in our bed in the middle of the night every night... and I love those cuddles from my sweet girl, even if it means that we'll have a tougher time getting her to sleep in her own bed later.  Granted, I try and at least start her out in her pack-n-play every night so that she gets used to going to bed on her own, and most of the time she'll settle eventually.  If she had her way though, she'd stay up until midnight and sleep until ten.  She is her mama's child.  Twice now we successfully put her in the crib to go to bed, which is in Jake's room, and we've had a 50% success rate.  The first night Jake didn't even hear her fuss, I was able to go in, feed her, and put her back to bed, and then brought her into our room for her second feeding.  The second night I heard her stirring around 3 and when I went in there I was surprised to see Jake's bed empty.  I scanned the floor for him, since he sometimes falls asleep while playing, and then I heard "Baby!"  When I looked over at the crib, Jake was sitting next to her in the crib, patting her on the belly.  I'm not sure who woke up who, but I'm pretty sure big brother woke up, heard her in there, and decided that he needed to check her out.  We're going to put the crib rail back up pronto before trying for a third attempt!  While it was sweet, there is no part of me that needs the extra worry of her getting hurt, albeit unintentionally from a loving big brother.  While he's still not always a big fan, she has grown on him quite a bit and I think that will only continue as she gets more interactive.

It's amazing to me how two kids from the same parents can be so very different.  And what amazes me even more is how early on you can tell!  At four months Jake was already strong-willed and determined to accomplish the next milestone.  At four months he was rolling both ways, jumping like a maniac in his jump-a-roo, and getting up onto all fours and rocking back and forth.  As for Lilly, she is so calm and mellow in comparison.  While I have seen her roll from her stomach to her back (and she often does it when I put her to bed), she really has no desire to do it when she's playing.  If you put her down on her belly, she'll stay just like that until we come and get her... and she let's us know when she's over it!  She would much rather sit in the swing and take a nap than do just about anything, and only tolerates the jump-a-roo so far.  Jake never liked the swing, but Lilly would spend the day there if we let her!  Last night was the first time we saw even a glimmer of that determined attitude as she tried so hard to roll from her back to her belly over and over and over again.  She gets about 90% the way there, and then just giggles and let's herself roll right back over to where she started.  It's not that she doesn't have the ability to do these things, it's just that she doesn't really care enough to try!  She is perfectly happy just laying around, being looked at and talked to, and smiling back.  While Jake is my spirited, strong-willed, stubborn, and active child, she is my carefree, laid back, go with the flow baby.  In many ways, we have created little clones of ourselves, so I think they'll get along just fine in life.  I think God knew what He was doing when He created her for us... she definitely balances the scale around here.

Other than that, she's pretty much a happy baby all the time.  She's been chewing on her hands a lot lately, but we still haven't seen many signs of teething.  She has just recently become pretty good at reaching out and grabbing objects and is mesmerized by the lights on the iPhone, just like her brother (and mama for that matter!).  We've even seen her put her pacifier back in her mouth a couple of times, or at least get it to a place where she can chew on it.  That is a skill that makes a mom's job so much easier!  And the one thing she's doing way ahead of her brother is attempting to hold her own bottle when she gets one, which he never had much interest in doing.  I think she just wants to ensure that I don't take it away from her though!

Life with two is definitely a change.  I feel like I need to pack a suitcase in order to go anywhere and could win an arm wrestling match with anyone after carrying the two of them around all the time!  Honestly though, I wouldn't have it any other way.  It's overwhelming sometimes, and some days are difficult depending on their moods and willingness to nap, but it's twice the smiles, twice the cuddles, and more than twice the love.  My heart is so full because of these two and I can hardly remember life without them!

Thanks for an incredible four months, sweet Lilly.  You truly are a precious angel.  I would pray that you would stay this age forever, but I already know that it won't work.  I will, however, spend everyday loving you right where you're at.  To me, you are perfect.