4 Months!

Well...the four month birthday came on the 27th and was almost skipped over with Christmas celebrations. Mary Katherine is changing constantly and developing more of a personality with each month. She definitely keeps her eyes on the action wherever it may be. She knows her mommy's voice and looks for it when she hears it. About two weeks ago we heard her laugh out loud for the first time. It was great! Roger and I had been hearing quite a few shrieks before then with her smile, but now she has a voice with her laugh. It absolutely melts us when we hear it. Mary Katherine has now found her thumb and enjoys sucking on it. She still will get a few fingers and fists as well, but it's so cute when she gets ahold of her thumb and sucks away. (I know some people are not fond of thumb suckers, but I think it's adorable--I'll deal with breaking the habit later when I have to.) I occasionally will try to give her a pacifier and she doesn't really care for it much. She gave up the bottle about three weeks ago and decided she only wanted to nurse. This was very frustrating for me as it meant I could not longer leave for more than 2 or three hours at a time. (For anyone who knows where we live it takes a good 45 minutes just to get to the nearest Wal-mart). We have been working--a little--on this bottle taking and I think we can get back on it hopefully within the month. We started a little bit of rice cereal last week as the doctor suggested maybe it would help her stretch to a 5 or 6 hour period at the night. It hasn't been the answer, but she does seem to enjoy it and does pretty well with the spoon. We serve it more as a rice "soup" then as a "pudding". We will go to the doctor for a four month checkup next week as well as more shots--yuck! The last we were weighed we were almost 18 lbs and about 27 inches. She's a "healthy" baby.

We are thankful for our little baby girl and look forward to what the new month has in store.