(4 months) Nothing is sweeter than watching a baby sleep. Even though they are still, so much inside of them is changing as they grow. It is just amazing to understand how they develop from movement from the center of their bodies outward. Julia was reaching out and making contact with a toy just a few months ago and now she is grasping things and bringing them to her mouth to taste. Now, everything that she get a hold of goes into her mouth, and if she can’t find anything, she will use her own fingers for entertainment. I don’t mind her chewing on my finger, it is a glimpse into how she is interacting with the world.

Julia is a regular night sleeper now, although she seems to have lost it for our vacation. On our trip she would wake once and sometimes twice to eat. All of our schedules were very different as we traveled, so I was not surprised. When we returned she would wake up once and last night she slept the whole night. I noticed a marked improvement in my memory, patience, and fatigue once Julia gave me my first week of sleep without interruptions.

Today, we had our first intentional occurrence of putting Julia down awake and her falling asleep on her own. While I changed her diaper today she was pretty still and it was time for her nap, so I went ahead and laid her down. It worked and she went to sleep. This is one thing I hope is repeatable.

Julia and I played a game of waving at each other yesterday. I don’t know that she understood what waving was, but her arm was bent up so that her hand movements were a wave.  I would wave at her and she would smile big and move her hand and arm. If this is repeated soon, I will be shocked, but it was a fun time of play between us.