We put the kick-piano toy into Julia’s cradle for her to play with. Luckily, it has a off switch, or else we wouldn’t use it. She likes to kick her feet out of her blanket and that transitions to this toy well. So far she seems to like the toy and the music it plays to her. We have noticed that as Julia’s toys have gotten cooler, Emily has taken an interest in them. We are finding that Emily has begun stealing Julia’s toys more and more. The toys that are fastened to objects like the car seat are safe, but everything else, including the pacifier, has been stolen. When Julia is in her cradle and kicking the piano, Emily is just beside herself to try to push the buttons too. For as much as Emily steals Julia’s toys, she also likes to bring toys to Julia. Julia can end up with a rather full lap of toys because of Emily’s sharing.

(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.

This is Julia sleeping in her cradle. It won’t be long before she fills it up and has to move to her crib. It dawned on me that I hadn’t taken a photo of her in it yet and might miss the opportunity if I didn’t do it soon. It is always a little dangerous to take a photo of a sleeping baby, but I got away with it and didn’t wake her up. This cradle was not only used by Emily, but Mommy and Uncle Philip also. The cradle was made by Grammy and Granddaddy while they were waiting for Uncle Philip’s arrival.

(4 months) Uncle Doug sent Emily her first piano. She has been playing it with her feet so far. It is tied to the end of her cradle and she has figured out that when she kicks it that it plays music and talks to her. I thought I was doing a good job of turning it off when we were done playing with it, but one evening when I went to put her to bed she kicked it, and the music rang out in the room. I turned it off as quickly as I could. I know better than to wake a sleeping baby! I got lucky and she just dozed off again. She is starting to really engage with toys now and it has been so much fun to watch. . . The joys of motherhood!

Comfort, originally uploaded by Robby Edwards.

There’s nothing like the comfort of a Grandmother’s arms!