Dear Mara,
You turned 4-months-old today. Your smile completely melts my heart, and you smile a lot. You’re such a laid-back and easy going kid. There’s not much that bugs you other than hunger. Therefore you smile a lot. The cutest thing is when you first wake up. You’re a little disoriented for a few moments when you first wake up, but then you see your mom or me and your indulge us in your huge toothless grin and it’s just awesome! I guess it means we’re doing something right if you like us this much.
This month you’ve become quite the expert and rolling over. You don’t mind laying on your back, but when you get bored, you quickly roll over to your stomach, push yourself up with your hands and look around and drool. I’m sure it won’t be too much longer and you’ll be crawling around.
You’ve started talking a lot this month, too. You haven’t really found any useful words — more like guttural and nasal hums, grunts and squeals. By around 10 p.m., when your sister’s long since asleep and your mom have had time to unwind and are finally sitting down to watch a little TV, you’ll sit in your little swing before the fireplace, watch me sitting on the couch and talk to me. I have no clue what you’re telling me, but I acknowledge you by saying, “yes!” and “really?!”
This month you found your feet. When you’re lying on your back, you’ll reach out a grab your feet and just hang on to them. You’ll do this for long periods of time, too. I’d venture to guess that when all that you’re used to doing is eating and passing waste, hanging on to your own feet is probably some pretty exciting stuff.
We took you on a road trip to Des Moines this month. You were surprisingly very patient during our 1,000 mile haul. There were a couple times where you got bored to the point of tears and screaming, but that was a good reminder that we all probably needed to stop and take a break.
Last weekend your were baptized. Your grandma, dad, mom, Maly, John, Christine, Jack and Grayson were all there. It was a baptism. That’s all I have to say about that.
You’re on the cusp of giggling. Your mom and I try to get you to giggle you by tickling you or making funny noises. Sometimes you’ll giggle at us, sometimes you’ll kind of giggle at something completely random. I think within the month you’ll be laughing. From what we’ve seen and heard thus far, your laugh is going to be infectious and awesome. I can’t wait until you can consciously laugh. It will then become my life’s work to fill your life with laughter.
I love you, Mars.
Love,
Daddy