Four Months Old

At four months our little sweetie is:

• Loving her hands and her feet and grabbing at and sucking on all of them:)
• Grabbing anything and everything.  She pulls on her shirt, grabs toys, and attempts to bring them all to her mouth. Obviously this is demonstrating her ever increasing coordination.

Grabbing and sucking on toys

• Sucking on anything and everything. She sucks her thumb some when she sleeps, but when she is awake it is normal to see both of her hands in her mouth...and usually at the same time:)  This in turn produces a lot of drool:)  She is often changed into multiple outfits throughout the day as a result of excessive drool, spitting up, or leaking out of diapers.  Good thing she has been gifted many adorable outfits, sleepers, and hand-me-downs! 
• Trying SO hard to roll from her back to her stomach, but it hasn't quite happened yet.  I'm sure that will be coming soon!
• Sleeping well at night. She typically eats between 8:30-9:30pm, goes right to sleep after eating, and gets up between 5:30-6:30am.  We're so grateful for these longer nights which allow mom and dad to get to bed early if we want/need and the opportunity to sleep without interruptions!
• Showing her familiarity with certain people.  She is very comfortable with mom, dad, Luke, and Papa Beckmann (who watches her while mom works), but she is not so comfortable with some others.  We have yet to determine if it's anything specific that is upsetting her, so we're just assuming it's that she is less familiar with some of the other people???
• Eating every 3-4 hours, more often 3.5-4 hours, during the day.  She's still eating breast milk exclusively and we plan to wait to introduce solids in January. 
• Still napping inconsistently. She takes 3-4 naps a day and usually has two good naps a day. The other nap(s) are shorter and/or interrupted (fussing in the middle).  She stays awake about 2 hours after she eats and then is ready for her next nap. 
• Not what I would call a serious baby, but she is for pictures:(  And, we have yet to hear her laugh/giggle for real.  We're anxiously waiting to hear those giggle and to know what she finds funny so we can hear them often:)

Grabbing for her feet and showing a
little personality even if it's not a true smile

Not sure why she's in the laundry basket:)

Sweet big brother reading to baby girl

Brent and I dedicated Nora at church today, meaning we publicly shared our desire to raise Nora in the church and to teach her about God.  The life verse with chose for her is Proverbs 18:15:  "The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, for the ears of the wise seek it out."  Our hope for Nora (and Luke) is that they will seek out truth, wisdom, and love in their lives and that they will be discerning in their pursuit. 

We are beyond grateful for the blessing and opportunity to be Nora and Luke's parents:)