
Hi sweet girl 'o mine,
You are four months old and a few days. How did that happen? You are the chubbiest, yummiest, loveliest baby ever. You've come a long way in the past month. A real Buddha baby: fat and happy! You haven't rolled over again since the last time, over a month ago, but you do manage to move around quite a bit by wiggling and kicking your legs. Lucia was so excited yesterday because you were kicking the rainbow on your little activity mat. She kept saying, "Look at the baby, Mama! She's kicking!" Eventually you wiggled yourself right off the mat. Your newest love is playing with your feet.

You adore your sister. You follow her around with your eyes and she can make you laugh without doing a thing. She's much more interested in you these days, now that she gets such positive reinforcement from you and she gives you a lot of attention. I'm so happy that, after all my pregnancy worrying, your sister adores you too. She loves to make you laugh. Sometimes, she's a little rough with you but you actually don't seem to mind it very much. In the picture below, you and Lucia are on "a boat" (your activity mat) sailing to Zanzibar.

Sleep: Naps are tough. Lucia gave up her naps for good a few weeks ago and that has made getting you down for long naps really challenging, if not impossible. I really worry that you're not getting enough sleep during the day and it stresses me out a lot. Pete has really encouraged me to relax about it and go with the flow, and I'm trying. Lucia and I have hit some very rough patches in the last few weeks as we both adjust to her new hours, and I'm sorry that you've had to experience that. It's been loud and stressful. For the most part, you take your naps, two or three a day, on me in the moby wrap, while we're on the go. (Unless, Pete has the day off and has Luci out of the house.) People often think I'm still pregnant, when they see your big sleeping lump all covered up in the moby. I love having you so close to me. They are not very long naps, typically about a half hour. You are a very light sleeper. Even at night, you stir with our sounds when we come to bed but usually you don't wake up. If you do wake in the middle of the night, you suck your thumb until you go back to sleep. I put you to bed at 7ish and you take a little nap and wake up for more milk and finally go down for good close to 9. You sleep through the night until about 7:15 AM or often earlier if Lucia comes to wake us up. You've pretty much outgrown your snuggle-nest but you're still sleeping in it until we figure out the next step.

Little Bit, you love baths. You kick and swing your arms around and just thrash your whole little body around with joy. It is a sight to see. I'm so sad to say that your baths are few and far between. I just haven't been able to figure out how to juggle life well enough to get you into the tub as often as I should. We don't have a baby bathtub, so I need to get in there with you and then of course, Luci wants to join in too.
Rub-a-dub-dub, three girls in the tub. You're a stinky little baby, sweetheart, but it's not your fault! It's my fault that you smell like spit-up once in a while, and this morning I was horrified to find what I think was a smear of yellow on your forehead. "Yellow" is our euphamism for your poop, as in
I think the baby's diaper is smelling a bit yellow. Needless to say, we took a bath this afternoon. Sorry, Stinky. I will do better, I promise.
Hmmm, what else? You're a little chatty patty. You say,
Ahhhh-oooooo-ah and
Ah-guh. We love to hear you talk, and when you do, Lucia just laughs and laughs. It's so cute. You suck your thumb, which is wonderful because you can soothe yourself. I was a thumb-sucker too, so I can relate. Sometimes, if you're very tired or distracted, you try to nurse and suck your thumb at the same time; funny girl.

I want to go on and on about you. I want to try to capture every little thing about you because I feel that the time is passing by so fast and there's so much going on that, even though we're together almost every moment, some nights I go to sleep feeling sad and guilty that I'm not giving you enough attention and that I'm missing out on this precious time. I mean, really, how did you get to be this big already? You're huge! I wish I had time for those all-day-nursing marathons that Luci used to get. Even though, I was probably going stir-crazy at the time, now I wish for those days of being in bed all day in a milky, new-baby haze. Ah well, baby love, I shouldn't complain or wish for was isn't. I am so lucky to have you, just as you are: perfect. Alma-Luisa, I couldn't love you more. My heart is bursting with love for you. I'm always saying to Pete,
Isn't she the BEST baby? You're the best! You really are absolutely wonderful. Thank you for being my baby. Thank you for your smiles.
I love you,
Mama