4 months!

Dear Torbjørn,

Today is your 4 month birthday. You have spent the day alternating between complaints and worries and giggling. With periods of nursing, napping, and diaper changing thrown in just to keep things on an even keel.

You have so many new skills and talents. You can turn your head and focus your eyes anywhere you want to now. You frequently apply this skill toward following the antics of your big brother and your Papa. They are the best show on earth as far as you're concerned. Today, for example, you were just cracking up every time Eden tried to do the Harry Potter levitation spell on you. Over and over again. At first we thought it was the wand, but then he did the spell without the wand and you cracked up just the same. And later, when Ba came in from outside, you belly-laughed! He didn't even have to do anything other than show up. (In spite of the fact that just moments before you'd been complaining in my lap telling me that life was just not up to par as far as you were concerned.)

You can hold your head, neck, and back up straight now and it makes you look slightly less fat than you did a week ago. You are a master of "Baby Foo." This is the martial art of hand-meditation. You fix your eyes on your hands and make these gorgeous shapes with your hands and fingers. Every time you do it, you look totally engaged and focused. You are surprised over and over again at how awesome your hands are, like you can't get enough of them. I've noticed you checking out your feet recently, perhaps portending a new phase of Baby Foo.

You are a highly skilled finger and thumb sucker. So far you haven't picked a special finger or thumb that you like the most, but instead opt for shoving the whole hand in the vicinity of your mouth and chomping down on whichever digit comes closest. You like to keep your options open.

Most of the time it appears as though you've got the hand-eye coordination of a potted plant. You try, but struggle to get your hands going in a discernibly deliberate direction. However, there are moments when you surprise us by grabbing at a familial limb or article of clothing as it's passing through your reach-zone and gripping on for dear life. You've got a grip that rivals a baby orangutan. I think it's all that practicing you do under the baby gym that the neighbors loaned you, grabbing rings and ringing bells. You do love your baby gym.

You love telling us stories. You arrived, it seems, with lots to say. Early on, I couldn't have a phone conversation without you butting in to share your views. And I can't count the number of times I've had to cut your brother short because I couldn't hear a word he was saying over the racket you were making when he was just 10 feet away! And when you're nursing, you love to comment on the fare. Fortunately, you mostly approve, although you have shared words with me about service-related issues, like volume and speed of delivery. I assure you, I'm doing my best and your concerns have been noted.

We finally cleared up that horrible rash you had developed in your skin folds and you are feeling much better. If your friends ask, it was Anti-Monkey-Butt Cream that finally did the trick. We tried lots of other remedies and you were very patient with all of them, but you were clearly relieved when we figured out something that worked.

Your favorite times of day are waking up and getting ready for bed. You let me know you are ready to get up for the day by opening your eyes wide, sighing a big full-body sigh of satisfaction, and wiggling out a noisy fart or two. If your brother is anywhere nearby, he never fails to giggle at your routine. At bedtime, you squirm big whole-body squirms of delight and smile big toothless grins at me while I help you get on your nightgown, turn the lights down, and turn down the bed to climb in with you for a final before sleep nurse and snuggle. Those times with you have become some of my favorites, too.

I need to have a little talk with you about sleep. You've got this idea that sleep must be preceded by crying and complaining. I'm here to tell you that there really is no need. It is possible, and in fact very pleasurable, to just sink into sleep without crying first. Adults, children, and babies do it all the time. I recommend you give it a go. I think you'll find it's a lot less trouble and energy, less painful, and probably more restful. On a related note, I wouldn't mind if you experimented again with that newborn habit you had of sleeping for 4-6 hours at a time on occasion. If you do, you might get the bonus of a better rested mom!

I can't tell you how thrilled we are to have you in our family. We are delighted by your every trick.You're just incredibly lucky we haven't eaten you yet, because you are absolutely scrumptious!

Love,
Your Mama