Happy Birthday To You: Everley Edition: 4 Months Old

Dear Everley,

Oh HI!

On Monday January 21 you turned four months old. There's been a lot going on this past month for you and we've been keeping super busy. In fact, I'm super busy right now preparing for your sister's fifth birthday party. Did you hear that? That loud boom? That was my head exploding into five million pieces, one million for every year that your sister has now been alive.

Boom.

But this is about you, so in a very rushed and lazy fashion, here's your four month round up:

I'ma take some notes - hit me with it.

This month you:

• Celebrated your first Christmas. Major cuteness ensued.
• Rolled over for the first time. Front to back. So agile! 
• Started teething. Pretty sure. Mucho drooling and finger chomping (your own, or any other finger that finds itself near your face). No teeth yet.
• Have really fallen head over heels for your big sister. You will crane your head 'til it just about falls off when you hear her voice and LOVE when she reads to you, plays with you, mauls you like a lion. 
• Fattened waaaaay up. New nickname: ChubbChubb. 15 lbs, 12oz at your four month check up.
• Four month sleep regression? Check. You still go to bed very late, between 10pm - 12am but you are no longer sleeping 10 hours straight. You're more likely to put in about 9 hours with at least one wake up sometime early in the morning. 
• Naps? Sporadic at best. Zero schedule. 
• You love being outside and in the stroller or car seat in general. 
• You love baths.
• You continue to barf on me about three thousand times a day. 
• You are a happy, smilely, giggly baby as long as someone is paying attention to you. You are so adorable. 
• God forbid we stop looking at you or put you down for five minutes. You are a monster. 
• You are Active with a capital A. Always squirming, always wanting to stand up, kicks, punches and other sweet baby martial arts manuevers. 
• This month you also started to grab at things. Like my hair, my face, my necklaces, my shirt, my hair, did I mention my hair?
• You still hate soothers, all soothers, STOP TRYING TO GIVE ME SOOTHERS, MOTHER. 

And what about you Mom, how are you?

OH and me? Well I'm just great, thank you for asking. I have about 5 lbs of baby weight left to lose. Okay, fine it's just plain old weight, nothing baby about it. I ate a LOT of ice cream this summer. A LOT. I wish I'd gotten it all off in time for our vacation to Mexico next week, but I am proud of myself for losing almost 40 lbs in four months. And that includes the holidays. Pretty sure I'll drop at least another pound in hair alone because I am currently going bald. Thanks a lot estrogen depletion.

I think that I have finally gotten through the mild to moderate baby blues and postpartum anxiety that I definitely suffered from this time around. I almost never cry myself to sleep anymore! No but seriously, that sucked. Generally I feel pretty great. Getting out and about helps a lot. I adore hanging with my peeps who are also on mat leave this year. I'm so blessed to have such lovely women and babies to surround myself with.

Is she still going on about herself right now? Let's bring it back to me...

Most of all, I have fallen for you hard Everley Read. I have fallen for you really hard. You are such a sparkle, such a light, such a glowing little package of wonder and love. I'm honoured and thrilled to be your right-hand this year as you are learning life. Life! It's an amazing thing to see someone learn how to do it. I hope one day you'll read this and understand that you are teaching me every bit as much as I am you.

Um? Kind of over it, can we wrap?

I love you,

Mommy