Yummy Fingers & Lots to Say!

Here is a 4-month-old Sophie with lots on her mind and a left hand full of yummy fingers. :o) Enjoy!

Mia Holding Sophie (Again)

I couldn't resist sharing this picture of Mia holding Sophie. I took this one yesterday while we were waiting to see their pediatrician. Mia asked (as she often does) if she could hold her sister. I love that there is only about 12lbs difference between them and that their heads seem to be about the same size! :o)

Sophie at 16 Weeks

Sophie is still growing like a weed! (She weighed in at 16.5lbs this morning!!) And as you can see, she's still a super happy baby. :o) There have been quite a few exciting milestones in her development over the last few weeks, too.

First (as far as Mom is concerned!), I think we're getting to the sleeping-through-the-night stage. She'd done it twice randomly over the last month or so, but this week has been the turning point. Three nights ago, she slept from 11pm - 5am. Two nights ago, she slept from 8:30pm - 6 am. And last night she slept from 8:30pm - 5am. It's so awesome to finally see her getting tired at a consistent time in the evenings, which means she finally has a *bedtime*! Even more awesome is the fact that she's slept until morning for a couple nights in a row. :o)

Sophie holds her head up really well when lying on her belly, and she can do a pretty good baby push-up from there. She loves to sit up and look around, and she has very little tolerance for laying on her back while sleeping. She really wants to be able to see what's going on. From the tummy position she's made a couple of attempts at rolling to her back, but she hasn't made it all the way over yet. I do think the ginormous cloth diapers put her at a bit of a disadvantage, though. :o)

I *love* Sophie's laugh! She laughed for the first time at breakfast with our friend Rochelle a few weeks ago. She'd been next to me in the car seat, and when I took her out so she could sit on my lap, she made eye contact with Rochelle and just started giggling. The two of us kept her giggling for about 5 minutes, and it was the sweetest sound. Now I can get her to laugh by playing peek-a-boo with her, which she seems to love.

Sophie is pretty coordinated with her hands/fingers and spends lots of her waking hours with her fingers in her mouth. She loves to bat at the car seat toy my mom got her for Christmas, and she loves to hear the chimes inside of it.

Sophie still "talks" a lot. She makes tons of "goo" sounds, and even Mia will tell you that Sophie says "aaahhrrr" a lot.

Today was a pretty nerve-wracking day as we made another unplanned visit to the pediatrician this morning. Sophie has had what I figured was a birthmark on her back since, well, birth. It grew into something of a mass this week, so Jeff and I took her in to have it looked at. Luckily, we got the best possible news one could get, and the pediatrician told us it's still just a birth mark. It's a type of birthmark called a Hemangioma, and this type tends to grow rapidly in the first year of life, and then it flattens on it's own over the next few years. It doesn't seem to bother Sophie at all, and Jeff and I are just thrilled that it's nothing scary. It's a bit terrifying to take your kid into the doctor to have any mass checked out!!

Here are a few more pictures from the last couple of weeks. Enjoy!