4 Months Old! (Already?!?)

I seriously cannot believe it.  Looking back on pictures from mere weeks ago, my little angel is already such a different baby!  Check it out!  She has more than doubled in size!! (From under 6 lbs, to ~13 lbs!)
 

At 4 months, Amelie is super strong and loves to stand.  She can hold her head up like a champ and is an ace at tummy time.  She can roll from front to back, and back to front.  She can't quite sit up on her own yet, but she sure does prefer not to be lying down!  (Unless she has just finished nursing, and then she will lay flat just staring and smiling at her Mama, which makes my heart well up with joy! :)  She reaches for things with intent and can grab and grasp toys.  She laughs in full on giggles, which she did for Daddy first, and then for Mama almost 3 weeks later (!!!!!).  At first I was a little bitter, but now that I know I can get the goods out of her, all is well.  Be sure to check out the clips from "4th Month of Amelie Videos" - you won't want to miss her laughs!

While she certainly doesn't sleep through the night, Mama is usually ok with only 2 or 3 wake-ups between Amelie's 6pm bedtime and 5:30-7am wake up call.  Sometimes Ami prefers an even earlier bedtime - crazy girl!  But that's usually when she has been a stinker and not napped too well.  Little Miss has a case of FOMO - Fear of Missing Out! It's all good, though, b/c I adore her.  Who wouldn't, with this face???

This past month Amelie took her first plane ride, and met her grandparents on Mommy's side, as well as a bunch of friends & family in Michigan.  She went to her first wedding, and got to sit next to the groom at the reception!  She wore her first Halloween costume, and got her first pumpkin.  She even got her first mani/pedi from Mama (with all-natural polish made from fruits & vegetables :)

She continues to make friends at Baby Group on Saturdays, and today we are going to her very first Story Time at the Downtown Library!  Which brings me to some awesome news - I am able to bring her to Story Time at 2pm because I only work PT now, 4 hours a day 5 days a week.  I'm thrilled to be able to keep my benefits and get more time with my little bean.  Of course, I am not so excited about curbing my online shopping habits and eating out less, but we'll work on that.

Life with Amelie is awesome, and she brings sunshine to our lives.  Of course, it's not always rainbows and roses.  Daddy sometimes gets grief while Mommy is at work - especially since we got back from MI and Ami got used to being with Mama 24/7 for almost a week.  And I get some rough nights where Ami doesn't really want to go to bed or sleep on her own.  But I'm doing my best to embrace the opportunity for snuggles, and have decided that if Amelie wants to sleep w/ her mama after her first wake-up for the night, then for now that's what we'll do.  We'll keep trying to get her on her own, but we won't push it.  Besides, I have all this extra room in the bed at night while KC is working graveyard shift!  And she'll have years and years to sleep in her own bed, but will only be a tiny baby for a short while.  That's already crystal clear, as my tiny peanut is becoming a bonafide chunkster!!