Another wonderful week in the world of Clare. I really should just rename our blog from Adventures with the Family Mac to One Mom’s Adoration of her Baby. I recognize that I lay on the adoring a little bit thick – but what can I say, it’s how I feel. Last night I was changing her diaper over at Mom and Dad’s and all four of us adults were standing around her, making big silly fools of ourselves trying to get a smile out of her. I think even the dogs were in on it. Mom commented that it really isn’t fair to subsequent children in the family because there will be fewer times when the entire attention of four adults (and 2 dogs) are entirely focused on one child. Or maybe that’s actually a good thing… if we keep up this level of attention and adoration for her it will be hard to keep her little ego in check. Oh well, I’ll deal with that later 🙂
Anyway, back to reality, we had Clare’s Four Month check up this week. Her pediatrician thinks she’s cute as a button and very smart and strong (of course). Our girl is weighing in at 12 lbs. 15 oz. and is 24 inches long. This makes her in the 85% for height and the 25% for weight. She’s outgrown all of her little 3 month clothes in length, but the 6 month clothes bag around her skinny little body. Oh well, she’s a good eater so I’m not worried. The funniest part of the appointment was when the doctor put a cold stethoscope on her chest. Clare did not like that and cried a little bit. After that she stuck her lower lip out and glared at the doctor for the rest of the appointment. It was pretty funny – she’s awfully cute with her little lower lip out that’s hard to take her pout seriously.
This week she’s pulling her knees up to her chest more. She’s not quite grabbing her feet yet, but she is grabbing her knees and rolling them from side to side. She’s tipped onto her side already once, but I think she’s still weeks (maybe even months) away from rolling over. In general she’s not a great roller – sometimes she’ll go from front to back but not very often. She isn’t as interested in moving her body around, she’s more into grabbing, feeling and putting things in her mouth. In child development terms it means that she’s working on her fine motor skills instead of her gross motor skills.
She’s very interested in the world. Yesterday she was watching the dogs wrestle and started to smile and laugh. Mom pointed out that it’s the first time we’ve seen her smile when someone hasn’t been engaging with her. The world is so interesting to her that it’s hard to keep her focused on important things – like eating and sleeping. There are always cats to watch, voices to listen to, skylights to look at, parents to smile at, y’know, stuff for a busy girl to do.
