Molly at four months

Sweet Molly at four months weighed 14 lbs, 11 oz. and was happily drooling massive quantities all over her 3-6 month clothes.

She stopped taking glorious 1.5-3 hour naps and started taking 40-45 minute naps.  She stopped sleeping through the night and started waking 1-3 times a night.  She fussed intensely every time I put her down.  She was in the midst of a classic "wonder weeks" leap, it would seem, and she made it known!

She continued to make it a goal to shove her entire hand in her mouth, with the wrist as an acceptable substitute when she miscalculated.

Her smiles could light up a room -- and she generously bestowed them on nearly anyone who would pause to chat with her or smile in her direction.

She drooled so much she made a mockery of any bib we put on her, and laughed in the face of the burp cloths we'd use to keep her chin wiped clean.  She got a rash in the folds of her sweet little neck, cried when I'd wipe it clean, and then just kept on drooling.

"who, me?"

She started grabbing onto things placed in her hands and could hold a few toys, with a little help getting started.

Her little legs got stronger and stronger, and she'd stand on my lap for long periods of time holding onto my thumbs as I held her wrists.  She decided she didn't mind riding in a baby carrier after all, as long as she could look around and not miss a thing until she was good and ready for a nap.

Molly even had a few weeks of a quasi-nursing strike during this past month -- not a full-on strike, but still, enough screaming and refusing to nurse that I was nearly at my wits' end on more than one occasion!

Molly adores her Daddy, and there have been a few times when I absolutely couldn't help her stop fussing; then I'd hand her over to Daddy, and she'd immediately beam at him and sit quietly in his lap.  I could imagine her saying, "Ugh, Mom, stop trying so hard.  I just wanted to watch the Sox game with Dad."

* * *

 "Tic, Tac, Toe, three in a row," I like to say to these three girlies.

Molly's not sure how she feels about being the "toe," perhaps.

Smothered with love, and shrieks of affectionate, high-pitched utterances of love from her big sisters, while Molly may be sometimes overwhelmed, she is usually delighted by their attentions.

And she's already practicing to join in on the silly faces her big sisters love to do.