Four months

This is a bittersweet essay, for our hearts are delighted to have passed our baby´s first Christmas though on the same token we deeply missed our Bower Bunch. Something about having little Joseph touched my heart strings and I have wished to return to my roots: family, candles burning, neighbors bringing Christmas cookies, the sound of the heater coming on, Lizzy drinking Mama´s hot cocoa, Christmas in the park, advent calendar and card opening, singing around the Thomas´ piano, apple cider, etc. But my hope in Jesus has renewed my spirit as we create our new family traditions little by little.

Joseph has hit the 4 month mark today, it is true when they say you won´t believe how fast they grow! He is weighing in at more that 8 kilos and measuring more than 63 centimeters, which means he is using 1 year clothes because of his beautiful size. Poeple think he is gimoungous when they see him, usually people believe he is 6 months old rather than four. Makes mommy and daddy proud to say the least.

He seemed to have enjoyed Christmas, though I think Mommy and Daddy gave him a run for his money. He decked him out in raindeer britches and snow hat to boot. We had a special family Christmas dinne with the neighbors and a few close families. Mommy made baby special milk with turkey, smoked ham, and pumpkin pie made by yours truely! God has really blessed us this year. We went through a rough period financially and now we have enough to sow into others too, what a priviledge that we have an All providing God, whether in thin times or fat.

So our fellowship was engulfed with a banquet of laughter, close loved ones, and kind gestures of toys and pijamas for Joseph. Of course, Mommy´s plan to bed baby everyday at 8 back fired and baby got antsy to sleep, right when gifts began. This meant that baby went down only to be woken up by the festivities and cried for three hours straight. Quite the chorus of Christmas carols to serenade our festivities. Well, at least he enjoyed hanging up his stocking in the morning and bouncing from person to person during the earlier evening.

Joseph is squealing alot more, dialoguing in his own language and trying to figure out the codes we keep sending him. He smiles alot more and loves to see Daddy and Mommy. He likes to lift his head up and look around the room and talk to himself for short periods in his crib. He also is regulating his bowl movements, sorry if that is to much info for some of you but this is very good news for us. A lot less explosions through his pants now.

He also is sleeping well through the night, some nights he eats more than others depending if he is on or off a growth spurt. For a week he slept 6 hour intervals and only nursed once during the night. Now he is nursing every two to four hours, which can be tiring but he is good about returning back to sleep. Recently he has had more mucus so sometimes he lays down and forgets how to breath through his mouth, but he will learn.

He loves to hear one syllable words and laughs at mama and papa and baba. He likes peekaboo and patty cake. He is really ticklish on his sides and under his belly button to the point of cracking up out loud. He takes some short naps and often he enjoys a long two hour rest during the day. He loves to hear bedtime stories and be rocked to sleep. His skin is doing much better, he just has some whiter spots on his skin left than should clear up soon. He has discovered his hands and will "twiddle" his thumbs as he watches movements in front of him. He adores his rattles and likes to grab them and of course, shove everything he can in his mouth. He is drooling like crazy and thinks spitting up is fun to do when Mommy forgets his burp rag.

So in a summary, he is doing great. He has his immunizations coming up January 3rd. He is a healthy bouncing baby boy.