Months Three and Four

Baby, I'm not going to say much about your third month. It was not my finest month. I was a weeping mess for some of it. So were you.




Since month two, you've gotten a lot of firsts in. You started to giggle a tiny bit. You got your hundred day party, which Koreans like to do.



You were totally saved from sin. I got your soul baptized, sucker.



And you outgrew some awesome outfits. Your butt will never fit into this again:



But... let's skip to month four. Woah! Since month three, all kinds of crazy stuff has happened. You decided that holding up your head was no longer the worst chore on Earth. If I put you into a Bumbo substitute, you decided to give it a try.



Mind you, you do slump over pretty quickly in it and then kind of fall to the side. You decided to laugh at me. That was the best ever. EVER.



One day soon, when I die of exhaustion, I will not blame you, and only because of the way you laughed at me when we played Peek-a-boo. You're lucky you have the best laugh in the universe.

You started a sleep schedule! It's amazing because you do not appear to hate it. We give you a small amount of food, a bath, a book, and we sing to you, and then you go to bed. Since we started a week and a half ago, you've only flipped out once. Most of the time, you go to bed approximately five minutes after we first put you into the crib. You just roll to your side, get a small backrub, and zonk out. Most nights, we don't even have to pick you up out of the crib. You're amazing at night.

During the day? Well, at some point in the past, you've started associating naps with torture. If I miss your nap, or if I don't, around two hours after you wake up, I started to hear this noise. "EHHNNNN! EHHHHHHH! WWWWWHHHHHEEEHHHHH!" It doesn't matter if you're in the car, or if you're in the crib, or if you're in the living room, or if you're taking a walk, it's always the same, "EEEEEEHHHHHH!" Then, about five to ten minutes later, you start to give it your all. The tongue starts to show and it's all downhill from there. You start to scream like I, or your daddy, or your grandmom, or whoever is in the vicinity, is tearing your little baby toenails out. Sometimes, when we are lucky, you then take a pacifier and fall into a deep sleep. Other times, you continue to cry until anyone near you is exhausted, including yourself.

You're also shoving your hands into your mouth like crazy and you're also trying to shove my hands into your mouth. It's like you want to determine if they could possibly taste as good as you think they taste. Sometimes, you grab my hand, shove it into your mouth, and then shove it away, and then repeat. You also like to rub your feet together as if you were a cricket or grasshopper.

You're babbling a ton nowadays too. I like to answer you. We coo or grumble at each other a lot. Our conversations are a lot like "Agoo! Agoo!" "Agoo? Agoo?" "GOO-AAAHHH!" "Goo-ahh?" "Aggoooooo!" Daddy joins us in the conversation too. Other people don't know that you're telling us that you love us. A lot!

You got even cuter, if possible.



We dance a fair bit around the house. Your favorite song is still "You Are My Sunshine" but that's a bedtime favorite. During the day, you like "Shake That Booty" and "Hey-Ya", but you only like them if you're being shaken. I know I promised that hospital I wouldn't shake you, but you love bopping along to music. You smile and giggle and play shy when I shake your booty for you.

Your second favorite song of all time is "Hey There, Delilah." Wow, I'm glad I like that song. If I didn't love that song prior to your birth, I'd hate it now. See, sometimes, when we are in the car, and you're cranky, I can play that song, and you shut up. Only, it doesn't work with other songs. When we're returning from a day out and you're cranky, and we're five minutes into a long ride, I turn on the song, and you quiet down. I then proceed to a Weezer song or Ben Folds, and you're all, "WWWAAAAAAHHHHH! What is this lousy song?!!!!!!" So I return to "Hey There, Delilah." And you shut up again. I keep trying new songs, you keep crying. I return to our favorite tune, and you quiet down. Sometimes, you and me, we listen to that song TWENTY times in a row in the car. I could sing that song in my sleep now. I barely even like it anymore. When you have children, Nathan, make sure that you play them music you only love to the extreme. God help me if you had become attached to some country music song. I might have killed myself four or five repetitions in.

We got a big month ahead of us, Nathan. Halloween is coming up. You're probably going to roll over fully anytime now. We are probably going to start you on rice cereal sometime soon. I promise I'll love you during this next month. You just continue to smile at me like I'm the most awesome person who has ever existed.