What kind of mother am I? A painfully busy one, which is why it’s September 13, and Paisley hit four months like three weeks ago or something. I honestly wrote this on Aug. 26, with every intention of publishing on Aug. 27, but alas, my dumb ‘ole life went and got in the way. I could of course already fill volumes with the amazing things she’s done since then… but you’ll just have to wait until Sept. 27… or October 13!

I seriously don’t even know where the time has gone. We’re on the cusp of fall, you’re four-months old and I can’t believe you’re not so tiny any more. You are a full-fledged baby. I love watching your personality blossom. You have strong opinions about things and when you aren’t getting the attention you need you’ll make this playful songbird sound like “Hey guys, I’m cute and I’m over here.”

Verbally you have really grown. You “talk” and coo all the time, babbling on and on telling us what I know are very grand stories. This is typically how we find you in the morning. I’m so glad you don’t wake up screaming and crying; you now spend 30 minutes or so singing and cooing to yourself in bed. And when we finally arrive to collect you, you are literally bursting with smiles. Morning is your best time of the day. You are happy, engaged, vocal and very playful.

You are a playful, active little thing. The more one-on-one attention you can get, the better for you (not always for us!). Your arms and legs never stop moving. Ever. You’ve discovered your hands are much more than a sucking toy, although they maintain that day job (fists balled up shoved in your mouth ALL the time), but you have discovered you can hold things, grab toys, reach for our faces, and you’ve even successfully held your bottle a few times. You found that your feet fit right inside your mouth and you’ve always got a handful of foot and toes and occasionally take a bite.

Your favorite toy is the crunchy butterfly toy. You l-o-v-e this thing. I have no idea where it even came from. We place it on the tray on your exersaucer and you always navigate to it and just coo with delight and start fidgeting with her. The exersaucer is so great for you. You can’t get enough standing, whether in that alone or while someone is holding you. You spin around hitting each of the little centers and playing with the toys we leave around for you. You’ve even stood on your own for about 45 seconds!

Not sure if we’re raising a little narcissist or not but you absolutely love that baby in the mirror! In a way you don’t do for real live humans, when you catch your reflection you get ten kinds of excited. It’s actually very cute.

You still still love bath time. You’re taking more by yourself, learning to splash in the water, and you rarely fuss during the exit. We still take baths with you, and I know it’s something we both enjoy doing. It’s just a great bonding time. You completely zen out like an old lady after a hard day. The only thing you’re missing is a glass of wine and a trashy celebrity rag. You really love when we turn on the jets.

We got to take you to Raz’s and Dave’s wedding last weekend and show you off. It was so much fun catching up with so many friends in the Baha’i community, not to mention getting you all dolled up. Second behind the bride of course, you were the prettiest girl there!

This month we introduced you to solid foods, having a tablespoon of rice cereal after your evening bottle. In a word, you hate it. You hate us for making you eat it. You hate the world for growing it. On a scale of love it to hate it, you wish we would die. Your daddy captured the moment perfectly during your very first feeding. You gagged and choked and cried and I laughed harder than was probably appropriate.

I’ve decided that you are the one-hit-wonder of baby milestones. You’ve laughed. Once. You’ve rolled over. Once. You do these amazing things and then you’re like, OK, what’s next? Breaks my heart a bit because I get so excited to see you do more of it. Your first laugh was while Grandma Lori was prepping you for a bath. She was tickling you and you started giggling. Real giggles and I swear I stopped dead in my tracks and the feeling inside was unlike anything I’d ever felt before. I was so overjoyed that it hurt. Quite possibly the best sound I’ve ever heard.

Next of course to the one you make first thing in the morning.

You get better and better every single day. I’m excited to see your hair growing and how you continue to just astound us.

I love you tiny bits!

Mama