4 months!

I'm not sure if it's because I'm busier, less worried or it's the second time around, but Vivien seems to be getting so big sooo fast!  I can't believe that she has hit the 4 month mark and is less than 2 months away from moving into her own room and eating solid foods!

She still sleeps a ton, of course, but she is certainly awake for longer stretches than she used to be. When she is awake, she loves to be looking around at everything that is happening and she loves eye contact with me.  When Ryder was little, he got loads of tummy time because he was always on my chest, but Vivien hasn't been interested in being held like that for quite some time, unless we're walking around and she can see the sights.  At night, she is still waking up between 1 and 3am occasionally, but more frequently she sleeps through til 3-4am and then wakes up every couple of hours thereafter until she gets up for the day at 9am.

This month she was introduced to Ducky friend (no doubt, a distant relative of Monkey friend, Froggy friend and Elephant friend who came to stay with Ryder 2 years ago) and she loves to grab the blanket part of the "lovey" and move it around.  Except in the bassinet, she always has Ducky friend with her- for now as something she can grab and hopefully later as something that will help her sleep!  When she's not grasping Ducky friend, she likes to get a handful of hair.  Usually it's mine, but she has gotten in a pull on Ryder's hair a few times- turnabout is fair play for all the rough housing she has had to endure!

She is getting stronger as the days go by.  When she is able to lay down on the blanket, Vivien is constantly kicking and moving about.  She can sit up in the corner of the couch for quite some time without tipping over or sliding down, but she does wiggle and get out of position when she wants to.

We are very lucky that she is a super happy baby and smiles all the time.  All we have to do is look at her and she busts out the biggest smiles.  She has started to giggle a lot too.  She makes a ton of cooing noises, to us and to herself.  Sometimes when she is up in the bassinet, all we hear is cooing over the baby monitor.

Sitting up like a champ

All smiles!

"You want a smile?  I'll stick my tongue out instead!"

"Even though you've taken a million pictures of me, this camera thing is surprising!"

There's the smile, just a half though