Month Four

Dear Rachel,

Today you turn four months old. I can't believe how quickly the last month flew by. I just got used to saying that you were three months! We have been really busy as a family, and there are a lot of exciting changes that will be happening this month.


By the end of your fifth month of life, you will be living in a new house, and your Daddy will have a new job. These things aren't a big deal to you, but they are a huge deal for your parents.

Watching you this past month has been amazing for us, as always. Now, instead of reaching out tenatively, you will grab at anything that comes within an arm's length of you. Rattles, your bottle, daddy's face...anything that's close to you, you'll grab, and usually try to put in your mouth. You've also started grabbing your feet, but thankfully, you're not trying to eat those, yet.


In addition to grabbing, you're also holding on to stuff a lot longer to explore it. You will even hold onto your bottle from time to time, which makes it much easier for me to change the channel on the TV and have a beer while you're eating.

You've refined your digit sucking over the past four weeks. At the end of last month, you were shoving your whole fist in your mouth. Over the course of this month, you picked out two fingers you liked, and in the past week, you've decided (much to my dismay) that your thumb is what you really want to suck on.


You've also become very vocal this month, regularly holding conversations with whoever will listen, and you will go on for minutes on end. Especially when your mother and I are trying to listen to something on TV. There are certain words or sounds that you will respond to with a laugh, like the dog's bark, or the word "poop." It still makes us laugh every time you laugh.

Your are getting used to spending time on your tummy and don't cry or fuss as much as you used to. Earlier in the week, you picked your head up, turned and looked right at my while you were on your tummy, which you hadn't ever done before. Usually, I have to get down to floor level to get you to turn and look at me.


You're still not turning over, but when you're on your back, you will turn onto your side to look at something that interests you. Hopefully, this month, we'll get you to turn completely over.

Bathtime has become a real trip. Instead of washing you in your plastic tub over the sink, you've started taking a bath with Mommy. You love being in the tub and having room to kick around. You kick so much, that you get me wet sitting outside of the tub. You really love the water, and I can't wait to take you swimming.

You've started recognizing that the dog is a living thing, and he is becoming more daring around you. You will follow him when he walks by, and you love watching his tail wag. He, in turn, shows you a lot of love, usually by licking your feet, but he also sniffs around your face a lot.


We bought you a jumper this month, which you love to spend time in. You bounce around a lot, and are starting to figure out that the toys on it are there for you to play with. We love it because it wears you out, which means you fall asleep quickly after you've been in it.


Speaking of falling asleep, you're starting to become quite the little stinker when it's bed time. You will play in your bed for a while, but once you realize that there's nobody around, you start to cry. Loudly. Very loudly. We know that babies form habits around three months, so we're trying to get you to fall asleep without us holding you or standing over you, but sometimes you just need a loving face to stare at. One night, you were wailing like someone had dropped you, and when I walked in, you were just laying in the middle of your bed, pitching a fit. As soon as you saw me, you stopped crying and calmed down. I guess you are just a social butterfly, and want people around.

We took you to your first high school football game last week, and you didn't seem to mind all of the noise. In fact, you even fell asleep during part of the game! Mommy's team got obliterated by Grandpa Martinez's team, but we won't talk about that.

Grandma Connie and Grandpa Rick will be here in a few weeks for a weekend visit. We can't wait to see them, and show them how much you've learned!

Love,
Daddy

This one's for you, sis...

I don't know how you did it, Sarah, but somehow, this little girl is taking after you.

In which it all hits the fan...

Isn't it weird how everything happens all at once?

In case you couldn't tell by the new banner, we have accepted an offer on our house. I hesitate to say it's sold because the deal isn't done until the ink is dry on the papers.

A lot of other things fell into place last week, too.

Over the course of the past year, I had applied for 6 different jobs and only got one interview. Trust me, I'm not applying for stuff I'm not qualified for, so it's been really frustrating.

Over the past month, I've applied for two jobs and got interviewed for both of them. Also over the past month, we've had several showings on our house but no bites.

My whole world flipped upside down last week.

Over the course of 7 days, we accepted an offer on our house, looked at about 15 houses, placed an offer on one, and I accepted a new job.

All in one week.

And the fallout from all of this is going to happen all in the same week, too. I start my new job, and we close on both houses in the same week.

Maybe.

The house we put an offer on needs a new roof, and I have a really bad feeling that it's going to be a sticking point on both ends. It's a deal breaker for us if the sellers don't want to fix it, which means we start all over again looking for houses.

October is shaping up to be a very busy month around here.

The giggles

We found out over the weekend that Rachel loves it when the dog does his half-bark "huff."


Click here to see the video

Go ahead Dad, call DCFS

My Dad threatened me with calling Child Protective Services (Department of Children and Family Services for you northerners) if I dressed Rachel in a Cubs outfit because according to him I would be "contributing to the delinquency of a minor."

But he's the one who bought this outfit at my request, so I guess he's partly responsible.



She looks happy enough, though.

Yes, they may be mathematically eliminated, but at least they're not going to lose 100 games. Am I a true Cubs fan, or what?

"Chicago Cubs fans are ninety percent scar tissue." ~ George Will

More video fun...

This one's for Mom and Dad...Monica is in the video. I'm not, because I've been behind the camera. Here's Rachel at 3 months...

Click here to see the video

Month Three

Dear Rachel,

Today you turn three months old. You're growing up so quickly!

You're doing really well in day care, and enjoy spending time with Miss Judy and your friends. We don't worry about you so much while we're at work because we know you're in good hands, and you're such a happy baby.


Everywhere we go, when we tell people how old you are, they comment about how big you are. When people try to guess how old you are, they usually guess 5-6 months, which tells us how much you're growing. You're so tall, your feet almost stick out of your car seat!

Your neck has gotten really strong, and you're holding your head up on your own almost all the time now. You've also been working on your ab muscles by trying to sit up, or at least lean forward when we're holding you.


You haven't quite gotten the sitting up thing quite right yet, because when we hold your hands and pull you up a bit, you pull your knees all the way up to your stomach and try to pull yourself forward at the same time, leaving you balancing on your butt.


While you were in your bumbo seat last week, you leaned all the way forward and touched your mouth to the center piece, then slowly sat back upright, which is cool, because it means you can sit up with support.


Of course, we still need to work on the rolling over thing a bit. We try to put you on your tummy a couple of times a day, and you're getting close to rolling, but you can't quite managed to get all the way over. It's fun to watch you hold your legs and head up and balance on your tummy with your arms back, like you are flying.

You've begun to explore your hands a lot more since you discovered them last month. You have started reaching out tentatively for things, but you won't reach very far yet. You love to grab hold of things that are close to you, like your shirts and blankets, and pull them up to your face. If we put things in your hands, you'll hold them for a while too. You're starting to get to the point where everything in your hands goes to the mouth, which should get really interesting in the next month.


You're sucking your hands a lot now, too. When you first started, last month, you'd get the thumb side of your hand up to your mouth and chew on it, but your thumb would be tucked neatly inside of your fist, so you were just chewing on your thumb knuckle. Now that you're opening your hands a lot more, you've started putting your whole hand in your mouth to suck on it.


Along with the sucking, your drooling has increased tenfold. It seems like whenever we have you sitting up, your entire front ends up wet. We can't even begin to imagine what it's going to be like when you start teething.


You're sleeping consistently through the night, now, too, which makes your mother and I very happy. Every once in a while you'll still wake up, but we can usually give you a pacifier and you'll go right back to sleep.


I think our favorite thing from this month has to be the hearty guffaws you let out when we do something you like. We start to laugh when you laugh so hard because we love to hear that sound coming from you.


It seems like the last time I wrote to you was so long ago, I hope I didn't leave anything out. You're growing and learning by leaps and bounds, and we're constantly amazed by you. We love you very much.

Love,
Daddy

Happy Birthday Mrs. President....

I've known Monica throught almost all of her twenties, and today, as she turns 29 (for the first time), I thought I'd offer up a little photo montage.

I love you Moni...happy birthday!

Peek-a-boo

Monica likes to tease and say that she's playing with an armadillo, because the blackline drawing of Piglet on Rachel's drapes somewhat resembles an armadillo. But in color...pig.

His name is Piglet, Monica, and he is a PIG, not an armadillo. Not in Texas, not anywhere. A PIG.