95th percentile

Taylor had her four month check-up this morning, and I’m happy to say that she’s perfect. Perfect and well-fed. Her updated stats are 16 lbs, 4 oz and 25 ¾ inches. Dr Childers said she now ranks in the 95th percentile of four month olds for weight and height, and 99.9th percentile for cuteness. Alright, I made that last one up. But he did say she was a good looking baby. Duh.

After going through my laundry list of paranoid concerns - Is her head too flat? Is it normal to drool that much? She sneezed twice yesterday, is that alright? - we talked about introducing food into her diet. Since she’s obviously getting enough to eat, he said that we can wait another month before letting her try rice cereal and that by six months she’ll be ready for green beans, peas and other veggies. And I don’t know why I’m so excited to feed her real food, but I’m ready to bust out the Cuisinart and start pureeing sweet potatoes right now.

And along with the four month check-up came the four month shots. Boo. And once again her little face turned bright red and the tears streamed down her cheeks, all while she looked at me like, Really? I thought you loved me, Mom. How could you let them do this to me again?

So I anticipate the rest of our day being a flurry of naps and crabbiness. But luckily I managed to get a few snapshots of our fabulous four month old while she was still high on her infant Tylenol buzz.

Mommy’s day out

Yesterday Paige, Chele and I decided to cash in all of our accumulated gift cards and indulge ourselves at the super-posh Grove Park Spa. Needless to say, we were loving life. I pampered myself with the Carolina Mud Pie body wrap, where they slather you in mud, wrap you in a cocoon and then massage you and put warm stones between your toes. And, ladies, if you ever happen to be in this neck of the woods and are looking for a 90-minute heavenly experience, I definitely recommend it. Ask for magic-hands Maria. And if I wasn’t on a budget, I would totally of asked her to move in to give us morning foot massages.

After our treatments we spent a few hours relaxing in the hot tubs, saunas, pools and such. It was the first time I had been in a swimsuit for ages. And the last time, as I totally fried my virgin, freshly polished skin. Oh well, I wasn’t going to let a little sunburn ruin my blissful spa day. That’s why they invented champagne, right?

Four months old

Taylor turns four months old today. And if this month is half as fun as last month, we should just buy a bouncy castle and a cotton candy machine and start selling tickets. Because life is so good right now that I’m sure we could make a killing. Come one, come all and see the amazing, smiling Amys baby in all her splendor. And then watch as our three-legged dog mysteriously vanishes under the guest beds. Ooohhh, Ahhhhh.

Seriously though, three was a great month. Taylor’s a very happy baby. A happy baby with big, round cheeks full of smiles, giggles and delightful squeaks and squeals. She watches us with amazement and is completely captivated by the Rubes. Taylor’s head is on a swivel when Ruby is in the room. She is absolutely amazed by her. And it might just be the pain pills talking, but Ruby’s starting to warm up to Taylor-cakes too, making sure to sneak her a few sloppy, dog kisses whenever she’s within reach.

Speaking of slobber, a majority of the things we own are now covered in baby spit. Anything and everything that Taylor can get her hands on generally end up in her mouth. It’s like she’s marking her territory. Or maybe she’s just really curious as to what things taste like. Which if I was only eating one thing every day for my entire life, I might be curious as to what sort of flavors are on the remote too. And if that’s the case, her hands must taste like cheesecake because she constantly has them shoved in her mouth.

And now that the weather’s cooling down and it’s bearable to be outside, we have found our own little piece of heaven on our back porch - The porch swing. And if Taylor’s having a melt-down and our singing and dancing won’t make her stop, going outside on the porch swing will always settle her down. She just swings and looks out at the trees. And we just breathe and marvel over how big she’s getting. Yep, life is good.

For the Grandmas

It’s been a pretty uneventful week at the Amys house, so I’ve decided to post another video of Taylor-tot. And we’re dedicating this to Taylor’s Grandmas, because I know it’s hard being so far away from your only grandbaby. Especially one that’s this cute.

I came to get down, I came to get down. So get out your seat and jump around.

Taylor LOVES to kick. If something is touching her feet, she’s kicking it. Pillows, stuffed animals, the couch, us. And since we're tired of the abuse, we decided to pull-out the jump-up and give her little soccer-legs a workout.

As you can see, she’s still trying to get the hang of jumping. But she's got the slobber part down. It’s like she’s having a great time and then she sees the fabric of the seat and thinks, Hmmm. This looks like it might taste like ice cream.

A conversation between my two kids

Ruby: Alright. I will only tolerate you living here as long as you stop crying and start feeding me treaters. Also, please refrain from puking on the couch. I'm sick of the throw pillows smelling like sour milk.

Taylor: How about I just start petting you?

Ruby: Deal.

New wheels

Taylor turns four-months next week, and since she’s been holding her head up pretty good and we’ve been walking a lot, I figured it was time to upgrade to a real stroller. So after 45-minutes of harassing the staff of Babies R Us - Um, could you fold this one up again please. How about the shocks on this one? Does this one look good with my outfit? - I finally decided on a jogging stroller. That’s right, a JOGGING stroller. I FINALLY packed away my maternity mumus… skinny jeans, here I come!

We met up with Paige & Elliot yesterday for the stroller’s maiden voyage. It was awesome. It handles about a million-times better than the car-seat stroller. Plus Taylor-tot really enjoyed the change of scenery. She was all, Thank goodness. I was getting pretty sick of watching you suck-wind up the hills. Whatever.