This is what 4 months looks like

Elle, you giant, darling little girl...please stop growing so fast!

I think she looks like my Uncle Willie.  Which is another way to say she is all Schuette.

No seriously, please stop it.  I cannot afford to clothe you at this rate.  I am continually astounded how fast Eleanor has grown in size -- at her four month check she weighed in at 15 lbs 10.5 ounces and 25.25." (That's 11 ounces and almost an inch bigger than her sister at the same age.)  She's outgrown her 6 month sleepers and her toes are almost to the edge of her 9 month sleepers.  My grandma said she's worried. Lol, I'm not sure about what, but I understand the feeling. How big is she going to be?!  In addition to big, she's STRONG.  She started rolling over from back to front on her 3rd month birthday, which is something most babies don't do until five or six months.  Last week she rolled onto her tummy, saw Grace across the room, and started army crawling her way toward her big sister.  NOT EVEN FOUR MONTHS OLD.  She can almost sit up unassisted, and every time I pick her up she immediately straightens her legs, trying to stand.  She's also got great hand eye coordination when it comes to snatching toys.  She gets them on the first try every time, but she's still trying to figure out how, or perhaps if, she wants to suck her thumb.  She has a deep, throaty voice and giggle, which is my favorite thing ever, and when she wants something she roars like a baby dragon until she gets it.  She's very interested in food and beverages, and her favorite thing to do is to grab at my water glass until I give her a sip, and she's pretty good at it!  I'll be packing bibs for awhile since she's so insistent upon drinking from a big girl glass, and she's also quite a drooler.  Lovely.

Determined!

She's still El Chill, but she's starting to become as curious as she is chill.  Where she used to be content to watch the action, now she wants to be part of the action.  Yesterday was the first time I was unsuccessful at giving Grace her nap while also caring for Elle.  Elle had no interest in nursing like she normally does, but wanted to grab at the books we were reading, wanted to attack her sister's face, wanted to bite my chin.  Grace and I had the giggles so bad and at one point she remarked, "we need Dada.  He needs to hold EL-nor."  Elle, this was just a fluke right?  (4 days later -- not a fluke. My life just got so much harder guys.) She's still a good sleeper, waking up once or twice during the night, taking a quick hit from mama and then right back to sleep.  She's out of her basinet, right next to me in bed, which is undoubtedly a very bad habit but are you frickin kidding me we are all happy so we're not changing a thing for the time being.

She's a super friendly little girl, smiling at everyone she meets, and is willing to go by anyone who wants to hold her.  Sometimes when she sees me across the room, I'll see a look cross her face like, wait a tick, and she'll kind of crane her neck back to look at the person holding her like, who the heck are you?  She's always glad to see her daddy and her little papa, Auntie Al has a knack for getting her to sleep, Auntie Anna can always keep her happy, and Mimi and Auntie E never get a chance with her because Grace.  It's been so nice to watch her and Eric have a special little relationship right from the beginning, I love watching her grin at him and kick her legs in excitement when he gets home from work and I only cringe a little bit when he calls her "Nori." (I cringe a lot more when he calls her "Lenore." WHY.)  The other day we were at Toy's R Us and while Grace and I perused the baby doll isle, Eric and Elle checked out the Nerf isle.  A few days later while I was once again expressing my shock of Elle's giant size he said, "I'm so stoked.  We can battle each other in Nerf wars.  It's going to be awesome."

She does this better than most of the people in my Pilates class.

Last night I took Grace into our play room to have a little one on one play time, (it's so hard to properly set up My Little Pony land with a baby in your arms) and Eric walked a whimpering Elle around the house for a few minutes until her whimpers became a little more frantic.  When they came in the play room, she smiled a big gummy smile and started watching Grace and I play, like, Dad, see! They were right here!  She wants in on the action.  She wants to be a big girl.  I sort of want to cry about how fast it goes, but it's more fun to just embrace it.  You wanna play ponies?  Perfect.  Move over Grace, we got an up and comer -- let's show her how it's done.

Who, me?