4 months old!

Emily starts her 4th month in a huge heat wave, which means she hasn't been outside in a week, with not much relief in site! Yuck!

At 4 months Emily is:

• 15 pounds (4 month Doctor visit is next week, so we'll get more stats then)
  
• giggling and making lots of talking noises trying to join in the conversation
• still kicking her legs like crazy, but has now figured out that she only needs to kick one leg to make her favorite seat bounce up and down

• sucking on her fingers whenever she can
• losing more of her shiny brownish/red hair that she was born with, and it looks like the hair that will replace it is coming in blond
  
• grabbing her toys and bringing them all to her mouth
  
• taking longer naps during the day (usually around 1.5 hrs) and therefore only eating 5 times per day, 4 of them being formula (at least for another few weeks until mom completely transitions and then when the frozen breast milk is gone)
• still sleeping in the swaddle, but tends to get her arms out sometimes, so we think we will try and transition out of it in a few weeks

• continues to sleep through the night. If she wakes up usually a diaper change or a pacifier tends to put her back to sleep fairly easily.
• had two successful half days at daycare in preparation for starting full time at Sue's house August 1st. Mom and Dad were more nervous than Emily was...

We were all excited that Emily had more visits from grandparents and great grandparents this month (see photos below). She saw Great Grandpa Paul at the cottage over the 4th of July, Grandma and Grandpa Hicks and Great Grandma Mae came last weekend and Grandpa Lee and Nana Ellen are coming this weekend! Wish Nana Ellen good luck next week while she has Emily all by herself for the week while Mommy and Daddy go back to work full time!

Emily's first vacation!

Happy July! Emily went on her first vacation to her Great Grandpa Doege's cottage in northern Wisconsin. She is now the 6th generation to have visited the cottage (built by her Great Great Great Grandpa!!!)

What would have taken Mom and Dad 6.5 hours to drive took the three of us 9.5 hours! We stopped three times at parks along the way to feed Emily and let her stretch and play a bit before being put back in the car seat. Emily slept most of the time she was in the car. On the way up she only fussed a bit during the last hour and on the way home wasn't very interested in eating much, but still did fine in the seat and slept most of the way.We arrived Thursday evening before everyone else in order to get settled a bit (and everyone was right, we only used about half of the stuff that we packed). On Friday it was very hot and humid (which is quite rare that far in the north woods, so there is no air conditioning) so Emily spent the whole day in just a diaper. We found that putting a wet washcloth on her head helped her cool down! Daddy says she looks like George Washington! She got a bit fussy because of the heat once, and a few times had trouble getting her regular naps, but other than that she was her usual happy self! After the heat broke, we had two beautiful days! She had a great time playing with Nana Ellen and Grandpa Lee and loved smiling at her Great Grandpa! She spent some time hanging out down by the lake and even did a little "swimming!" She also got to chill out on the porch swing with Mom! Emily also got to meet new friends, Anna and Grant Johnson and told us she hopes they bring her a playmate in a couple years!
Also new this week, we have started giving Emily formula. We will gradually replace one nursing with formula for a few days and then a second, etc. Daddy gave her the bottle and she fussed a bit and made some funny faces to let us know she wasn't too sure about this new taste, but eventually got used to it and took the whole bottle. She also continues to do great at sleeping through the night and most of the time sleeps from around 9pm until 6am. And she really seems to have found her voice lately and is babbling lots more.