4 1/2 months old

Anastacia is now 4 1/2 months old and growing so fast! She weighs almost 17 pounds and is a little over 2 feet long. She has been eating bananas and this last week we added pears to the mix (for the sake of her tummy). So I was giving her bananas at one feeding and pears at another. Then she must have hit a growth spurt b/c for a few days in a row she was eating the whole package of bananas and then a whole package of pears, all at one feeding!!!!! We also started giving her a little water in a bottle, but she mostly just likes to chew on the nipple and dribble the water down her chin. She has been drooling/blowing bubbles since she was only a couple of weeks old and sucking/gnawing since birth. Everyone kept telling me "she must be teething," but we haven't seen any teeth yet. However, the last few nights her bedtime routine has changed and her top gums seem to be tender, so I am wondering if we won't see a little tooth come through soon......who knows???? It's so hard to tell when they are so little and can't really tell you anything.

Since she was about a month old, I have been showing her the sign for "milk" and this last week she started doing it pretty clearly. We have caught her moving her hand before, but weren't sure if she was really saying "milk" or not, but now she is pretty definite about it. She squeezes her hand open and shut several times and tenses her little arms up and grunts. It's so funny to watch. She definitely has a lot of personality and her face is full of expression!!

Anastacia is a very happy baby as long as you feed her when she's hungry, change her when she's wet and let her get herself to sleep. When she is tired, she wants to be able to get herself to sleep or else you are in for a very cranky baby. She loves to go places, but when it is time to take a nap, she prefers to be at home!

To show you just how chunky she has gotten, I took a picture of her thigh. Talk about thighs this baby has got some thighs! Shawn hates it when I call her my fat baby - but then we know she will grow out of it. Colten and Mahala were both big babies and look at them now (skinny minnies). So here is a picture of my little chunky monkey's thunder thighs~~I love it!!!