Dear sweet Claire,

FOUR MONTHS. How could it be, precious one? You, our red-haired-blue-eyed beauty, seem to be changing by the minute — and this has been your most exciting month yet!

Weight: 15 pounds, 12.5 ounces (81st percentile) Length: 26.5 inches (100th+ percentile)

Recent highs: This was certainly a full month with lots of adventures. You were a rockstar for your first two 5k races…Halloween…rolling…and your first visit with Santa! We know we say it all the time, but this is our favorite stage so far. You laugh out loud, smile when we walk into the room, and genuinely seem to love learning and playing.

Recent lows: You had your first cold last week, leaving you with a runny nose and a pitiful cough. Thankfully you never got a fever! You’ve also been battling a case of baby eczema, which seems to bother Mommy more than it bothers you. Teething is certainly a low, too, but you’ve been fighting it like a champ, and I know we have many, many more months to go. It’ll be worth it, sweet pea, when those first little chompers peek through!

Eating: Let’s put it this way — you don’t get to those growth percentages on a small appetite. Claire Bear, you’re such a good eater, and nursing you has been a true joy. When you’re awake you like to eat every 2-3 hours, which although frequent, ensures you get your calories in during the daytime…giving us wonderful stretches of through-the-night sleep. Yay!

You’re still taking breastmilk bottles, although the process is messy and time-consuming: You’re easily distracted and will stop to look around the room every few sips — leaving your bib and Daddy’s lap covered in milk.

All that said, the real truth is that you’ll eat just about anything these days. Teething is here in full force, and my goodness little lady — you’re a drooling, chewing, and (sometimes) fussing machine. Don’t get me wrong, we understand why you whine: cutting teeth must be no fun. To help soothe, you’ve opted to chew your sweet hands (as many fingers as you can fit), toys, shirts, blankets…the list goes on. Your pediatrician tells us that it may be three to eight more months before you cut a single tooth…whew!

Sleeping: Sometimes we feel like we hit the baby lottery. Not only do you sleep through the night…you sleep 9 or 10 hours at a time, from about 9 p.m. to 7 a.m.! We dropped the swaddle a few weeks ago when you first showed signs of rolling, so we’ve been dressing you in a sleep sack over your jammies to give you a little extra warmth. We’re still running white noise (an app on Daddy’s Kindle), but we’ve backed off on the bath frequency a bit, and it’s nice to see you’re flexible with your routine.

You take a few naps during the day — one about 45 minutes after you wake up, another around 11 a.m., and a long one around 4 p.m. — and you have a precious signal to tell us you’re sleepy: you stop playing, roll onto your left side, put your thumb in your mouth, and close your baby eyes.

When you’re ready to wake up, your signs are clear as well: you roll onto your belly or hang a limb out of the crib.

Either makes you mighty angry, and you quickly let us know it’s time to fetch a baby.

Playing: Holy moly, you’re a busy girl. You aren’t yet crawling, but you are always in motion! Rolling has become your favorite pastime, although you’re only rolling to the right and you’ve only mastered back-to-belly. Our next goal is sitting up. You’ve been practicing in your Bumbo, but we still have a little work to do because you get tired pretty quickly.

Babygarten is taking a hiatus til January, so we’ve been spending our Monday mornings at the Huntersville library story time. The librarian is sweet and entertaining, but you spend the whole class watching the other babies! Mommy has been planning more outings so you have the chance to interact with other babies, and we’ve started regular Thursday play dates with Isaac and Jackson and their mommies too.

In the coming weeks you’ll have your first Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years…and Mommy can hardly believe we’ll be celebrating the holidays with our new little girl. These last four months have been a dream come true, Claire…and it’s only getting better.

We love you to the moon!

xoxo, Mommy and Daddy