New seat

Teagan seems to prefer sitting more upright to play so I had considered getting her a Bumbo seat with a tray for playing. As big as she is though, I was afraid she would grow out of it pretty fast. Then it occurred to me to just get out her feeding seat. We still had it packed away in a box since she isn't eating any solid foods yet. After getting the feeding seat out and attaching it to one of our kitchen chairs, Teagan seems to enjoy sitting in it to play. We have been putting her in it while we eat our meals and I think she likes being able to see both Paul and I. The tray works well for keeping a few toys nearby and she can pick up and play with whichever ones she wants.

I squeak because I can!

Recently Teagan has discovered that she can squeal. She seems to be practicing this skill quite often. She likes to squeak and squeal when she is happy, protesting, or just for the fun of it. The last two days we keep trying to capture it on video, but she immediately gets silent whenever we get out the camera. Today Paul tried to do video for several minutes and when he gave up and turned the camera off, she immediately started squealing. We were able to finally get a video of her laughing by having Paul amuse her with her favorite game, peek-a-boo, while I sneakily held the camera off to the side.

How convenient

Teagan is a big drooler and will soak the front of her clothes in a short time. The other night I put a bib on her since we were running out of clean onesies and I didn't want to have to change her clothes again before bed. Well, she likes to chew on her burp cloths so I guess she thought this was a very convenient arrangement. She can grab the bib, chew on it, let go, and it is still right there waiting for her when she wants it again. Those tasty bibs!

Play Time

It is so much fun to play with Teagan. She is really interested in holding toys and loves to look at herself in a mirror. She has a tummy time toy that pivots around and she pretty quickly learned how to use her arms and legs to turn herself around to reach different toys. Standing is also still one of her favorites. If she gets restless, all we usually have to do is let her stand on our lap facing us and she is happy again.

Teagan had her 4 month well check today. Here are her stats: Weight 15 lb 15 ozs and she is 26 1/4" long. She started out pretty happy at the checkup and even gave the nurse and doctor some big smiles. However, she then switched to her signature pout and brought on the tears!

Just be

Teagan and I went to our first Mommy & Baby Yoga class this weekend. I did prenatal yoga with the same instructors and have been wanting to go to the postnatal class but it hasn't worked out for our schedule until now. Teagan did pretty well, but seemed ready to be done about 10 minutes before the end of class. She seemed interested in looking at the other babies who were all a few months older than her and more mobile. I was really surprised that she didn't freak out at the end of the class when the instructor was playing the gong. Going to yoga class always seems to remind me of how important it is to practice what I call "just be." For me, to just be is to be present with whatever you are doing without trying to multi-task or think of everything else that needs to be done. When Teagan is awake I try to avoid the distractions of the TV as much as possible and make sure I am spending some time with her just playing and being with her. When I sit in the rocking chair to nurse her to sleep, it seems like I constantly have a to-do list going through my mind. Yoga class reminds me to practice turning off all those distractions and just be with Teagan and enjoy her babyhood as I know it is going to pass by so fast.

She's a squirmer

Teagan doesn't generally protest diaper changes too much, but now that she moves around a lot more she has turned into quite a squirmer on the changing table. She likes to push off with her legs and try to roll over. I definitely don't ever walk away from her on the changing table. When Paul is home I usually enlist him as Teagan's diaper change entertainment. She loves it, but unfortunately the more excited she gets, the squirmier she gets. If I am not fast enough at getting her diaper fastened she will wiggle right out of it.

Photo shoot

We did a little mini photo shoot with Teagan today. Paul's the photographer as always! She was in a surprisingly good mood despite her lack of sleep today. We had quite the busy day yesterday so she was a little off her nap schedule. We went down to Duncanville and actually saw every single one of her cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents that are in the DFW area. By the time we got home she was so overtired. While we were getting her ready for bed she had one of the classic overtired baby signs, the giggles! All you had to do was just look at her funny or say "boo" and she cracked up. It was really sweet, but she had a hard time settling down for bed. After going to bed a little late and waking up at her normal time, she fought every single nap today. Typically she takes 4-5 naps, but today we only managed 3. Hopefully we will get back on track tomorrow.

Splish Splash

When she was a newborn, Teagan simply tolerated her baths. Now, she is at the stage where I would say she really likes bath time. She loves to kick her legs really hard splashing herself and everything nearby. She also likes to babble and make a lot of noise during bath time. We usually do baths every other day or so, but it is a lot of fun.

She's a big smiler

I've noticed that I tend to add an "er" to the end of words and use them as nicknames for Teagan depending on what she is doing at the time. So if she is smiling, I'm calling her a big smiler. If she is standing, she's a big stander. I also say big spitter, pooper, and talker. She is still just giggling for us occasionally. I can't wait until she's laughing so much that I'm calling her a big giggler.

New friends

Teagan is now at at that phase where she is starting to hold onto things and put them in her mouth. With all the concerns about plastics leaching harmful chemicals and lead paint on toys, I decided I would much rather her be chewing on organic cotton. (Did I mention that Paul calls me a hippy? I take that as a compliment!) Yeah I know she is going to chew on her fair share of plastic toys also, but I introduced her to two new friends that I hope she will like better. We had received the bunny as a gift and I recently bought her the kitty. Now they just need names. Especially the kitty. Since we have a cat, I don't want to confuse her by saying "Chew on your kitty." That could be bad.