Harper's Four Months

Took Harper to her four-month appointment with Dr. Arther and Harper continues to show she is her own gal. Harper weighed in at 14 lbs (75% for weight), 24" (50%) and the 75% for head circumference. Finley was, of course, born early, so she never was this big relative to other babies. At four months, Finley was a bit over 12 lbs, a bit over 22", but still shared the same Ms. Potatohead skull that Harper also seems to have. . . at least they'll have strong necks!

Dr. Arther said we need more tummy time for Harper, so she has been living on her stomach or in this Bumbo since her appointment. The problem that Finley believes it is HER Bumbo, so there are some battles. We tried to take this picture a few seconds before, but Jack was having none of it. Also, note Finley's "cheese" smile -- it worked here, but you'll see it again.

Here is the picture immediately before the one above. Not sure what they're looking at on the cabinets. That is Finley's real smile.

When Harper's on her stomach, we will put the boppie under her to, so that she isn't forced to eat the carpet. Her neck can get tired holding up that 75%tile head.

Per the requests, many more pictures of Harper here -- which is easier now that she does more things. This picture, of course, doesn't seem to be capturing any of the new things she does. However, she is pretty fond of her baby Big Bird.

This reflects one of Finley's favorite things -- eating. She is a good eater; she doesn't stuff herself and will generally try most anything. The fact that she really like fruit and vegetables makes me question paternity.

Harper is getting much more expressive, as you can see here. She smiles, laughs, and coos when you play with her. She is getting her own little happy personality. We've also had to be really good with cutting her fingernails, as she keeps scratching her nose if we don't keep them cut down really, really low.

It is pretty interesting to see how similar Harper and Finley looked as babies if you only look at them from the forehead down. They clearly have different hairlines and hair color, but their cheeks, chins, and face shape seem to be pretty much the same. Harper still have pretty blue eyes and her hair is almost a reddish color, while Finley's eyes turned brown pretty quickly and her hair was dark at birth and now as lightened up to a lighter brown.

And, here is the other "cheese" smile picture I alluded to above. . . where it doesn't seem to work. For whatever reason, she closes her eyes as tight as possible when smiling, but don't fear; I'm sure Shelley will be able to convey her vast years of cheerleading experience to Finley to master the instant auto smile.

In the last two pictures, you can see Finley likes to help feed Harper. While this is true, it is generally for the camera; she doesn't stick around long enough to get through the whole bottle. She is a great little helper with Harper, though; at school every morning, she carries the bottles into Harper's room and puts them into the refrigerator all on her own. When Harper was crying the other day, she went and grabbed the baby Big Bird and gave it to her, so we have modest hopes that this will continue to some degree when Harper starts walking around trying to play with her toys.

The Weinstein's can't wait for opening day - please note Harper's bib. Go Cubs! Our next project is getting Finley to sleep in a big-girl bed. We just bought her a little bedroom set that she picked out, so our project is to transition her out of the crib and into it. We'll keep you posted.