a lot of things are still about the same as a month ago  as far as her preferences & personality. she sleeps in her crib a lot when we are not in bed, which i think is new. the swing is soon to jump the shark. friends across the street gave us a little infant-to-toddler rocker and she loves that much more because she can sit up and look around. she prefers the bumbo if we are both eating or working at the table and she can be safely between us. if she is engaged with people or music or whatever, she will happily sit in your lap (not leaning back against you, sitting upright – leaning back elicits a horrible high pitched squeal), but if she is looking around she must be standing up. she can stand up for a surprisingly long amount of time – ten minutes or more – but i suppose she doesn’t have that much weight to hold. last week she weighed barely over 12 lbs, so i guess by now she probably weighs somewhere between 12 and 12.5. she will always grab at toys that are hanging above her, will always hold onto a toy that you put against her palm, and will only sometimes grab for things on her own or pick them up. if she is in her bumbo with toys on the tray she just shovels them towards her open mouth with both of her arms. she screams like a banshee if something rolls out of her grasp. she tracks people clear across a room, turns to the front door when she hears mikey come home, turns to look for paisley when she hears her come into a room, watches her tail wag with rapt attention & smiles upon eye contact, smiles at strangers and acquaintances constantly but will sometimes cry at familar faces (her grandmas, mikey) – all i can think is that if she is crabby & fussing and she thinks it’s someone who might take her from me she lets out a preemptive protest… because she never looks at people and cries if she doesn’t know them or if they don’t handle her too often. she will sit and watch music for ten or fifteen minute intervals (if we sit near the stage), and she can sit in my lap through two or three storybooks  in a row (not short boardbooks – full length stories). things happening on a tv screen get her attention because she hardly ever gets to see this. she finally likes to be swaddled, and it’s a must for keeping her down for naps or she will wiggle herself awake in the daylight (need to hem the blackout curtains that i bought!). she still needs a morning nap shortly after high-activity time, but other than that they are totally erratic. she has been going down SO easily between 7 & 8 every evening, and only wakes up if i stay up too late & she needs fed – otherwise when i go to bed i take her with me & she nurses without ever really waking up – so i can deal with the lack of a nap schedule. she sleeps through the night and wakes at about 8 in the morning. if we are here she would rather be out & about than at home it seems, but if we are traveling she would rather be staying put in one place than being dragged around. she will play a few little response games (if she’s pushing to stand in my lap and i say “stand up!!” really dramatically and pick her up, she will stand for a few moments, raise her eyebrows expectantly, and then let drop onto her butt so i will say “sit down!!” and she coos delightedly – we repeated this nineteen times in a row yesterday before she got bored), smile at you to get your attention (at which point she will smile even wider or coo), take turns “talking”, etc.  she will examine her hands for ages, and in the past week or so has started doing the same with her legs and feet, although she hasn’t grabbed at them. she quickly recognizes herself and whoever is holding her in mirrors. she can play “alone” on her playmat or with the toys in one of her little seats for up to half an hour sometimes – especially in the morning, when she lets me drag her little chair into the bathroom, strap her in, and take a shower even if mikey has already left. she drools almost constantly when she’s sitting up and has had a tooth ready to break the surface for about a week, which appeared really suddenly & has seemd to make no progress since. she seems fussy about this off & on, and lethargic off & on, but sometimes seems perfectly fine despite all of her textbook teething symptoms. if she isn’t being dragged around between countries, she LOVES other people. our friends, people in the grocery store, bank tellers, the girl at the post office, people at shows… everyone. she’s especially intrigued & delighted by young children and old grandpa looking men. we go hear live music every weekend, somtimes twice, and if she gets tired she simply conks out in my arms. she has taken a bottle from mikey a few times in the past week and has let him put her down for naps / the night numerous times since she stopped having to nurse herself to sleep. the binky is on the outs (except for falling asleep or fussy times) and the thumb is a new favorite, although she never sucks her thumb when she’s sleepy or waking up – just when she’s wide awake, playing, otherwise engaged. she loves to sit on you while you are laying on your back and peer down at your face, “fly”, and be bench pressed (so far none of these things have resulted in my getting barfed on – mikey has not been so fortunate). she loves to be tipped and rolled around and tickled and other sorts of super-gentle-baby-wrestling on our bed. her hair seems to be growing fast all of a sudden, and there are a few random hairs that are double or triple the rest. it’s slowly getting to be a lighter brown (as are her eyes) and is holding steady with its thickness, although i think it’s a bit thinner where she rubs one side in circles while she is nursing while she sleeps at night. you can tell she is tired when she starts rubbing her hair, and you can tell she’s up way too late if one side is spiking out with cemented spit from her sucking her hand / rubbing her hair / sucking her hand / rubbing her hair. i feel like i cut her fingernails twice a week. she loves baths. she isn’t outgrowing her clothes very rapidly – her legs are super chubby but her waist is still little. still in small fuzzibunz, and going through so few diapers a day that i don’t think i will even use the prefolds we bought (for diapering anyway – good for other stuff), and we’ll just do medium fuzzibunz only. she is startling at things that never bothered her before – mikey coughing, or one of us laughing or sneezing if she is falling asleep in our laps. never used to bother her, and now she bursts into tears. she has perfected the uber dramatic bottom-lip-pout-with-no-tears, which you can change to a smile in half a second with the right tricks. sometimes she seems to forget that she is hungry, and seems ravenous if food is offered (because sometimes my boobs tell me before she does!) or will start crying really really suddenly out of hunger - she hardly ever cries out of hunger. this only happens when she’s playing or if we’re out in public & she’s really into what’s going on, maybe a couple times a week. i didn’t know four month old babies could get so distracted from their hunger cues! she can easily roll onto her side (whether she’s on her back or belly) but hasn’t yet mastered the art of getting over her shoulder for a complete roll. this really pisses her off & she screams :) she’s quite the fiestly little bundle of cute.

i don’t know what else. i could ramble forever. she’s awesome.