Joseph at Four Months Old

Joseph is four months old today! He weighs about fifteen and a half pounds, which is two-and-a-half times his birth weight. He nurses like a champ and shows no signs of that first month of exclusive bottle-feeding.

I think his eyes are darkening up like Chris' and John's.

Given that Joseph was born at 37 weeks, I was not surprised to look at those oh-so specific milestone charts and see that he acts a bit more like a three-month-old than a four-month-old. He smiles often, and we're waiting to hear giggles any day. He now actively engages me, trying to "flirt" with me to get me to pick him up, which I love to do!

He seems to have his own look, which isn't as much like John as I first thought.

Joseph has discovered his hands, is reaching for objects, and can hold a light object if I put it in his hands. He has begun babbling. He is highly tolerant of being held and carried by his siblings, and I think he probably likes it.

So far, Joseph is a really calm baby. He is my first not to develop "colic" (or whatever it was) which caused the first three babies to scream inconsolably for three to five hours nightly for months. It has been such a dream not to go through that again. Joseph hangs out, watches, smiles. He cries when we're in the car, making it four for four on our babies hating the car. But other than that I've seen him act oh-so-slightly crabby a total of two times: after he had his tongue tie clipped and during the last couple days when he's had his first illness.

Joseph is our precious boy and it's unanimous that we love him!