Ralph

Ralph is one handsome beast.

Judah's lips got so dry and chapped that he woke up from his nap and they were all bloody. Poor guy.

Getting toddlers dressed is always super fun. Always.

Nope. Just kidding. I lied about that last part.

Oh, and, by the way, these photos are back from when Shosh turned 4 months....

4 months- Actually about Shosh

Okay. Here is my second attempt at the Shosh is 4 months old post. Last time we covered the annual taking of the holiday card photos. This time I will actually focus on what Shosh was up to during her 4th month of life.

She had her second sleep over at my parents' house. Again, it was due to me second shooting a wedding and Bill having to work on a weekend. It didn't go great her first time around and the second time was even worse. She is now banned from sleeping over at my parents' house until she is older. She slept maybe 3 hours from 2 to 5 am. The rest was in piddly little chunks while being held, but not so much on her own. Shoshi fail.

She developed a bald spot on the back of her head. It is from where her hair rubs off while she sleeps on her back at night.

She also started a super fun new habit (read: super lame) of waking up at 5 am every morning and just being up for about an hour or so before finally going back to sleep. Of course, once I would finally get her down and get myself back to bed Judah would wake up and I was begrudgingly forced to start my day. I'm glad to say this fun little habit only lasted a few weeks. Oh, babies, and their ever changing sleep patterns!

Shoshana decided it was no longer cool to just peacefully hang out in her baby bjorn bouncer during meals and insisted on being held instead. Luckily for her, she is extremely cute and cuddly. Unluckily for us, it is very difficult to cut food one handed or deal with a toddler.

This month Shosh started doing what we term the Gorilla Sit. It includes an extreme lean forward and resting a lot of weight on her hands... and only lasts a few seconds at most. But, whatever. It counts as sitting up!

The great drool also began this month. Babies get teething symptoms long before they actually get teeth. Judah was the same way. It was right around 4 months that we first bought him an amber teething necklace and it was right around 4 months that we passed on his necklace to Shosh. She still has more drool than he ever did, but it definitely lessens when we remember to put on her necklace.

One bittersweet event this month was having her move into her nursery. Up until that point she had been in a pack and play right next to my side of the bed. It was very convenient for me to get up with her during the night. However, she was starting to sleep less soundly and would wake up when Bill or I would come to bed or when Bill woke up early for work in the morning. Therefore, in the interest of more sleep for all involved she moved down the hall into her own room.

With Judah we did a lot of prep getting his nursery just right. We tore up the carpet and refinished the floors. We painted the walls, ceiling, and trim. We hung curtains, shelves, and pictures. For Shosh we... shoved boxes to the back corner of her room. Sorry, little girl, but that is what happens when A) you are baby #2 and B) move into a new house the month before you are born. Eventually we will get the room looking cute. Same goes for Judah's room. And our room. And the basement. And on and on.

Shosh also started rolling onto her side when I would lay her down in her crib. I would put her down flat on her back and her knees would instantly tuck up toward her chest and she would roll right up onto her side and fall asleep. It was adorable.

Shosh at 4 months- The Holiday Card

I actually don't feel super behind about this post, because I was purposefully holding off on sharing any photos of Shosh at 4 months until after the holidays because I used images from this shoot for our holiday cards and for Christmas presents for our families.

For those of you who don't get our holiday card these are the two photos we used:

You may not be able to tell from the above photos, but Judah was being a giant turkey about getting his photo taken that day. It was tough because I wanted to get images of them together and Shosh was extremely limited in what she could do (see: lay on the ground or precariously sitting for maybe 5 seconds). Judah just wanted to be a two year old and do anything but lay still next to Shosh. Weird, I know. Once I finally got them in position on the floor next to each other and I got Shosh to look at me and smile, Judah fully fell apart.

And thus concluded our attempt at a group shot that day. He started really crying/whining at me right after I took the above photo.

I got some cute individual shots of them. Judah was definitely much better about taking photos when he could, you know, STAND and move around and be himself.

When Ralph barks at something outside, Judah will often go up to him, pet him, and say "It's okay, Ralphie. It's okay." Awww. Of course, the rest of the time he starts *fake* crying and yells at Ralph to be quiet.

Shosh was very happy to just lay on the ground... because she is a baby. And such a happy baby at that. She is also a big fan of holding her own hand.

She is much better at sitting when propped up against the couch. So we decided to see if we could get Judah to sit next to her...

Nope! Not really what we meant at all, Judah.

And, just like that, they were both over it.

I decided to tempt the fates and try again the next day in an effort to get some better photos of them together. This time I took them outside.

This was the only group one I got. We tried to have Judah hold Shosh so she could sit in his lap, but he was just being a goof and falling over and rolling around whenever we tried to sit Shosh down with him.

So we let her sit by herself instead. What you can't see is Willie just off camera continually readjusting her, because she was ALWAYS about to fall.

See? Totally about to tip over.

When we made Judah sit on the ground he discovered what great fun it is to rip up grass (and throw it at us and his sister).

I like that even though Judah is 2 and half, he still really enjoys answering the "How big is Judah?" question with a smile and hands up high as he squeals "So big!"

Well, I'm going to leave the write up about what Shosh was up to when she hit 4 months for another post. This one ended up being pretty long (with far too many pictures) and Shosh has recently decided getting up by 6am (or earlier) is what all the cool kids do, which means I really need to go to bed early... Like I should already be in bed asleep an hour ago early. Sigh.

I'm just glad it's only her that wakes up so early. He usually sleep in until around 8 (atta, boy!).