Emma Jewel Newsletter Vol. 22 (8/24/2004)

Guess who is four months old!  Miss Emma turned 4 months on August 19th.
She gets more amazing every day.

She's trying to sit up on her own now.  If she is sitting on your lap she 
will pull forward to sit up and away from you.  Little Miss Independent.

She's also passing her toys back and forth between her hands now.  That's 
been pretty cool to watch.

At night, she usually just gets up once to eat.  That works well for everyone.  :)

One of her most beloved and also most hated toys is a doodle bug.  She loves to
grab it, but it never does exactly what she wants.  Since she cannot get the 
entire toy in her mouth at one time she feels that is defective and either
throws it down or she throws a fit. :)

We recently had our four month check up.  At first the doctor was disappointed
because Emma still doesn't like being on her stomach.  She was saying, "You
are going to just have to let her cry."  But, then, after she played with Miss
Emma a minute, she realized she had better head control than she assumed.  When
she put Miss Emma on her stomach, Miss Emma not only lifted her head but picked
up one arm and shoulder at the same time.  That's still behind a bit what other
babies her age are doing, but it wasn't like the doctor had originally thought.

We do "fool" Emma into tummy time pretty regularly.  When I am toting her, I will
sometimes tote her where she is sort of suspened out in front of me on her stomach.
It forces her to lift her head up to look around.  She also gets carried her
tummy to our chest alot.  She often pushes off us and moves her head around quite
a bit.  It isn't a subsitute for tummy time, but it is some ways we are trying to
help her gain strength and flexibility in every direction.  Of course, we do
tummy time, too.  It just isn't very pleasant for any of us and is often short-lived.  
:)

Emma weighed 13 1/2 pounds and was 24 1/4 inches long.  She is both average weight
and height, and that isn't even doing any sort of correction for her being 
premature.  

We talked to the doctor about introducing solid foods, but she recommends waiting until
around 6 months.  We plan to follow this advice with a caveat or two.  :)  Miss Emma 
has already tasted several new tastes:  watermelon, cantelope, and tomato.  She's
only taken a little juice from our fingers, but has been quite delighted with the 
experience.  :) 

We also got another set of vaccinations at our last doctor's visit.  Those shots
make her so sick.  She runs a fever and just feels really bad.  I apologized to Emma
for having such doofus parents.  Most parents take their sick baby to the doctor to
make them well.  We take our well baby to the doctor and make her sick.

We are trying to call her Emma more now.  We've went through so many pet names for
her, I think she more likely thinks her names is "Sweetie" than "Emma."  Other pet
names we've used include:  Stinker, Short Round, Princess Pete, Squirt, and 
Beautiful Lady.

I'm attaching a couple of pictures from recent jaunts outside.  Hope you enjoy!

Momma Kay