Thar she grows!

Haven weighed in at 6.037 kg (13 lbs 5 oz) today, which is pretty much back on track after her brief stall at 3 months old. Her length was 63 cm (25 in). She'll be 4 months in 8 days, and we're so impressed by her. It seems like she grew a ton while we were in the states for those three weeks in December and January.

First of all, she definitely looks longer. You can see her growth, which is nice. Second, her hair has definitely gotten thicker. The jury is still out on the color. Although I'm guessing she will start out blonde and darken to brunette, as is quite common in my family, there are days where her hair looks downright red! Thomas and I joke that we have a daywalking ginger on our hands.

Her eyes are still light although the color is not a definite blue yet. I think they're more gray than they are blue, but they are definitely not brown and showing no signs of heading in that direction. Thomas' aunt is a midwife and she said if the eyes have not turned brown by now, they are not going to. Sometimes her eyes look blue, but it depends on the light. I suppose she inherits this from me, with my eyes tending to change given certain lighting. Thank goodness for all those recessive blue eyes in my family! Of course, there is absolutely nothing wrong with brown eyes...

She has been sucking her thumb for quite some time now, having outgrown her old pacifiers. At least, the outgrown pacifier was just a theory of mine. I bought her some new pacifiers that are specifically for her age group, and she seems to be happier with them than the ones she kept spitting out before as she will keep them in her mouth. I also picked up some 6+ months pacifiers to prevent this from happening in the future. Despite tolerating the new pacifiers, she definitely still prefers fingers -- hers or ours. In fact, she enjoys stuffing as many fingers into her mouth as she possibly can!

We're amazed at how smart she is. She strikes us both as someone much older, stuck in the body of an infant. Her limitations continue to frustrate her as she insists on being upright and high up as often as possible, despite being unable to sit up or stand up on her own. She doesn't give up though. Attempting to stand gives her such delight, she grins and giggles whenever we indulge her (which is often considering how fussy she gets if left in typical "baby" positions).

She has really started vocalizing these past few weeks. I think it was due to the trip to Florida, being around my large and loud family. She "talks" loudly and for a long time. Gibberish, of course, but a significant increase in vocalization from before. It's just more of the cute things she does to show us how grown up she is. Or at least as grown up as she THINKS she is.

Probably my favorite thing about her right now is how she's getting so much better at using her hands. She reaches out to touch my face and it just melts my heart. This skill has enabled her to hold onto small objects, which promptly get put in her mouth, of course. Mostly we've given her teethers to play with since we suspect she has teeth bothering her, although she doesn't always quite hit the target. She's poked herself in her eye with her teethers from time to time, but she's still working on the whole "coordination thing."

It's all flying by so incredibly fast, and I feel like I'm doing a terrible job of documenting it. We take thousands of pictures, but it still doesn't feel like enough. I'm trying to get better about shooting video, but I'm sure no matter how much I shoot, I will feel it's inadequate. I don't even want to think about all the creative things I plan to do with the photos and videos. I could bog myself down with those so much that I'd never actually interact with the baby anymore.

Even though she's growing so quickly, I can't help but eagerly look forward to what's ahead -- her hair growing longer, reading to her, taking her clothes shopping, etc. We love our little girl!