The Robiltons

Dear Henry,
We know why they refer to this age as the "golden era" of babyhood: you are cute, cuddly, interactive, responsive, smiley, predictable (most of the time) and much more settled than you were even a few weeks ago. You are not very mobile yet, which means we can set you down and be reasonably certain that you will be where we left you when we return (although in the morning you are often on your tummy and have shimmied sideways in your crib - which is not how we leave you at night). While we still have the occasional bad day, they are infrequent and are usually followed by a very good day. You are looking more and more like your dad - you've got his eyes, his nose, and even the texture of his hair. You get your chubby cheeks from me. You are gaining greater control over your hands. You try to put everything in your mouth, and often exasperate yourself when you lunge forward to try to mouth something but can't quite reach it. You are becoming more vocal and delight us with your chatter. We call you our leaky faucet because of all the drool. We've been checking for tooth buds, but see nothing yet - so there's lots of drool still to come, isn't there? You hate to be put in your carseat, and have started to arch your back and cry when we put you in it. This happens often, since we use the carseat with your stroller and with the car. Fortunately, once we're on the move you are content. You enjoy car rides, and are happy to look out the windows at the trees and clouds. We put you in the infant carrier when we shop for groceries and you love it. The stimulation exhausts you, and you sleep well at the end of it all. You also love your Exersaucer - we stabilize you in the chair with blankets since you're still a bit small for it. If you see it across the room, you can't take your eyes off it. This month we've started a new exercise class, a new music class, and a new community-based mommies group, and we're still going to the Early Years Centre with our informal mommies group - so we keep busy, and we're having more and more fun together. At your four month check-up, you weighed slightly more than 17 pounds (the 95th percentile) and were 71 cm long (off the charts, according to Dr. Shauna).