Elijah is 4 months

I missed writing about it yesterday because OMG summer is a lot of flipping work, but Elijah turned four months old. Some exciting things have happened with him in just the past two weeks. The first is that he now fits into the Ergo.

big carried baby

This means I can get him on and off my front much more easily than I could with a wrap carrier. The result is that he's carried more and I hate it less. It also means he can get down more frequently to do his favorite thing in the whole wide world: exercise!

at Walden pond, practicing his kicking

Elijah NEEDS to be on his stomach for several hours every day. I don't know if he's determined to start crawling six months earlier than his brothers did, or if he just likes kick kick kicking. But it seems that he craves exercise. The same energy Harvey used to employ to MAKE SOUNDS MORE SOUNDS I WILL FIGURE OUT TALKING BY ALWAYS MAKING SOUNDS, Elijah seems to devote to building his physical strength and balance. I don't know what it bodes for the future, I just know it's an amazing blessing to have children who are DIFFERENT.

In the looks department, however, Elijah seems to be taking after Harvey. He's a tanker just like his oldest brother, and people routinely guess he's that 8 months old instead of 4 (indeed he's fitting into 9 month clothing now). Their face shape seems to be similar too. I thought my first two looked alike, but seeing the first and third together is uncanny.

lookalikes

The middle child for his part has adjusted well to the coming of a younger brother. It was a tough first two months for him, but he seems to be coming into his own as a three year old, taking longer time away from Mama to play by himself, and asking to do more things with his father. There are still difficult moments, of course, like this morning when he screamed for an hour because his apples were moist (fruit contains moisture, fyi). But I feel a peace about his self-confidence and place in the family. I no longer feel like having a baby brother broke Zion.

scooting away on his own power

All in all I've felt that these four months have been easier than the other post-pardom periods. Elijah is by far the easiest baby we've had, easy to sooth, easy to put to sleep, easy to coax into a heart-melting smile. I don't have as many photos of him as of the other two, I don't have as much free time to dote over his development, but I love him just as much as I've loved the others. Which is to say 100%.

Mama and Elijah in the rocking chair on the porch, both smiling for the camera

happy times

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