Almost 4 months old

Alita learned to laugh last week. So far she has found the following things hilarious: discussion of computer viruses by Erik, endless repetition of "who's wearing jammies?" in annoying baby accent while clapping her footie-clad feet together, and her grandma Dianna's face. We're pretty sure that last one is meant as a compliment. She has her 4-month checkup tomorrow, at which time we'll learn how well she's growing (spoiler alert: like a weed), how many milestones she has met (babbling & cooing- check. Shoving her whole fist in her mouth to suck her fingers,-check. Drooling enough to drown a small coastal town- check), and how many she has yet to meet (learning to roll over is tough when you tolerate just 30 seconds of tummy time in any 3-hour period). She met her Aunt Anne this past weekend, as well as Reverend Luopa, who married her parents. She has been on her best behavior during these busy days, until her nightly Yelling Time, about which she is fairly punctual- fussiness appears to be mandatory for about 30-60 minutes sometime between 6 and 8pm. Her work then done for the day, she can go to sleep. It's important to go to bed early, because she has to be up sometime between12 and 2 and again between 4 and 6- it's a tight schedule.

3 months old!

Thank goodness for the www. Our computer crashed last week, and had we not posted this blog or our web album on Picasa, we would have no pictures of Alita. Let that be a lesson to all of you- back everything up, buy a safety deposit box, don't run with scissors. In the last 6 weeks Amy has gone back to work, leaving Alita in the capable hands of Nadia during the day. She (Nadia, not Al) speaks 4 languages and is picking up a little sign language on the side, has more energy to play with the baby than both parents put together, and Alita never seems to cry when she's around. We're hoping the baby will eventually like us as much as her nanny, but so far the odds are stacked against us. Alita is smiling and vocalizing more often, though she attempts to communicate with her mobile as much as with us. Overall she spends most of her time looking pensive, no doubt contemplating weighty issues such as why her parents turn into blathering idiots when trying to make her smile for the camera. Or perhaps when she should alert the neighborhood to the containment breach in her diaper. Despite having a pretty thoughtful expression most of the time, her pompadour keeps us from taking her too seriously- models would kill for that kind of body in their hair. The rest of her body is keeping up with her mop; as of last week she has grown too big for the bedside bassinet so has graduated into a regular crib.