Ember is now 4 months old, definitely not a newborn anymore. She is little miss grabby hands, snagging dishes or food or whatever may be in front of me. She also likes to grab at my hair when I’m holding her, and it can be hard to extricate myself from her grasp – this only adds to my shedding problem (I think I am going bald). She’s really grabbing toys and crinkling them and playing with them.

I am now getting belly laughs out of her! Full out squeals and laughs. I’ve seen it said before that adults will do the weirdest and stupidest things just to get a laugh out of a baby, but it’s so true. I will ignore everything else around me to squish her belly and nom her arm and say dumb words over and over again just because she finds it hilarious. And then she laughs and I bury my face against her cheek and just want to eat her up.

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Kate continues to talk more and more. She’s been speaking in short sentences for a while now and her descriptions are getting longer. She’s also been quite sneaky, turning my own words against me.

For instance she was drawing with her aquadoodle (or rather, splattering water on it like an artist). She held out the “pen” to me and said, “Mama draw pig!” I told her I didn’t know how to draw a pig. She shoved the pen at me again with a grunted “Eh!” I repeated that I didn’t know how. Then she looked at me seriously, pen still held out for me to take, and said, “Mama try?”

She’s also starting to pretend and act things out. A few times now she has gone “looking” through the house for Tiger or Pig (from Kipper). The other day she woke up from her nap and asked me where the ghost went. (There was a ghost on one episode.) She peeked around things and whispered, “Ghoosse? Ghooooosse? Where you?”

Her Little People sets are starting to be used for pretend play in addition to whatever else they also do. She was acting out the little girl climbing the ladder and going “wheeee!” down the slide. She also held one of the people on Sophie the Giraffe’s back. And then, quite hilariously, Kate tried to sit on Sophie the Giraffe herself. Considering it is only about 6 inches tall it didn’t work too well.

As mentioned she loves Kipper the dog. LOVES. Like every time we turn the TV on she says, “Watch Kipper TV!!” Turn on anything else and she’ll cry. I think this is a step up from a few months ago when all she would watch was Pingu. Kipper is actually pretty cute and not irritating.

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Den is gone all month. I was on my own for 9 days and honestly it’s not been that bad at all. My mom is now here visiting so I have extra hands and the ability to run to the store real quick – things I take for granted sometimes! But I am still lacking in free time. Both kids are doing really well though, so I can’t complain at all! I feel quite lucky that both kids are as flexible and mellow as they are. I really didn’t think my life would be this calm with two little ones. Getting everyone dressed and into the car seems to be my only daily frustration; it should not take that long to get shoes and coats on and everyone into the vehicle!