Four Months and Other Stuff

Well, Mitchell is now 4 months old and at his checkup today he weighed 16 lbs, 9 oz and was 26.5 inches long.  He's a big boy, in the 85th and 92nd percentiles, respectively.  He is such a joyful baby (when he's not fussy from lack of sleep, which is unfortunately, rather often) and I love all of his new noises.  He's making more and more of them each day.  He's also doing this new thing where he bites/sucks on his bottom lip. 

Clearly I need some pictures and videos to go along with this post, but I'm sadly without.  I'll do my best to remedy that situation very soon.  I think we are definitely going to have our hands full once he really starts moving.  He is always squirming around and you can just tell he cannot wait to go somewhere.  Sometimes I think he gets frustraed that he cannot move more independently, but he has gotten pretty good at inchworming himself across a blanket, or in his crib at night (he likes to scoot way up to one corner, guess he feels more secure there).  He also spends lots of time on his tummy, does "push ups" and loves to kick his legs off the ground.  I like to think he is practicing his butterfly kick.

His hair continues to get lighter and lighter; I think we'll have a blondie on our hands eventually.  We did give him a tiny bang trim a couple of weeks ago, but we didn't get much off (see: squirmy, above).  We will probably try again one of these days because I want to have some of his dark baby hair, especially since he has so much of it!

Here's a relatively recent pic of him, from when we went to get our Christmas tree.  Don't you just love his rosy cheeks and his kewpie doll hair?  I could just eat him up.

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Well, I've already fallen down on the job on my recipe listing.  Last week's meals were chinese stir fry (bok choy, snow peas, water chesnuts, celery, mushrooms, chicken, etc) and roasted eggplant tossed in a spicy peanut sauce Monday, a delicious beef tenderloin roast with roasted winter squash and sweet potatoes, on Tuesday, leftovers for my on Wendesday (home alone, John out of town), Tony's Pasta Thursday, and I don't even remember what we ate on Friday night.  Saturday we had my office Christmas party at my boss' house and his wife put out an incredible spread of food, most of which she prepared herself.  The menu included proscuitto-wrapped scallops that were skewered on rosemary and grilled, lobster shooters (pieces of lobster and drawn butter in shot glasses), caviar stuffed potatoes, these brie tartlets, blue cheese balls with pistachios, crab dip, thai chicken bites with peanut sauce, and most importantly, this bacon.  I have a package of super thick cut bacon in my fridge right now, just waiting to turn it into this.  It is so good.  Make it for your next party; I guarantee a hit.

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In closing, how on earth is it already 10 days from Christmas?  Where on earth has this year gone?  Hope you are all getting into the spirit of the season.  I'm trying to remember each day to count my many blessings and not get too caught up in the mad rush that this time of year seems to foster in so many people.  It can be hard some days, but what do any of us really need that we don't already have?  I haven't sent out my Christmas cards yet, but I figure they'll get out eventually.  I think having so many things to juggle these days helps me put in perspective how silly some of the things I stress over are.  I wish you all a season of love, laughter and all the intangibles that make our lives so worth living.