Dear Alex,

there is a sign on the door of your daycare that reads "Ice cream day -- every Friday! Please send $1 so your child can get an ice cream off the truck."

You are too small for ice cream right now, but I promise you that, when you are big enough, you will always have a dollar for ice cream. I love you so much. I want to give you everything wonderful under the sun. I want to protect you from all the pain and sorrow in the world, but I know I won't be able to. Occasional hurt is a part of being human, and no matter how hard I try to build up your protective armor of self esteem and confidence, you will inevitably, at some moment or other, feel its all-too-familiar sting. I hope I will raise you to be strong and secure enough to weather the hurts with grace. No matter what, though, I will make sure you have a dollar for ice cream.

You are such a delight. You are the happiest, smiliest baby I have ever known. You are always grinning and flirting with everyone, especially the ladies at your daycare. You are developing a very healthy laugh as well. You laughed really loudly when your Aunt Krissi was bouncing you, and then you did it again and again when you were hanging out with your Granny Johnson. They must have some special technique that I haven't mastered yet because your Daddy and I have both tried to do it and elicit that same gleeful laughter, but we haven't had much luck. We have, however, discovered a few other things that will sometimes make you laugh:

-- sticking our faces right in yours, then moving them away quickly
-- letting you fly like Superman over our heads
-- singing along with your music toys ("doot doot" is your preferred singing syllable)
-- flapping your owl toy over your head (thanks, Aunt Laura!)

We've been working on getting you on a consistent sleep schedule, and it's going very well. Right now, our routine goes like this:

5:15ish - I pick you up from daycare
5:30ish - we play for a while
6:00ish - bottle
6:30ish - play time in your room
7:30ish - I start running your bath and warming up your bedtime bottle
7:35ish - bath time! (you like to grab the cup out of my hands when I am rinsing you off)
7:45ish - rocking in our glider
7:50ish - Goodnight, Moon
8:00ish - hug, kiss, bedtime (with your cricket sounds playing)

Sometimes, you fuss for a few minutes, but you're usually really good about going to sleep. You're not sleeping all night yet. You'll still wake up sometime between 3 and 6 (4 or 5 is common) to eat, then sleep until sometime between 6:30 and 7:30. But after you eat your nighttime bottle, you go back to sleep pretty easily. We think you are teething right now, so you're a tad fussier than usual sometimes, but it's okay. I'm sure it's confusing and painful to be growing teeth.

You're awesome! Keep on doing whatever you're doing. It's working just great.

Love,

Mommy

4 months, 20 days out of the oven