Sophia’s four-month birthday was on Friday (hence the Baby Squeezins: Diaper of the Month post). At four months, this kid has great control of her head now. She can lift it up to look around weather she’s on her back or stomach, but she absolutely refuses to use her arms while on her tummy to do the half push up (oh I hope she’s not going to be like her dad – more on this at the end of this post). If I hold her hands she can repeatedly push herself from a sitting to standing position and she can also stand for longer periods of time while just holding our fingers. A couple weeks ago I bought her the new set of rattles and within the last week she has figured out that if she can’t reach them with her hands she can use her feet to bring it up to her hands. On Monday I had her propped up with the Boppy pillow and a blanket behind her in such a way that she was sitting up straight. I’ve only seen her do this once, but she actually leaned forward to the point of bending herself in half to reach for a rattle and then she actually pushed herself back to the sitting position. She still has to be propped up to sit, but never the less I was impressed that she got herself back into that position.
Tuesday Sophia had her four-month check-up. She is thirteen pounds, thirteen ounces, and twenty-five inches tall/long. Poor baby received two shots in each leg plus one oral vaccine. Her tiny little left leg now has two welts. 
The shots on the right leg didn’t swell up like the left. The doctor said we can start her on solid food anytime. He said to start with a very thin consistency cereal first, specifically rice because it’s the one thing that doesn’t cause any kind of bad reactions. She has really been eyeballing our food for the last couple of weeks, so we’ll give sold foods a shot this weekend if I can make it to the store. The doctor said to stick to baby cereals for a while then alternate with fruits and vegetables. Try each new thing for a week before adding another new item, and no eggs or meats for a while.
On Tuesday I pulled out her doorway bouncy jump toy thing. As you can tell I have no idea what to call it, but I knew little Miss Kicks-a-lot would love it.
She doesn’t like the “stationary entertainer” *eye roll* that I pulled out of the garage on Wednesday very much, but she’ll tolerate the not-a-walker for a while. She figured out how to make the yellow squeaky (by her left arm in the picture) work and she was very pleased with herself. She hit it about three times before getting board and moving on to something else.
Sophia has been able to spin herself around in the crib since she was about two months old. More recently she learned to push herself away from the edge of her bassinet/playpen/crib with her legs while she is on her back. I’ve been placing her on her tummy after diaper changes to put her pants on and while I walk away to wash my hands for the past few weeks. On Wednesday I put her on her tummy to put on her pants as usual and she spit up. I rotated her in a way that her face wouldn’t be in the spit-up if she put her head back down, but I still positioned in a way that she can watch her crib mobile while I went to wash my hands. While I was gone I heard much fussing and screaming emitting from her general direction. After finishing I went back to see that she had her legs under her body in a crawling stance and her arms spread out flat on her mattress with her head down and up against the side of the crib. She had basically done a lower body half crawl with her face sliding through her spit-up. Her hair on that side was all wet – eeeww! 
Apparently when her father was a toddler he had an aversion to using his arms as well. His family lovingly dubbed baby Kurtie “Unicorn boy” because when he would trip or otherwise begin to fall he NEVER put his arms out to prevent his head from hitting the floor. The child had a permanent bruise in the middle of his forehead.
I bought this along with two other toys for Sophia on Friday. This one requires batteries and the other two don’t. She likes this one best. *grumble* And from day one she was strong enough to pull on the red triangle at the bottom to make the two morning sounds – a rooster crowing and an alarm clock. I don’t think she cares as much for the sound as she likes to see the cheeks on the smiley face glow when a sound is playing.
I also bought a set of rattles that where different shapes and colors with different textured fabric covering each. One side of each of them is a clear plastic so you can see what is making the rattle sound in the inside. Each one also has a different plastic teething thing attached to it – she doesn’t care for that part at all. The only things I’ve seen her put in her mouth are clothing and blankets that she has already drooled or spit up on. I don’t know if it’s the smell, taste or the texture but despite the amount of preteething drool she just isn’t into the teething stuff yet.