Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Our Dextrous Daughter

Abby had her 4 month check up 2 weeks and we were in no way surprised to hear that she was around the 90th percentile for height, weight, and head size.  Our little girl is actually not so little, but at least she's proportionate!  Since then, Abby has stretched out a little and GREATLY improved her dexterity.  With her legs a little longer and little less chunky, she can now fold herself up and grab her feet.  She loves it!
With greater dexterity comes greater exploration and Abby has been grabbing at everything within her reach, be it toys, couch pillows, or hair.  She will roll the object around in her hands or yank and pull at it as she tries to figure out what exactly it is, but everything usually ends up getting thrown across the room in a spastic fling of her arms.  The cutest thing about her reach and grab is that her interaction with Eli has greatly improved as well.  A few nights ago, Eli was having a rough night and I said Abby wanted to give him a hug to make him feel better. When I held Abby up to him she actually grabbed onto him, and he tightly hugged her back.  Tonight she was pulling on his hair and he just giggled at her thinking she was such a silly girl.  I have a feeling that pretty soon they will be doing puzzles together on the floor and dancing around the house hand-in-hand.

The Elusive Laugh

Now that Abby can see more than 2 ft in front of her and is becoming more aware of the amazing world around her, she is finding hilarious joy in every interaction she has with the people she meets.  Even though she can now recognize faces and is, of course, partial to her mama and daddy, she will greet everyone with a smile.  Her smiles are the brightest, friendliest and most beautiful smiles since . . . well . . . since Eli's!  About a month ago, Abby amped up her smiles and squawks of joy into full on laughs.  Unfortunately, she has been a little finicky with her laughs and it has been tough to catch on camera.  She will giggle away, but as soon as she sees the camera she immediately stops and becomes entranced with the camera instead.  A few days ago I was able to sneak up on Abby having some fun with her mama and captured an especially heartwarming giggle-fest: