Hi little one. Time has flown since the last time I wrote to you, and you’ve grown so much since then, it’s hard to keep up.

This weekend we had friends over, resuming a very fun and casual round-robin dinner party we’ve enjoyed for a couple of years. Mama and I were a little worried about your acceptance level, especially since you haven’t met one of the couples (and historically your tolerance of new people has been poor), but you were on your absolute best behavior for most of the day and up until it was bedtime, and then you cried a bit when you had to leave the party because you were having so much fun.

For a while there, I used to think you were going to be a shrinking violet based on your initial experiences with new faces, but now I think you’re going to take after both your Mama and I and be the kid who sneaks out of bed and up to the railing of the stairs during dinner parties, wandering around in your PJs trying to cadge alcohol from our adult guests.

Sunday evening Mama showed me how to mix up your new cereal, and we sat you in the Bumbo and I fed you cereal and then sweet potatoes, and you loved them. To the point where you were leaning down towards the spoon like a drunken sailor on a barstool, mouth wide open, and I could hear you thinking, MORE POTATOES NOW. And as soon as I put the spoon down to switch over to the bottle, you made the stink face and commenced to cry like I’d just poured cold water over your head. Some of my favorite moments are the quiet ones when I’m feeding you, though. You’re concentrating on eating, so your body is still, but your hands are constantly moving, usually working over one of my fingers, pushing, grasping, pulling, and I can feel you making connections in your head. You look up at me with those big blue eyes and the most peaceful expressions float across your face.

Another time I can see your brain working is when we talk to each other. You’ve gotten more and more vocal over the last month, and when you say something like “ehhhhhaaaUUUUUeeeehhhh”, and I repeat back “EEEEEEEhhhhhhhuuuuuEEEEEEhhh”, I can see the gears whirring as you try to figure out if I’m pulling your leg or actually speaking your language. The best times are when you smile and giggle, and then continue talking, and we commence to having whole conversations in a language based on vowels and kicking of feet.

Yesterday, after a bottle and a burp, you sat on my lap, and we watched Mama walking around the living room, straightening up. You held my index finger with one hand, sitting quietly, while I breathed in your smell and kissed your fuzzy head, and I wanted you to stay four months old for at least another year so I could have more moments like that with you.