Dear Alexander Salamander —
At four months of age you are trying so, so hard to be older! You’re a roly-poly, kicky mickey, squirmy wormy…

Wait, what?

Sorry. Mommy’s really tired these days, buddy.

You are fierce in your love of bouncing. We had to get a new bouncer — the one we got for your brother was secondhand and he trashed it, so, congratulations, baby! You get something new! But we still call it the Circle of Neglect because sometimes you’re happy in there for…I don’t know, a while. A long while. Until you are, all of a sudden, a little over-bounced.

There is sometimes the faintest line between a fuss and a laugh with you, and the bouncer is where it comes out the most. “I LOVE BOUNCING BUT I AM SO DONE BOUNCING PLEASE SOMEONE HAAAALLLLP.” Ambivalent baby is ambivalent.

You adore your brother and are most easily entertained by just…watching him go (he is always on the go). You smile when you see him and love to watch him in the car. I can see you in the rearview mirror (reflected in your baby mirror) just watching him sleep on our pretty much daily nap drive. If I could put a thought bubble over your head, it would say, “Why you gotta sleep that way? It’s so much nicer to snooze at home!”

You love your baby swing in the lemon tree and you no longer love the kicky piano. You’re not a fan of the bumbo, either; one side effect of second-child syndrome is slower core development. It’s not just that we believe in attachment parenting; it’s that we don’t have a choice. There’s no “baby bucket” with the Diono car seat and you’re not big enough for the umbrella stroller yet. You’re worn frequently in a sling or a Bjorn, especially on the days when you express your displeasure with any seat on the floor.

Your displeasure is getting louder and more insistent, by the way. We’ve gone from “I am feeling faintly to moderately distressed, Mama,” to “WTF is wrong with you people? I NEED TO BE HEEEELLLLLD.” You still mostly do this with your mouth closed, though, which makes us feel super bad about any time you make it to full-throated wailing.

You’re definitely getting better about using your hands and you like to try to chew on your toes. You spend a lot of changing-table time rolled over and curled up, which makes changing your diaper and clothes pretty fun. I think your legs at this age are stronger than Grayson’s were, for which I credit the bouncer.

Oh! Hey! You found your penis this month. Well done.

You continue to gnaw on your hands (or feet!) and drool without any signs of teeth breaking through. I put a bib on you once. I’m not convinced it helps.

You’re starting to sling an arm over me or around my neck when I’m holding you — just another of your generous signs of affection, like when you try to “kiss”/bite your brother’s nose or chin. You are a lovey dovey little guy, for sure, and the kind of baby that doesn’t mind being held by someone totally new while your mama, say, runs to the bathroom at a park or chases your brother across a yard at a party.

Last but not least, you’re deep into the 4-month sleep regression and handling it much the way your brother did — sleeping on me is where it’s at. We know this means we’ll have to try Ferber again and that it’ll probably work just as well.

I’m not ready for that yet, though.

Love,
Mama