State of the Baby | My Name Is Ruby

Ruby is 4 months and 2 days old. This is what she is like:

She weighs about 13.5 lbs, and is about 23 inches long.
Her eyes are still blue, but the area near the pupil is getting some greenish/brownish spots, and she’s got a darker ring around the outside of her iris like her mother.
Her hair is coming in blond. It’s still very short, but she’s getting some decent fur on the top of her head. The back of her head is still bald from lying on her back.
Her skin is fairly clear, although she has a constant rash around her neck (from drooling) and on the back of her knees (from heat?) The back of her head where it rests on the ground usually has a rash as well. She gets the occasional pimple, too.
A typical day, which never really happens, goes something like this:

wake up around 6:30a
eat
nap for an hour around 8:30a
eat
nap for a half hour around noon
eat
eat some more
nap for around 45 minutes around 4:30p
eat
nap for about 30 minutes around 7:30p
eat
back to sleep at 8:30p

She’s usually excited to see us, especially right after waking up, and waves her arms and kicks her legs with a big smile on her face
Sometimes, she’ll just watch us with no expression on her face. Just watching.
She’s friendly with strangers and will usually smile at people she meets.
She still uses her soother, but more often than not she’s sucking on her fists, fingers, or thumbs. The soother is really only important when she’s upset or trying to go to sleep.
She’ll bite down on my fingers if I put them in her mouth, although not with as much gusto as a few weeks ago.
She gets really cranky when she gets tired, which makes bedtime kind of a pain. Also, reading bedtime stories is not any fun because she’s fussy and squirmy.
She’s enjoying tummy time more. If she’s in a good mood (especially if she’s naked!) then she’ll spend 10 minutes or more on her stomach — usually just sucking on her hand or the floor. She can lift her head up to 90 degrees, but doesn’t hold it there very often. She does a lot of “airplaning”, where she’ll lift her head, arms, and legs off the ground and just be on her stomach, and wiggle around. Sometimes her struggling will slowly spin her around in a circle, but she doesn’t turn around intentionally.
She can turn from her stomach to her back and from her back to her stomach, but it’s still a very rare occurrence.
She has a lot of frantic energy in her hands — her hands are often grabbing at each other, or will squeeze my fingers if they’re within range.
Her favorite toy is still her O-ball, but she’s getting better at grasping things and holding them longer. She can’t really use her fingers to hold onto things, but she can use her hands to pull things into her body. Everything must eventually go into her mouth or it is not interesting.
She’s just started to become interested in the textures of things. She’ll scratch at interesting fabrics (especially nylon) with her fingernails, or rub my skin with the tips of her fingers.
She likes to go for walks. I carry her in the sling and she’ll sit and watch the world go by for several hours. She likes to look at leaves, people, anything. We’ve taken her to the zoo but animals don’t hold much interest for her. Fish tanks are much more interesting. But she does enjoy walking around the zoo, looking at everything but the animals.
Sometimes I’ll take her grocery shopping and put her in the cheap baby seat that comes attached to some of the grocery carts. She’ll enjoy watching the world roll by, or sometimes she’ll just watch me, and usually she’ll be sucking on a hand.
I take her jogging every other day. She’s occassionally not too happy about going into the jogging stroller, depending on her mood, but she’ll settle down and enjoy the ride after 5 minutes or so. Sometimes we’ll need to stop part way through the run to give her the soother or just smile at her. She usually sleeps for most of the run. We just put the stiff padded backrest back into the jogging stroller so she’s now sitting much more upright when we’re running.
She likes to listen to me play the piano, but only for about 10 minutes before she wants some attention.
Things that make her smile: seeing us right after waking up, squeezing her butt, stroking her chest, making lip-smacking sounds, smiling at her, tickling her feet, whistling “what do you do with a drunken sailor”.
When she’s really happy she’ll do a kind of guffaw. I’ve only seen a sustained laugh or giggle twice. This is where she’ll make a happy noise, inhale, and make another happy noise. If she strings two or more happy noises together, then I call it laughing.
When she’s in a good mood, she’ll stick her tongue out. Sometimes she’ll have her tongue out about be licking the space between her thumb and forefinger.
She’s got a very distinct “hello, is there anybody there?” cry that she uses first thing in the morning, or if she wants some attention on her play blanket (for example, if she’s tired of listening to Billy Joel’s greatest hits on the piano). It’s kind of like a yell every 5 or 10 seconds.
The most common noise she makes is a straining grunt. She especially does this if she’s a little cranky and standing up.
When she’s really upset, she’ll cry. It sounds like a throaty “waaaa….”. The more upset she is, the shorter and more frequent the “waaa”s are.
She’s started making a high-pitched shriek every now and then as part of her attempts at conversation. We’re going to do what we can to discourage this noise.
When she’s feeling talkative, she says “ooo” and “aaa”. Not too many consonants are mixed in.
She loves to be naked. She usually spends a half an hour a day without clothes (or diaper!), either outside in the shade if it’s warm, or inside on her play blanket. With her diaper off she can grab her toes.
We’re now using fuzzi bunz for diapers, and we’re really happy with them. We change her diaper about six times a day. She usually has one big runny poop every day or two.
She drools a lot and usually smells like baby cheese. She’ll spit up small amounts of cheese a few times a day. We bathe her every other day.
She’ll eat anywhere from 3oz to 7oz at a time from the bottle. We have no idea how much she eats directly from the breast. Right now, a “meal” is anything more than 4oz, and a “snack” is anything less than that. She’s eating breast milk exclusively.
She’s started to notice the TV and will turn her head to watch it if it’s near her view. We don’t want really want her to watch any TV at this point, so we try to point her away from the TV if we can, or turn it off and do something else if she’s too interested in it.