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.

Tomorrow Ruby will be 15 weeks old.  Here’s a random collection of facts about her:

• She weighs about 13 pounds.  She seems a little shorter and pudgier than other babies her age.
• Her eyes are generally a cool gray-blue, but they vary a lot depending on the light.  This morning Kate thought they looked a little greenish.
• Her hair is very short, very fine, and blonde.  She’s got longer, darker hair along the nape of her neck; she was born with it and it hasn’t rubbed off yet.  She’s got a bald patch on the back of her head from sleeping on her back.  We’re expecting blonde curls eventually, but Kate’s hair was late to sprout so Ruby’s will probably be the same.
• She loves to stand up.  The first thing she does when she gets upset is make her body stiff as a board, because she wants to stand.  People marvel at what a masterful stander she is.  She can stay standing for ten minutes or longer, just relying on me for balance but not to carry any weight.  She’ll topple right over if I’m not there to balance her.  While standing she’ll look around, look at me, or chew on an offered finger.
• She’s going through the long teething process and is constantly drooling.  She loves to bite on my thumb if I put one in her mouth, and sometimes she bites hard enough (and on the right spot of my finger) to make me wince.  She’ll chomp a few times on the finger, making sure to get some work for the molars in the back, and then spit it out all covered in drool.
• She spits up all the time.  My shirts smell like baby cheese by the end of the day.  She smells like baby cheese all the time.  Baby cheese is not a very nice smell, although I admit it’s growing on me because, well, that’s Ruby’s smell.  By “spits up all the time” I mean, she’ll spit up varying quantities of cheese (from dribbles to a tablespoon or two) several times a day, without warning.  So far, no permanent stains.
• She loves to be on the changing table and is all smiles and giggles, especially once her diaper is off.  She starts fussing while I’m putting the cotton diapers back on, but usually adjusts to the diaper’d life again in a few seconds.
• This week she’s starting to grab at toys, hold onto them, and bring them to her mouth.  Our favorite play toy is her O Ball.  This toy is very light and very easy to grasp.  She just wishes it had more chewy appendages.
• Yesterday she officially rolled over for the first time.  She managed this feat from her belly to her back, starting with her elbows under her chest.  If she ends up with both arms out to the side while on her stomach, then she’s stuck there.  She rolls over by getting tilted to one side and then arching her back.
• Just today she started arching her back while lying on her back on the changing table. 
• While she’s on her stomach she’s able to lift up her head almost 90 degrees and hold it there for a several seconds.  Yesterday she was doing this and dropped her head suddenly onto the hardwood floor under her play blanket.  Unhappy baby.  From now on, she’s only allowed to do this on the carpet.
• She’ll smile at us whenever she’s in a good mood (and her mood can change rapidly).  Silly faces, silly sounds, or just getting up close to her can make her smile and giggle — especially first thing in the morning.
• A new game we’ve started playing is “biglittle”.  She lies on her back and we grab her hands.  We stretch her arms out wide (“big”), and then pull them together in front of her chest like she’s clapping (“little”).  Repeat this very fast, and she’ll start smiling.
• I’ve been playing the piano and singing for Ruby (current songbook: the Beatles greatest hits).  She’ll lie on her playblanket and listen to me for about 10 or 15 minutes before getting bored.
• Ruby generally sleeps between 10pm and 7am every night.  She’s started to fall asleep around 9pm or 9:30pm very regularly the past few weeks, and putting her to bed is no longer the hours-long ordeal that it used to be.  Just pop in some milk, wait ten minutes, and drop her in the crib.   She’s actually been sleeping on her changing table cushion for the past few weeks.  This helps her to stay asleep at night by keeping her arms and legs from flailing about too widely. 
• I’ve been reading The Wizard of Oz to Ruby before she goes to bed, but since she’s pretty fussy until she gets her bedtime snack, this hasn’t been a hugely enjoyable experience yet.
• Ruby and I go running around Green Lake several times a week.  She’s quiet when she’s in jogging stroller and generally falls asleep once we get going.  She can be fussy when she first gets strapped in, but as long as we’re moving she’s fine.  Sometimes I take her to the park and kick a soccer ball around while she’s in the stroller, but this isn’t as effective since the stroller isn’t moving and she usually gets fussy after twenty minutes or so.
• Ruby will look at herself in a mirror for five or ten seconds, but doesn’t seem terribly impressed one way or the other.
• Her favorite consonant is “G”.  When she’s hungry and crying she says “mmm gay”.  When she’s crying with a soother in her mouth, she says “gleek gleek gleek”.  When she’s happy and feels like slaying those around her with cuteness, she smiles and whispers “agoo”.  When she’s just generally unhappy, she’s whines forcefully.
• Her feet are ticklish.