Knox is 4 Months!

Weight: 15 lbs 15.4 ounces (63rd percentile)

Length:  25 in (44th percentile

Head circumference: 42 cm (63rd percentile)

Because your brothers HAVE to get in on these pictures... let's
not focus on the costuming here.  For the record they pick their
own jammies :)

Dear Knox,
Here you are... 4 months already!  I can't grasp how fast time is going with you.  It has been another month of blessings with you!


Sleep:  You are getting a little better with your sleeping.  Daddy usually keeps you with him until about midnight and then puts you to bed but you are asleep long before that.  You don't wake up until about 2 or 3 am and we do the Pacifier Dance about 3 or 4 times for an hour and then you usually sleep until 5 something.  You are at least a little bit more predictable.  That helps!  You like to nap around 10 and then again in the afternoon.  Your naps are way more unpredictable.  That's okay though, you're flexible so I don't feel like we need to be home at a certain naptime.

Morning smiles... seriously something I look forward to everyday!

You'll notice a pattern with your hands.  They are always together and near your face.  Grandma calls them your Praying Hands.

Apparently I missed the signal that you were
ready for a nap.  Sorry kiddo!

This is how you look during a burping session
at night.  

Eating:  You are kind of a weird eater.  You eat a bottle around 5 in the morning and then go back to sleep until 7 and sometimes even later.  Once you are awake for the day you don't want to eat for a while.  I guess you aren't going to be a breakfast person.  You usually don't eat until 9:30 or even later and you usually don't even finish a bottle at that feeding.  A normal feeding is between 4 and 5 ounces at a time.  I can't even give you an estimate of how long you go between feedings because it is different everyday.  

You love to "help" me feed you

Unfortunately you still spit up fairly frequently.  It like your eating is unpredictable.  Sometimes you go through most of the day and don't spit up once and other days you spit up several times after every feeding.  I'm still trying to figure you out kid!  

The paper from the doctor's office says you can start getting rice cereal but I forgot to ask Dr. Freeman about that because your daddy was there and those two just cut up the whole time distracting me from remembering important questions like this.  I might need to put a call in on this one or maybe just live blissfully in ignorance until you are closer to 6 months.  Don't judge me... rice cereal is MESSY!  Or maybe I should say, YOU are messy and rice cereal just doesn't absorb quite like milk does.

Clothes:  You are comfortably in 6 months size now.  That's crazy!  I cannot believe you are already wearing 6 months clothes.  It isn't that you are even really big for your age... it's just gone SO fast!  Still no idea on shoes because your mom's not organized enough to put shoes on you yet.

One of my favorite outfits

Borrowing Poppy's hat :-)

New Things:  You LOVE to stand.  You've loved to do that for a while but you are getting stronger and stronger.  You can stand now on my lap only holding onto my hands and have been doing this for several weeks now.  It's crazy!  Just another reason I am pretty sure you'll be moving early.

You have started grabbing at things now!

And you watch my every move just to make sure I'm not even thinking about leaving the room.

You LOVE to blow bubbles!  It is so cute, well minus the never-ending trail of slobber stretching from your mouth to your clothes.  Seriously, I would think you were teething if I you weren't so young.

I've officially jumped off the pumping train.  I think I made it a couple weeks past your third month.  It was getting ridiculous, pumping at least twice a day for maybe an ounce.  I sort of wish I hadn't quit right now because the plague is making it's way through our house right now.  So far it has claimed Ty, Case, and me... I'm hoping you and Daddy avoid it!

Knox, your smile brings tears to my eyes at least once a day I think.

I just look at you and feel overwhelmed with the gift of being your Momma.  You are SUCH a good baby!  It is rare for you to get really worked up and when you do it is for good reason.  You are just so happy all the time.  I want to freeze you right where you are because I know I'm going to blink and you are going to be walking away from me to your first day of school.  I love you Knox!  I hope you are still sporting that sweet smile and lighting up rooms everywhere!

Love,
Mommy

You and Ty napping on Daddy <3 td="">

First trip to the Children's Museum... you slept
through a lot of it.

Your first Christmas gift from Aunt Su Su and Doc
you LOVE this toy!

Dude, you've got a flat head... you're gonna want to
avoid short haircuts.  

First time seeing yourself in the mirror... you were impressed :)

And again... supposed to be burping

pouty face <3 td="">

So patient while big brother got his pictures taken

caught you sucking your thumb once

You made friends with an elf while we saw Case,
Ty, Grandma and Grandpa off on the Polar
Express in French Lick

And then you fell asleep :-)

The paci falling out is our clue that you are just
about out

Godspeed Poppy

"Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them." -Psalm 139:16 NASB

35,274.  That's the number of days the Good Lord ordained for Poppy.  He was 96 years old when he breathed his final breath tonight.  Just like that his time was finished.  I heard his very last breath escape his body with a quiet sigh.  He was exhausted.  He was ready. 

"Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away." - James 4:14 NASB

A vapor.  I watched Poppy's "vapor" vanish tonight.  He's done.  He's gone.  He's not going to be here for another birthday party.  He's not going to be at the next family dinner.  His time is finished.  But what he leaves behind will never vanish.  So many memories of Poppy will live on in those of us that love him. Memories of shortcuts gone "longcuts".  Memories of tires kicked and oil checked.  Memories of shooting the moon (most of which were failed attempts).  Memories of reneging on "accident".  Memories of Mexican Trains so long they could stretch the railways from New York to San Francisco.  Memories of a great grandpa with his great grandbabies.  The memories go on and on.  You'll have that after living 96 years.  

96 years.  Poppy could tell me stories from his childhood that involved horse and buggy's.  Change probably doesn't even begin to touch the magnitude of how different the world was from the time Poppy was born to the time that he breathed his last breath.  He was a living history book.  What a blessing it was to know this man.  To be his granddaughter.  To have him at all of my big life moments.  To see his marriage.  To see him love Bubby the way God intended a husband to love a wife.  He spent more of his life by her side than not.  

He's been without the person that knew him best, his other half, his everything, his Margie, for 6 years.  I hope she was waiting for him tonight.  I hope they are together right now. 

Poppy, I pray that tonight you heard the most amazing words that could ever be spoken, "Well done my good and faithful servant."  Thank you for the memories and the unwavering love that you've instilled in the awesome family that you and Bubby created.  I will miss you Poppy!  Rest easy.