Roll over, Lexi. Good baby!

Lexi hit another milestone on Thursday. Just two days after rolling over for the first time from her back to her tummy, she did the opposite for the first time!

Unfortunately, this means we’re losing control of her. No longer can we lay her down in her crib to amuse herself and expect her to lay in the same position quietly. She can now manage to rotate herself around completely while lying on her back and move all around the crib – and now roll over. When she’s awake and alert, she loves to kick, especially when she’s excited.

I’m also amazed at how suddenly she is starting to grab on to things with her hands. In just the last several days, she has started to take things we put in her hands and either move them to her mouth to try to taste them or move them around in her hands – things like the bulletin at church or a cloth napkin. Doing this can suddenly hold her attention and entertain her for a few minutes. This sort of curiosity seems to involve not only more coordination of her hands, which she has gained, but more keen observation with her eyes. It’s as if suddenly she can see more and fix on something enough to know that it would be interesting to touch or taste.

She’s also noticing more when we’re eating. The other morning when we went to a restaurant for breakfast, I told Sarah to give her a taste of her orange juice by dabbing the end of the straw in her mouth. She tasted it and made an awful face from the acidic taste of the juice. When I had a coffee-flavored milk shake for lunch at the beach resort where we spent a couple of days last week, I put a few drops of it on her lips. She didn’t seem to mind the coffee flavor and might have recognized the creamy milk taste from Mama’s milk.

She has also added a new noise to her repertoire. It’s not any sort of grunting or gurgling in the back of her throat like the old noises, but is more of a repetitive singing sound on the same note.

At this beach resort last week, Lexi had a couple of other firsts. She saw her first ocean – the Indian Ocean. We dipped her toes in the surf and had her feel sand on her feet. And she went swimming in the hotel’s pool. She sometimes enjoys taking a bath, and she felt the same way largely about being in a pool.

Just four months old, but growing up so fast!