Max’s first Halloween.
One of Dad’s favorite pictures of Max.
Hard to believe, but Max is now 4 months old! He is 26 inches long (up from 24.5 at 2 months) and weighs a whopping 13 pounds 1 ounce (up from 10 pounds 14 ounces). In terms of percentages, he remains in the 75th percentile for height and the 25 percentile for weight. He had the same set of 4 immunization shots today, but this time he took them much better. It probably helped that we were instructed to give him infant tylenol BEFORE he got his shots. But according to the doctor he is teething. This was certainly confirmed when he was fussing in the afternoon but became happy as a clam when given his teething ring fresh from the fridge). Overall he was a very good boy at the doctors and even the doctor noted how handsome he is! His sunken chest while breathing is officially called Harrison’s groove and apparently is nothing to worry about. One definition I found for Harrison’s groove is “a horizontally oriented depression at the site of the costal attachment of the diaphragm”. (Oddly enough there apparently is also a movie called Harrison’s Groove.) Of course if you search for info on Harrison’s groove you will see it is most often mentioned with rickets. Well needless to say this resulted in us calling the doctor back to see if we needed to be concerned with this (although he didn’t seem concerned when we were there) and if Max needed to give up his hopes of becoming an opera singer, wind instrument musician, or professional athlete 
We haven’t heard back from the doctor, but given that he twice said it was nothing during the visit we are assuming that we are now worried over nothing. Of course if he does have the beginnings of rickets I guess we need to rush him out to AZ or CA for some sunshine
In terms of general development, Max continues to do new and amazing things every day (or so it seems). He loves to laugh and coo. Unfortunately he has taken to a kind of screeching for his “talking” which we aren’t really sure what to make of. Max loves to go for walks and look at the trees. He has much more control of his hands and has discovered “touching” things (e.g. pawing at them). The last week or so we have been walking around touching various things (curtains, clothes in closets, towels, tree bark, etc). Now his Grammy, Grandpa, and Uncle Paul will be particularly interested to hear that he does all of this “touching” with his left hand. But I’m not sure if this means anything other than the fact that I am right handed and thus carry him on my right shoulder so his left hand it more free 
Max is also starting to get peek-a-boo and so now we enjoy doing that as well (makes him laugh). Although reading is supposed to be a “soothing”
activity to do with your child, Max gets all excited by the pictures and so this is something we do mid-day instead of right before bed. So far we have read “The Runaway Bunny” and “Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?: Dr. Seuss’s Book of Wonderful Noises”.
As you all know from the last email, Max can flip from his back to his stomach (he still hasn’t mastered flipping back yet). He loves to do this all the time now (which is kind of a pain when he decides to do this in the middle of the night we have to get up to flip him back). Once he is on his stomach he lifts his head, arms, and feet up so it looks like he is trying to body surf! Of course putting all this pressure on his stomach usually results in either burps, farts,or milk
coming up so is not quite the best thing to show off to others Max can hold his head up well enough that he can sit up and look around (now before you get all excited, he does need someone to hold his body up When he is “sitting up” and looking around he tends to look like a bobble-head doll when he turns his head from side to side. It is really pretty cute to watch (although with each passing day he is getting better at holding his head straight)!. Max also loves to play with his feet (which can make diaper changing quite interesting). He has even managed to get his foot in his mouth.
In terms of sleeping, Max will generally start to get ready for bed (wind down, feed) around 8:30. He will sometimes cry around 1ish, but that can usually be quieted with a pacifier (which he sucks furiously for up to a minute and is then back sound asleep). [The doctor said that we don't need to worry about pacifier use and weaning him from it until the second half of his first year and then mostly between 9 and 12 months. He only really needs it to satisfy a strong sucking need sometimes before going to sleep and sometimes in the middle of sleep.] He does still wake up around 3:30 for a feeding. But he goes right back to sleep after that. He then will wake sometime between 6:30 and 7. Luckily his daytime naps are finally starting to increase from the wimpy 1/2 hour ones that he took through his first 3 months. He is now on a schedule where he is awake for 1.5 – 2 hours and then sleeps for 1 – 1.5 hours. I had been worried that he wasn’t getting enough daytime sleep since all the literature said he was supposed to be sleeping 5-6 hours during the day (which he wasn’t). But now he seems to be able to sleep longer (part of this is because he can go longer between feedings, as long as he isn’t having a growth spurt.
Max’s hair is coming in more, and appears to be a sort of strawberry blond color. Of course his dad and grandpop both had blond hair when they were little that didn’t last so we don’t expect this to really last either. Max’s eyes have remained a kind of dark blue that is cool looking. A guy at John’s work brought in his then 5 month old daughter and she had achieve “Hartdegen” blue eyes so maybe Max won’t be getting those and will instead go with this darker blue color. You can see more of what he looks like when Dad puts up the 4 month
pictures!
