The Great Valley

Am I the only one who remembers The Land Before Time and Littlefoot's epic journey to this land of promise and happiness? Well, I think I have just entered the Great Valley of babyhood. At almost 4 months, B is at an adorable baby age. I've been at this long enough now, and read too many books, to think this will last for any length of time so I'm trying to savor these days before the next, ahem, difficult stage. Below, I present a helpful chart and a symptom checker, a.k.a." How To Know You're In The 4 Month Great Valley" (I'm hoping there are more of these later):

Baby joviality- Your baby is full of delightful toothless grins and giggles all day long. I finally worked out that B would giggle at himself in the mirror as his face got closer to mirror baby's face. Now that I've started bobbing my head back and forth towards his face consistently, he is filled with chuckles and glee.

Stranger loving- Your baby hasn't yet reached that stranger-aversion-clingy stage so they extend these smiles and giggles to passersby. I am the envy of the midday grocery store moms with my friendly aisle-browsing baby.

Still a simpleton- Your baby is still not as smart as a dog so is easily entertained by things like grocery shopping and watching people come and go in Starbucks. They respond to these mundane occurrences with smiles, giggles, and a kind of joy that can only be experienced with an underdeveloped frontal lobe.

No object permanence- Your baby is starting to express preferences and desires which is fun because their little personality appears to be emerging. They make it very clear when they are through with an activity and express their displeasure when an activity ceases before they are ready. Luckily your temporarily angelic baby has no concept of object permanence yet. They don't know that when you take a toy away it continues to exist outside of their field of vision. Combine this with a serious lack of short term memory and your baby gets over the loss immediately.

"I would miss you when you're gone, iPad, but I don't know how."

Immunity to crappy naps- I am loathe to write this for fear I jinx myself, but it would appear that at this stage baby joviality is able to persist despite short cat naps. I'll further guarantee a lightning strike by saying that B's nighttime sleep has gotten back on track and he's able to go 9 hr stretches, wake up to eat, and go back to bed for another 2-3 hrs. We haven't yet encountered teething, ear infections, or any of the other myriad sleep disturbances that lie ahead.**

Ever since B's New Years resolution to take all of his naps in his crib, rather than on me, his naps have predictably sucked. They are mostly 30 mins long. While we are taking steps to address this apparently very common issue, so far he seems to be functioning just fine on less daytime sleep.**

**Right now I am making an offering to the baby gods so that I am not repaid for my sleep smugness. My offering consists of 3 squeaky toys, 4 properly sterilized binkies, and an entire jumbo box of Pampers Size 2 Swaddlers.

Proper diaper fit- Despite the fortune you invested in size 2 diapers, your baby is now comfortably fitting in size 3's and you are through the horrible, in-between diaper sizes poosplosion phase. I'll spare you further elaboration.

Immobility- This one is the kicker, I'm told. Your baby is adorable, interactive, and fun, but can't yet move on their own. B has figured out how to scoot a tiiiiny bit but he is really clumsy about it, tends to turn himself in circles rather than make forward progress, and moves slower than the earth rotates so his total displacement is negligible. He is able to roll belly-to-back, (only in one direction) and back-to-belly (only in one direction). Luckily the combination of his rolls causes him to flop back and forth like a pancake rather than make any forward progress in a particular direction.

Those toes are for eating rather than walking.