4 weeks old

I can't believe she's already 4 weeks old! It feels like we were just in the hospital having her yesterday.

Louise is the most adorable child ever, and I absolutely relish every moment of her life. She makes us laugh so often with the many funny faces she makes, her little sounds (she's a very squeaky baby), and especially her sneezes. She inherited her mothers' weird sneezing. She'll have this huge wind-up, then no sneeze. It's adorable! We've been trying to get a recording of it, but have failed, so far (but gotten a ton of other cute footage!).

Last night she slept from midnight to 7. It was fantastic. Then I fed her and she went back to sleep from 8 to 11. She's been doing this more and more for the past few weeks. 4 weeks old and she already sleeps through the night! One secret that has made a world of difference in getting her to sleep in her crib that my mother-in-law let me in on: put a heating pad down in the crib with her blanket on top of it, then take it out when you go to put her in. Works like a charm!

Justin's Grandpa Keate and his wife Connie came to visit us yesterday and I found out where Justin gets his way with children. Grandpa was so precious with her, I couldn't take my eyes off of them. And Louise just loved him. She settled right down in his arms and stared at him for the longest time before finally falling asleep. She was very relaxed and comfortable with him, it was so cute to watch. It's odd for the men of that generation to be that relaxed with babies, I think, so it must be a family trait.

Louise is getting so close to smiling!

Justin has decided to get his Phd. in clinical psychology, with an emphasis on infant mental health. He decided that if he just got his masters in infant mental health he'd really be limiting himself, so he's gonna go all the way to widen his horizon. I think that's very wise of him. He's the type that would always regret not going as far as he could. He's been applying to several different colleges lately, but the one we're hoping for is University of Utah. They have a really good program, are sort of close to home, and practically pay their graduate students to go there. We're really excited about it.