Baby L is 4 months old! And that means shots. :-(

Baby L turned 4 months old yesterday, and to celebrate, we had gourmet donuts from Dum Dum Donutterie - an oreo cream filled donut for G, a nutella donut for Miss J, and a salted caramel donut for me (plus a sprinkles donut for Baby L).

She got her little hands on her donut and flung the sprinkles everywhere!

Grinning after her sprinkle-flinging handiwork

This little peanut is now double her birth weight, rolling over, and starting to teeth! She was kind of in an odd mood all day - we managed to get her to smile for her photographs, but she was generally subdued and a little fussy all day. We suspect the teething is making her uncomfortable. In conjunction with some epic Dubai fog casting weird diffused light into our apartment, it made for a strange day.

Photo of the fog rolling in, taken by G from our balcony. By mid-afternoon, it was a total white-out, and we couldn't see anything!

Today, she woke up happy and excited, more like her usual self, which was an extra bummer since we had to go get shots today. We want to make sure she has a full week between her shots and our long airplane trip to Vietnam, so we decided to do them right after her birthday, even it meant her being a little extra fussy for her first Christmas.

All smiles and giggles as the doctor's office!

Baby L passed her 4 month checkup with flying colors, with only the recommendation for more tummy time - since she rolled back to front before going front to back, the doc says she needs to work on her back muscles. Otherwise, this chunky monkey has gone from 40th percentile for weight vs height to 70th percentile -- all on mommy's breastmilk! We just love her little michelan man fat rolls!

I wanted Baby L to have a better experience with her shots than last time - last time she cried hysterically for about 5 minutes, and G had to take her away so I could listen to what the doctor was telling me. This time, after reading some articles on the 5 S' (swaddle, shush, side, suck, swing), I swaddled Baby L's arms tightly right before her shots, scooped her up afterwards and shushed and rocked her, and it worked! She calmed down in less than a minute (though it was a very teary minute!). I took a few laps around the waiting room while G paid the insurance co-pay, and we were able to get her in the carseat and home with minimal fuss. Miss J looked so upset, and when I asked her, she said she was just said that Baby L had to hurt - so that made me feel better than the woman with 5 kids and 2 grandkids still gets sad when a baby has to have shots.

Tomorrow, we're excited for Baby L's first Christmas!  More photos to come!!