Waving hello to the "4 month wakeful"

i really don't know if that's a technical term or even a real phenomenon, or just some myth perpetuated by internet mommy sites, but if it's real, i think we're saying hello to it, starting last night. D woke up 5 times last night, waking twice before 3:30 (not sure the times because my perfect husband took those) and then 3 times between 3:30 and 5:45 am. Wonderful! She ate 5 ounces the first waking, 3, the second, 2 the third, and on the fourth we performed a magic trick by turning a 5 ounce bottle of formula into an expensive pacifier. We gots talent!

It *could* be a reaction to too much fun in the sun yesterday. We put her hat on, but she still had a little bit of rosy cheeks, not a real burn but i still feel bad for her :(. We spent about an hour that felt like a year at a pumpkin patch. Gentry Farm is an old working farm in Franklin, TN, and let me tell you, it is the Disneyland of pumpkin patches! Holy mackinoly there were a lot of people there! It took full-on 45 minutes to get out of the parking lot! D slept 3 1/2 hours after we left lol. But we got a lot of gorgeous pictures that ONE DAY i hope to be able to put on the internet. Sigh.

i also took some really cute video of her doing the 2 newest tricks. The first is learning to sit. She has been tripod sitting for a while now, but has now decided it's more fun to try to balance (and then fall over lol), but she can do a few seconds at a time unsupported. And the other is playing with one of her new favorite toys: a stand-up play table! It's not actually her toy; we gave it to our friend Jenny's son Jake when he was diagnosed with William's Syndrome. William's is a spontaneous genetic mutation that causes some pretty serious problems, including heart problems, joint problems, and reduced IQ (luckily Jenny and her husband Dave are super smart -- they even beat Alan and me at Trivia Pursuit once, so you know they're practically geniuses -- which is in Jake's favor). One of the things kids with WS often excel at is music, so we got him a musical play table. Jenny just loaned it back to us as Jake has outgrown it and D is growing into it. We thought we'd have to take the legs off and put it on the ground for a while, but nope! D is already standing at it and using it for support. i'm a little worried that my joke about her walking by Christmas isn't going to end up being much of a joke. Keep Jake in your thoughts and prayers since he just went through heart surgery last week. He was released from the hospital today and is recuperating in a hotel with Jenny and David until he can go back home later this week. Such a cute little trouper!