Growing!

Esther is well past the 4-month mark now. She is definitely growing bigger and longer. She still doesn't have a lot of hair yet though. :-p We still have to work to get her to enjoy tummy time. She really doesn't like to be on her belly for too long, and hasn't made much progress towards rolling over or crawling yet. She still likes to walk with help though - she thinks she is pretty big stuff! We can almost always get a smile out of Esther when we let her walk on top of us and look down into our faces. She is a happy, smiley little girl. She is still teething, but we think she is through the rough week that she had a few weeks ago. The last couple of nights she has been waking up 2 or 3 times during the night, but that's still better than nearly once every 1-2 hours!
She seems to be going through a phase where she wants to be held CONSTANTLY. For awhile she really liked her "bouncy seat" and would sit in it unattended for 15-30 minutes or so. Now she needs to be held or rocked by a real, warm person.
Esther really likes to suck on her hands, on toys or on other people's hands. Maybe because she is teething?
Esther is also starting to make more noises. She laughed for the first time last week! (see Molly's flickr account for the video) She tends to make a lot of sounds when she is eating her fingers. Esther doesn't have much control over the pitch or volume of her voice. It's funniest when she lets out little squeals and squeeks!