oh she speaks....

i know i am ridiculously overdue on a newsletter....i have one partially written, but just cant get my act together long enough to finish it off.

so i thought i'd give some satiating stats.....

avonlea is 18 months old.

which means she is basically 2 years old, because that's how she acts now. :)

she is smart and stubborn, and a little ball of sweet love.

last week at the doctor, she was 31.25 inches long, and 22.25 lbs. she has thinned out, and gotten taller, and still fits in her 12 month clothing. i must admit, her 18 month clothing is ALMOST perfect for her but for the huge gap at the waist.

she is a picky eater. for only mommy and daddy. and eats everyone else out of house and home.

she loves elmo, and the muppets, and You're Baby Can Read videos. and books. good goddess, that girl loves her books. and being outside. she will run, and swing and slide all day if you let her.

here are all the words she knows:

hi/bye

yeah/no

muhma/dada/love you

baba/gaga/gramma/grampa

auntie

kitty/owl/octopus/elephant/duck

more/milk/water/eat/book/ice cream/waffle/egg/apple/hot/cold

elmo/cookie/oscar/count/big bird/telly

feet/sock/shoe/hat

i know there are more....but i can't seem to think of them right now. if you ask her to repeat a word, she will repeat almost anything...but these are her every day words now.

edit:

also, add these words to the every day list:

ernie/right there/up/down/thank you/bless you/stinky/nose/eye/ear/cheek/hair/head/hot dog/all done/toes/buns

she knows the animal sounds to-

dog/kitty/owl/snake/elephant/cow/monkey/duck/lion (and anything else that looks vicious enough to rawr)/cookie monster :)

i know this is a poor excuse for a newsletter...but it's just a little update. :)

i hope you enjoyed it as much as i am enjoying her....she is too delicious to share blogging time with. :)

11 Month Newsletter

Avonlea,

You are 11 months old. Holy cow! I can't believe that in 4 short weeks, you will be a year! Where did this year go?? We were so wrapped up in you that we hardly even noticed the changing of the seasons, the increase in grey hairs, and the newly emerging fine lines around our sleep deprived eyes.

You have had another growth spurt since our last newsletter, suddenly out growing all of your 9 month clothes and fitting perfectly into 12 months clothing. As we speak, we have just returned from a shopping spree at our favorite baby consignment shop in town, grabbing tons of great summer finds for you for our trip to Martha's Vineyard. Daddy can't wait to show you around his favorite little island, and I can't wait to go there for the first time with you, my love!

A month ago, we started taking Saturday morning swim lessons at our local pool. You weren't as interested in the "swim" part of swim class as you were in the "class" part. You waved and dove at the other babies, smiling and saying "heeeey!" while waving your arms furiously. Eventually, we got you to focus on the task at hand...and now you LOVE to swim, and will even put your face in the water to blow bubbles. We have one week left of this swim class series, and then we plan on definitely signing up and continuing this great class. We have made some good friends here, and have fun every saturday! We know that you will love the water when we head to the vineyard, and if you are anything like your mommy and daddy when we were kids, we will have to beg and plead to get you out of the water!

You started this month cautiously standing at furniture and letting go, crashing to the floor only to giggle and get back up again. And now, as I write this, you walk all over the house. The transformation from "crawler" to "walker" has been amazingly adorable. And tonight, at Grandma's house, as she stomped behind threatening to "get you", I do believe I saw you begin to RUN to get away! You now prefer walking to crawling, and I imagine it is because crawling just takes far too long now!

When last we left, you were giving us a run for our money in the sleep department. And With great persistence, great love, and of course, the Sleep Lady Shuffle, you now go to sleep all on your own, easily, and without tears. You surprised the both of us with how easily you taught yourself, and made us realize that it wasn't really YOUR fault to begin with. We taught you to need our help to go to sleep, and we had to teach you to learn to fall asleep on your own. If I only had a dollar for every time we have said "well...now we know for next time!".

(don't get too excited....."next" time is years away....) :)

February was a very challenging month for our little family, and with great sadness, we have all gained another guardian angel. You did not know your Daddy's Nana, but we have learned of her great love for all of her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, and her incredible culinary skills. Although it seems that we have been surrounded by loss in this past year, you have shown us that when we fall, we get back up. I know that our angels, our Nana, our Babci, our Marge, are there holding your hand as you take your first steps, and I know that you are surrounded in their love.

Earlier in the month, we went to your friend Sara's first birthday party, where you got to eat your first cupcake. I love seeing you with other babies, especially Kylie, Cailin, and Sara...it is amazing to me how different you are with each of them....which personality traits emerge depending on who you are spending time with. I love how you buzz around, and barely have time to stop and give your momma a kiss, because you are far too busy playing with your friends. I love that when you see them, you toddle over to them and give them big sloppy kisses. I am excited to say that in september, you will have a new little friend, and we can hardly wait to meet them...until then, I know that you will share your guardian angels....not that we could keep them away! Congrats, D&D!

This week begins the furious party planning for your first birthday....and like your amazing personality, it will be fun, bright, and full of smiles, cuddles and sloppy wet kisses.

So, let the party planning begin!

We love you, muffin!

10 month Newsletter

Dear Avonlea,

You are 10 months old. At your last visit, you were 26.75 inches long and 17.9 pounds. The doctor was impressed with your attentiveness, verbal skills, and mobility. You are solidly in your 9 month clothing, but we have broken out some of the 9-12 month clothing and 12 month clothes to break up the monotony of your drawers. Your auntie says you have gotten chubby, and I have to agree. You also have amazingly delicious ham hocks for thighs and I love how you giggle when I munch on you. :)

You crawl with a fever now, scooting around everywhere. You also stand and cruise around, and in the beginning of the month starting letting go of the furniture and crashing down on your bottom and giggling. I giggle when you get back up just to crash back down and laugh. :)

Towards the end of this month, on a few separate occasions, you took a step. And then two. And then you crash into me or daddy, or the floor, and giggle like a maniac. I can SEE how badly you want to walk, and I know it's coming so fast! Soon you will be buzzing around this house and we will be regretting that we ever encouraged you to walk to begin with!

One morning while getting us ready to leave the house, I put you down in the kitchen and not even a minute later heard you whimpering. I made a few passes through the living room and dining room and when I couldn't find you, I stopped in the hallway. I heard you whimper again...and then I saw you... three stairs from the top of the staircase, and turning around to look at me! My heart stopped! You were whimpering because you didn't know how to get down. So, you also learned how to climb the stairs this month! And we also learned to put up a baby gate!

Your taste in food has gotten much better, you basically eat what we eat now. And if we even try to give you something different, you just whine until we give you some of what we are eating. Which is fine with us, because it's one less meal to make. You even eat salmon- I can't believe MY daughter eats salmon! Insane!

You had been doing well with sleeping through the night, but this month have made a mockery of us, taking over an hour to go to sleep and then waking 4-5 times per night. None of us are getting any sleep, and we are all cranky and overtired. By the time this blog posts, we will have already started some "sleep training" from The Sleep Lady, called The Sleep Lady Shuffle. We hope that soon we will all be able to sleep a little easier.

You also had your first sleepover this month with Grandma and Grandpa, leaving us alone in our house for the first time since you were born! It was glorious, and we got to go out to a play, and dinner, and not have to worry about rushing home to you. You had a great time and we are excited to keep this trend going! :)

Your verbal skills have remained the same, and while you haven't learned any new words, you make sounds that sound like our words constantly, leaving us to say "did she just say ___? or did it just SOUND like it??"

Soon, we need to start planning your first birthday party- I can't believe it's almost been a year....WHERE DID THIS YEAR GO??? That statement has a whole new meaning once you have a child.

We have lots of pictures to post in addition to this newsletter. Stay tuned!!

We love you monkey girl!

9 month newsletter- abbreviated

Avonlea,

You are 9 months old. At the end of this month, we will visit our pediatrician for our 9 month appointment, and we are excited to see how big you've gotten.

Your cheeks have filled out, and you have a buddha belly now. Although you seem huge to us, we know that to strangers, you still seem so small and they often tell us so.

You still have not cut a single tooth, but your food choices are fairly endless now. Your favorites include cheese, ham, cheese, peas, beef stew, green beans, cheese, crackers, avocado and cheese. (just like mommy!) and refuse to be fed most of the time, only eating things you can pick up yourself. Which is fine with us...you are stubborn and it is just NOT worth fighting over the spoon with you! You also enjoy driving us crazy by taking your filthy foody hands and pulling your hair after every meal - resulting in nearly daily baths now. :)

Just as predicted, you started crawling 3 days after my last posting, and now you follow us around, pulling on our pant legs. In an attempt to regain our living room back, we turned our office into a playroom and our guest bedroom into our office, and in minutes, we were all much happier. It is great that you have your own space, and we have our space back from all of your toys!

You really are a joy to be around. You are always smiling, hardly ever difficult, and it is just so easy to love you. I remember being pregnant and being worried that I might come to resent you being attached to my hip (literally and figuratively)...but the truth is....I WANT to be around you. You are pure wonderment, and I love watching you and seeing you discover your environment. I love the way you peek around corners to see what's on the other side. I love all of this mommy-madness, even in the most sleep-deprived of times.

We love you baby girl!

8 month newsletter

Avonlea,

You are 8 months old. So much has changed since your last newsletter.

You are now appropriately in your 6-9 month clothing, and they seem to fit you alright. Your pants are getting too short, and the shirts are a bit big, but they work for now. Soon we will need to go on another clothing shopping spree, but we can hold out for now. Your hair has grown much thicker, and now it doesn't look too weird when I put a little clip in it. And with that, your hollywood lashes have gotten thicker too...drawing even more attention from strangers! I didn't think it was possible!

In the past month, you started waving at us. At first we thought it was a fluke, and then you became more consistent. You wave at us, at your aunties and grandparents, at your kitties, at strangers, and even at the people on television. You have started crawling...backwards, nonetheless, but crawling. You haven't quite figured out how to go forward yet, but I know that a few days after this posts, you will have figured it out on your own. You started standing with some help, and now you can pull up to stand all by yourself, tucking your little leg beneath your body and pushing yourself up to reach your play table or the coffee table. My newest favorite thing that you do is "dance" when you hear music, wiggling your belly back and forth and giggling like a maniac. I love it!
You haven't changed much in terms of your food choices:

loves:

sweet potatoes

butternut squash

raw grapes

raw apples

puffs

crackers

likes:

bananas

avocado

carrots

biter biscuits

dislikes:

pears

peaches

apples

peas

zucchini

I have had a sippy cup/straw cup out for the past two months. Every day, you tipped it, you chewed on the bottom, you chewed on the straw....but you would never drink out of them. Every day, you would steal my straw out of my Starbucks cups to chew on...but would never suck up any of its chai deliciousness. Finally, I got you a little valveless Santa mug, and one day...while you were watching mommy drink out of her straw cup, I could just see that you got it...and I ran and got your santa mug. Immediately, you leaned over and sipped up a huge gulp of cold water...and that was the end of that. Now you want sips of everything that there is to offer.

Your vocabulary has also grown. you can currently say "hiiiiiiiiii" in a your high pitched baby voice. Grandpa taught you "Hey" and I believe that mommy taught you "yeah". In addition to that, you say "dada", though inconsistently. And every time you see a kitty you stare hard at them and say "keee". One morning, while cuddling in bed, one of the kitties jumped up onto the bed and you waved to it and said "hiiiiiii keee" and mommy almost fell over. You haven't repeated it, but still. I am amazed!

Every day, your personality shows more and more, and more often than not, you are an uber friendly, uber happy baby, who is a total ham in front of my camera, and even when I hold my phone up to take a picture. You certainly know how to work a crowd, flashing your cheesy grin and batting your hollywood lashes at just the opportune time.

I can hardly believe all of the changes that you went through this month, and I just have a feeling that next month is going to show up this month! I can't wait to see where your cute, Conversed tootsies will take us this month! Bring on the holidays!

we love you baby girl!

5 month newsletter

Dear Avonlea,

Today you are five months old. You aren't that much bigger than you were a month ago, and weigh about 12 lbs. Although you don't seem that much bigger, your little feet don't need the dictionary to reach the floor while you are in your excersaucer, and so we know that you have grown. You are STILL in your 0-3 month clothing, with no sign of outgrowing them any time soon. Although, I have a feeling that one day we will wake up, and just like that, you will be in the next size.

Your apple cheeks have rounded out quite a bit, and your arms don't feel quite as thin as before. I love to see your little roundy fingers wrapped around my thumbs. I love the weight of you in my arms and cannot describe it any better than that.

One day this month, while playing with Amy and the girls, (I've found that most things seem to happen when we are with them), you rolled over from your belly onto your back. One moment, you were propped up on your elbows, and the next moment, you were flopped over on your back with a "what-the-hell-just-happened?" look on your face. I flipped you back, thinking that you had simply just fallen over, but a few minutes later, you did it again. And so, you have officially begun rolling over. :) It's about time!Adorably, you have also begun to turn your cheek to us for kisses, and quite honestly, it is one of our favorite things to do. We simply cannot hold you without covering you in them, and you giggle when Daddy's beard tickles your face. After we kiss you, you turn your face to us and slime us with your smoochy drool, and it is divine.

This past week, we have noticed that when we eat, you are very interested in our meals, diving forward to reach for our foods and even wanting to eat from me while we eat. I anticipate needing to start solids with you soon, and while that makes me a little bit sad, Daddy can't wait! But we will hold out for as long as we can. Although no teeth have officially cut through, we can see them beneath your pink gums and know that the “teething” process will begin very, very soon.

In addition to being interested in our snacks, you are also increasingly interested in the kitties, leaping forward to touch their fur, usually ending up with fistfuls of their soft hair. They tolerate you for now, as you aren't very mobile yet, but I can see the skepticism in their green eyes and they know that their time is limited....that sooner than we all know, you will be chasing them around, squealing in delight.

The end of this month has proven to be a struggle, as Daddy has gone back to work at a new school, and I am trying hard to find a schedule that works well for us as a family, and so some sacrifices will have to be made all around. But we know that it is for the best, and I can't wait to be with you on a more consistent basis. In the meantime, in our absence you are lovingly being cared for by your daddy's cousin Drina and your grammy mother. And so far, you have had wonderful play dates with them, napping when you need to, playing when you want to, and getting covered in their lovely kisses. When you come home from your play dates, you are pooped. I love how you seem to melt into my body, giving me your own little hugs as if to say "oh, i missed you mommy!". I find myself waiting for that moment all day, and when I unleash you from your car seat, my heart bursts to feel the weight of you in my arms. There may be nothing better.

As the summer comes to an end, I find myself getting excited for cool autumn walks with you in our neighborhood, and showing you the colors of the changing leaves. I can't wait for the surge of physical and emotional developmental milestones to come your way, and look forward to what you have to teach us, and not just what we have to teach you. I already can't believe that you are 5 months old....and while I have relished every day with you, I feel like we just left the hospital with you a few weeks ago. I love that we are still in awe of you, and after we have put you to bed, we stay up and frequently say "Can you BELIEVE her? Can you believe we MADE her? Can you believe how much we LOVE her?", and yet I know that I might feel that way forever. Life is good. Life. is. good.

Until next time, sweet girl...we love you.

4 month newsletter

Avonlea,
You are now 4 months old. At your 4 month check-up, you were 11 pounds 4 ounces and 22.5 inches long, still very petite for your age. You are still in your Newborn and 0-3 month clothing, and will not outgrow them for quite some time, as most of them are still baggy on your little body. I can count 5 mini chub rolls on your legs, and I can’t wait until they get meatier and I can really take a good nibble out of them. Your eyelashes are even longer now, and “Auntie” Amy thinks that I put mascara on them before I bring you over….Maybe it’s Maybelline. This month, we can’t get you to stop talking if we tried. You are very verbal, and everyone seems to think that you are going to learn to talk very early, as you watch our mouths very closely and respond back to us with like-sounded coos. You drool like no other baby that I have ever seen, and if I had a dollar for every person that told me you were teething, I could send you to an Ivy League school! Alas, I can see the teeth beneath your pink gums, but none have cut through yet. You giggle and laugh at your Daddy and me, especially when he blows raspberries on your belly before bed, and when I tickle your neck with my fingers. Sometimes you chuckle at us for no reason at all.
Last month, you would just barely pick up your toys if we placed them in your hands, but this month you dive for them, first grabbing them with one hand, and now with two. One day this week, you woke up and realized that your two hands were connected to the same body. You clenched them together, looking at them as though you had never seen hands before, and you have used them in conjunction with each other ever since, mainly to bring toys to your drooly mouth, or pulling our faces in for slobbery kisses.
You have grown into quite the independent lady (thank god!), and we can put you down for long stretches of time. You LOVE your excersaucer, diving forward to play with the toys attached to it, and Daddy configures crazy dangling toy-setups from the arches along the top of it for you to enjoy. When we first broke out this insane little baby-entertainer, your little feet didn’t even touch the ground, but now your tippy toes can reach! You also LOVE your doorway jumper, and prefer to swing in it, swirling around and around depending on where we are in the house. More recently, you have begun to bounce, and love it! You spend most of your awake time in these toys, giving us time to get things done around here!
This month, Daddy and I went away for a night, leaving you with Auntie Sarah while we went to a wedding in NY. With two instructions in mind, 1. Feed baby every three hours and 2. Put baby down for nap after she’s been up for 1.5 hrs, we left. It was a great break for us, and Sarah had a great time with you without any problems. You watched Grease, went for walks, took lots of naps, and played until you were pooped. A week later, Daddy left for a mini-vacation to Pittsburgh where you and I had a blast visiting friends, shopping, and catching up on much needed mommy-baby time.
These mini-vacations were a much needed break from the sadness that we had all been through earlier this month. Anyone who knew our Babci knew that love was the center of her world. She had a surreal capacity for loving all things: animals, family, friends, knick-knacks and children. You were one of her favorite people on earth, and as soon as she set her blue eyes upon you, she needed to hold you and surround you in her love. She had a long and beautiful life full of just that, and left this great earth on her own terms, in her own way, sending us all off with her own advice on how to bring more and more love into our lives.
There are no words for the magnitude of how much she will be missed. But, I know that our Babci-doodle is up there, dancing with Dzidzia in her pretty blue gown and watching over us all. We promise that you will grow up surrounded in her love, as she would have wanted. We promise to always love you, a bushel and a peck….a bushel and a peck, and a hug around the neck.

We love you, baby girl!

3 Month Newsletter

Avonlea, today you are 3 months old. This has been a challenging and rewarding month

You are now just about 9lbs and 21 inches long, and have aaaaalmost outgrown all of your preemie clothing and have triumphantly grown into most newborn sizes. Proportionately, your waist is tiny, and newborn pants sadly leave too huge of a gap to wear out in public, but with your fluffiest of cloth diapers (a sunny yellow Happy Heiny), we might be able to pull it off! Your eyelashes go on for miiiles now, and get darker and darker every day, gorgeously feathering your aqua moon-crater eyes.

This month you have begun “talking” up a storm. You are most vocal in the mid mornings when we coo and laugh and “oooooo” all over the place, your tiny pink circle of a mouth letting drool dribble to your chin and down your onesie. You respond to my questions with wide eyes and raised eyebrows, as though you are actually considering what I’ve just told you to be the most interesting thing you’ve ever heard, and usually jabber back at me “eeeeeoooooooaaaaa”. And it is the most lovely sound. Giggles are much more frequent than last month, especially when you are being changed, and we talk to the painted pictures of a hatching chick above your changing table.

You are phenomenal at eating now, and although it doesn’t seem that you are eating much more than you had been, you continue to gain weight, and so we know that all is well in that department. We are much more comfortable with breast feeding, and you fall asleep fairly quickly at our night time feeding, preferring to snuggle in close to mommy rather than a bottle, and slip into dreamland. You are excellent at sleeping through the night and last from 9pm-530am, and stay in our bed for the rest of the night for prime mommy and daddy snuggle time. I know that eventually I will have to start staying awake for your early morning feeding to place you back in your own bed, but for now, there is nothing sweeter than feeling your breath on my skin, and your hand tickling my belly.

This month you started holding toys, you aren’t very good at it, as you prefer to keep your little hands clenched tight, so we usually have to pry them open and slip the toy in….but a few times you have grabbed at things on your own. You are becoming more aware of your uncontrollable limbs, and you are humerous to watch. You have also begun to love being carried around with daddy in the Jeep carrier, looking out and taking in the sights. You are mesmerized by the TV and we have already begun to be careful with how much exposure you get. You also are allowing us to put you down for longer stretches of time, I think I got 45 minutes out of you today while I rearranged your dresser drawers! Every day, you cry less and less, and smile more and more.

We had our first night out without you, the fantastically fun family wedding of Mia and David. And you had a grand ol’ time with your Baba and Grand-pa-pa, and didn’t give them much trouble at all, besides all of the inquisitive mustache pulling. It was nice to be non-mommy and non-daddy for a night…although I must confess, when I asked your Daddy if he would call to check in on you, not even 2 hours after we’d left, he already had. It choked me up to see how on the ball he was, but then again, he always is when it’s about you.

Despite your widening smiles, our little family was saddened by two tragedies this month. We lost a dear, dear friend to your Grammy-mother, Marge DiTullio. Although you will never remember meeting her when you were only 8 weeks old, she sure adored you. Thankfully, you were still so tiny, and she was able to hold her though her body was weakened by her failing heart. She was larger than life, crass and opinionated, but diligently respectful and easily one of the funniest women I have ever known. She beat the odds, living far longer than I think many of us expected her to, and living life to the fullest right up to the end, sipping on her beloved bubbly orange soda. You will hear Auntie Sarah and Mommy speak of her often when you grow up, and of all of the funny things she used to say and do, because we will tell you of her life and her loves, and carry her Christmas traditions and family into our homes. She will be missed forever and ever.

A week after we lost Marge, you were admitted to the hospital for scaring the life out of me. While visiting your future BFFs, Kylie and Cailin (and Amy), you went gray and limp in my arms. We took you to the Pediatricians office, who had us admitted to the hospital to monitor you, and after one terrible night in the hospital, we were discharged with a “clean-ish” bill of health, and a prescription for anti-reflux medications. That one night in the hospital rocked your little world, and it took us nearly 3 weeks to fully recover and return to your previous eating and sleeping habits. Thankfully you haven’t had another episode like that one, but it certainly prompted us to buy a special monitor to help us all sleep a little better at night. Especially since my maternity leave has come to an end.

Although I am grateful and excited to go back to work and my friends and I am sad to leave your little body at night, I know that you are safe and thriving with your Daddy. So far, it hasn’t been easy on him, and I hope that the two of you can come to terms with me being gone and move on to your own special bedtime routine for the nights that I cannot be with you to nurse and snuggle.


And so I write this from work, monitors beeping in the background, and vital signs waiting to be taken. Although these babies will never be as important to me as you are, I have to go and feed their little bellies and keep them safe at night. So sleep tight, my sweet babe….Daddy’s got this one. “I gotta go!”

2 month newsletter

Stolen from some of my blogger friends, I have decided to do a monthly Avonlea Newsletter, as they do for their son Jake. In it, I will keep friends and family updated with what she's been up to, what she learns, and how she grows. :)

Avonlea, today you are 2 months old, weighing in at a hefty 8lbs 12oz, such a huge difference from your teeny birth weight of 5lbs 12oz. Because we see you every day, we can see the huge difference those three pounds have made. But we find it shocking to see how small you still are in other people's arms. You have finally started to fit into some of your newborn clothing, and I have sadly begun to pack away the tiny preemie clothing that I so adore! You have begun to get chubby little thighs, chubby little feet and chubby little cheeks, but your arms are still sooo skinny, and your Grandpa tells me often that you need to eat your spinach. :)

You have changed so much in the past month! Now, you can hold your head up for long stretches of time to look around, and we have begun to notice that your newborn "jerky" movements are becoming less and less frequent. You are particularly attracted to lights and chandeliers, and your shiny balloons that float above your changing table. You can even sit in your bumbo chair now without being swallowed by it, and I dare say, you actually like it! Although "tummy time" isn't your favorite activity, you could lay on your back on the floor forever, wriggling your arms and kicking your legs in excitement of everything that you can see from waaaaay down there.

Your formerly infrequent "sleepy" smiles have started to become the norm, and now you smile AT us, and not just because. You smile at your balloons, the pictures hung on the walls, you smile during your bath time, and you smile for no reason at all. You melt our hearts with every gummy grin! In the past two days, you have started laughing at mommy while I run around trying to get dressed in the morning, and scootch your bottom in excitement when we are being silly for you. We have found that you love campfires, and stayed up far too late one night, mesmorized by the flames.

You have gotten so good at breastfeeding, and we no longer need the nipple shield anymore to nurse. It was a long 8 weeks, but you finally got it! You still fall asleep with every feed, but now we can sneak you upstairs to your crib and get some alone time for a few hours! You have started to caress my skin and play with my collarbone while you nurse, and I melt every time you do it. And in the past three days, you have given me your hand to kiss- actually put it near my mouth, and then smiled a big, gummy smile with your mouth full while i smooched, letting milk dribble out the sides of your mouth. This past weekend, we did some "hardcore crib training" and were able to get you to sleep for large portions of the night in your own crib, with minimal interference! yaaay! It was monumental. We have sucessfully created a bedtime ritual and have done it consecutively for a week straight- a difficult feat for your mommy and daddy who do not live by schedules or rituals, but rather by impulse. But it's time to settle down and face the fact that you need a ritual, as most children do.

I would classify you as a "good" baby- crying only when you need something, and peering out into the world, quietly curious to your surroundings most of the time. You did have a two week period of frequently being upset, and mommy even used the phrase "colicky" once or twice in there, but you did not fit the standard textbook definition. Our biggest feat is having you be comfortable with being put down. Of course you want to be held, as we are warm and cuddly and smell good. I do not believe that we can spoil you with too much love, and will put you down when you allows us to, and hold you when you need us to. That is what we are here for.

You still don't like your swing or riding in the car, and scream forever when we drive anywhere, gasping and choking and sweating through your clothes by the time we arrive at our destination. You have started to like your vibrating chair, and will tolerate it for 10 minutes at a time. You love being carried around by daddy in your sling carrier, and have even slept through mommy's entire softball games in your warm cocoon. You LOVE your bathtime, and will suddenly stop whatever fussing you were doing the moment your toes hit the warm water. I always find it amazing that no matter how long it's been since your last bath, I can just smell your tiny head with your wisps of auburn hair and instantly feel calm and at home. It's almost like I never knew what home smelled like until you came. You are my favorite smell in the whole wide world.

We are so fortunate to have such a cuddly little girl- and can't wait to see what the following month may bring. As my maternity leave comes to a close, I am excited to enjoy every second left, and get you ready for when I have to leave you with Daddy for the summer. Even as I write this, you give me a gummy smile from your boppy, as if to say "put down the computer mommy...i'm right here!". And so I will...:)