Two Months Old! Short and Sweet

Baby Julia,

It's hard to believe, but you are now two months old!

You've grown from this:

To this!




Month 2

 And grown you have! You were born weighing  7 lbs 13 oz. and were 20.5 inches tall.

And today at your Doctor's appointment, what we have assumed for a few weeks has been confirmed. What we guessed has been blown away! I thought you were going to now be 10 lbs and 22 inches tall. But you're now 11 lbs 14 oz and 23.25 inches tall, placing you in the 75th percentile for weight and 80th for height!

What does that mean? It means you're growing! You're healthy! You're sturdy! You're becoming a little girl before our very eyes. And it's happening all too quickly.

You are kicking butt at tummy time, holding your head up for minutes at a time.

You are ruling at sleeping, still sleeping through the night, and sleeping on your Daddy and Mommy for hours at a time as we have you Moby Wrapped.

The other day, you slept on me from 4 pm until 8:30 pm. You slept while I grated a potato, while I cooked dinner, while I ate dinner, while we tucked in Aidan, while I wrote some thank you notes. Then you woke up to be fed, play a little, smile a lot and went back to bed to sleep through the night! We're really getting a hang of this whole Daddy/Daughter thing, you and I.

I really get the impression that you like me. Which is awesome, because that may mean that you recognize me and know who I am versus any old man off the street. This is an experiment we will not be conducting.


You've also been talking a lot more. Reacting to our voices, to our faces, to our kisses.

Cooing and gurgling and giggling. It's too much. Too much cuteness to handle.

 
You're doing baby sit ups now, and really seeming to like those as well!

This post is short and sweet, just to let you know that you, my dear, may have grown taller and heavier, but you are still so very sweet...and just a little less short.

Nasty Nausea and Late Night Cravings

What do Arby's, Chocolate Milk, Pumpkin Seeds, Pistachio Ice Cream, Jolly Ranchers, Almond M&Ms, Ginger Ale, Bagels and Matzah Pizza have in common?

These are your mother's recent cravings, some of which represent late-night-in-pajamas Kroger visits or early-morning in-pajamas Einstein's trips or cold-and-rainy-grocery visits.

Some of them are also, purportedly, homeopathic/sweet tooth nausea remedies.

But, really, your brother, mother and I are just hoping that once the first trimester passes that the nausea will too. Because, for the love of all that's holy, we need our Holly back!

She's laid up on the couch like she's got some 18th century epidemic, and the only thing that can save her is...pumpkin seeds...the David brand...at 9:30 at night. Oh, but those only work for a bit, and by the next day, the pumpkin seeds might as well be poison.

So, I've been eating them. I assume I'll eat the M&Ms and other items too. Sympathize with me for future sympathy weight.

You are 8 weeks old and 2 days. You are the size of a raspberry!My sources tell me that your fingers and toes are now only slightly webbed and your cute little tail is now gone altogether. The source also says that you're moving your tiny arms and legs like crazy, but that your mother can't feel it yet.

I beg to differ: from the amount of seasickness we've got in this house, I'd say something's making a wave pool in your Mom's belly! But, that's okay- that's what you're supposed to be doing!

As for me? Well, I'm moving my arms and legs like crazy too: walking through the grocery store and waving my arms at the aisles until everything your mother's craving is in the basket!

update: as the weekend progressed I went back to Kroger's for Almond Milk, Mangoes, Fruit Leather, Plums (which I forgot), more Almond Milk, Almond Butter and Rice Cakes.

And then the other night you mother asks me "would it be too much trouble to make an apple crumble?" So, I baked.

At least I didn't have to go to the store!

2 Months Old!

Yesterday you turned two months young, and we had a lovely day/evening with you! We played, and talked to you, sang songs and you slept... a lot!

Your mom fed you at 5:30 pm and- though you were awake for some of this time- you didn't want food again until 10:00pm!

And then you slept- in your cradle, alone!- from 10:30 pm to 2:00 am!

Way to go champ! You sure are maturing fast for a little 2 month old!

Don't get me wrong, you were still fussy a bit, and cried some too, and didn't want to not be held for a little bit. But, for the most part, WOW! We are so proud of you!

I can't believe that 2 months have passed since you entered the world and changed your Mom's and my life. 2 months is a long time!

I really dislike that I have to be away from you while I'm at work, but it makes it extra sweet when I get to come home and cuddle with you and play with you and feed you in the evenings (and early mornings).

Being away from you and your Mom while I'm at work is made a little easier with phone calls (where I get to talk to your Mom and hear you talking to her in the background...but sometimes your talking is actually crying or screaming, and I can't hear your mom...or much of anything for the rest of the day out of that ear).

And other days, being away from you guys while at work is even easier because your Mommy sends me pictures of you!

Check out the series she sent today, of my little boy, which I will call:

"Aidan, 2 months, 2 sneezes."

Your mom's caption may have been more to the point: "Look how cute he is!"

But, you were sneezing in a few of these pictures..can you guess which ones?

In other news, your Mother reports that you have started mimicking her. She'll stick her tongue out at you and...eventually...during moments of extreme concentration, you'll stick your tongue out back at her! I'm going to try this activity tonight!

Please review the pictures again to see how happy you were today...because I fear tomorrow you might not be too happy with us.

Tomorrow you get your first innoculation shots with the Doctor...

8 weeks old and a lot to Smile About

You turned 8 weeks old on Saturday...tomorrow you will be 2 months old!

I can't believe how fast the time is flying by. Yet, it's every hard to imagine life without you.

You had a great weekend, hanging out with Uncle BJ and Aunt Kari and Uncle Jeremy and Auntie M and a very special evening with Nanneh and Baba. You even got to see Mimi too!

We went to restaurants, hung out outside, played, smiled and sang songs. But don't worry, we still had plenty of time to stop and smell the roses (or irises)

You even got to dance to techno music, which you seemed to like almost as much as Zydeco! On Saturday, we went out to dinner to have sushi (mmmm) and the restaurant was pumpin' the house music with a strong boots-n-pots-n-boots-n-pots pulse. Since you were having a bit of a hard time not crying, we danced with you after you had your bottle and...boom...the techno baby stopped crying!

You, Me and Uncle Jeremy...before the techno kicked in. And don't worry, I'm just holding you, not hurting you (I promise!)

The restaurant was clearly not intended for babies to be present, though. How do I know this? Well, there was no Koala baby-changing station in the bathroom! Not in the men's room or the ladies'! So, your ever-resourceful Dad took you outside the restaurant and found a nice metal bench. I laid down the changing pad and had at it...and I think we may have a little exhibitionist on our hands.

Normally during a diaper changing, you'll cry at least a little bit. But on Saturday- your 8 week birthday- you were bare assed in the cool breeze, while I changed your diaper in front of all the passers-by and you were just all-smiles all the time!

Mabye we just need to change your diaper outside at home too..since you seemed to like it so much! Or maybe you were just laughing at me having to change your diaper-- which was very very dirty, for the record-- out in public!

Now, that's something to think about!

Who knows what you were thinking about...but I know what I've been thinking about: your smiles. Your little smile has grown so much in the past couple of weeks.

Take a look at this archival smile footage from 4/18, when you were 7 weeks old (ignore my voice...in fact, mute it...it's rather embarassing) and compare it to your smiles from 4/24, when you're 8 weeks old! And really try to ignore the ridiculous things I must say and the silly voices I must use to coax a smile out of you!

Oh yeah, the thing with the yellow ladle. I was testing your ability to track objects...and you were pretty good. You did better this weekend though. But, mostly, you're not too interested in that yellow ladle thing. But that's okay...

In fact, when you smile, EVERYthing is okay. Someone could have just shaved off one of my eyebrows and I could see you smile and be ecstatic!

And, on a brilliant note, I'm proud to report that we are making major strides in the sleep department! You are lasting longer and longer between feedings (over 6 hours on Friday night and about 5 on Saturday night!) AND you're sleeping for long stretches at a time by yourself! in your cradle! (last night you slept there from 10:00 to 2:30 with only one little cry-spell, which was easily thwarted with me swinging the cradle!). Now, if that's not something to smile about, I don't know what is!

You. Today

You turn 8 weeks old tomorrow!

I wanted to just show you what you looked like this morning. But this idyllic scene didn't last long. You wanted to celebrate your 8 week birthday by testing your lungs all day!
And last night you kind of b-slapped your Godfather in the face! It was awesome. He was just holding you and had his head really close to yours and you up and POPPED him in the face!

It made a big noise, but he only cried for a minute or two!

But, it's better than the time you nerpled your Mom. That was a really funny one!