firsts

It's been a pretty big week at our house.

To begin with, as I've been telling anyone who will stand still long enough to listen: We went to the movies. All three of us. And nothing especially bad happened. My man and I celebrated our two-year anniversary by taking in Pixar's latest piece of genius. M thoroughly enjoyed the lights on the ceiling of the theatre before the feature began. Once the movie started, she got kind of freaky-faced for the time it took her to chug a bottle. Then she passed out and slept through the entire thing.

If you kind of squint, you can just barely make out M waving at the guy sitting in the row behind us.

In other news, after weeks of holding out, I finally caved and let M suck on something that wasn't dinner-related. The compromise I offered was a fancy-pants, made-in-Europe, all-natural-blah-blah pacifier. I will not tell you how much it cost.

You would think that this sort of thing would be kind of instinctive, but there was definitely a learning curve involved.

I'm proud to say that M finally got the hang of it. Now I need to get the hang of throwing the stupid thing in the diaper bag when I decide to be crazy and leave the house for more than an hour.

The peace and quiet the pacifier offers is a beautiful thing, even if it does mean that we'll have to eventually help M break her binky habit when she heads off to junior high...

Speaking of things that I swore I'd never do, we also went on a field trip to the consignment store and picked up a bargain bouncy seat. I bought the one with the least bells and fewest whistles, but even that one required a battery for optimum performance, i.e. a subtle butt-vibrating effect.

M has resolved to take up permanent residence in the bouncy seat. 

Finally, we celebrated seven weeks yesterday with Baby's First Shower. Despite my crippling worries, nobody dropped the baby. 

M had some initial concerns about the whole water-falling-from-the-wall thing, but we think she liked it in the end. Also, she got kind of clean, which was just an added bonus, really.

If you don't live in our house, it's possible that none of these things seem like a very big deal. That's okay. We take what we can get, and very small things seem incredibly important. While I remind myself to enjoy every moment of M's tiny life as it unspools, I can't help looking forward to the months ahead, when we can help her explore more and more of the world. I'm planning trips to the zoo, mud puddle explorations, and piles of books and musical instruments.

For now, though, I have this to tide me over:

Baby's First Waterfall.