summer days

It's been a little while since I've posted here and a certain set of grandparents is itching for an update, so here's a bit of what's been going on at our house lately.

First, there was the heatwave.

Granted, compared to what the rest of the country's been going through, our two days of temperatures in the low to mid nineties probably shouldn't qualify as a "heatwave," per se. But we're used to gray and rainy around here, and Seattle babies have to make an extra effort to keep cool when the mercury rises.

We spent lots of time sitting in front of the fan and taking long, sticky naps.

There were also plenty of cool wet washcloths, which M seemed to enjoy.

Right about the time the heat broke, Miss M woke up one morning with a head cold which left her coughing and sneezing for a few days. I maintain that the wet washcloths were not to blame.

Obviously, M didn't let a little extra snot affect her over-all mood...

She stopped sniffling just in time for the excitement of minor surgery last Friday, when she visited the lovely and talented Dr. K for a--take a deep breath here--sublingual frenotomy. If you're a nerd, you can read more about ankyloglossia here. Otherwise, suffice it to say that M's tongue was too securely attached to the bottom of her mouth, which was keeping her from using her tongue the right way when she's nursing.

Other than disrupting M's nap schedule and creating an overtired monster later in the day, the quick little procedure went well. The jury's still out on her nursing efficiency, but M certainly seems to be enjoying her newly-liberated tongue.

The other big news is that M has started to laugh.

She's only done it a few times. Each time, it's surprising. And absolutely adorable.

tummy time

Every parenting book and baby-raising website talks about the importance of tummy time. There's lots about how spending time on her belly every day will keep baby's head from being flat, will strengthen her neck muscles, will help her to roll over and crawl earlier. You're pretty much a monster if you don't establish a strict tummy time regimen during baby's first few days in the world.

They do not, generally, warn you that your baby might hate tummy time.

Anytime we put M down on her belly, she'd squirm, flounder around for a minute or two, and then start howling and mashing her face into the floor. It was loud. And kind of painful to watch. As a result, there was very little tummy time at our house.

So I'd pretty much resigned myself to having a deformed, slow-to-crawl child who would have lots of things to hate me for in her teenage years.  Fortunately, a friend suggested something much simpler: Propping M up on a firm pillow.

Bingo.

Granted, it's still not her favorite thing to do, but with enough distractions, tummy time sometimes stretches to five or ten minutes.

For those of you worrying about Miss M suffocating her sweet self, I assure you that all tummy time is closely supervised. Which usually means that I, too, am spending lots of time lying on the floor. I'm kind of hoping there are developmental benefits for mamas, too...

fashionable friends

Remember that waiting-for-baby party we had a few months ago? The one with all the onesie-decorating?* Now that she's moved up a weight class--ten whole pounds, people!--Miss M can finally start rocking all those tastefully decorated little numbers.

Given the fact that she's averaging about two and a half outfits a day, she'll probably have them all broken in pretty quickly now...

I realize she's too small to care what she's wearing--and, to be honest, we usually don't care all that much, either--but looking at the pictures, it's hard to believe that M's not enjoying the new additions to her wardrobe.

Thanks again to our thoughtful and talented friends!

*Did you know that "onesie" is a trademarked term owned by Gerber?  Go figure.

favorite things

Our kid loves major appliances. Her only requirements are that they be loud and rumbly. I think she might end up being a Sears Repairwoman when she grows up.  In the meantime, I'm grateful to have one more thing to add to the Naptime Bag of Tricks. We just park her as close as possible to the washing machine or dishwasher and let the magic happen.

The appliance trick has become somewhat less necessary in the past week or so, however, as we have recently acquired yet another thing I said I'd never live with: a battery-powered baby swing.* Of course, Miss M loves the swing. Worse yet, she adores the horrible music it plays. I'd be fine with the creepy, repetitive "nature" sounds (I'm not sure the folks at Graco actually know what nature sounds like...) but no, the baby would please like to listen to a tinny, out-of-tune rendition of Fur Elise for the forty-millionth time.

Again, I'm more than willing to compromise if it means that the little one is happy and entertained long enough for me to do crazy things, like brush my teeth. Swings, bouncy seats, whatever it takes. On one recent evening, my man and I ate dinner. At the exact same time. It was kind of incredible.

With all the exciting machinery in the house, it's worth mentioning that M is starting to actually amuse herself for short periods of time. For better or for worse, our child has discovered toys. She can't actually play with them yet, but she is capable of smacking at colorful objects half-accidentally and then sucking on whatever she manages to wrap her little fingers around.

Luckily for this baby, Mama has been stocking up on fancy-pants, organic baby toys for years now. There are plenty of cute things to chew on and cuddle with. Until she's ready for Legos. Then Dad has her covered.**

It has come as no surprise to anyone who knows her parents that M loves books. Or, more specifically, she loves this book, which has become a permanent fixture on the changing table.*** Maybe this is some kind of precursor to reading on the toilet. If so, I sincerely hope that the hand-sucking ceases to be part of the routine...

*Thanks, H&B!!
**We have four million Legos. Seriously.
***It turns out babies really do love all that black-and-white business. I came across a set of these a few months before M came into existence. Now I'm wishing I'd added them to the collection...

in july

Before I forget to tell you:

On the 4th, we travelled north to celebrate with a few dozen aunts, uncles, and cousins. It was M's big debut, which naturally required an extra-fancy hat. Needless to say, she wore it well.

The bigger kids enjoyed fireworks, lemonade, s'mores, and all the other trimmings of a great Independence Day. M mostly enjoyed small doses of sunshine and being passed from one grownup to another for about seven or eight hours.  Even that, though, proved to be a bit too much for her by the end of the day...

smiles

Just in time for the two month mark:

Now we'll start looking forward to the giggles.
Happy Two Months, Miss M!

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.