When You're Two Months Old

When you're two months old, you are a joy. A complete joy.

I hadn't forgotten this stage from when your brother went through it, but your dad had. This morning out of nowhere he said, "You're right. This is just the best stage!" I love when he admits that I'm right. :) Though, if I recall correctly, I'll think the same thing about 3 months, 4 months, 5 months, 6 months...

You are still small and snuggly. A small enough baby that people creep over when we're in public and whisper, "Ooooo, a tiny baby! How old is she?"

Small, but big enough (or maybe old enough?) that you are sleeping well at night. Not all the way through yet, but you are giving us 6-7 hour stretches and we are happily taking them.

You are old enough to be in more of a routine, which helps me out a ton. It's not a perfect routine yet, but again, I'll take it. You eat roughly every 3 1/2 hours, and sleep for a few in between so that I can play with your brother and take care of a few things around the house. We all appreciate it.

You have been around long enough that we have much more confidence about what is happening when you cry. I can tell if you are just a bit fussy and need to be left alone, or if you have a burp or something bothering your tummy and need to be consoled. It is such a relief to be out of the newborn guessing game stage, though I didn't mind it nearly as much as your dad did. :) He just likes to be in control of things, and we love him for that.

We have finally figured out the things that I eat that actually bother your stomach, as opposed to the guessing game that we played at the beginning, where it seemed that nothing was safe. Now we know that too much dairy or any pizza is going to give you a bad night, so we avoid it. Your dad isn't happy about the pizza part at all.

Whenever you're awake you are an absolute doll. You are talking now, to everything. Cooing at the fan, staring intently at the lights, moving your head and eyes to follow us around the room, and smiling so sweetly. We have conversations with you regularly. At 7 and 8 weeks you had started cooing, but by 9 weeks you respond to almost every word. I put you in your crib, hoping to get some pictures of you staring up at your mobile, but you had other ideas, and couldn't pry your eyes from the ceiling fan. AKA, the real mobile.

Your smile lights us up. We are so happy to have this sweet reward every time that we walk by you in your seat, when we place you on the changing table, or when I lay you across my lap to feed you. Your eyes are so inquisitive, searching back and forth across our faces, and they smile right along with your big sweet grin.

The "swimming" of last month, where you waved your arms around and kicked your legs slowly is gone. It has been replaced by vigorous marching, or "ladder climbing," where your legs are constantly moving up and down, up and down, along with your arms, as though you're climbing a ladder.

Your 2 month shots were a real stress. Your brother stopped crying almost immediately at his first set of shots, but you kept gasping for breath and wailing for so long that I had to feed you before we left the doctor's office. You were in a perfect mood that afternoon, but when we went out to eat that night, something was bothering you and we had to leave early due to your inconsolable screaming. But by the next day you were as happy as could be.

Despite the fact that you are small in terms of babies, you are big in terms of 2 month olds.

At birth you weighed 7 lbs, 10 oz, but now you are 11 lbs, 13 oz, in the 77th percentile.

At birth you were 20 1/2 inches long, but now you are 26 inches long, in the 99th percentile.

You have such a strong neck and torso and are starting to have control over it. At one month you would periodically head butt your mouth into my collarbone, which never ended well. But now, you hold yourself straight up, or fling your head and body to the side trying to land in your preferred position in the crook of my arm. Sometimes you fling yourself in the wrong direction and smack your head into my jaw, which is bad for us both. But then I get to snuggle and console you a bit, so I guess it doesn't end too badly.

You are the prettiest little thing. I have thought from the beginning that you looked like a girl, even when you still had that generic newborn baby look. It had something to do with your eyes, but I couldn't figure out what it was at first, maybe the shape? But now I know, it's your eyelashes. They curl on the outsides of your eyes, almost with a little cat-eye effect, and it's so pretty. It reminds me of when I was little and would draw people. The girls had long hair and 3 little eyelashes on the outsides of their eyes to designate them as girls, and the boys had short hair and no eyelashes. Your eyelashes remind me of that. It's sweet.

I'm so glad that you're mine. Happy 2 months.

Linking to the Weiglands, and Embrace the Camera.