Little Buddy.

Well, it happened. I didn’t have time to do a weekly blog last week. I knew it would happen eventually. Sad, sad day. I really just wanted to get the birth story one out there, and we all saw how long that turned out to be. By the time I finished that one, I was totally out of juice.

Allow me to play a little catch up. Somebody turned twelve weeks last week. Twelve. Someone stop her! Actually, I’m okay with her growing up, because every week she gets a little more fun, and does something even funnier than the last week. I’m really enjoying her these days, more so than in the beginning. Is that bad of me to say? She’s just so interactive now, and we have so much fun together during the days – she’s my little buddy.

She still fights with her shoulder daily as she tries to get herself from her back to her belly. Man, she would like to be on the move. She talks so incredibly much. Somedays it’s nonstop from the second she wakes up. I love hearing everything she has to say, she has the sweetest little voice! She is figuring out how to suck her fingers, and it can’t come soon enough! Ever since we’ve been working on breaking the swaddle, I’ve been dying for her to get some fingers in her mouth to soothe herself. For the past month she has really just preferred her whole fist, but within the last week she has really started to settle on her first two on her left hand. A little more dexterity and she’ll have it! Speaking of non swaddling it’s going… okay. She did so great the first week, she was barely crying by the end of the week. Then for some reason she had a really tough couple of days last week, and then we went out of town so that made it worse, and we’re leaving again this week, so who knows what shape she’ll be in when we get back. I’ve decided not to push it too much this week, because I know after a trip to grandmas she won’t know how to sleep out of grandma’s arms and I’ll have to start over next week anyways. I actually don’t think the swaddle is her problem anymore, I think it’s those daily naps we take together. I think she is getting a little too used to sleeping on mom’s chest, so now when I put her in her cribs she gets super mad. But again, we’ll soak it in this week – cause next week I’m gonna have to get tough on her. And me. I like sleeping with her on me as much as she does. She’s so stinking cuddly. But I know that it is better in the long run for her to be able to get herself to sleep. Sigh. In more fun news, she loves her jumperoo! Sometimes she just sits in it and smiles. And sometimes she just sits in it and eats the side. But either way, she has the time of her life in there. I think she really enjoys being able to sit up and look around more than anything. She is getting better in the car. We really pushed her this past weekend taking her to Branson, but she did better than I thought. She didn’t cry the entire way, so I consider it a success. Usually when we just drive around St. Charles she will occupy herself well enough to not scream, and sometimes she even falls asleep in there now! She loves to lick us. Or anything. And last but not least, she has a new game now. If we go to kiss her big, fat cheeks, she quickly whips her head around with mouth wide open and practically eats our faces. Once, this ended in me kissing her right on the tongue.

Last week Leah and I had some errands to run. A trip to the DMV was in order, and what’s more fun than a trip to the DMV? A trip to the DMV with Leah. But, as it turns out – she was a gem! I found a little DMV in St. Charles that I don’t think anyone else knows about. There is never a line, and they always have five people working – it’s so nice! So although we didn’t have to wait in line, naturally, I didn’t have a tax receipt I needed. So the DMV trip turned into a trip to the county assessor, and unfortunately there was a huge line. I was a little nervous, but Leah was in such a good mood. She made best friends with the guy behind us and talked and smiled at him the entire 45 minutes we waited in line. And of course, everyone told her how cute she was which turned her into an even bigger ham. After that we had to go get four new tires. Luckily, I took it to Sears in the mall, so while we waited, we shopped. And again, she was such a gem. We have so much fun shopping together. She slept for about 30 minutes, and then just sat peacefully and watched everyone in the mall intently the rest of the time. She even let me eat at the food court! When we headed back to sears, we had about 20 minutes to wait, so I took her out of her car seat and held her. She quickly made another friend in this sweet older lady across from us. The lady was absolutely in love, and jumped at the chance to hold her while I paid for everything. I never thought I’d hand my baby to a stranger, but this lady was super sweet, and Leah just kept smiling. And it’s not like I was going far. They had a lot of fun together. And as a bonus, Leah came back to me smelling like an entire bottle of perfume had been dumped on her.

I did something pretty scary last week. I unsubscribed to every single pregnancy and parenting email I have ever signed up for. They just don’t fit my baby. I don’t know where all you people get your babies, but mine did not come from the same place. Everytime I would get one of these emails, and try to shape Leah into what it said she should be doing, we both ended up very stressed out. When I started signing up for them, I was so excited to have some things to read to try and guide me through this, but as I have learned, Leah doesn’t follow any of the normal baby rules. We are both much happier when I just tune into her and stop trying to make her like all of the other babies out there. She is her own breed to say the least – and in my opinion, the better breed than all the other babies :). In other news, I’m eating better! Yes! I actually had breakfast, lunch, AND dinner three days straight last week! Three whole days! It was pretty refreshing. Three days is a start, someday I’ll make it all seven. In weight news though, it keeps coming off. I am now one pound away from where I was when I met Kyle, my freshmen year of college, six years ago. That’s kind of fun, but it also means I need some new pants! Who needs diet and exercise when you have a Leah around?

I think I better wrap this up. In a few days I have to write another one.

Here is your conversation:

(Kyle and I are lying in bed, and hear Leah bleat. Kyle starts to get up…)

Me: Just wait, let’s see if she can get herself back to sleep

Kyle: But won't she start getting frantic? She's just gonna cry.

Me: Okay, just do what your gut tells you

Kyle: Ugh. But I don’t have a gut. You’re my gut.