10 Weeks & 2nd Blogoversary!

As I sit here typing this, Miss M. is laying on her play mat next to me, smiling and talking to the toys hanging above her. Her friendship continues to progreess with the purple hippopotamus with the orange-spotted belly. He is called a "jitter" toy, and has a little thing you pull down on, and he gets closer to her, then jitters back up as his string shortens. She will talk away at him, and then start to get annoyed if I go too long between episodes of pulling the string down. She gets pretty excited about him, kicking away, moving her arms, mouth open. It is adorable.

We do tummy time toward the end of her playtime on the mat, because she still doesn't like it. She licks the mat below her when she's on her tummy, struggles mightily to get off her belly, and begins crying after just a short time. A few days ago, she rolled over when up in a mini pushup, but I think it was an accident.

Her arms and legs are getting stronger every day. If you hold her so that her feet touch anything, she pushes down as if she's standing. She keeps creeping up toward the top of her bassinet when I set her down in it to sleep. When I wake up, her head is always near the top. It will soon be time to move her into her crib, in her own room. That will be a sad day, as I love having her in the bassinet next to me at night. I love waking to her talking to herself. She no longer wakes crying, but rather talks to herself. It is like lovely little music in the morning.

Miss M. continues to sleep for longer periods of time. Last night she slept for about six hours or so. She slept seven straight hours on Wednesday night! I feel really good. It is nice to get sleep again. One of the misconceptions that I had was that babies didn't sleep in long chunks for months and months and months. It's been a relief to see how mercifully short those sleepless days were. I'm sure we'll have nights like that from time to time, but overall, those days are long behind us.

She is smiling, laughing and talking more and more. We have "conversations," where she coos at me, and then I talk back, and then she coos some more, and so on. It's amazing. One of my baby books says that this is early language. It is amazing to behold. She is doing it to visitors like Auntie C., too, and everyone who experiences it gets a kick out of it.

She still enjoys the crib cards, and talks to them. She will laugh and smile at them for long stretches at a time. I try to leave one tucked into the edge of the bassinet bedding so she has something to look at in the morning when she awakes.

Her head control continues to be phenomenal. She loves to look around. When she is crying, she immediately stops if you pick her up and stand holding her so that she is looking over your shoulder. I am thinking about buying a high chair now, not because we need it to feed her in, but because she likes to be up high looking around. She LOVES to look around, and is still really attracted to things that are red. We went to an early dinner last night at a local restaurant that has a very colorful (and very red) decor, and she was in heaven looking around. I think the people at other tables got a kick at watching a little baby be so entranced with her surroundings.

Miss M. has also gotten more active with her hands. She is grabbing things constantly--my hair, my bra as I feed her, my shirt as I hold her. She has very long fingers. In fact, she is very long overall. We have our "two month" appointment on Friday (ugh, shots), and I can't wait to see where she falls on the length and weight charts. I think she is a pretty thin baby, but very long. I'll bet she is in a low percentile on weight, but a much higher one for height.

I continue to feel so blessed to be her mother. She is a joy.

And, today is my two year blogoversary. I can't believe I've been blogging for two years. I started blogging about a year into our TTC journey. This blog, and the ALI community, has gotten me through some tough times, and I am so grateful. I can't believe this is my life now. I can't believe how far we've come in the last three years. I am beyond thrilled that this is all mine. I am content, for the first time in a very long time.