Ten Months of Tenderness

We recently had friends ask us if we could even remember what life was like before we had our darling girl and were a family of three. We simultaneously and vehemently answered, YES! It is easy to think about rock climbing in Thailand, not packing diapers to go out for dinner and sleeping through the night. In the same breath we agreed that while love having a marriage and partnership based on that life, we couldn't imagine doing anything now without our little lovebug.

Messy hair, don't care.

In addition to loving books, being playful, showing confidence and independence and showering us with love and nuzzles, she gives life a whole different meaning. I have never felt more present in the moment than I do now (and I can write like this today because we have been having some sleep break-throughs!).  When I with her I do my best to notice every little thing about her. Her smile, her inquisitive, exploratory nature, the way she examines everything she encounters. I work hard when I am not with her and take advantage of even five minutes of time to accomplish anything I can so that it doesn't distract me when she wants to read books or play ball.

Developmentally, Lulabee is making forward progress. I can't help but think how overwhelming it is to change so much each day. She is able to use her pointer finger and thumb to pinch small objects (including tiny pieces of flesh, ouch!) and is getting into finger food, although she isn't very interested in gumming food and it can sometimes be found in her mouth an hour later. She recently figured out how to make the uh-uh-uh noise when she taps something against her mouth and her impulse to do this with everything is adorable. She is really getting into playing ball and gets faster at catching it and then throwing back (occasionally in the right direction) every time we play. She is eating pretty much anything we are eating, although she won't in her seat any more. If we go out back and do bird watching/calling while she eats, she can put back the whole bowl of food. So weird.

Little Biscuit is totally into standing now and seems a little disappointed that our house doesn't
provide her with much for doing this. We took her to the Bay Area Discovery Museum this week and she was all over the place...standing, crawling, dancing. Her favorite part of going new places is people watching and medium sized humans astound her with their walking/talking/eating skills. She played in river of water, bounced on a water bed "pond," listen to insect noises and climbed an ant hill. We are so fortunate to live in place with seemingly limitless resources and Jim and I really enjoy taking her on new adventures.

How you get PhD work done with a
teething baby. Nailed it. 

Sometimes I hold my mom's on the way to
school. Aunt Crystal says my mom should be
thankful they are not panties.

In a strange twist of fate, I would like to give three cheers to sleep!!! We have actually gotten some sleep around our house for the past few days. After I wrecked my bike and lost my mind, I took some notes from a dear friend and from Lucy's school. I decided to patiently, lovingly and calmly take back the night. She fights and fights and fights. She wants to explore the world and sleep keeps her from adventures. But just as I choose what she eats and where she goes to school and what diapers to use, I am also in charge of her basic need for sleep. She has nursed to sleep for the past four or five nights, which is just fine with me (easy, peasey, lemon squeezy) but then wakes up and loses her mind 45 minutes later. At school they watch for sleep signals and then hold her close and rock her until she falls asleep. It isn't full proof, but it often works for her (and allllll of the other babies). So the other night I held her close, rocked her and provided her some boundaries for sleep. She was pissed. She yelled at me, close-eyed, no tear yelling. Until she passed out and slept for five hours, nursed and slept even longer. That night she got a total of 14 hours of sleep with only 3 or 4 nursing sessions. Amen. I have kept up the boundary enforcement and, while I HATE to see and hear her upset, everyone is getting what they need and it is taking less and less time every night.

Sleep means everything. Because we are getting more sleep, Lucy and I rode bike to school EVERY day last week (well, except for Wednesday when she was teething with a fever and needed a rest day). I guess we rode 4 days, but still! Sleep=exercise=health=energy=better mom/wife/student/friend. Lucy looks forward to getting in the bike cart and it is a nice way to get to school. I like that she gets some quiet time in before school and she often falls asleep on the way there or the way home.