Week 11: Smiles Galore

Lexi,

Right now Daddy is putting on your jammies. You just had a bath and rocked out completely naked for a few minutes until your wailing told us you were ready for bedtime. You were so good during your bath tonight; you actually smiled a few times. Sure beats the first few tear-filled baths we gave you! This week you also began sucking furiously on your first. I'm hoping that you don't find your thumb, but it's starting to look inevitable.

On a whim, I took out the jumparoo from storage - it's a bouncy chair that makes noise and flashes lights if you make enough movements. I didn't think you were quite ready for it, but the moment I put you in it and pressed the big blue button, your eyes lit up and you kept yourself entertained for quite a while. For the first few weeks of your existence, you couldn't stand more than three or four minutes at one activity - today, I had you laying on your playmat for a solid hour - you just kept batting away at the big pink bird overhead. I love watching you interact with your environment. This, my love, is the most phenomenal experience of my life.

I'm not sure exactly how child development works, but whatever changes your mind and body have gone through over the past few weeks have resulted in this absolutely incredible kid with whom I love spending time. Not that I didn't love spending time with you before; it's just that now, you respond to me. You look at me, you react to me... and you smile constantly. It doesn't take much to get you to smile, either - all I have to do is say "yeah!" over and over, and your mouth breaks into this heartmelting grin that I just know will eventually break into giggles. I'm anticipating your giggles, because your squeals are the sweetest sounds I've ever heard. I bet you'll be competition with Mariah Carey someday with your vocal range - you have the highest pitched squeals I've ever heard come out of a baby. And I just know when you read this as a teenager, you're going to roll your eyes and say, "Mom? Mariah Carey? Who was that?"

A teenager. It's hard to believe you're going to be a teenager someday. I look into your eyes and I see a big, wide, open road ahead of us. I pray daily that I do the best I can so that you are happy and fulfilled, but I definitely stumble every day along the way. It's definitely a learning process, but I think I'm liking it so far because I'm already looking forward to the possibility of giving you a brother or a sister someday. Not anytime soon, but I think I'm liking this mothering thing.

Let's see how I feel as you gear up for your next big growth spurt.

Lots of love,

Mama