Carolyn

Slow Down!

Sarah Growing Up

Dear Carolyn,

This morning I put away your 0-3 month clothes. You won’t be 3 months old for another three weeks, but they were getting too small – especially length-wise. I’m very sad, because I loved your pink puppy outfit, your flower-power outfit, and your ducky pajamas. You do have some awfully cute 3-6 month clothes, though. And you have a lot of them! I think, once we do the laundry tonight, that you might have more outfits than Daddy and I have together…

The other thing that happened today was that you somehow managed to put your binky in your mouth all by yourself. I put you in your crib so I could take care of a couple of things, and I know you didn’t have your binky when I left because you were smiling at me. I came back, and you were happily sucking away at it. How did you do it?!? You’re barely grabbing at things, and I’ve never seen you put anything in your mouth on purpose yet – except maybe your hands.

You’re growing much too fast, baby girl…

Love, Mommy

Christmas Wrap-Up

Sarah Carolyn

Santa was very, very good to Carolyn. Although right now it looks like he actually came and trashed our house rather than leaving presents, but that’s only because there are new toys and clothes covering every square inch of the living room floor. She has enough 3-6 month sized clothes now to wear a new outfit every day for at least a month, I think. And we – oh, wait, I mean, Carolyn – got some really cool new toys and books.

I’m really glad I wrapped her presents, because even though she couldn’t unwrap things herself, she was really interested in the colorful, crinkling paper, and was all smiles while we opened things up for her.

Handy Discovery

Sarah Carolyn

Carolyn has just recently discovered her hands, and this morning she was on the changing table and she held up her hand in front of her face, turned it from side to side, and got this surprised look on her face that clearly said “Wow. That is so cool!” Have I ever mentioned how cute she is?

Two Months Old!

Sarah Monthly Updates

Dear Carolyn,

Today you turned two months old. Not only that, but it’s your Grandma’s birthday, and it’s Christmas Eve, so today is an extra-special day. Later today we’re going to Great-Grandma’s house to celebrate.

You’ve changed so much in the past month. The pictures we took this morning don’t look that much different from when you turned one month old, but there have been so many changes. For one thing, you’re filling out your clothes more – we’re almost ready to retire some of your 0-3 month outfits, even though they’re my favorites. You’ve grown three whole inches and gained four pounds since you were born!

You can hold your head up for the most part – it’s still a little wobbly, but you have pretty good control of that noggin of yours. When we lay you on your tummy, you can raise your head and chest up off the floor, and you’re starting to move your legs as though you’re trying to crawl. You may have rolled over (but you haven’t done it since, so I really think it was an accident) the other day. Oh, and when I pull you up by your hands to a sitting position you can keep your head steady. Sometimes you even try to pull yourself up when holding my hands. You get pretty frustrated that you aren’t a mobile baby yet, but you’re working really hard at it, and you’ll get there before any of us are ready!

You’ve also become an incredibly social baby. We have long conversations using only the words “ah-goo”, “la”, and “ah-hah”. When you’re happy, you screech so high that I’m afraid you’re going to break glass one of these days. You smile at everyone, especially when they tell you how cute you are. Daddy and I always get the best smiles, though – the ones where your whole face crinkles up and even your arms and legs get into the act.

Just in the past few days, you seem to have discovered your hands. They must be extra-tasty baby hands, because you suck on them all the time. A side benefit of having made this fabulous discovery is that you can now grab at things on purpose. (Nothing is safe anymore…)

You’re still regularly sleeping about 6 hours at night, with a three-hour stretch after that. That’s about the only thing that’s stayed the same since last month. You’re changing so much every day I can hardly keep up! Sometimes I just watch you sleeping, and I can almost see you growing while I watch…

Love, Mommy

Sniffle

Sarah Firsts

Dear Carolyn,

You’ve got your first cold – we think you caught Daddy’s cold. It’s been a rough couple of nights, since you can’t get to sleep without your binky, but you can’t breathe well with it. You seem to be bright and cheerful this morning, though, despite not sleeping much last night, so we’re going to go see Santa in a little while.

I also think you may have rolled over for the first time on Sunday. It’s hard to say – you weren’t on a level surface, so it may have just been an accident. It was also from your back to your front, which isn’t quite the way babies are supposed to do things. Then again, you don’t seem to do anything the way you’re “supposed” to.

Anyway, I hope you feel better tonight, if for no other reason than I don’t think I can take a third night where I only manage to get 4 or 5 random hours of sleep! (Well, that and it makes me sad to hear you sniffle so much.)

Love, Mommy

Baby, It’s Cold Outside!

Sarah Carolyn

We were going to head home today, but with the well-below-freezing temperatures we decided it would be better to stay until tomorrow when it will be a teeny bit (just around freezing) warmer. Besides, this gave Carolyn (and us) a free day with no parties to attend, no where to drive to, and no interruptions in normal napping and eating schedules.

…Considering the amount of napping she’s done today, though, she’s either really worn out from the weekend or we’re in for a very wakeful night…

So far today I’ve finished reading a book (Dune, Messiah) and knitting a baby sock. I was going to start playing Myst IV, but that could be a dangerous thing to do when there’s Christmas wrapping, decorating and baking to be done when we get home. After all that’s done, I’ll start it. (Denis bought it for me the weekend after Carolyn was born, and I haven’t had an opportunity to play it yet!)

I’ve done all the packing I can do before morning, including doing the laundry – what a nice change to be coming home with bags of clean clothes instead of dirty! I don’t have much to do except start the second baby sock tonight. With any luck, I’ll be able to get it done by the time we get home!

2 month well-baby visit

Sarah Growing Up

Vital stats:
7 weeks, 2 days old
10 lbs. 9 oz.
22.5″ tall

Today Carolyn got her first round of shots. The look on her face and the screams that followed were heartbreaking. She’s still quite grumpy about them, too. She’s been sleeping all afternoon and evening; I have a feeling we’re in for a long night!

Other than that, she’s right on target with weight gain and length: she’s in the 50th percentile for both. I would have sworn she was over 11 pounds, close to 12 maybe, but she’s still a little peanut. This doesn’t change the fact that she’s starting to outgrow her 0-3 month clothes. I’d say another couple of weeks and we’ll have to start rotating in the 3-6 month sizes. We’ll see, though – maybe she will manage to wear them a bit longer.

We don’t have to go back until the end of February, when she’ll have more shots – oh, goody…

Oh, (Photo) Shoot!

Sarah Carolyn

In the past two days I’ve taken over 100 pictures of Carolyn and the dogs. (Digital cameras are a wonderful thing!) I needed good pictures for the Christmas cards, and we’re giving some of our family members a picture of Carolyn as part of their gift.

This is the picture I’m using for the gift photo:

What do you think, should I become a freelance photographer? Just kidding…it took about 40 shots to get this one, and then I had to fix up the color balance in photoshop when I was done. Apparently pink and lavender are hard for the camera sensor to deal with…which is too bad, since all of her clothes are pink and lavender!

I’ll post the Christmas photos after I’m sure most people have gotten the card. Those came out really well, too. The dogs weren’t so cooperative for the first try, when Denis was helping me. In fact, we really didn’t get one good picture out of that, so I did it on my own this morning. Both dogs. In the living room, where they don’t get to go normally. With silly hats. They were remarkably well-behaved and I got a few workable pictures. Here are a few out-takes from the first time. Molly is much better at posing for pictures than Murphy is…

First Concert

Sarah Firsts

Last night Carolyn went to her first Christmas concert. It was very odd for me to be in the audience instead of the band – although I did get to hear how we sound to everyone else. (That would be good, but loud. The mall is probably not the best venue for a band concert…)

I figured it was appropriate to dress her in one of her Christmas outfits. These will probably be her pajamas on Christmas Eve – I already had a dressy outfit and another backup playsuit-type-thing, but this was too cute to pass up at Target.

The one part you don’t see is the headband I went back to buy so I wouldn’t have to answer the “girl or boy?” question so many times…

Turning Circles

Sarah Carolyn

Dear Carolyn,

You did the cutest thing last night. I was getting ready for bed, and I put you in your cradle and wound up your mobile. For the first time, instead of looking at the white arm that connects the mobile to your cradle, you looked up. You didn’t just follow the animals with your eyes, you rolled your whole head around to look at each one. (You seem to be partial to the pink kitty – the doggies may never forgive you…) When the music stopped, you looked at the mobile, and looked at me, and the message was clear: “Make them go again, Mommy!” So I wound it back up and you watched them all over again.

Oh, and you did another wonderful thing last night, too. You slept from 10:30 to 5:00. I think you might have even gone longer than that, but I’ll admit to encouraging you to wake up at that point, because I really needed to nurse you. Sorry. Can we try for that again tonight? I’d really appreciate it!

Love, Mommy