Magrilless

Maggie has learned how to whistle. Sort of. Sometimes she gets a good one. Well, it’s a work in progress.

In other news, Maggie is doing lots to make us proud. She recognizes lots of words all over the place now. On a sheet full of names and addresses, she was able to pick hers out right away. In the grocery store she tells me every time she sees the word “Colorado,” and walking in to the library last time, she looked up and said “Hey! That says Durango!” On that library trip, she found two shape sorting puzzles of vehicles. The pictures were definitively different than each other, but she noticed the types of vehicles were the same in each. So she took out and matched the two motorcycles, the two ambulances, the two boats, the two sporty red cars, and so on. And then she put them back in their respective puzzle boards. All without coaching from mom. Way to go kiddo!

And she now can throw a fit. Really. She stands and makes a tossing motion with her arm while emphatically saying “fit! fit!”

Oh, one more Maggie-ism. Tonight, wanting to insult me, cut me to the quick, she called me a dandelion puff. Ouch!

Is there anything cuter than a baby sneezing? This one has especially adorable sneezes; she really says “achoo.” And those little fists come up every time. Tess makes a lot of cute noises: She kind of squeaks while she nurses. Every swallow comes with a little “mmm” and she sighs when taking a break. At night she has this grunt that reminds us of truffle pigs searching for goodness. She has yet to make many actual vocalizations, those “goo”s and “ga”s that just make you bend in close and “talk” back. Spitting up is thankfully a silent affair, since she does that more than anything else.

Tessa is still on a pretty regular 3 hour eating schedule. And nighttime has continued to go well with her asking for only one feeding. But she’s started waking up multiple times and needs lots of help to get back to sleep. She’s generally calm about the whole affair, but still we’re awake. So we’re a bit sleepy over here. But happy to have such a peaceful little girl.

Maggie and I took on a cookie project this week. She helped with the dough; she’s a great roller-outer. Then she helped me sound out everyone’s name and picked the letters out one at a time. She cut out the dough, out the letters on the sheet, and only snitched once! Then she got to pick out the colors for frosting, and we went  to town! Her name definitely turned out the coolest.

Tess continues to sail along peacefully and without complaint. She loves her pacifier, which is so foreign to us parents. But we’re definitely going with it. The one thing we can’t do is let her fall asleep with it in her mouth because when it falls out as she drifts off, she’ll immediately wake up and ask for it back. I do think these pacifiers that we got at the hospital are pretty funny, like there’s a port hole in my baby and you could see through all the way to the other side if it weren’t so dark in there.

Sleeping-wise, Tessa’s doing  awesome for a three-week-old. We try to time it so she eats at 8:30 or 9, so that we’re all asleep by 10. After that she’ll go until at least 12:30 and sometimes as late as 2 before she wakes me up to eat again. Then it’s a little bit dicey; she doesn’t usually go back into a deep sleep. She’ll doze and grunt and kick around until 4-something when it’s time for her next snack. She will sleep much better and longer if I put her on my chest, but then I sleep worse, so I flip-flop about which is the better option.

We still don’t know what color her hair or eyes will be. Her eyes seem like they’re getting darker, but I’m not even sure if it’s genetically possible for her to have anything except blue eyes. And her hair seems rosy in some light, blond in others, and darker in places too. So we’ll just have to be a little patient about those things. One thing is for sure, she’s a spitter-upper. Not only does milk just sort of dribble down her chin (sometimes more dramatically than others), she also will do these lovely projectile spits when she burps. Sitting up, supine, upright; that doesn’t seem to matter. Also midmeal or postmeal doesn’t make a difference. She’s not upset about these incidents, nor do they seem to raise her appetite. And she’s obviously not wasting away. We’ll just have to invest in some more bibs I guess.