And Baby E Makes Three: April 2011

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Four Months!

Dear Maya,

My butterball. My pork chop. My little spicy meatball. My sweetheart. My love.... I simply cannot believe you are already four months old! Watching you grow each day is pure joy. I dont know how else to put it. It is truly remarkable. You no longer need my help with so many things. You sleep through the night. You spend time playing on your own. You crack yourself up. Each day your personality develops a bit more and I am getting to know the kind of person you are going to be.

You like some toys more than others. You love attention. You are sweet and lovely, you are a ham, you are sometimes temperamental. You have very strong opinions and you let us know your preferences right away. My little munchkin, I should have expected this. Before you were born, you wanted to stay head up. When we brought you home from the hospital, you decided that you wanted to sleep in your crib, not the bassinet. About a week after you turned 3 months old, you decided you were done with nursing and would only drink from your bottle. While the nursing strike hurt my feelings a little, I don’t hold a grudge. I can tell you are going to grow up to be a strong, independent, graceful, intelligent woman. You like things on your terms. You are so very much like your daddy in so many ways. I just hope you let me make some of the decisions along the way.

You are a happy girl, you smile and laugh and babble. You’ve become much more vocal this month. When I talk to you for a few minutes, you start to babble right back at me. We have some very in-depth conversations. You shriek with joy when Daddy makes silly faces at you and crack up when he tickles you. You will smile back at pretty much any happy face. I think you're beginning to recognize your name and you recognize mommy and daddy.

I’ve returned to work and you have transitioned beautifully. You have so much fun at home with daddy and you love him very much. You go on long walks together, you play and read books. I don’t know who is enjoying these days more- you or him.

You’ve been going to daycare twice a week, and you seem to love all the action, friends and toys. It’s great to have you a block from my office, I love visiting you in the afternoon. You seem to like the fish tank and other babies there. All of the teachers say you are a wonderful and happy baby… and you are! You look up at me when I walk in the door and you give a big gummy grin- it’s very cute.

You are a total ham in front of the camera. You smile for the flash but you still haven’t decided whether or not you like the video camera. It seems to fascinate and confuse you. The other day we played peek-a-boo for the camera, it was so much fun!

You are getting stronger and you move a lot. While you can’t quite roll over yet, you can turn from your back onto your side. You do this to wiggle and shimmy across your play mat. I think this is how you move around in your crib at night. When I get you in the morning, it’s always fun to see where you’ve ended up.

Your depth perception is developing nicely. You’ve started to grab toys and you are learning more about how toys work. You like the sound your rattle makes and the song your exersaucer makes. You also grab my hair a lot… and boy do you hold on tightly!

You’ve started to like your pacifier much more- it seems to soothe you to sleep. Still, you continue to suck your fingers all day long. Your favorites are your pointer and middle fingers, but really any one will do. It's getting hard to take a picture of you without your hands in your mouth. We have an exersaucer and a swing and toys and books and puppets- yet your hands remain your favorite activity.

We watched the Royal Wedding together. You sat in your bumbo and watched the whole ceremony. I think you want to be a princess when you grow up. You are my little princess, my beautiful little girl. Your skin is so smooth and fair, it looks like porcelain its so perfect. And your deep blue eyes are so round and warm. You always have this wide-eyed look as though everything in the world is interesting.

You celebrated several 'first' holidays this month. You had your first Passover Seder and thanks to you I got to experience my first Mother's Day. We had a fantastic day; you made a card for me, we sang songs, we went for a walk and we went out to dinner.

Thank you for making us a family. Thank you for stealing my heart. Thank you for your nuzzles and sighs as we rock to sleep in your quiet dark room. Thank you for your smiles and giggles. What a wonderful, wild ride this motherhood thing is. I love being your mom.

Love,
Mommy

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Maya 'talks' to her elephants

This morning I took a video of Maya having a little chat with the elephants on her wall. We also talked fashion.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Three Months!

Dear Maya,

My Little Cuddlebug, My Smile Machine, My Stinkopotamus. My Stinkosaurus Rex. You are no longer a newborn. These last few weeks have been a wonderful ride of new experiences, discovery and development.

You take after your daddy in so many ways, but especially in that you love your beauty rest. Technically you are “sleeping through the night” which is remaining asleep for five or six hours at a stretch. But actually you are doing much better than that- you will snooze for eight or more hours at a stretch. You go to bed around 8PM and on a good night can make it to 6:30AM- but sometimes you still get up at 4-something for a snack and then go back to bed until 8. Naps, however, are still a work-in-progress. You get tired after a few hours of playing but when I try to put you down for a siesta, you fight it and then become so overtired you thrash and wail and scream until you finally pass out from exhaustion in my arms. Recently when I put you in your crib for a nap, you stay down just long enough for me to begin something like pay a hospital bill or begin to pump..and then you are all “Psych! I’m not sleeping Mommy! Come get meeeeeee.” Le sigh. Saturday mornings are the best. I look forward to them all week. We snuggle and play and laugh in bed together.

Your meltdowns are rare, most of the time you are a smile machine. You smile at the cute baby in the mirror, to friends and family… but you save the best smiles for daddy and me. You are a very social girl, and you love being held no matter who is holding you; but you are also beginning to sort out who's who in life, and you definitely prefer your mommy or daddy to others. You save your sweetest smiles and those rare giggles just for us.

It’s a good thing you love bath time because boy do you need it these days! Between your monster poop blowouts and your sour milk spit-ups, you are one stinky little cutiepie. No diaper can contain the wrath of your little tushie. This seems to crack you up. We go through several costume changes a day. Daddy often comes home to find you in some sort of mismatched getup because I've decided that three is my limit for cute outfits I'm willing to put you in each day. After that... you get whatever I can find that fits.

You have discovered your tongue and your hand this month. You love to stick out your tongue and lick things; your shirt, your car seat harness, all of your blankets... they cannot escape your mouth and I have about a zillion pictures of that milk-covered tongue. Soon after your tongue discovery, you stumbled upon your hands. How fun! You love to slurp and suck on them, even getting that thumb into your mouth once in a while, but mostly you prefer to suck and lick the back of your hand. Sometimes you try to fit both fists into your mouth at the same time. You can never do it but you try all the time.

You have been all over the place this month! You had your first ride on Metro to visit daddy’s office where everyone was super excited to meet you! You also went to mommy’s office and visited the White House. You’ve been out to lunch with your buddies, Josh and Ryan. You have been to the shopping mall for your first Bloomingdale’s experience and the National Mall with your pal Abel to see the spring Cherry Blossoms.

white house

Cherry Blossoms

Your biggest trip by far was your first plane ride to Florida! You visited with Oma Ruth and Opa Paul, Great Grandma Sara and Great Grandpa Joe as well as Great Grandma Rona and Pappa Don. Boy are you a lucky girl to be loved by so many people! You went into the pool and went to temple and met tons of people – and smiled the whole time!

first flight

first time in the pool

You are a great eater. Almost too good, sometimes as I feel like I can’t keep up with your ever-growing appetite. You gulp down 5 ounces and get absolutely furious when I pause halfway through to burp you. You have developed a very strong preference for the bottle, which is great for when you start daycare next week. You are getting these delicious pulkies- I kiss them every day.

You and Jerry are starting to interact a bit. We help you 'pet' him and he doesn't leave the room every single time you cry now. Slowly we are making progress towards actually acknowledging each other. so far, this is the closest we have gotten:

Maya: Can you believe how many pictures my mommy takes?
Jerry: Yeah, it's unreal
Maya: And the poses she puts us in... it's ridiculous!
Jerry: Get used to it kid

Going back to work is going to be a lot harder than I had ever imagined. I do look forward to putting on real clothes and having conversations where someone can actually reply to me, but oh man I am going to miss our mornings together. I am savoring our last playdates in bed where I hold you, talk to you, feed you, nuzzle with you, tell you how lucky I am to have you.

I am also enjoying our afternoon walks which have been getting warmer and brighter. You are getting heavier every day and beginning to react to the warm breezes on your face and the birds chirping around you. I am trying to capture every moment of your discovering the world, your first time touching a flower and the first time you felt the warm Florida sun on your face. I so love rediscovering all these thing with you. Watching you take it all in, the new textures and sounds and smells are amazing.

What will you discover next month? What adventures will we have? What will daddy daycare be like? Last week, daddy put you in all kinds of silly hats and took pictures. You loved it! I'm sure you will have a ball with him all week!

I go back to work today. I know you are in amazing hands and that you will be so happy with Daddy, but I am so going to miss your sweet smiles and giggles and cuddles and your sour milk smell. I can't wait to come home and cover you with kisses and hear all about your day.