I love the look you give me first thing in the morning when our eyes meet for the first time after a night's slumber. You look at me as if I'm the most incredible person in the world, and the feeling is mutual. Nothing says love more than the glimmer in your sleepy eyes at that exact moment. It is a look I carry in my heart all day long. We have a perfect relationship at that moment every morning. I am full and in need of you, and you are empty and in need of me. No matter what the day brings, we always have that first moment to hang on to.
I can still knock her out after a good snack!
I love the way you hug me, like a tiny monkey clinging to your mother's neck. You wrap those delicate arms around me, and softly stroke my skin with your dainty fingers. You grasp and clutch gently, or sometimes with more force when you are hurting or hungry, but always with the confidence that I am the only one who can fully make you feel secure in this new world you have been born into. The way you melt into me, it's as if we are one person sharing two bodies. I would have it no other way. It is a bond that no one can break and can withstand the greatest of forces upon it. No matter what may come, that bond will always be there.
Rennie helps when I cannot be there every moment.
I love the way you smile and light up from head to toe. No one has a smile like you, and no one can make me smile with my whole heart like you do. That same heart that breaks whenever you cry, and I would do anything to make it all better before a single tear falls from your eyes. Those same eyes that capture your smile that radiates from deep within your soul. You sometimes have a crooked little half smile, and that may be even better than the full one, as it is special and wins your Papa's heart every time.
Greatest smile ever!
A glimmer of that crooked grin.
I love your little toes and feet. I have studied each little wee digit with all their little wrinkles and curves to the point I could pick them out of a line-up. The most adorable part being the little bump along the backside of your big toes at their tips. It is unique to you. It is a feature I cherish as it makes you special to me, like a secret of which we we share the sole knowledge. I also adore the soft arches of your feet and how they sweat when i rub them at night, the way you like to taste your toes as if they are the best tasting snack in the galaxy, and the way you wiggle them in front of your own face, delighted that they are yours and you can control them. You love your toes and feet as much as I do, maybe even more.
Love her feet!
Aren't the scrumptious?!?!
I love your little ears. I love that they have features that are solely yours, such as the flat spot on the curve of the right one, the tuft of hair that one also possesses, and that their inside is shaped like the African continent. I have been calling you African ears since you were born. They continue to get cuter each and every day.
Can you see Africa?
I love your big, blue eyes. You have this remarkable ability to make your eyes as large as saucers as you take in the world around you. Their deep blue pools shine with curiosity, light up when you smile, and express love in the most spectacular of fashions. And the way they look at me, nothing compares to that in the entire universe.
Love those eyes!
Can they get any bigger?
I love your chubby cheeks and pouty lips. From the moment I saw them on your ultrasound, I wanted to kiss them all over. Never have I seen cuter cheeks on a baby. They're so full and round, perfect for pinching. And when they get all heavy after a long day, well there are just no words to describe their cuteness at that point. And those lips, when you pout, never have I seen such a bottom lip poke out and curl up like yours does. That cute little indention in the bottom lip just folds right in half, giving you the pout that could launch a thousand ships. You capture everyone's sympathies with those lips. You know just how to use them to get exactly what you want, especially when combined with your big, blue eyes. Smart girl!
Pouting after her shots.
I love your little poots. Yes, I said poots! Every night you lay beside me and do the same routine...wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, poot. It's the cutest damned thing in the world because you are sound asleep, completely unaware of your nightly emissions. During the day, your poots are now beginning to make you smile. I'm sure a giggle will follow suit in the near future.
Cutie bootie!
Lover her nudie self!
I love the sounds you make when you nurse. It is the sound of pure happiness. Every tiny slurp, gurgle, sigh, and mmmm, is music to my ears. It is a symphony of taste budial (new word!) delights that only a nursing mother can fully appreciate. It has more love in it that a Barry White song, and that's saying a lot!
Never get tired of this view
I love your coos. Since you began sharing your voice, I have yearned to hear even the slightest peep from your pouty lips. Sometimes you are stingy with your words, other times they overflow into a cacophony of delightful a-goos and ooohs and ahhhs. I hang on every word as if it is your first and last, each one more delightful than the one before. I think my heart may just explode the first time you call me mama, although I think I have heard you utter this word as you breast feed sometimes. I also think I have heard an I love you or two, but that may just be me hearing your heart speak.
These are only ten of the things I love about you, but they are not nearly all the things that have captured my heart. Everyday I wake up happier than the day before. Every morning you are the first thing I see, and you are the last thing I hold and kiss before drifting off to sleep. I cannot imagine a world without you now, nor can I remember the one before you arrived. You are why I am here, alive in this world. You are the reason I was born. I cherish you like no other, and now I truly understand what love is all about. I love you in ways unexplainable. I look forward to loving you forever!
Drooling on Nana
Love that face!
Loving on Rennie
More Rennie love
More still
The 11th thing I love about you, your tongue!
I hope everyone has enjoyed my love letter to Piper. It is from the heart and I admittedly teared up while writing it. I know now that a mother's love for her child is a love that is completely different from all other loves in the universe and one that only a mother and child can fully comprehend. How lucky I am to be a mom, it is the greatest joy on the planet!
Now here comes the spiel...
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I have now been trying to write the same entry for almost two weeks. I have finally come to the realization that backtracking will not work and I must simply move forward, starting over instead of trying to figure out where I left off. Needless to say, it's been a hectic couple of weeks adjusting to going back to work, getting Piper's tummy adjusted to a myriad of things (I'll touch on that here in a sec), and getting myself adjusted to being a mom outside the comfort of home. That last one was probably the biggest hurdle, as my tension directly feeds Piper's mood. Once I began to relax in my new role, she soon followed suit.
Such a flirt with those eyes!
I am now going to attempt to catch up on everything I have been meaning to post, but it will be in the most random of fashions. I thought about simply copying and pasting various paragraphs from my other attempted entries, but not even I can handle that much randomness! Instead, I will offer up tidbits in no particular order of importance.
I look drunk with happiness!
First off, Piper has had tummy issues. For anyone who follows us on Facebook, you are most likely well aware of this. At her two-month checkup, the doc determined she did have GERD, just as I had predicted, which is basically acid reflux for babies. They put her on some liquid meds, I could tell you what but the bottle is not here at the office, of which she takes 0.6mL twice a day. That seemed to work wonders on her gassy tummy and her innate ability to spit-up half a boob after every meal. That only turned out to be a part of her fussy issues, however.
When the tummy pains would hit...
Literally a few seconds after they went away!
Along with her general fussiness, I noticed she was eating about every 2 to 2 1/2 hours, which is way too often. A meal every 3 to 4 hours sounds more reasonable for a girl her age. She was also not just wanting to snack, she was ravenous for full-blown meals. After much debating and contemplating, I finally decided (with the helpful suggestions from my parents) to start her on rice cereal a couple meals a day. I began mixing her two ounces of my milk with rice cereal (mixed in a bottle) last Thursday and giving her that at her 10am nursing and her last pm nursing along, with as much boob afterwards as she's wanted. Low and behold, the poor starving child finally began filling up and taking naps again! She had been refusing to take daytime naps not just because her tummy was gassy, but because she was getting too hungry too quick. The little munchkin is growing like a weed, so I'm not surprised the milk wasn't sustaining her long enough to actually get a good nap in. By the way, she was 11 lbs 4 ozs and 22.5" at her 2-month checkup. The girl is growing!!! Now that she has the rice cereal that put some substantial solids into her diet, she is taking her afternoon naps and sleeping more soundly at night. It's literally like having a new baby. I was admittedly being worn down by her continual wakefulness during the daylight hours. Now I can actually get work done at work, like typing this entry (lol), instead of nursing her continuously throughout the day. As a matter of fact, she is sleeping in my office right now. UPDATE: I'm now at home finishing this up as there were issues with Blogger earlier, but I'm not rewriting the damned thing again!
We are all happy when Piper's happy!
It has been her continual wakefulness that has kept me from writing over the past couple of weeks. Couple that with her reflux and crying in pain before that issue was resolved, and going back to work, and you can see why I've been not getting anything remotely blog related accomplished.
Who would believe those sweet little eyes could ever cry!
Okay, now onto her milestones. She has been supporting her own weight on her legs since she came home from the hospital. Now she is doing that without any help at times, and with only the minimal of help, such as leaning up against me, at other times. She also began walking this weekend. Not the unsupported kind, but the kind where I lightly support her under her armpits and she takes 5 or 6 steps towards me. It's like she has discovered what her legs are actually for besides standing and squatting. She did a pile of walking before bath time this evening.
Forgot to mention she also had shots at that check-up, hence sad face here.
I'm pretty shocked at her physical capabilities all the way around. She has been holding her head up for a couple of weeks now, she can sit a few seconds completely unsupported and for quite a long time with very minimal support, she has now started reaching and grabbing things with intention, and she can now roll over from back to front at will. The rolling thing has happened several times, but she usually has to be motivated, such as wanting that antagonistic monkey that hangs in her crib at work! She also likes to grab at her toes, as her foot fetish is a bit on the embarrassing side.
Sleeping in her office swing.
Yes, she has a foot fetish. I know all babies go through a fascination with their feet, but hers is way above and beyond what I've ever encountered, and I worked at a preschool for many years. She loves having her toes in her mouth, and moves her big toe over every surface inside her pie-hole (out term of mouth endearment). She also loves to gnaw on her hands, leading us to think she may already be teething. She not only gnaws at them, she shoves her whole fist in her mouth and then sometimes wiggles her fingers until she gags. She also likes to try and catch her tongue, which she will offer up on demand. I am constantly fetching her tongue, as this is one of the fun games we love to play.
About to have it out with her fist!
Speaking of games, one of her favorites if "kiss-kiss." This games involves someone, usually Nana as she invented the game, saying "kiss-kiss." After saying this you must bring Piper to your mouth, giver her exactly three kisses on the lips, and return her to whatever position she was in previously. This maneuver must repeated three times, and three times only per round. We have been playing this with her since she was born, and for some time now she has been initiating the game when she wants to play. This initiating consists of her opening her mouth real wide, as she loves to give wide-mouthed, wet and sloppy kisses, and leaning into whoever is holding her (or whoever she has her eye on at the moment). She is completely aware of the number of times the action is repeated in one round of the game, so I am assuming she understands the concept of counting to three already. What can I say, she's still a genius!
Kiss me!!!
One more time!
The many faces of kiss-kiss!
As for other games, there are many that we play, but kiss-kiss is by far her favorite. She does, however, also like rocketship baby, earthquake, and pattycake played with the feet (remember her foot fetish!). And I must not forget about the little man. While it is not necessarily a game, it is a favorite thing of hers. The little man is a two-fingered tyrant who loves to tickle and antagonize his victims. My dad has been torturing us all with the little man for forever. Now he has a new victim!
Besides loving her games, she now has an established posse of friends that must travel with her at all costs. We have Jerome the Giraffe, Penelope the Elephant, Lovey the teddy bear security blanket, and Rennie the black-haired little girl security blanket. Rennie is the newest to the group. She was acquired this past Saturday after Piper went shopping with me and behaved for a four-hour stint in public! She loves to yum with both her hands, the soothing rubbing motion she uses to help put herself to sleep, so her teddy bear lovey just wasn't cutting the mustard solo anymore. I found Rennie, who was so named because she looks like my mom as a little girl...pitch black hair in pigtails. My mom's name is not Rennie, but her first name she thinks is so god awful that she came up with this "nickname" in substitute for using the actual name. Btw, my mom goes by her middle name and refuses to let me reveal her first name on such a public site.
Lovey and Rennie and Piper
Besides needing something to yum on when falling asleep, I also have to perform a couple more tricks to get her to settle down at night. Like most young ones, she seems to have a bit of the restless leg syndrome! No, not the real kind, I'm just using it as an analogy. To help her quit squirming all over, I now give her foot massages to calm her legs, and it also satisfies her foot fetish. I also let her rub her feet on her blanket with the satin edge and minky fabric, as this also is a way she likes to yum herself to sleep. She also gets back scratches and head scratches to sooth her restless self. I am probably starting a pattern of complete dependence on these methods, but she loves them all and it is a great bonding time for the both of us. I also, when I get ready for bed, go to sleep holding her hand as it helps me to drift off. I love having her in a co-sleeper crib since it allows me to reach over and have a hand in hers during the night. I will have to write a review blog about the co-sleeper as it is the greatest invention ever!
She loves her Lovey!
A lot more has gone on over the past couple of weeks, but I can choose now to keep typing or stop, drop in some pics, and get this dang entry published before another week goes by and I have to start over again. I'm gonna go with the stopping thing and get this one out there for everyone. Anything else that has occurred can make it into the next entry. In other words, I need to get back to work! Sorry it took so long between my last entries, I'll try not to go so long again between the next ones.
I love her naked!
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