A few quick updates on little L.
She’s actually not so little anymore. All of a sudden she’s looking big to us. Part of it is because, well, she is getting big like a healthy baby should. But I think some of it is because she’s moved into that second phase of infantdom where she actually keeps her eyes open and interacts a bit. When the personality begins to present itself, they just suddenly seem a lot bigger.
As should happen with a girl who is growing, she’s been sleeping better at night. We’ve been getting one six hour stretch from her more nights than not. Often that stretch is from 9:00 PM to 3:00 AM, of course, so we miss out on some of the benefits. But it is progress. A downside to that is she often wants to play at 3:00 AM, or whenever you go to feed her. Some nights I’ll find myself drifting off only to hear her grunting and whooing at me so we can continue our conversation. She’s also taken a few long naps in her crib during the day.
She has become quite the conversationalist since Christmas. When she locks in on your eyes, she grins and waits for you to kick things off. Once you start talking to her, though, she’s not afraid to jump in and share her own thoughts. And if you look away for a moment, say to scold one of her big sisters for tormenting the other big sister, she’ll protest and insist that you focus on her.
It turns out she’s very ticklish. Barely tickle her belly and she scrunches up, rolls her head around, and grunts. She loves to have her chin tickled as well.
Like her sisters before her, she has excellent head control. She’s reached the point where you can just carry her around with one arm around her body and she’ll do the rest. Of course, you do have to be careful because every so often she either gets tired or loses her balance and suddenly her upper body is tilted 45 degrees away from you, her head lolling way back. But I like how she just chills against me like a baby Koala, secure that I have her and taking in all the sights. Again, there is a downside. With head control comes the ability to whip it around unexpectedly. S. and I have both been conked in the nose, cheeks, and mouth when we get too close and she throws that thing the opposite direction before we can move.
Her final development (at least that I can think of now), is her allowing us to put her down for longer stretches. All our babies have been lucky to have at least one and often two parents around all of the time, so they’ve all been lap babies. And each of them have preferred to be on us at all times, rather than in their cribs, in the bouncy seat, and so on. One day last week I think I had an hour-long stretch where I rotated her from watching her mobile in her crib, to her bouncy seat, to her play mat, to her swing. In about a month, we’ll bust out the exersaucer and really start having some fun.