Elephants!

Lorelei loves this song and it's simple animation

teddy bears picnic

random thought

I feel blessed to hve such a happy, talkative little girl.

Right now she is laying on a blanket having some naked time right next to me on the floor, making smacking noises with her lips and sticking her butt up in the air.

I think she's trying to figure out the crawling thing and I'm kinda hoping it doesn't come too soon.

Oh, my ears

Lorelei and I were doing our morning layabout-which by the way does not happen every morning, but she loves it when we do it- she hangs uot with me on my bed and plays with toys, nursing on and off while I alternate between reading and playing with her. I was deep in thought reading a magazine article when I hear her take a deep breath and then SHRIEK. Of course I jump, look right at her and she.... giggles.

Ah... goofy babies. It amazes me the things that amuse her sometimes.

Bliss

There is something so calming about nursing sometimes.

Lorelei has gotten to the age where sometimes she won't settle down to eat and keeps pulling away over and over again. But it makes me cherish the times when she does calm down even more.

When she was first born, for the first few days every time she nursed I would drift off into a nap while she ate. It left me feeling detached from reality, willing to savor those first moments with her, and willing to totally ignore the existence of time in order to keep my sanity. I spent large amounts of my day laying with her cuddled up to me, nursing or simply napping when she finished and had fallen asleep. Even more time was spent with her curled up on my chest sleeping because in the mornings she wanted to continue the cuddles long beyond breakfast and I entertained myself with hours of recorded television and re-reading books.



Now she wants to explore her world and needs to have a change of environment to stay happy so we go out at least once every day. She seems overwhelmed by the stimulation of this world she lives in and hardly ever naps on my chest anymore- she usually has to be put in her room with a white noise machine or taken for a walk around the block to tire her out. At least a few times a day, however, I have my cuddly drifting to sleep baby still. We lay in bed or on the couch half asleep, her little hands totally still for once and I bask in the moment.

Gratuitous Baby Pictures

I love watching Lorelei play around. She rolls around grabbing her feet and blowing bubbles and... you know, doing baby stuff.

One way rolls?

My baby rolls from her back to her front- but only to the left. It makes things more predictable. Lay her on the right side of her blanket so that when she inevitably rolls over onto her tummy she will end up still on the blanket. Wedge a blanket to the left side of her so that she stays on her back and doesn't wake up fussing.

Cuddling her while laying to her left though is funny. She soon decides she wants to roll over and ends up bumping into me over and over again, not seeming to understand why this rolling over thing is just not working for her. Soon she starts fussing and the fun is over.

Faces on the screen

Lorelei likes looking at faces, whether in real life or on the screen. Makes me wonder if she realizes she's looking at herself

peektures

Happy baby


Tasty Hands
Tasty Kitty

Sick baby

is sick. I think she's got my cold, plus is feeling icky from getting shots yesterday.

I got my first barf in my hair when I was trying to cheer her up. Oops... and ewwwww.

Fuzzless Baby

I noticed a few days ago that the peach fuzz on Lorelei's shoulders is going away. I kept meaning ot get a picture of it but not having an opportunity.

My fuzzy little baby is far less fuzzy .. which is sort of sad but inevitable I guess.

growth spurt... completed?

I think the worst of this latest growth spurt may be done with. Today she was a pleasure to be around, hardly fussed at all.... and this morning was practicing her rolling around like crazy. She kept rolling off her blanket and onto the hardwood floor.

Cute but I really had to keep an eye on her. Didn't want her smacking into anything too hard... like chair legs or the hearth.

eating and eating... and eating....

She's been nursing pretty much constantly for the past few days. It is ridiculously draining.... mentally, physically and literally ;). I'm trying to remember that there will be a day when she wants nothing to do with me. I'm trying to live in the moment and enjoy the down time but when she is nursing for an hour solid every 3 hours it's hard. Hard to get anything done. Hard to find time to get food. Hard to keep patient and positive.

She's still a sweetie though, full of smiles and coos even when she's crying for food constantly.

Toe touches

Lorelei can grab her feet now. This started just a few days ago. She seems to favor her left side a lot. Maybe she'll be a leftie like I am. She's started preferring being naked even more now, I think because her diaper can get in the way of her contortions.

Feet!

Little girl started grabbing on to her feet yesterday. She doesn't really do anything with them yet though

Caught on film!

Lorelei's first Back-to-tummy roll over!

She was hanging out on the floor by the couch while I was checking email making happy noises, when the happy noises turned crabby. I looked up and saw her like this:

I sat down on the floor to try to calm her down but she seemed to be concentrating on getting something done while she was wiggling around so I gave it a few minutes. Sure enough she got further and further onto her side.

And then... onto her tummy!

She seemed much happier after that accomplishment, but then decided she was hungry and ate for a long time.. then nap time and she's been asleep over an hour. Must be hard work, all that wiggling.

Peekaboo baby

A few days ago I was sitting near Lorelei while she had naked wiggles time. She loves being naked... and I love her butt getting aired out so she doesn't get diaper rashes as easily.

One of her newest games is playing with her receiving blankets- drape it over her and she gets all excited. This time she draped it over herself.

Then she pulled it back to see where I was


Way too cute :)

Roly Poly

Lorelei rolled over yesterday! I looked away from her hanging out on her quilt, looked back and... oops.. shes cuddling with a chair leg.

She also learned to pull her blanket over her head on her down.... look away, hear wierd noises... look back and shes babbling away under her blanket. There may be pictures once I figure out this camera some more and have time to upload them.

Chewing Baby, non-rolling baby

Lorelei has been drooling and chewing so much that her grandpa thinks teething is close at hand. I don't know if I believe that, but I have been keeping my hands washed more than usual and not using much lotion because she is always trying to chew on my fingers.

She had been rolling over a month or so ago and then stopped. I talked to a midwife, who said that it is common for them to turn over for a while and then stop, due to a "stepping reflex" they have when they are really young- they lose it at around 3 or 4 months. Never would have thought of that until she said it.

Baby Love

I was talking to another mom the other day, and they said "I don't want to wish this away, but I can't wait until my baby..."

That caught my ear, because I had been having similar thoughts myself.

I would be holding Lorelei on the couch, her little warm floppy newborn body sleeping soundly on my chest and thinking "Won't it be neat when she can interact more with me."

As soon as that thought passed I would feel a tinge of regret that all too soon I wouldn't have a little girl who was only calm when I was letting her sleep on my chest.

Those days have already passed. Today if I set her on my chest that was she starts wiggling like crazy. Kicking with her ever stronger legs and lifting her head up, grunting as she exercises her muscles. Eventually she may fall asleep, but these days she prefers the quiet of her crib to the relative loudness of my heart beat and the television I used to keep my sanity sitting there for hours on end.

Today, her favorite things that calm her down are pulling a blanket over her face and then pulling it back off, and her crib mobile. The close runners up are her pacifier, and chewing on her fist.

I look forward to her being able to sit up on her own, but I will miss she way she slumps on my lap and the look of intense concentration she gets trying to hold herself up.