But for now, we still do have a sweet squishy baby in the house. Em is just a delightful baby. Not as squishy as E was but still extremely huggable, kissable, cuddle-able. She's an excellent sleeper, which is great except that I don't get a lot of late night rocking the baby to sleep nights. I just put her down at bedtime and in a few minutes she's out till morning. Boring.
She eats anything and loves it. I was watching her devour rice, broccoli cheese chicken stuff, watermelon-lime-mint salad, dewberries, sweet potato fries, and some of her brother's hot dog and I was struck (not for the first time) with how she closes her eyes dreamily as she takes each bite. Mr Leaven reminded me that I could capture it with a photo. Every time I look at the pic I laugh. Pure bliss.
She hasn't quite started crawling yet but she's getting around in her own way, dragging her little torso, pulling herself forward, spinning, crawling backwards, Jedi mind tricks. She got halfway out the dog door today, despite not being able to crawl. She often pulls herself up almost to a stand and can raise herself to sitting and even crouching from the ground. She loves to stand with her hands on your shoulders and is fairly steady without support.
No words yet, though there's lots and lots of babbling. Adult conversation inevitably makes her babble. Loudly.
She is fascinated by her big brother. Whenever they are in the room together her eyes are on him. He is definitely in a 'mine' phase, so she ends up losing a lot of toys to big proprietary brother, but she lets them go graciously. He does occasionally throw her a bone, if you will, bringing her a pacifier or toy or piec of bacon (or, only once so far, a literal bone from the dogs' toy box).
Her hair is coming in pretty dark, possibly with a hint of red but I think that might just be a hallucination. She has 6 teeth, 4 on top and 2 on bottom. She's long and thin, though she still has those pre-walking thunder thighs.
Her favorite toys are her brother's cars and trucks. She doesn't seem to care for baby toys or stuffed animals so she gets to share E's huge assortment of buses, trains, cars and also the puzzle pieces she enjoys nibbling upon.
She's a very active little lady. It's not unusual for her to arch her back and squirm like crazy till you basically drop her on the floor. She's as independent as her brother was/is, only wanting to play with a toy or eat a particular food if she can pick it up herself. She loves pulling herself up to your face the grabbing your nose, hair, ear, that really tender area just below your eye... Her nails (aka talons) need clipping once a week or you can lose chunks of skin to her exploration.
The more I describe her, the more I understand what a little adorable spitfire she is. I love her to the moon and back and am so very proud to call her my daughter.
