Two Months of Baby Claire!

And what a two months it has been!

Mr. Grinch and I are in love, you can't stop this!

We can do all sorts of new and wonderful things! Claire has been working hard on her tummy time and she can raise up her head quite well.  We like to hold her so her tummy is on our chest and she can lift her head and look around.  She's way more in to that than traditional tummy time, but she gets both. 

This is pretty much the norm on the head holding these days.  "Mom, now I can see the world!"

Along with tummy time head raising skills, Claire has also been working on her rolling over skills!  She can now roll from her tummy to her back--sometimes she doesn't WANT to, but it happens anyway.  She's got a lot of momentum when she gets going.  She seemed very surprised the first time she rolled over.  Well, I was too!  I knew it was possible that she could soon start to roll, but she lifted up, wobbled, and wha-bam!  She was on her back.  I thought it was an accident, but I realize that all these milestones kind of start out as happy accidents. 

Claire showing off rolling skills.  She didn't make it all the way, she gets stuck pretty much after I take this picture when she gets on her side.  That's okay though, it's hard to perform in front of a camera. 

Claire makes happy social noises.  Another milestone I didn't understand.  When the books says she'll verbalize, I doing know what I'm expecting, but I certainly wasn't expecting the squawks and squeals that she puts out.  Some of them sound like she's yelling "who" and "hay" which is fun.  She still acts surprised if she really gets something good out, like it startles her.  Even more so when we quickly mimic her back.

Oh Hai...

She's growing more aware of everything around her.  She notices toys, especially her new tummy time toy, which she's kind of even figured out if she can hit it, it'll light up and make noise.  She reminds me of my psych days when we'd learn about rats learning how to work levers based on reward.  She sticks with it only one or two times before she gets distracted, but her attention to it seems very intentional. 

The sun makes noise.  You can't tell, because you can't hear it, but that's what she's looking at.  She knows.

She started daycare on her 2 month birthday.  I was worried it would be a disaster, and I was worried I'd be a mess.  Now, I won't say that I don't really really miss her, because I absolutely do.  But it IS nice giving her more structure than I'm able to provide at home.  Or that I could figure out how to provide at home.  Another great thing that has come with me going back to work?  A SET bedtime.  Claire, for her New Years resolution, vowed to sleep in her big girl bed, instead of the crib in our room.  Of course, she couldn't verbalize that, but I knew that's what she wanted.  And she's doing it!  Last night, thank our lucky stars, she slept the entire night.  We woke up to the alarm... not a baby!  I'm so amazed by her.  She loves routine.  Tonight we gave her a bath, swaddled her, and turned off her lights.  She just shut her eyes and went to sleep!  How did that happen!?  I'm proud of her.  What a trooper.

Claire is still fitting in her newborn outfits, but they're finally getting tight (and I don't care for the unisex sleepers we have anyway, so no loss there).  Her 0-3 outfits still fit just fine.  I have had to resize her Fuzzibunz diapers already (of course, I had them on the XS setting, so no shock there).  She's also eating 4 to 5 ounces at every feeding.  Because of her spitting up issues, 5 ounces sometimes turns into a disaster... so we've tried giving her 4 and then follow up with another ounce a little while later.  She does seem more satisfied if she can get 5 down and stay down.  We've stopped giving her the heartburn medicine, as she's no longer having that discomfort.  We also discovered Gripe Water (glorious) but we don't give that to her anymore either!  Her fussiness has really gone away.  She is more fussy in the evenings, but that's normal for her age.  And at least with her new and improved bed time, we can have a little private adult time before OUR bedtime WITHOUT the crying. 

One thing is certain--we are in LOVE with our little girl.  Every day she amazes us and makes us smile.  She's such a happy, lovey dovey baby.  She loves watching me eat breakfast, and my poor Raisin Bran goes soggy because I spend too much time smiling and making faces and entertaining her.  If the girl could laugh she would.  She loves things that make her almost laugh--blowing on her belly, playing peek-a-boo... she doesn't quite laugh, but she makes noises to go along with her delight, which is fun.  She's also quite the hand sucker, but since her mommy was an avid thumb sucker (so much so, I still remember quitting), that's not a shock, either.

I can't wait to see what this month brings!  So many big girl steps yet to come!