Anatomy of a happy baby

Elise just loves to explore new
places. So why not this one?

Sometimes it seems as though raising a baby happens through a series of "ifs." That may sound like:

"If the baby would sleep through the night, we'd all be happier."

"If the baby would eat more protein, she'd sleep through the night."

"If the baby would've slept better, she wouldn't be nearly so fussy."

"If the baby would just play with her fuzzy octopus toy a little longer, I could get everything I need at the store."

"If the baby would keep the adorable hat on her head, I could get the cutest picture!"

"If the baby would just hold still and not try to sit up throug the duration of her diaper change, it would be over that much quicker."

"If the baby could hold a snack cup in her hand and eat out of it, our impending 13-hour drive won't stretch into a 30-hour drive."

A baby in a tutu suit with a pool all
to herself (for 2 minutes, anyway).
Life is good.

And so forth. It's a lot of pressure to be a baby, but fortunately, Elise seems oblivious to the fact. She also doesn't know that all of our "ifs" are for the high-minded goal of a happy baby, or a happy family. Or both.

Elise has been from the beginning a quite happy baby, when she's well-rested and well-fed and not falling down from one adventure or another, that is. Nevertheless, we often have our "ifs," usually in the theme of sleeping, because that really does effect everything else.

Except for a few days ago--possibly the most perfect two days I've ever spent with a baby (no offense, Kalina). After a two-hour morning nap, Elise emerged not only happy, but chronically thrilled for the next 48 hours. As parents, we could do no wrong: every toy we showed her was deemed incredible, every game was ingenious and simply making eye contact garnered chortles of glee. Even when we left the room to throw in a load of laundry (tough to pull ourselves away, considering how magnetic Elise was), the baby patiently entertained herself until we returned, and held no grudge against us for our momentary absence. We were all on cloud nine.

Celebrating Grandpa's
birthday! Blurry because
this baby is always on the
move.

I'll admit that I thought it would never end. In the playgroup circles, anything difficult about our kids is considered "just a phase," while only the best behavior reflects their true, cherubic personalities. Based on this explanation, Elise had simply come through whatever "tough time" she had been negotiating and could now be her sweet, bubbly, ecstatic self.

For two days, and then it was back to business as usual, which, fortunately, generally means dealing with a baby who only cries for diaper changes, food, missing toys and the want of sleep.

But since I've experienced the joys of "baby nirvana," I thought I'd clue you all in on what a delight a happy baby can be, from head to toe:

Hair: Soft and slightly tousled from sleeping on it wet. It's cutest this way, and so is included in our "happy baby" sketch.

Eyes: Bright and smiling and locked with yours. Alternatively, studious as the baby carefully examines a sparkly ball, a plastic giraffe or even a single wooden block--happy babies really are content with anything.

Nose: Button-like and dry.

Mouth: Smiling. Giggling. Stuffed with toy. Blowing raspberries. Repeat.

Arms: Waving frantically up and down with excitement. At you.

Tummy: Round and full and tickly.

Thighs: Squishy.

Legs: Kicking approval at being picked up, or working on mobility.

Toes: Cute and bare.

Now, please remind me of this post next time I fret about Elise's sleep habits (which are slowly improving now that we've officially given up!) or her random strong attachments to forbidden objects (like lamps or batteries).

What Elise has been up to:

Elise continues to enjoy to explore the world, and loves to try out new places. She enjoys meeting new people, and especially "daddies," for some reason. The baby can make a wide variety of new sounds, mostly clicks and pops and gurgles, and isn't quite as quick to put things in her mouth as she once was. Elise still eats voraciously, devouring fruit and tolerating the occasional other food item. In my opinion, however, she's a bit picky considering her gigantic appetite. "I want to be composed entirely of fruit," she seems to say. Sleep is a bit better, and we're generally down to one feeding a night without any trying, as Elise catches on to any of our soothing techniques far too soon for them to be of any use. More about that in another post, no doubt. This baby certainly has an opinion, and is not quick to back down. Her saving grace is that she's also a quick learner and can get the hang of things like, "no, I may not take this half-full bottle to bed, nor can I bring a shoelace or a noisy egg shaker toy" rather easily--even willingly giving them up when I hand her her teddy bear.

Elise can now:

-Get into a standing position from the floor and stand up straight even while flipping through a board book. She was never a "now I'm holding onto the couch and now I'm not" freestander, she preferred the "surfboard" style of working on her balance from the ground up. And she's great at it, by the way.

-Crawl up onto Kalina's stepstool and stand up at the sink. (Instant heart attach the one, and only one, time I found her this way--fortunately I was only two feet away, having only turned my back for a second.) Also, climb onto Kalina's picnic table. Yikes.

-Shovel half a chopped-up banana into her mouth in less than the amount of time it takes me to find the Cheerios box.

-Take a few steps, holding onto my hands, when super-motivated (has only happened once).

-Get complete strangers to stop in their tracks, smile and talk baby talk to her several times in one grocery store trip. She can also, apparently, apprehend a purse clasp from one such stranger and stuff it into her mouth without anyone knowing, sucking on it until Mommy finally sees it and removes it later in the car. Or at least, that's my best guess at what happened. Could've also been from the checkout lane.

-Pay attention to short books.

What a happy baby!

Fun with Elise

Elise is such a happy and content baby. She's also cute, smart and resourceful. We've been over this. However, the problem with having a happy and content baby is that it's all too easy to leave the baby on any safe surface, walk out of the room, cajole the toddler into a better mood, clean up a little mess the toddler made, clean up a little mess you made, feed the ravenously hungry cat, wash up breakfast dishes and transfer some of yesterday's laundry into the dryer since it's been sitting there almost 24 hours, for heaven's sake, before realizing that your second child might need a change of scenery.

Fortunately, the above situation has never happened, but occasionally things trend a little bit too far in that direction for my comfort level. Babies should be cuddled and bounced, not left to their own devices, whether they seem to mind it or not!

We've tried lots of ways to get Elise into the action a little more. We'll move her from playmat, to swing, to exersaucer depending on which room we're in. We'll scoop her up to join in on storytime or dinnertime for as long as her baby squirminess will allow (oftentimes Elise really does prefer her playmat). We'll carry her around during household tasks. And even if we're rushing around putting out fires for an entire morning, we'll stop every time we pass the baby to at least say hi and tickle her tummy a bit. But the funny (and, admittedly, wonderful) thing about Elise is that she's quite happy and content no matter where she finds herself. All the more reason she deserves to be cuddled.

For this reason, Matt and I both consider it a treat to get to spend quality one-on-one time with little Elise. And I'm pretty sure our happy, content little 4 1/2-month-old would agree.

Matt and I each have our favorite activities with the baby. Matt enjoys storytime (from "The Curious Little Kitten" to "The Greatest Hunting Stories Ever Told") and carrying her in the Baby Bjorn. And I like dangling toys in front of Elise to help her practice rolling (she can now roll back to front, but is not getting the hang of front to back at all) and making her laugh.

Even Kalina has fun with Elise. Too grown up for tickling games herself (or so she would have us believe), she loves making Elise the target of any antics of Daddy's. "Do it to Elise again!" she screams ecstatically after Daddy tickles Elise. "Not Kalina!" We're just glad she's not jealous.

One of Elise's all-time favorite activities, as I've recently discovered, is what I call "blanket time." When I was still pregnant, I decided Elise needed a super-soft blanket as a present from her mommy. As it turns out, she really does. Before each of her baths, I place an undressed, undiapered Elise on the blanket, and she squirms and wriggles to her heart's content. Despite the fact that I get squeals of delight right from the beginning, I soon found their true emotion is almost impossible to capture on film. I had a little more luck when we were playing with her teddy bear (see above photos).

Another new activity for Elise is the exersaucer. While Kalina enjoyed the idea of standing up when she used her exersaucer, I think Elise, in her week or two of wobbly employment of the toy, has already gotten more out of it than her older sister ever did. The baby is so busy in there we hate to take her out of it--but we do. After all, who can resist such a happy baby?

A baby around the house

When I was pregnant with Elise, I wondered how I could possibly love another child as much as Kalina. (I'm told this feeling is common, which is why I can admit it publicly for poor Elise to read decades from now.)

The minute Elise was born, I knew. And yet, sometimes with babies there's the tough love of "Oh look, I haven't set you down once the entire day, I must really love you!" and sometimes there's the more enjoyable (admittedly) love of "Oh, cute, you were somewhat upset and now you're smiling simply because I'm singing 'You are my sunshine!'" Elise is the second type, and it's so nice.

[Okay, so, yes, Kalina was sometimes more the first type, but she's just a lovely toddler!]

And what a little sunshine Elise is! She prefers smiling to crying and has even been getting in some good laughs--most recently at any of her sister's antics (more on that in another post). None, however, have been caught on video, true to typcial baby form.

On her playmat, Elise has been known to bat at her toys over and over, so for the span of a couple minutes we'll hear the bell on her star toy ring or the jostling of her rattle.

Not only has Elise found her hands, but she's learning about them with gusto--and possibly even starting to suck her thumb. Once last week she seemed to have noticed her feet, maybe because they were clad in just the cutest little soft pink socks.

Elise is also beginning to learn to sit up--I'd noticed her straining a lot and, with my tired mommy brain, finally realized a few days later that she'd prefer an upright position, please. No problem.

And Elise occasionally graces all of us with squeals and coos. She's just a happy little girl, not to mention adorable.

In fact (and without mentioning any prior baby, who was sweet and precious and wonderful despite her sometimes overwhelming baby neediness), I'm a bit surprised to see how much I'm enjoying having a baby around the house. Especially one who loves nothing more than big, loud mommy kisses on her soft, squishy cheeks--a guaranteed smile.

Yes, Elise does have a few distinct preferences, though. She seems to be taking issue with her carseat. Is it uncomfortable? We're not sure, but I became almost panicked the other day when she was crying in it with her new "loud cry then quiet then loud cry again" routine. You'd think I'd be a veteren with baby crying, but I actually freaked a little, thinking something must actually be wrong. After a thorough search, we both decided that a pacifier would solve the problem.

And there's the fact that Elise doesn't like going down stairs quickly. No, she's not walking--but if we go down them too quickly while holding her she tenses up and strains. Weird.

But in general, Elise isn't really all that much work, most days, anyway. Yes, we have the occasional day when all I do is run up and down the stairs trying to wield a pacifier in such a way that the baby will take a decent nap. But other than that, Elise is actually more of what Matt and I had wistfully called a "houseplant baby" during a prior child's most challenging/loud months. With Elise, as long as she's fed, changed, not tired, burped and comfortable, with an occasional change of view, she's good. We could almost forget about her for five minutes at a time (not that anyone possibly could forget anyone so cute!). Just like a houseplant.

Unlike a houseplant, however, the girl is already remarkable smart. A few weeks ago, I noticed that Elise stopped grunting (yes, grunting--she doesn't cry much) whenever I approached the door to her room on my way to settle her during naptime.

"She hears your footsteps and knows you're coming," Matt postulized.

"You're crazy, she's just a baby," I replied, mostly because I hated to think that our horridly squeaky stairs and hallways will come into play for yet another child.

But now I'm pretty sure he's right. She's uncanny in knowing when I'm on my way. Squeak. Squeak. Squeak. Just like our older child. We now have a loud sound machine in the hallway, and Kalina hasn't skipped a nap since (nor has Elise).

Clearly, we'll have a challenge on our hands again as Elise grows: brains plus adorableness will get this girl far in our household (already has for Kalina).

That's okay. It's still really nice to have a baby around the house.

Elise's sleep journey: Part 1

Every child is special. And so is every child's sleep. As most of you know by now, we're fairly obsessed with sleep here at the Odegaard household: possibly because we all do so much better when we get enough.

We're all (even Kalina) on a quest to help Elise get the best, most quantificous sleep possible. Here's a summary of the first step in her journey, as designated by the fact that I have the time to write this now.

When Elise was born, after all the ooohing and aaahhing, I began to eye the girl a bit suspiciously. After all, she was a newborn: not only are they notoriously rocky sleepers (asleep in the daytime, awake at night), but they all vary, just like bigger people do.

Just as some newborns grow up to be successful biologists or writers while other less fortunate newborns grow up to be clowns and politicians, some newborns are the rave of their mommies' blogs and Facebook statuses for their lengthy naps and nighttimes, while others' sleep habits are only bemoaned in the same venues.

How would Elise and I get along? I wondered. I'm positive we'll find some things in common (already have: we both enjoy a well-placed window), but until then, will be both be sleeping? Or not?

When anticipating this new baby, I counted on the fact that newbors sleep a lot during the day. I pictured playing with Kalina, helping my older child not feel quite so displaced in her new family, while Elise dozed happily by our sides despite tumbling blocks and toddler shrieks of delight. If this wasn't the case, I had no further strategies: all hope would be lost.

And true to newborn form, Elise slept just fine for the first couple weeks--even nighttimes weren't too bad. I breathed a sigh of relief and focused all my energy in smoothing sisterly relations while Elise dozed in her swing. But I knew from experience that teaching a baby to sleep after the first month is about as difficult as instructing a baby in the fine art of French cooking, so I sent Matt to the library and he came home with armfuls of our old favorite sleep books (and some new ones).

Elise's sleep deteriorated as I read up on ideal waketimes and newborn brain mechanisms, and by the time I felt the slightest bit equipped, I needed all the help I could get. Our philosophy of "she's a newborn, she'll sleep when she needs to," had been fun, but it had also produced a wildly overtired baby who wasn't sleeping much more than our toddler. Trouble. Fortunately, help was on the way.

The Baby Whisperer's book had struck a chord with me. A combination of no-nonsense and a soft heart who advocates understanding your baby, the author offered some concrete techniques for getting a good night--and day--of sleep. Perhaps I was thinking a bit too wistfully, but I also liked her promise that, if I timed put-down correctly, I could simply hold my baby swaddled in a dark room for five minutes, put the baby in the crib, and walk confidently away, anticipating that not only would the baby fall asleep on her own, but she would stay asleep for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Sign me up!

My initial problem was that, although I only skimmed certain sections of the Baby Whisperer's book, I never saw her mention what to do if you have a toddler trying to scale the side of your baby's crib while you put the baby down in it. Fortunately, after a week or so of trailing behind me into Elise's room, Kalina has decided that she has better things to do with her time while I put the baby down for endless naps. She also rarely attends diaper changes anymore.

I began first thing in the morning, having already noticed that Elise likes nothing better than a good nap almost exactly an hour after waking up. This is also convenient for me, as I can deal with the toddler whirlwind of: "Kalina wants a hardboiled egg to eat on the picnic table. Read a book. The cat is stuck behind the chair and Kalina can't get the cat out! Potty," without having to drag Elise through all of it, poor girl.

I followed instructions to the T, walking confidently away after I'd laid Elise in her crib. Then, at Elise's beckoning, I came back and put the pacifier back in her mouth about a million times, probably, and I might have rocked her a bit (to make sure she's drowsy), and finally she fell asleep. For 20 minutes.

What do you even do with a baby who only sleeps 20 minutes? Or 30? Or 5? First-time moms on the message boards I occasionally visit dreamily talked about holding their baby for all naps. Meanwhile, I did loads of laundry, kept the house clean-ish, baked and freelanced while managing a toddler, too. It's a world of difference.

I repeated the nap routine (sometimes resorting to the swing or carseat when nothing was working) through the next day, and the next, and the next until it seemed that most of my time was spent in a dark room, and I'd blink whenever I saw sunlight. As you can imagine, the addition of darkness to my repeated failure did nothing to improve my frustration. Sometimes the baby would sleep an hour, sometimes 5 minutes, and sometimes not at all, despite hours of trying.

The sleep books told me to put her down earlier: I did. A small part of my brain told me to put her down later: I did. I put her down full and swaddled, I let her fuss a bit, or sat there holding the pacifier in. I ignored the Baby Whisperer and drove her around in the car. I rocked her until my arms were about to fall off. I ran up and down the stairs as I tended to her needs and the toddler's needs at the same time. I spent entire days focusing on naps while Matt and Kalina went out and had all kinds of fun. You name it, I tried it. I could not force the baby to sleep.

It wouldn't have grieved me so much had I hadn't seen Elise's frustration as well: here was a baby who wanted to nap, but couldn't, whether I helped her or left her alone, put her down early or late, etc.! What was I doing wrong? Why can I do all the right things and still not have a napping baby, while other people do nothing and have excellent sleepers? Poor Matt got very tired of having his deer hunting conversations interrupted as I bemoaned Elise's poor sleep. It was officially an obsession.

And then I gave myself a break, and went back to having an overtired baby, and reaching out for help on Facebook (thank you to all who responded, you cheered me up considerably!).

After wallowing in despair for the rest of the day, I decided that there's no budging around the crib nap: Elise hadn't had a good swing nap in days, and wasn't getting any less aware of the toddler bustling around her. I tried harder. Elise seemed to nap a million little times a day, but at least she was napping.

As I persisted, Elise matured, so that about the time I really needed to see progress, she instituted a long morning nap. The household breathed a sigh of relief.

Now, Elise eats once at night (and occasionally wakes up just to be settled one or two other times), and once usually in the 5 a.m. hour (night? morning? we haven't decided). Regardless of when she eats, I make sure she's awake "for the day" by 6:30. She naps an hour afterward (so, around 7:30, give or take), and usually sleeps until 9:30-ish. Yes, it's true!

On a good day, Elise will catnap in the car if we head out after that, and then take a long afternoon nap--but these days only happen maybe 2 times per week, usually on the weekends when Matt's babysitting. The rest of the day, she'll take 45-minute naps, or less if we're out and about. She's not always happy that she can't get back to sleep, but we all manage. And she seems to be dropping her late evening nap, although she still needs to sleep at that time so I'm not really sure what I'll do (probably move bedtime earlier or distract her with a bath).

And our routine is as simple as the Baby Whisperer promised it could be. Simpler, really--Elise doesn't really require rocking anymore, which I'm admittedly a tiny bit disappointed in.

I learned a little about Elise during this time: mostly, that she can't be awake for more than about an hour (sometimes a bit more if we're out) without getting overtired. She also hates being moved or messed with when she's sleepy. "Just give me a swaddle and a pacifier and a dark room and leave me alone!" she seems to say.

She also really can put herself to sleep, as long as the timing is right. Sometimes even without the pacifier, I'd guess.

And it also seems that she's willing to be a decent crib napper, or a decent on-the-go napper, but not both, so I can picture us having to limit our outings in the future. Sleep is important. We will maintain a balance, though--I refuse to stay inside the house for the entirety of the baby's first year just so I can put Elise down for all her naps. Kalina and I both have our sanity to maintain. So we will stay in only on the really cold or wet days.

I must admit that I'm a bit proud for having almost figured out this whole sleep thing, and proud of Elise for the same reason. However, I'm not ready to claim success quite yet: we still have the 4-month sleep regression in our path. I'm sure you'll hear from me again then. Let's hope it's good news.

Photo: Elise helps decorate the Christmas tree!

7 Weeks

According to the experts, lots of things are supposed to happen in your newborn's life at around 6-7 weeks. Let's take stock:

1. At 6-8 weeks, the baby's immune system should finish developing.
At the potential expense of being rude, Matt and I closed our house to toddlers for the first 6-ish weeks of Elise's life. We also disallowed Kalina from playing at her friends' houses or in close quarters with other kids (and frankly, our little introvert seemed glad of the excuse). We wanted to give Elise the best start in life possible.

Instead, between the 4 of us we've managed 5 bouts of illness in the past couple weeks, including a cold that Elise came down with a full week after the rest of us were mostly recovered. Oops. Poor Elise is currently congested and coughing, but is weathering the inconvenience in stride. I have plugged in a humidifier to help, but she seems to be doing okay on her own.

2. At 6 weeks, the baby will go through a growth spurt.
Yup. Not only did Elise eat all the time, but she tried hard to stay awake during all daytime hours so that she'd know the exact instant she became hungry. Fortunately, she only added one feeding to her night sleep, so we all survived. It's officially over, I believe. For at least a few weeks.

3. Around 6 weeks, or 7 weeks if the baby was born a week early, the baby should begin to have a long stretch of sleep at night.
Yes, she does, as of late. Except when she was growth-spurting (so, all of 4 times already), Elise has slept from 9:00-ish to 2:00 or 2:30-ish. Which means that Matt and I both try to be asleep as close to 9:01 as possible. Then we hope that after her middle-of-the-night feed, Elise can make it until at least 6:00 a.m., which she sometimes can.

I'll note that Kalina did this too, by the way--and then regressed into her newborn-esque patterns around 3 1/2 or 4 months. So my hopes are not up yet.

We all feel mostly human in the mornings (once we've showered, anyway), although this could change once Elise starts actually sleeping in her crib (or, more likely, not sleeping).

4. Crying peaks at 6 weeks.
Here's a rundown of Elise's crying:
"Waaa!" Translation: Something's not right here.
*silence* Translation: Oooh, cool, a stripe pattern!
"Waaa!" Translation: Hmmm, somethings still not right.
*silence* Translation: Well, I guess it's not that bad.
"Waaa!" Translation: Although maybe it needs some attention.
And so forth.

Suffice it to say, the peak of Elise's crying is quite manageable. Yes, she has her moments, but they're predictable and easy to remedy. Did you hear that? We have an easy baby!

The rest of the time, she simply grunts to let us know if she needs something. We much prefer grunting, not only because it's more easily ignored, but because it hurts our ears less. We do, by the way, jump to her rescue in the event of panicked grunts.

5. By 6 weeks, your baby will most likely be honoring you with grins.
Matt and I have both been smiled at, and I believe Kalina was once, too. Elise is more likely to light up at Kalina's egg shaker toys, though, or a crinkly plastic Gap bag.

Elise has also managed to roll over several times from front to back, and she's become very aware of the world around her as she stares at her sister's brightly colored toys. She's also already getting used to being a second child, as Kalina loves to pile stuff on top of her (sharing her toys!), bring her all the pacifiers in the vicinity whether she wants them or not, and pet her like she pets the cat.

And although I'm already missing the teeny tiny newborn days, I'm remembering that each stage seems to be more fun than the last. Looking forward to each one of them.

Photo: An attempt to get Elise to smile for the camera.

Newborn: take two

I'm going to let you in on an awful little secret. It's one I feel okay sharing because I don't think it'll cause too, too much emotional turmoil down the road for my firstborn since I've hopefully made it clear how delighted I am by her overall.

Here goes:

I'm enjoying the newborn stage the second time around much more than the first.

There, I said it.

It's not that I didn't enjoy Kalina's newborn and infant stages. I occasionally look back and pictures and remember how cute she was and how much fun it was to watch her grow and develop. It's just that many of the times when the camera shutter wasn't clicking, I was tearing my hair out and slowly dying from sleep deprivation. Worst of all, I didn't even know what hit me.

I remember at the time one friend who gave birth to her second a few months after I gave birth to my first told me, not unkindly at all, how much easier it had been with just one (hi, Krista!). "Good thing I won't be having another," I mentally told myself.

And yes, thinking back, it could've been far easier with just one, had I known that my one would eventually sleep through the night, roll over on her own and quit her infernal screaming through every single change of clothes and diaper, for heaven's sake.

But with your first, the shock of "I've been bouncing this baby for 2 hours and she's still awake," or "I just did laundry yesterday and now all my clean shirts have chunky yellow spitup on them so I have nothing nice to wear to the grocery store," and the emotional trauma of the horrid Facebook posts from childless friends that complain "...might not survive, it's 5 am and I'm already awake" leave you withered and fried. [Or possibly worse, "my 3-week-old is sleeping through the night!"]

Can you tell I'm still, to this day, getting over it?

And then the second one comes along. This time, you hardly hear the crying--it's relatively simple to remedy and besides, you've heard worse--and nothing takes you by surprise. You preemptively scatter burp cloths, blankets and pacifiers around the house (only to have them gathered into a big pile by your neat-freak toddler). You develop a strategy and full range of tactics to combat sleep deprivation, reevaluating every evening. Most of all, you remember that it does go rather quickly (in hindsight, only) and that you have a matching hat and booty hand-me-down that will make your cute newborn even cuter, if such a thing were possible.

You know:
-Soon, the baby will learn not to poop at night, which means fewer miserable "diaper changes by Braille"
-Spitup washes out just fine, even without stain stick, until the baby starts solid food.
-Sleep usually gets better before it gets worse, but at least you get a respite.
-Any bad habits you create out of sheer desperation are usually fixable.
These things will all help.

Plus, newborns are remarkably easygoing. You can dress them up in ridiculously cute outfits and lug them all around town and they just go on eating and sleeping and excreting as they've been born to do. Nothing phases them as long as they're in a cozy carrier of some sort.

And of course, it helps that Elise is pretty amazing. We think she already understands the concept of using her hand to keep her pacifier in, and she can even occasionally calm herself down. She likes her swing now and has even been looking at the little dangly things on it that are supposed to entertain babies, but that Kalina never gave a second (or first) thought to. Her hair is still soft and fuzzy, which is fun in the middle of the night when I'm so sleep-deprived that all I can think of is "aw, I'm petting a baby bunny!" She doesn't mind tummy time, and she's starting to be fascinated by lights, which is a very easy-to-entertain phase (they all are for a while).

I do feel bad that I can't pay the same attention to Elise that I did to Kalina. The poor girl gets all but ignored every morning and afternoon, but doted on every second that I'm not trying to rescue her from her big sister's hugs, kisses, and wild jumping (so, when the 2-year-old is asleep). I have a feeling she'll find her own way to budge into the conversation and playtime, though, as she's proven she's not afraid of being vocal.

We have fun personifying Elise and showing her things (and showing her off to Kalina's animals). We put words in her mouth ("Elise loves your new cat shirt, Kalina!") and generally make sure she's part of the family. It's just fun.

I'll admit, though, that we enjoy her most in the daytime. When do newborns sleep through the night?

Photos:
1: Cute
2: Elise's fist bottle! During our family adventure on Saturday (yummy breakfast out and a walk in a garden)
3. Cute

Life with an easy child

It's probably true that every child is an easy child. If they're fed, entertained, rested, healthy, comfortable, and just in a good mood. For some children this happens once a day; for others, once a year.

Either I've become an expert at catering so completely to Kalina's whims that she can't actually think of anything more she needs, or she's too old to be high-maintenance and too young to be trouble, but it seems that most days are pretty easy for Kalina and I.

This is probably why I haven't been blogging as much lately. It's true: you do need to suffer to write.

I could expand, but it'd probably just bore you. I will say that I'm rather proud of the fact that Kalina happily eats brussels sprouts, takes a long-ish nap more often than not, is increasingly willing to hold my hand in stores rather than run off, and doesn't seem to be bothered in the least by teething, which I think she's been doing lately because there seems to be a new one toward the back of her upper right gum. (Of course, all this will probably change now that I've announced it publicly.)

Kalina does have her occasional difficult moments (like a few days last week when she openly rebelled against high chairs). But at least we're both usually getting the sleep we need to deal with them.

There's not much more to say, so I'll leave you with some of Kalina's words. Most of them can be pronounced using some variation of "ba:" ball, bath, bowl, "baa" (which sheep and lambs say) and "pop" (which is what balloons do). Maybe she's just being resourceful?