Today, you turned two weeks old. Two weeks ago today, we were hanging out in the storage/conference room in the hospital and showing you off to the legions of family members who came to welcome you into the world. Part of me can't believe that you've been home for two weeks already and the other part of me feels like we've never had a life without you.
You, my darling, are quite the beautiful baby. And that's not just my opinion. That's also the opinion of your pediatrician, who told your Nonni this week that it was in her professional opinion as a pediatrician that you are one heck of a beautiful baby.
Here's a picture with you and Dr. Krogstad, who in my professional opinion as a mommy is a wonderful pediatrician. Of course, her telling your Nonni that you were professionally beautiful helps her rating a bit :-)
I know it's bad form, but I brag about you whenever I can. I can't help it--God's gifted me with you--the world's most perfect baby and I'd feel like I was cheating God if I didn't tell everyone just how truly awesome you are. You're still a relatively content baby. You're good with just sleeping in my arms or snuggling up next to daddy in the bed. If you're hungry, you'll cry, but as soon as that bottle hits your mouth you're a happy camper again. I love the look you give me when we wipe your mouth of leftover formula. I call it your "Whatcha talking about, Willis?" face. It's the same look that Arnold gave Willis on that 1980s TV show Different Strokes.
I know. Even when you're angry you're still cuter than he is.
Iconic 1980s sitcoms aside, with each day you change a little bit. Developmentally, you're a little ahead of the curve. You're in the 75% percentile for height and weight, and have already gained enough to surpass your birth weight. As of two days ago, you weighed a whopping 8 pounds nine ounces. You go, girl!
Socially, you REALLY like your pacifier, and that's an understatement. That's like saying that I'm "a little short" or that the Pope is "a little Catholic." You've been going to town on your pacifier since the first night I held you in my arms in the hospital. You just get that thing in your mouth and give us your best Maggie Simpson impression with the loudest slurping noises.
I took this picture of you tonight when I took a brief break from typing this letter. It's not your favorite pacifier (you like the cutsie ones made by MAM), but gosh darnit if those little suckers aren't always disappearing on me. I don't know where they go! I know it's too early for the binky fairy to be paying visits...
Looking beyond your pacifier obsession, you're trying to get ahead of the game by raising your head as much as you can. You're just trying to take in all of your surroundings and I think raising your head up helps you to see the world beyond my shoulder. You're also trying to roll over. You got three quarters of the way there the other night on the changing table before I realized what was going on and put you back on your back. I know it sounds like I'm crazy--babies usually don't roll over at two weeks. But you, my Sammie, are one heck of a determined girl, and if I had left you to your own devices, you would have gotten your way and rolled that final 25%. Is it too early to notify Stanford and Harvard of your pending enrollment? Surely, you're a genius baby.
The big news of the week is that your little baby cord stump fell off today while I was giving you a bath. Ok, the truth of the matter is that it didn't really fall off. It needed some help. It was hanging by this little thread and as I was touching it it came off in my hands. Well, it didn't so much come off on its own as it did stay in my hand when I gently pulled it.
Then I realized. Nuts. I didn't really get any pictures of you with your cord stump on. Most of the pictures we've got are of your face (Have I mentioned how adorable you are? You would have done the same thing if you realized just how cute your face was).
So I rinsed you off, patted you dry and put you in your crib to take this fake shot of you with your cord stump (although at this point your cord had fallen off and it's merely resting on your belly).
Here's the (staged) shot of you with your cord:
And presto! Here you are without a cord and with the beginnings of an adorable liddle belly button (sorry--you make me talk baby talk even when I'm typing).
As you can see by the pictures, you weren't so happy about me putting you down so soon after your bath. I picked you up promptly after getting these pictures and carried you out to the garage to show your daddy. He wants to save the stump in a jar. Um, ew. No. We will not be doing that. Let's change the subject because stump preservations make me shudder.
All is not lost with the dogs, however. When you go in tomorrow to get your first *professional* pictures done, there the dogs will be, primped and ready for your big debut.
I called all over the place before deciding on the same photographer who took your Aunt Beth & Uncle Tom's wedding photos several weeks ago. She takes some good pictures, she's affordable ($150 for four different sessions throughout your first year), and the piece de resistance: she will give us the 'rights' to your pictures. This means a lot to this scrapbooking mommy who cringes as the thought of shelling out $30 for a four picture scrapbook page. 79 cents Costco prints will do just fine, thankyouverymuch.
I'm so excited about your pictures tomorrow. I've got a good idea of what kind of shots I want, but am willing to remain open to whatever the photographer suggests. I've already warned her, though, that I do NOT want Anne Geddes-type shots. Pictures of babies dressed as flowers and pieces of fruit really kind of freak me out.
What I do want are simple, classic pictures. I realize that the typical newborn pictures are taken au natural, but I do want some pictures where you're dressed because I want you to be able to proudly share these pictures with others when your older. While I think your baby butt is cute, I understand that modesty is very important when you're a teenager so I'll do you a favor and get some shots with you fully clothed.
That decision, to get pictures of you fully clothed, led us on our wildest goose chase yet. You'd think that with a two week old baby and literally a closet full of clothes (thank you Nonni, Aunt Beth and Grandma Max!), we'd have no problem finding the perfect clothes for your big professional photo debut.
Wrong. Very wrong. While the clothes you have ARE very cute, they've all got (adorable) designs on them. And I want something solid colored. Or denim, to match what daddy and I are wearing in the pictures. I searched high and low in Target and Babies R Us and came up empty handed each time.
So...last Saturday, your Aunt Beth and I decided to take you on your first real shopping trip. We went to the Tulare outlets in search of either a simple white dress, denim overalls or jeans fit for a newborn.
Here's you and me in front of the outlets.
And here's the three of us. You can tell that you were pretty tired out by this point.
I went to great lengths the night before the shopping excursion to meet up with your Poppa so we could borrow their stroller (I haven't had any of your baby showers yet so we don't yet have a stroller). That proved to be futile as you didn't spend much time in the stroller at all. We realized it was much easier (and more fun) to carry you and put the bags in the stroller. Which we did. And you didn't seem to mind one bit as Aunt Beth carried you from aisle to aisle, store to store. I'm telling you, Sammie, if shopping's your game, we're in for a world of trouble!
I went from shop to shop, anxious to find the all important white dress, denim overalls or baby jeans. I didn't find them. I got jeans and a denim jumper for you, hoping they might fit, but both items ended up being way too big. Maybe you can wear them for your 3 month shots?
When I set out to find such simple (non-adorned) baby items, I didn't realize I was asking for the moon to be re-hung because apparently they don't make baby clothes in solid colors. Store clerks looked at me like I was bonkers whenever I asked.
"Wouldn't you like this one with the flowers? Or this one with the embroidered little lady bug?"
No. I do NOT want the flowers or the embroidered little lady bug. They're both cute, I agree, but I want solid colors because we're taking pictures this week and I want you in something that's not going to look "soooo 2009" when you're looking at these pictures twenty years from now!
Hmph. Okay, so I sheepishly did get the one with the embroidered lady bug, but that's beside the point. I gave up on the Tulare outlets and ended up sending Auntie Tamara's husband Jeff on a trip to Wal-Mart to find a solid colored dress. He sent me twelve different pictures of dresses, and we ended up settling on a jean skirt and a dark pink dress. I'm highly amused that it was Jeff who found your newborn photo shoot clothes. God bless him for braving the newborn section of Wal-Mart for us!
Well, Sammie, I'm going to sign off now. You've fallen asleep on my shoulder and methinks you're ready to sleep for several hours. I won't brag about that thing you do every night--for about six or seven hours--because surely if I put it in writing I'll jinx us both and mommy REALLY likes her sleep. So I'm not going to talk about it. At all. (but you're really good at it and we're very grateful for it).
Love you more with each passing day,
your mommy
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