Update Time

Our three day Memorial Day weekend was very was a successful one. But, four years ago, we got married on Memorial Day weekend...so I guess comparatively this year's weekend was a bit more leisurely. But it was so much sweeter because this time we actually have our sweet Scarlett in our arms! I never would''ve imagined how beautiful our baby would be and how uncontrollably we love her.
This past weekend we got to spoil Scarlett Jane, see family and friends, and do some spring cleaning. Saturday we ran errands: Texan needed new boots because he's practically walking out of his current pair (go figure, he's Texan!), and we wanted to do that thing that I never thought I would want to do on a Saturday: investigate Lowe's for home improvement ideas. Yes, we are in the market for a house, so it's fun to look around at ways to improve and update a potential home. After Lowe's, Texan decided it was time to get Scarlett Jane's ears pierced. I, however cute I thought she would look all BEDAZZLED, tried to pretend that we had forgotten that idea by saying, "Wow, we better get home. I'm starved for some lunch." Texan wasn't buying it. "But first...to CLAIRES." Never thought I'd hear him say those words...
Months ago when we decided that maybe we would get her ears pierced, we were wary of Claire's, afraid that the piercing technician would be a 16-year-old, unprofessional, unhygienic...you get the point. So this time we went in and actually saw another baby getting her ears pierced. Very professional, by an adult, and very clean. We chose 24-kt gold to avoid allergic reaction, and I let Texan choose the stone. Pearls, he chose!

It's near impossible to get a picture of both ears at once, considering those chubby cheeks of hers. So, I'll settle for the right ear. Texan's "practical" part about the earrings (is there one, really?) is the fact that fewer people will mistake her for a boy now, he says. It hasn't happened often in her lifetime, but it did happen four times in one night, the night we went to the ER at 11 o'clock--the night from down under, and I'm not talking about the place with kangaroos and dingo babies--so now on those days where she's dressed in something other than pink, maybe no one will ask me how old my son is.

Oh, shucks. One more...

Ah, those teeth. They are sharp! I looked in Texan's baby book and his mother recorded that he began teething at three months. Which would explain where my sweetie pie gets her early teething from. Of course, she waited until she had been four months for an entire day before sprouting her first razor-sharp incisor.

Recently, I was chided by a stranger: "All my babies were BABY WISE, so I could lay them down and they would put themselves to sleep." This, after she witnessed that my baby is rocked to sleep.  

If you're like me and you've read a few chapters of the manual ( I wont pretend that I read the whole thing) that boasts a cult following as well as a  set of people in strong opposition to its methods (I'm somewhere in the middle all like, "I'm rocking my baby, shhhh"), then really there's nothing you can say to someone who thinks your baby would be better off Baby Wise. I like to think if your baby sleeps well with it or without it, that's great. There are plenty of babies out there who are up all night, so I'm grateful not to be in that boat.
I love to rock and hold my baby until she falls asleep. She sleeps great at night and she takes three naps a day. I think she is too young to grasp, "If I cry, nothing will come of it, so I should just go to sleep. Boy, is it good to be Baby Wise!" I feel really blessed that she still loves to be cradled in my arms. It's like clockwork, even today, when she was ready for a nap she went horizontal in my arms and began sucking her thumb. In her eyes I saw her saying, "I'm ready for sleep!" 

There was a time--while she was teething and I didn't know it yet--that she wanted to be upright and would arch her back if I cradled her. Thank goodness that's over!

And one more thing. With great power comes...exaggerated use of that power. Since Scarlett has become a professional head-holder-upper, she has taken to craning her neck at whatever sound entices her to look that way. Here she is taking a break from nursing to investigate the sound of the laptop keyboard...

It look quite painful, but it's her new trick, and it's one of the few times I get to see in between her chubby neck rolls. I should keep a soapy rag on hand for such a time to do a quick scrub of the spit-up she stores in there in between baths. But I'm not that good yet.

Four Months

At four months old Scarlett has two new developments that no one was expecting! 

Teeth! You can see the tiny pearly-whites right next to the tip of my finger. They are completely broken through her gums, with the one on her right side being the first of the two. She is much happier now, with Sunday and Monday being the hardest days for her poor little gums.

Her daily schedule is pretty strict in terms of sleeping patterns. She takes a nap almost exactly 2 hours after waking up in the mornings, no matter what time. 

Here she is in my arms at 9:30 this morning after waking up at 7:50. Her naps are between 30 and 50 minutes, and are up to 2 1/2 hours if I lay down with her in my bed. But I don't really have time to nap for that long on a regular basis, so we only do that if we have had a rough night. 

She goes to bed between 8 and 8:30 every night and wakes up at 2:30 am and 5:30 am. Then we sleep in until and where from 7:30 to 10. But mostly 9 is our normal wakeup time. 

She has recently started to enjoy standing in her exersaucer. She looks like a busy little secretary at her desk. All alert and grabbing onto everything..

And although she is great at holding her head and neck, her spine still needs some strengthening before sitting upright will begin. She needs full support of her back still, but soon enough I'm sure we'll have those first wobbly attempts. 

My favorite thing, beside her cooing, is when I pick her up and she nuzzles into my face like she's so happy to see me. Even if I just set her down for a moment. She loves to touch our faces now, and it is so much fun to see her reaching for us. It really is the first sign of our love for her being reciprocated through touch. Whereas before I knew she loved me by the look in her eyes, but now she says it by patting my face and pulling my hair. Here she is giving Daddy some love before he left for his trip. It was hard for him to say goodbye. 

Recently, Texan went to the north east with his boss to pick up two new pickup trucks that they had won in an online auction. They flew to Philadelphia and drove back down to texas, seeing sights along the way. They stopped in Maine to see the shoreline dotted with beautiful lighthouses:

New York City:

Ellis Island

9/11 Memorial in progress 

Empire State Building 

And then they went to Washington DC and his favorite monument was the Lincoln Memorial. And we got some pretty sweet souvenirs.  

And notice the Capitol building bib in her exersaucer pic.../

While Texan was on Holiday, Scarlett and I went to Grammy and Grampy's. We had lots of fun shopping for new clothes at the mall and handy gadgets at IKEA on Friday. Then Saturday we had lunch out and lounged around the house the rest of the day watching Pride and Prejudice and napping. And although those were the first two days that I suspected teething had begun, the only fussiness occurred around bedtime/nap time. She would arch her back and growl like a baby grizzly bear in the angriest disposition I had ever seen from my sweet baby. Other than that she was as good as gold for the grandparents and they got to witness the full spectrum of her personality.

We are so grateful for a boss who turned what could've been a boring road trip into an exciting tour of a couple awesome cities, and for family that lives close by. We are thankful for a healthy four-month old, who will get to meet her Aunt Nikki tomorrow when she comes for a 4-day visit! Oh, and I am grateful that we get to celebrate Mother's Day this Saturday, since Texan was out of town and Scarlett didn't get a chance to go to the Brighton store...