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.