New developments

Audrey's been doing a few new things lately, some of them not being very ladylike.

• She's really alert now. If you smile at her she'll smile back. She coos a lot. If you coo at her she'll sometimes go back and forth with you for a good 10 minutes or more.
• She's starting to grab at some things now- fingers, clothing, my hair, Chris's back hair when he carries her without a shirt on (that's when she's mad), the occasional toy.
• She enjoys staring at things above her- the ceiling fan, the light, her mobile, her play mat.
• I thought people used mobiles to help babies fall asleep, but her's gets her all wound up. She'll lay there for 15 minutes kicking her legs and making the crib shake. She kicks her legs quite a bit, usually when she's excited. One day I layed down and imitated her. Boy, it was a workout. Although her face and limbs are chubby, that kid has abs of steel. Unfortunately I'm too lazy to sign up for her class.
• She still gets up to eat and have her diaper changed a couple times during the night, so for convenience she sleeps in the bassinet next to me. I know she's ready to get up for good when I look over and she gives me a huge goofy smile. This is my favorite and most dreaded time of everyday. She's so adorable and it melts my heart when she smiles because she sees me, but after the warm fuzzies go away I always think, "oh crap, now I have to get up".
• She started drooling a lot and to spread the mess around she enjoys sucking on her fingers. Sometimes she tries to fit her whole fist in her mouth. She is particularly fond of her left hand. Maybe she'll be a lefty like me. Today she stuck it so far in her mouth that she started to gag. Then she did it again. Nice.
• Sometimes she uses her drool to blow spit bubbles. She'll have a whole pile of them right on her lips. It's really funny when she does it after eating. Then they look like the milk bubbles we used to make when we were kids by blowing in our glass of milk with a straw, except these are on her face, not in a glass.
• We still swaddle her because it really helps her fall asleep and she sleeps much more soundly. The other night I guess I didn't do a very good job because she got her fists up out of the top. We had just gone to bed. She wasn't upset, so I left her alone hoping she would fall asleep, besides, I can't swaddle her forever. She did fall asleep, but only after sucking on her hand for about 15 minutes. Those were a creepy 15 minutes. There I was laying awake in the dark and it sounded like two teenagers were having a heavy makeout session right next to my ear. Nasty.
• Typically she falls asleep as soon as I put her down (daytime naps are a different story- we're working on those). Our routine is- dark room, swaddle, pacifier, music. Lauren got us a CD called Rockabye Baby! U2 for Christmas. It's an instrumental version of U2 hits that has been adapted for babies. Lot's of chimes and soothing sounds. Audrey really likes it and we do too, but now I have it in my head all day long. I'm going to have to get more of those Rockabye Baby cd's so I don't go bonkers listening to the same thing all the time. They're really nice though and I highly recommend them- Thanks, Lauren!
• She's always farted a lot and they sound like big people farts, not little baby farts. The new thing is that they stink now. I don't know what changed, but her stinky farts are scary. I've heard that the average person farts 14 times a day. All I can say is that we produced an over achiever.
• Each month she seems to have a new skin condition. October- Her skin peeled as if she were a reptile. Her hands, feet, and tummy were the worst. One day I took a sock off and looked like a bunch of fine snow falling falling from the sky. (I hope my simile makes it sound less disgusting.) November- She had pretty bad baby acne. It was mostly on her cheeks, but also on her chin, neck, and scalp. December- Cradle cap. This is basically dandruff. She had it on the top of her head, her forehead, and her eyebrows. We rubbed olive oil on her scalp and gently brushed it. One treatment got rid of it. She still has a little on her forehead. We didn't want to put the olive oil so close to her eyes. January- She has a big bald spot on the back of her head. There's a picture and explanation on the blog entry entitled "i love daddy".