Everyone says its all worth it once your baby smiles at you, and it is true. It definitely soothes the soul to see your baby happy. Juniper recognizes her parents now and gives many smiles, especially in the morning. Sometimes those smiles can quickly be followed by tears. I said to Andy the other day "I can see now that parenthood is spending your whole life trying to make this little person happy and often utterly failing." I suppose you come to accept the failures at a certain point, and wait until your children learn that you're only human too.
Juniper has learned recently to soothe herself by sucking on her own hand, which she now does emphatically. It is possible that she could even have begun teething, as she is turning into a drool factory. But there is no evidence of teeth yet. Regardless, it is nice to know that she has something other than the nipple to rely on.
When she's not eating or sleeping, which isn't very often, Juniper can now be engaged in play. Apparently, a part of growing a healthy young baby is tummy time, which some days feels like baby torture. In the beginning, all she did was push her legs and arms out and cry face down into the floor. "I feel ya kid. I hate exercise too." I'd muse. And sadly, we've had to rely on our caregivers to really push this activity. Seeing her struggle can be too heartbreaking and doesn't seem like playtime yet. Despite, she's really done an amazing job. Here is a super cute video of Grammie egging her on. Look at how well she holds her head up!
She's starting to understand her own movements in relationship to objects, like this stuffed bunny, which she's figured out how to push over so it laughs:
And you can really see the difference in how touch affects her. We play a rowdy game of "I've got your feet" every day, which makes her giggle. We're hoping she's not as ticklish as her Daddy, but so far touching her feet yields some nice smiles. And though the first few days of bathtime didn't go over so well, she's now in love with bathtime.
A cutiepie on the kitchen counter awaits her bath.
Finally, it seems that Juniper has gone from being a baby that likes to lay around to one that wants to be carried, upright and alert, sucking on her hand, taking in all the sights. She especially likes being around people, being outdoors, and looking out the window. Also, she loves to practice standing. She's a very active baby. At just over 10 pounds, we're both exhausted already! Just wait until she can swing from us like trees.
No comments:
Post a Comment