"Easy Baby"

It's funny how things happen in life so gradually that you don't notice or appreciate them right away until you take the time to look back at where you were and see how far you've come. I had this experience this week in regards to Molly's temperament. I remember when Molly was first born and we were struggling through those first few weeks as new parents. It seemed like she cried endlessly and napped rarely. We did finally figure out how to help her nap in short spurts by wrapping her tightly in the Moby wrap and bouncing vigorously on the fitness ball while shooshing in her ear and holding the pacifier in her mouth. Needless to say, it was a trying time. I remember at the time reading everything I could get my hands on about getting your baby to sleep and caring for a newborn. Most of what I read said that baby's have one of two temperaments; they're either "difficult" (about 20% of babies) or "easy" (the other 80%). I remember feeling just a teensy bit jealous as I read about life with an "easy" baby. How does God choose which parents end up with one of those? Then I'd flip over to the section on "difficult" babies and read things like, "You may feel that, during the first few months, your hugs, kisses, and loving-kindness are not influencing your extremely fussy baby's behavior very much. And you are right (!)". The basic premise of everything I read was that this was a phase that would eventually pass. The most hopeful thing I read during this time was in "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child", where Dr. Weissbluth wrote that, "Extreme fussiness does not appear to be an expression of a permanently difficult temperament. In one study of extremely fussy infants, subsequent measurements of temperament at 5 and 10 months did not show any group differences between formerly 'difficult' infants and 'easy' infants." It was hard to imagine at the time, but according to the data, this phase would end eventually.

Well, as I laid Molly down to sleep tonight and she looked up at me with those sweet blue eyes, she flashed me one of her signature "super-smiles"...the smile so big that it lights up her entire face and her whole body starts dancing. Then she rolled over and cuddled up to her favorite stuffed giraffe. I shut the bedroom door and haven't heard a peep out of her for the last 3 hours! And I realized that somewhere along the way, God gave us our "easy" baby. She's a healthy eater. She naps at least 3 hours during the day and sleeps 12-14 hours at night. She loves to play with her mommy and daddy, but is content to play by herself if you need a few minutes to get things done. Crying is rare unless she's sick, uncomfortable, or over-tired. She smiles easily, laughs often, and finds overwhelming joy in life's simple pleasures...a warm bath, a bouncy red ball, raspberries blown on her belly, or kisses behind her ear.

So, not every baby can be an "easy baby" right off the bat. Some babies just need a few more cuddles and kisses along the way, but eventually all the sleepless nights and long, fussy days seem like ancient history. The joy of spending your days with such an amazing little person infuses you with a kind of parenting amnesia where you hardly remember the difference between a so-called "easy baby" and a "difficult" one. And for the first time you fully and truly realize what your own Mom meant when she hugged you close so many times and said, "I love you no matter what."

And, since it seems weird to publish a blog post with no pictures, here's a cute one of Molly "helping" us stuff and fold diapers. Just so happens, the Pampers box is the perfect size to hold all of our cloth diapers + one super cute baby :-)

The Mirror Game

One of Molly's favorite places to play is on Mommy's dresser in front of the big mirror (with Mommy or Daddy right next to her, of course). I believe she now understands that the baby in the mirror is not real, but she still likes to play with "her" anyway. As you can tell by the abundance of smudges on the mirror, we like to play this game quite often...more often than we like to clean ;-)

Molly Joy is 8 Months Old!

Incredibly, Molly is 8 months old today. I always found parents a bit kooky who said things like, "I can't believe how fast it's gone. It seems like yesterday, they were little babies." I always thought, "A month's a month and a year's a year. What's the big deal?" Now I'M one of those parents. The months since Molly joined our family seem to have flown by. I have several family members and friends who've been blessed with brand-new little babies in the last few weeks and, when I look at their wee little ones, it really does feel like yesterday that Molly was an 8 lb. little lump of cuteness. And now she's a movin' and groovin' 8-month old, full of personality and growing more independent every day.

So, what's new with Molly at 8 months old?

• Molly keeps a very consistent schedule, which she would prefer you not disrupt. Unfortunately, we were forced to disrupt her nap schedule last week when we had workmen in our house putting in hardwood floors. An un-napped Molly is an unhappy Molly. Not even her swing could cheer her up. Snuggles in her sling helped a little. We learned our lesson the first day; the next day Molly napped across the street at the neighbor's house.



• She desperately wants to crawl and gets very frustrated with the fact that she just doesn't quite get it yet. She can push up on her hands, but rather than going up on her knees, she pushes up on her feet (kind of a sloppy downward-facing-dog, for my fellow yoga fans). From this position, she's pretty much stuck. When she get's tired enough, she flops down on her belly and flails like a fish out of water. I feel frustrated for her, but I know it'll click for her one day soon.

• Despite her frustrations with crawling, Molly's becoming very good at standing. She can stand next to the couch or her exersaucer for quite a while if we stand her up. Just once, we saw her pull herself up to stand in the nursery playpen at church and it was only for a second, but that was enough to convince us it was time to lower the crib mattress, yet again.


• She LOVES to swing in her swing that Daddy hung in the tree out front. As soon as we pull up the swing to give her a push, she opens her mouth wide in a HUGE smile that stays plastered to her face until the swinging stops. The poor girl is going to swallow a bug someday soon if she doesn't learn to enjoy the swinging with her mouth shut!

• She's obsessed with computer screens. It's almost impossible to work on the computer while Molly is awake because she wants to be in your lap with her face on the screen and her hands all over the keyboard. She actually changed the settings of Internet Explorer on my laptop with a few "key strokes" (read: banging on the keyboard) and I still haven't figured out how to change it back.

• Molly's favorite toy is her feet. Regardless of where she is...changing table, crib, high chair, stroller...the first thing she grabs to play with is her feet. She was never big on the pacifier and she sucked her thumb for a while, but gave that up a few months ago. However, those toes are her absolute favorite thing in the world. Luckily, they're never far from reach.

• Another one of Molly's favorite play items is her toy basket. Forget all the actual toys stored in the basket. Clearly, they're too boring! The first thing Molly does when it's placed in front of her is to dump the contents of the basket and then use it as either a hat or a drum.


• As you can tell from Molly's Menu, she has tried lots of new foods recently and seems to like all of them. The only one she still gives us a hard time with on occasion is sweet potato. She eats it; she just doesn't gobble it down like she does everything else. I'd say her favorites are probably asparagus, avocado, and a combo of oatmeal and pears. You can always tell when she's starting to get full because she starts to "play" with her food: she'll blow bubbles on the spoon, spraying food in all directions, or she'll take a mouthful and then squeeze it back out through her lips, giving herself a lovely goatee. She recently tried mango for the first time after getting one from the "Easter bunny". She definitely had a good time trying to pick up the slippery mango pit to gnaw on.

Here are a few other pictures taken over my Easter break from school:

Molly had a wonderful Easter visit with her Aunt Jessica and her cousin, Isaiah.Some-"bunny" loves me! Opening her Easter package from her Great-Grammars.

She really wanted to eat the tissue paper.

And ANOTHER Easter package from Great-Grandmother Catherine! What a lucky girl! All dressed for church on Easter morning. Daddy got her ready and even tied her bow!

Ready to explore the family Easter basket. Mmmmm! Mango!

The Houdini Footsie

Several mornings a week, this is the scene we wake up to. Sometimes it's one foot poking out. Sometimes it's both feet. Occasionally, she even turns her 2-legged pajamas into a nightgown by kicking out all of the snaps and we wake up to Miss Naked Legs. Usually, she kicks out one or two of the snaps before poking her foot out through the hole, but once or twice I've found her little footsie poking out with all the snaps intact!

She's always been somewhat of a clothing Houdini. For this reason, we never got much use out of those little newborn nightgowns with the elastic on the bottom. 9 times out of 10, we'd wake up to find that she'd wriggled the nightgown all the way up under her armpits and was totally naked, save for a diaper, from the chest down. Once, she even took her arm out of the sleeve with the little built-in newborn mittens and poked her arm up through the neck of the nightgown just so she could pop that little thumb in her mouth.

I find it amusing that children begin developing their own little quirky personalities even in utero. When I was pregnant, I was always amazed by the fiestiness of Molly's kicks throughout the day (and night). It seemed like those little feet never took a rest! Now I realize that it was true...her feet really never do take a rest...even while she's sleeping. I'm just glad my uterus is stronger than the snaps on Carter's pajamas ;-)