Annabella finally rolled over again!

She rolled over 4 times over a month ago, and then nothing. Last night she finally did it again!
Also, we have new pix of Annabella up here: http://annabellag.shutterfly.com/

I'll probably end up posting some of them on the blog too. Posts are more fun with pictures. But I don't want to not share them just to save them for posts...so you might see them twice.

My boring life, my awesome daughter

Not much has changed since I last posted. Here's the Annabella rundown though.

Annabella is still working through that pesky cold/RSV (I think she's actually had 2 things, back-to-back now). But she's happy and basically healthy.

She's sleeping better in general, but still not much at all at daycare. The past 3 nights she's gone to bed before 9pm, which is unheard of in our household. It's almost like she wants us to be able to sleep too.

She loves going on outside walks, and she puts her hands out to swipe at the wind.

She laughs when you make funny noises at her. I like to put my lips out and flick my lower lip to make a "buh buh buh" sound at her. Then I flick her lower lip and say "buh buh buh" to her. She eats that up. Right now she still thinks Mommy is a comic genius with my buh-buh-buh-ing.

She's showing no interest in rolling over, and hasn't since we posted the video of her doing it. I think she's forgotten how. So we'll see when she starts that up again.

She's putting everything she can reach into her mouth. Including other peoples' fingers, hair, and clothes. If you let her play with any part of your clothing, it will be soaked in slobber when you get it back (a lesson our friend Allie learned the hard way).

Most of her hair has not fallen out, but she's got a cute little bald spot on the back of her head from where she lays in the crib.

At her last doctors appointment, she weighed 13 lbs 2oz. She was 23 1/4 inches long. That puts her in the 30th percentile for weight and 10th for height. The doctor says this is perfect for her because that's what she's been from super early on.

She gives you the biggest smile when you go to get her out of her crib after she's slept. She just seems so excited to see you.

She still loves to cuddle and sleep being held. I know some babies aren't cuddle-bunnies, and I'm really glad mine is. Feeling her snuggle up on your shoulder is just about the best feeling in the world.

She loves her jumparoo. It lights up and makes noises when she moves it enough, and boy does she dig that. She'll go nuts, and then it will start up, and she'll stop and look at it or look up to you for praise. It's too cute.

It's all about the sleep

The "it" in question being my life.

The days Annabella gives us a good night, I wake up feeling good about the world. Like I can handle the challenges in front of me. That I'll make it though the day. That gasp, I might even want another child someday! (News my husband is always happy to hear.)

And then there are the days when I feel like a walking zombie. I'm unable to handle even the simplest stress, and I find myself telling people that things wouldn't normally upset me so much, and telling myself this too.

Annabella is finally giving us enough good nights a week that I will survive motherhood.

I know my life is boring, and that the sleeping habits of my child isn't really newsworthy.

Annabella is 4 months old today

Time really flies. When I look at her newborn pictures, I can't believe how tiny she was. Or how different she is now. The past 4 months have been tough. Having a new baby at home is not so easy. But when I'm thinking back over this time, I'm just so sad that it's going by so quickly.

I'm sad that I'll never see the silly exaggerated grin that lit up her face when she was first learning to smile. She'd look up at me when I first got her in the mornings, and I think it must have taken every muscle in her face to make that smile. And she'd hold that goofy grin for 2 or 3 seconds before losing it. I didn't realize that within a few days she'd have this smiling thing down and it wouldn't look the same again.

I'm sad that I'll never hear those first few squeals of excitement, when she was just learning how to make those noises. I think those squeals were what pure bliss must sound like. I didn't realize that as she gained more control over her voice, that her squeals wouldn't quite be the same.

I'm sad that she'll never sleep with her head buried in my chest again, with her little feet pulled up under her. It was the only way she'd sleep for weeks. And it was so frustrating because we were so tired and just so in need of sleep, and we'd have to stay awake holding her so she could sleep. And now I miss my tiny baby that could fit on just my chest, and loved being there. My baby still loves to cuddle while she sleeps, but she's just too big to sleep that way now. And she stopped liking it when she started to discover the world more. She wanted to be able to see what was going on around her, and sleeping on Mommy's chest went out the window.

I'm sad that my little baby isn't so little anymore. She needs Mommy less and less. And while it's pretty darn awesome to see her becoming this little person with her own personality and ideas, I'd like to hold onto her just the way she is now, for just a little while longer. Before she changes on me again.

Annabella is learning to play

She reaches out and grabs ahold of her toys now, and sometimes even jams them in her mouth. She kicks her butterfly that hangs on her crib and it plays music. She wiggles around in her jumparoo and stops to notice the noises it makes. She bats her hands at toys hanging above her.

I can't even tell you how cool all this is.

Annabella is sick, and now I am too.

This is actually her second cold, but this one is much worse than the first one.  She sounds all hoarse and is super fussy and just seems miserable overall.  Of course she was all smiley when I took her to the doctor though.  Gotta make Mommy look crazy and overworried.

And now my nose is drippy and I'm starting to get miserable too.  

Fun times at our house these days.

My daughter has discovered boys.

Today I learned that Annabella is quite the flirt.

Ms Jacki, Annabella's daycare teacher, told me that she'd put Annabella and Cooper together in this play area. Apparently Annabella and Cooper spent their time together stroking each other's faces, holding hands, and linking arms.

And when Cooper would look away at something else, my darling daughter would scream.

If this is what she's like at 3.5 months, I can't imagine what her teenage years are gonna bring.