nine things for nine weeks

She dances on the changing table. Chip sings songs to her and she pinwheels her arms and legs, moves her bum from side to side, all the while Chip is laughing and singing and encouraging: You're dancing, Alice! You're dancing!

The grunts continue. We love the grunts. She grunts in quiet rooms, when people need to laugh. She grunts in church meetings and when we're on the phone talking to doctor's offices. She grunts, we laugh, we say, "There's our baby."

She is watching us more. Making eye contact and trying to let us know she seems things. She watches the cats for signs of interest. She likes to look at black and white images. I hope she sees how much we love her.

She's rediscovered a love for her swing. It was touch and go for a little while, but the last few days she's done quite a bit of napping in the swing. She's in there now, while I'm writing this. She is so close, I can hear her sighing in her sleep.

She likes to have us imitate her. We play this game when she's stretched out on our lap, facing us. She sticks out her tongue in a certain way, or makes a particular face, or goes OH and then we do the same. I don't care if we play this game for the whole day.

She is getting baby-fat legs. An entirely new pudge wrinkle appeared on her upper thighs a few days ago. Chip thought her leggings were too tight, but after they'd been off for a while, I pointed out to him that the wrinkle was still there. A WRINKLE in the PUDGE. Very kissable.

I can't get used to telling people how old she is. I still want to say "two weeks" when they ask her age. It's hard to believe that it's two MONTHS.

She has spit up a total of four times in her life. I realize by saying this that I might be jinxing us for a future of spit-up and vomit, but a girl can hope.

We're approaching her 2-month shots on Tuesday. I know she's tough, she's a rock star. She'll sail through the experience. I'm more worried about us, how Chip and I are going to take it. She might cry for us more than she'll cry for herself. We need to be brave.