3 Months Already!!!

Today is Maggie's 3 month birthday! A couple things come to mind when I think about the past few months... one is I can't believe that much time has passed already and two I can't believe how much I love someone who has only been in my life as a separate entity for 3 months.

She is such a bundle of joy, when I look at her now, she doesn't look like she was ever sick, and those long days at the hospital feel like a distant memory. I remember all those days that I would show up to see her and as soon as I caught sight of her I would tear up because I felt so overwhelmingly in love with her and just wanted her to be healthy. Now she is healthy and I am so thankful.

She is a true gift from God.

Shake it girl

Yes I get excited about the little things. Heck I am proud of myself for the little things. But in the last few days, Maggie has been able to grab her rattle and shake it a bit. Now I find myself wanting to buy her a metronome and I am having images of Partridge family type tours (only with less people). I love that little girl!

I pick you

Dear Maggie,

Throughout my day, I care for you. I play with you, I feed you, I change you, I talk to you, I comfort you, and I hold you while you sleep. From time to time I let you be, I let you play without me or I let you take a nap on your own and I take that time to grab a bite to eat, clean, do laundry, rest, blog or just watch tv. I never know how much time I have to do these other things because when you say so by crying I drop it all and tend to you. I pick you because you are more fun than dishes, you are more interesting than whatever is on TV and you are more wonderful than I could ever imagine. I can easily say that when it counts no matter how big or small I will pick you. I love you.

Making a Footprint

Babies have the cutest little feet.. Maggie's are no exception. I love them!

When she was a month old, we had one of the nurses do her footprints and I thought it would be fun to do it every month or so to see how she grows.

I took some pictures as we had our "craft" time. Our little girl is so cute!

I have scanned the results, the top footprints were on October 16th when she was a month old, the bottom footprints were done on November 30th when she was 2 and a half months old. The difference is slight but she has grown!

Look what I can do!

I spend a lot of time chuckling to myself... I'm learning to live one handed. One hand holding my baby the other hand on task. It's amazing how much longer everything takes to accomplish with just one hand. Everytime I am busy one handing away the day... I can't help but want to shout... LOOK WHAT I CAN DOOOO!

Maggie Mixes it up

Dear Maggie,

For weeks I have tried to make your bedtime 8. We go upstairs together. I feed you, change you, put on your jammies play with you and then rock and sing to you until you finally fall asleep at 10pm. Last week I finally gave up after evenings of defeat. And things have been great! 9:45 rolls around and I take you up to bed and within 15 minutes you are out.

So tonight - you were being crabby early. So I took you upstairs at about 8. And we did our usual routine. The same routine we do every night that always works. It ends with me holding you over my right shoulder while humming and holding your pacifier.

But not tonight ... nope. You decided you wanted something different. After 30 minutes of you fussing while I held you on my shoulder - like we do every night - I finally gave up and held you in a cradle hold. Within 5 minutes you were a sleep. And I put you in your bed .. and just like that you finally went to bed at 8:30.

Lessons I have learned
1. You are already strong willed and assertive.
2. I have to just go with the flow because every day is like a new day with you.

Captain Pants???

So here is a little tidbit about me, I am not a big name user. If we are out in public and I need to get your attention, I will say your name. But if we are at home or already near each other, I will either just look at you and talk to you or use a “pet” name to get your attention. For example, I call MJ sweetheart. My dad calls me “darling” unless he is upset with me then I get my proper name. Because of this, when people use my name when we are already in each other’s company, I feel like I am in trouble or they are mad at me. It always puts me on edge when MJ says my name from the kitchen when I am at the kitchen table. I immediately think “oh oh, something’s wrong”. Proper names just seem so …. I don’t know … formal.

So when it comes to Maggie, I realize I never use her name when I talk to her. Instead, out of who knows where, I have concocted a barrage of nicknames for her. First it was Pooh Bear which I shortened to just Pooh – which when spoken sounds like I am calling my daughter feces. At night, Maggie gets really crabby so I started calling her crab cake in the evenings. Then appeared Captain Pants??? Yes you read that right – Captain Pants. We even do the “pants dance” when she gets a diaper change. I have no idea where I got this name nor does it make any sense. What is worse is I am now just calling her captain. So last night the nicknames degraded even further – I started calling her snoodle. Snoodle isn’t even a word!?!

I realized that I have a history of this. For example, my bunny’s name was J.J. which stood for jumping jillikers. (Pronounced jill-a-kers). Then I called J.J. Jeeger Peeger. Then it became just Peeger. And finally is was just Peeg (like peach only with a J at the end.) Zia has become pocket rocket or just pocket for short. Odin Ranger – now just Oat. And Marley we call Jonesy. Apparently no person or animal is safe.

I am starting to fear for my daughter’s development. How will she ever recognize her name when I am calling her Captain and Crab Cake? I mean sure it’s cute and the Pants Dance could qualify for being on some kids show, but I don’t want my kid unable to respond to her own name or some teacher saying “Magdalynn – I will not call you Captain in my class.”

‘sigh’ I guess I will just have to do it and start calling Maggie …. well …. Maggie.