I love taking pictures of Annabelle yawning.  She’s just so cute when she’s at that point where she’s wanting to fall asleep but just hasn’t gotten there yet, or she’s just waking up and isn’t quite awake yet.  And speaking of sleeping, sleeping babies are so perfect!!! Dusty and I find ourselves watching Annabelle sleep and talking about how sweet she is.  And then one of us will go and give her a kiss on her head before going back to whatever we were doing.  I love the noises she makes and the smiles she gives when she’s sleeping.  In fact, she’s sleeping on my chest as I write this.  I’m taking a break every few moments to smooch her and smell her hair and admire her.

Life with Annabelle is so different each day.  One minute I think I have everything figured out and the next something changes and I start all over again.  Parenthood is getting easier but there are still ups and downs (although many more ups than downs).  I’m trying to write a few things down every couple of days for the blog, but what’s difficult is that every couple of days she’s changed.  For example, she didn’t care to be swaddled the first week or so and it might have been because the straightjacket swaddler was so big and wasn’t as snug but now she seems to like it when we’re trying to get her to bed at night.  One day she’ll like her swing and the next she hates it.  One day she’ll take great naps and then the next she doesn’t want to miss out on anything.  I’ve found myself saying something like “as of today” or “in the last 24 hours” or “the last time I tried” when people ask how she’s sleeping or if she likes something or not.  Because she’s still figuring out what she likes and doesn’t like that I have to remember to try everything more than once.

My weekly baby emails tell me that she can’t focus on things further than about 12 inches from her face until she’s three or four months old  and that she is drawn to contrasting patterns and light sources so we’ve started getting the mobiles out and some of her toys.  I play little games with her and show her toys or books and talk to her about them.  These past two weeks Annabelle’s much more content just sitting in her swing (at least for a few extra minutes).  She’s started looking around a lot more and even paying attention to our faces.  I find myself making funny expressions to make her smile.

My favorite part of these past two weeks is that she’s really starting to make a lot more sounds.  She’s cooing  more as well as making a lot more grunts and gurgles. We talk to her a lot and can’t wait for the day she talks back to us!

These past two weeks have been busy ones for the three of us.  We took Annabelle to another one of our favorite restaurants, Dante Pizzeria, last week and there were no major catastrophes.  I did hold my breathe the entire time, not wanting to disturb our neighbors but we survived and so did our neighbors (they had kids too)!  We also went to a fundraising event that was just a few blocks away from our place.  We strolled Annabelle with us and showed our support.

A few of my co-workers threw me a baby shower/open house this week.  Being back at school got me a little excited to go back to work but it also reminds me how difficult it’s also going to be.  I’m going to miss my little bean!

We did a few other things with Annabelle these past couple weeks, helping her and us both adjust to going out.  Annabelle really likes the baby bjorn carrier, making it really easy to take her places because she loves to “hang” out.  Dusty and I have always been active people and did a lot before Annabelle was born.  Now that she’s here we want her to be a part of that.  We’re hoping that we can create an environment where we spend quality time at home but also do those fun things we did before.  We love introducing Annabelle to our exciting adventures!

One final update, I went for my six-week check up and got the okay to start exercising, now I just have to start!