Two Months Already?

Today Anneliese is two months old. Yes, already. Maybe for you people, the weeks are passing at a normal rate. But for Mark and me, time is just flying right by.

[Edit 12/15 - she is growing like a weed! She's 12 lbs 12 oz (92nd percentile), and 24.5 inches long (off the top of the chart). Our family knows all too well what it's like to fall off the chart in the other direction, so we're grateful for a rapidly growing baby right now!]

With the recent surge in thumb-sucking (always the left hand... think she'll be a lefty?) Anneliese has become much happier during her waking hours. Her ability to keep herself happy means we can prop her in the bouncy seat or swing, and instead of her fussing until we come back and get her (or until she falls asleep), she will just sit and watch the world go by. She is especially interested in Nathan and his comings and goings. She really perks up when he is nearby. I love seeing her little serious face as she just takes it all in, and this picture really captures her over the last few weeks.

I hope she likes this picture; it's likely going to be in her passport til she's five!

Anneliese is still sleeping great. Most nights she goes down sometime after 9pm, then doesn't get up again until sometime after 4am. (A few days, like today, she lasts until closer to 7 or 8am!) After she eats she usually goes back down for several more hours, occasionally in the car seat if that's what the morning's schedule dictates, until she's totalled about 12 hours for the night. So... still angelic. :)

She's also bringing us something our family is not used to -- she's hitting a bunch of physical milestones right on time, or even early! She can hold her head up and steady (like in the picture above), when we put her on her tummy she will lift her shoulders and neck up, she can push against us with her legs (that one is earth-shattering... Nathan didn't do it until he was ten months old!), and she can consistently manager to get her thumb into her mouth. Mark's hoping he might have a jock child after all!

Anneliese definitely prefers Mark and me and Nathan over other people, but she is learning to accept some strangers too, once she gets used to them. We left her in the church nursery for the first time this morning, and she didn't do great -- apparently she was "grumpy" (their words) the whole time, and refused the bottle the whole time (she was in there for more than three hours!), so she was ravenous when we picked her up, and was very happy to nurse for a looooong time before we loaded up the car and headed home!

And, we're getting to actually interact with her more and more. She turns her head towards us when we talk to her, and she coos (sometimes even repeating noises we make!)... and we've all fallen hard for that sweet little grin (with dimples! we have no idea where she got that) whenever she decides to aim it our way.

We're happy every day for getting to know our sweet little girl even better!