Two Months Old!

Baby Marissa is two months old today and to celebrate she slept for six hours straight last night! It was Lauren, however, that completely foiled me and woke up after Marissa's five hour mark, so I did not get the benefit of the longer stretch but hopefully Marissa will grace me with that again soon (tonight, please?) so I can reap the full benefits.

Marissa continues to be a calm, happy baby and that's really all I could ask for. She's finding her voice, experimenting with different sounds, and she smiles easily - it lights her whole face up. As Lauren did, Marissa loves the Einstein mat that plays music from overhead - she pumps her legs like she's dancing and then she gets mad at it when the music stops, it cracks us up. Her hair is falling out and is mostly gone in the front but what is left in the back stands on end and no matter how wet I make it, it just waves around up there.

Lauren talks to Marissa all the time and lately has been calling her what I thought was "sweetie pie" in a special, reserved-just-for-Marissa, high-pitched voice. At some point yesterday while I was feeding Marissa, Lauren was talking to her and I realized she was calling her "sweetie potty". I guess this is a term of endearment? And then this morning, she was calling to Rob from another room and was addressing him as "Sager". On both occasions, I ended up laughing so now she's probably going to do it all the time. Oh well, it could always be worse, right?

We survived!

We road tripped to West Virginia for my Dad's 60th birthday party - a total of twenty car hours, two girls, many potty and feeding breaks.
We survived.

It was actually a really great weekend and the girls did beautifully in the car. Lauren had so much fun playing with Kaity and being at Grandpa's, she cried when we got her up to come home. My Dad had built a clubhouse for the girls but since it was so hot all weekend, the pool he had set up was the big winner - the girls were in it for the majority of the time. Lauren has asked every day since then, "Is Kaity coming over today?". It's kind of sad. It was also nice to catch a glimpse of what life will be like when Marissa is two and Lauren is five, when they will be playing together.

Cousins

Helping Grandpa blow out the candles.


Poor Marissa is not very happy, Kaity is cringing over the crying and Lauren is up to no good- claiming Kaity's WVU flip flops as her own.

Lauren and Kaity went around to each guest and made sure they had proper sunscreen on, here's Lauren putting it on Grandpa.

Sweet girl, her first trip.

Ewww, GROSS!!!

Lauren has discovered "GROSS", lucky for us. Yesterday I was cutting radishes and she wanted one so I handed her a small piece. She started spitting and scraping her tongue and finally declared: "Mommy, that was very GROSS." The small chunk was on the floor next to the garbage, she was too disturbed to even get it into the can.

Then today when she got home from school she walked down to the mailbox with me to get the mail. A bird has decided that he likes the vantage point from the top of our mailbox (I've seen him perching there several days now) and has done a number on it in terms of mess. Lauren asked me about it so I told her a bird made a mess there and this was her very loud reply: "No, birds, do not sit on Mommy's mailbox and poop on it! That's so GROSS!" She mumbled about it the rest of the way up to the house, she was obviously violated.

Along the same lines, and not for the faint of heart: while strolling through the grocery on Saturday morning, my little sunshine looked at me and said, "We don't eat poop." No, no we sure don't. I don't know where that came from and am not sure I want to either.

Milestones and Memories

Last weekend we were at the Carters and Lauren picked up this toy that spins around and lights up and she declared, "I found a microphone". Harrison was all over that and they found a true microphone for him and proceeded to put on a real concert for us, even taking requests. They were hysterical, singing everything from "Happy Birthday" to "Itsy-Bitsy Spider". We loved it and I only wish I had my video camera! Stay tuned for tour dates in your city.


The first milestone babies are supposed to hit is smiling and it can happen anytime between four and six weeks, it is their first social interaction. As of her five week birthday, Marissa is officially social! She's also trying to talk too - when you ask her a question, she really motors her little arms and legs and works her mouth but mostly ends up just grunting. We are also officially on-the-go: Marissa and I went to a wellness doctor's appointment on Wednesday of this week and ended up cruising the aisles leisurely at Whole Foods for the better part of an hour afterward - it was so nice to read labels and take my time without anyone begging for a cupcake or trying to grab anything and everything from the shelves. We then headed to the mall on Thursday and it was the first time I've walked past the Disney Store without having to go in and I felt a twinge of guilt, I felt like I was betraying Lauren.


As I've said, Lauren is a great big sister! Here she is helping me get Marissa to sleep - holding the pacifier in (because she still can't hold it in yet) and rocking her basket, just like we do.

We went out for dinner last night, which Marissa stayed awake throughout but we still managed to enjoy. Lauren had her first restaurant dessert at the end because she was so sweet yesterday - we all shared a warm apple crisp with ice cream, it was a very good day!

Here's to our friends who are at the beach this week - we are positively green with envy but will be there with you next year. Have so much fun this week, friends!!