Why not shake things up?

Big news in the household this week…Brigid has started reaching for people that she wants to have hold her! (Ok, big news for me, I guess, but probably not as interesting to most of you. It’s a little ridiculous what excites me these days…) I thought maybe she was starting to bend towards me last weekend when Steve was holding her, but it was kind of hard to tell. It seemed like more of a ‘Steve leaning the baby towards me’ move than a ‘baby leaning towards me herself’ kind of thing. But last night, we officially hit the point where she was reaching out her arms for me when I went to take her from him. (She also reached for my mother-in-law yesterday afternoon while my father-in-law was holding her, so it’s a good thing she did the same thing for me, or we’d be having words, that baby and I.) Because I’m pretty obnoxious, I kept handing her back to Steve so we could try it again. I wanted to be sure.

I’m sure now. I’m also sure that my husband finds me annoying, but whatever.

I think, maybe, possibly, she gave me a kiss, too. We’ve taken to calling her vampire baby because she does this thing where, while you’re holding her, she puts her hands on both sides of your face, pulls you towards her, and tries to get her mouth on your nose or cheek. But she does it in a sneaky kind of way, where she’s all sweetly patting your cheek, then suddenly she’s got you and she dives in for the kill. She’s all ‘I love you, I love you, *pat* *pat* *pat*, *headbutt*, BAM! I’m gumming your nose now’. She’s a quick one, that kid. It’s a little too ‘I want to suck your blood’, hence the nickname. I thought it was just a teething thing, since everything she touches goes straight into her mouth, but I’m starting to think it’s more of an open mouth kiss than a bite now. It’s all very adorable. Well, it will be until the teeth do start coming in. If she starts drawing blood, we’ll know we have a problem on our hands.

But it’s a good thing that she pulled out the cute on me last night, because Brigid has hit another ‘let’s not let mom and dad get comfortable in the routine’ stage this week. She’s started fighting her bedtime. And randomly waking herself up after she’s been asleep for awhile. And stressing us (well, me at least) out with flashbacks to the newborn days when she’d wake up every couple of hours and it would take forever to get her back asleep. I feel like we’ve had a relatively easy time of it, getting her to sleep through the night, and I’m just waiting for it to all come crashing down. I’ve heard horror stories, and I keep expecting the worst. Last night, right as I was drifting from semi-conscious to knocked-the-heck-out, she let out a screech that scared the bejeebus out of me in the way only a loud noise yanking you out of your sleep can. She then proceeded to fall right back asleep, while I lay in bed with my heart pounding, waiting for it to happen again and wondering if it was going to require a trip to the nursery. It didn’t. But it might as well have, for as long as I lay there awake after the fact.* But baby kisses, they make up for a lot. So even with midnight screeching, we’re good.

As long as she doesn’t start reaching for other people while I’m holding her.


No, my skin doesn’t sparkle in the sun. Why do you ask?


*And, as if random baby wakings weren’t bad enough, I think one of the dogs fell out of bed, too. That’s the only scenario I can think of to explain the sound of a body hitting the floor at three in the morning, which, in case you were wondering, isn’t the most peaceful way to wake up at any point in the morning, much less at 3am. And dog kisses aren’t nearly as cute as baby kisses, so they’re going to have to find another way to make it up to me.