An infant's laughter

About an hour ago, Sophie startled us with her first real laughter.

I was dancing her around the living room, singing "The River Driver" by Great Big Sea to her - rather poorly, I'm afraid. Confusing the lyrics, singing off key, but smiling at her and dancing rather smoothly, I must say. I guess she thought my singing was pretty funny, because she just started laughing - not just a quick giggle, like we'd heard snatches of before, but a real laugh! Several, in fact! Enough that Holly had time to get out the video camera, and catch a few on tape. We'll have to see if we can get that online.

In the meantime, we're just basking in the warmth of that laughter. Ahhh...

Spinning baby, goes round and round

We always put Sophie in her crib in the same position - head toward the window side, in line with the length of the mattress. Whenever I wake up and check on her, she's always in some stage of a slow spin - sometimes up to 90 degrees, so she's sideways in the crib, kicking the side bars. The interesting thing (or what I deem to be interesting in my sleep deprived state) is that she always spins counter-clockwise. This could mean one of a several things:

1. Babies are magnetic, and their heads naturally want to aim north.

2. She's right-handed, and her random arm/leg thrashing is stronger on one side, propelling her in one direction.

3. She's secretly learning breakdancing, starting with the back spin, but is a solely counter-clockwise breaker, severely hampering her breakdancing career options.

4. She's secretly learning breakdancing, starting with the back spin, but is a solely *clockwise* breaker, but I just happen to get up when she's 270-360 degrees around, and am totally incorrect when assuming I know what direction she's spinning. Regardless, her breakdancing career options are severely hampered.

5. Holly's playing tricks on me, getting up while I sleep, and repositioning Sophie.

6. She's trying to tell us that we've aligned her crib incorrectly, possibly due to bad Feng shui.

7. Maybe she's just learning to roll around. (This is the long shot option.)

Temptation...

So there I am in the kitchen, mixing up formula for Sophie, when... what's that I see behind the bottles? Mustn't... give in...

Father's Day

Dean (holding Sophie, born March 28th) and his cousin Greg (holding Dominic, born May 14th), two proud fathers celebrating their first Father's Day. We had a great picnic at Beacon Hill Park in Victoria and introduced Sophie to most of her Vancouver Island relatives.

Four generations

Today Sophia met her great grandmother Louise! She has now met two of her four great grandmothers and will meet one more on Father's Day. What a lucky baby to have such a loving family!

She's reading already!

We got Sophie a baby book called "Black & White" and she loves reading it! The other night, she was particularly interested in the chair picture. She gets so excited sometimes that she starts eating the book, high praise indeed!

Tummy Time

Sophie's gaining a lot of head control these days and can even hold her head up during tummy time. It's exciting to see how fast she develops!

Random Sophie close-up

In case you thought she was an angel

This is what Sophie looks like when she's hungry. Whether she's just a mite peckish or really quite hungry, she screams as if we're torturing her. Lest you think I was neglecting her while I snapped this shot, know that I was heating up her bottle, a process that takes several minutes. Several extremely long minutes if you have a screaming baby on your hands!

We left the fitness class early today...

Becoming a mother changes your life immensely. I knew this going in, but still find it humourous when I find myself doing seemingly bizarre things as a matter of course. For example, after my "Mom & Baby" fitness class today, I found myself emailing the instructor to apologize for the mess Sophie had left behind. We'd had a diaper blowout that penetrated Sophie's clothing and got onto a pillow and bouncy chair. Prior to this, I'd never written an email stating, "I'm sorry to have left feces in your business establishment." Life as a mom, eh?

Fists of Fury

This picture shows just how intense Sophie is about eating. As soon as she gets a bottle into her mouth, she clenches her tiny fists across her chest and stays that way throughout the feed. It seems to be her way of saying, "Don't you dare take that bottle away!"

Sophie's favourite toy

Sophie is really starting to focus more lately and she gets particularly excited when you dangle her colourful toy above her head. Her arms and legs flail about frantically as she expresses her delight in her own unique way. Endless fun!