Dear Nora,

We are officially two months into this adventure. It seems to go by so quickly for me, but to put it in perspective: By the time you are 18 years old, you will have already lived for 216 months, and with many, many more months and years to come. So this is truly only the beginning, my love.

New this month is smiling. You began cracking what I called “starter smiles” around five weeks old, but they graduated into full-fledged, beautiful, crinkle-faced smiles when you were exactly six weeks old. Now, we can’t get enough of them. I’d say that the majority of my and Daddy’s time with you is spent trying to make you smile. Not a bad way to live life, is it?

Your “happy place” is your changing table, oddly enough. It seems that even when you are cranky, and even when you are feeling very serious, we can put you on the changing table and you become happy. You kick your legs and move your head back and forth and flash smiles at us.

Sometimes, I’ll be holding you as I’m doing something—maybe grabbing something in the kitchen, throwing laundry in, or picking your outfit for the day—and I’ll suddenly hear this little happy sound come from you. It’s almost like a little giggle. I’ll look at you to find you smiling from ear to ear at me. It makes my heart melt.

Oh, and as wonderful as it is to be able to see your full smile unobstructed, there is something that is just too cute about seeing a big smile peeking out from behind a pacifier.

You’ve also learned the opposite of smiling—you have learned how to frown! It’s more like a pout, actually. You stick your lower lip out and it is the most pitiful thing I have ever seen. I know for sure you will be using that face as a weapon against us in your future. When you wear that expression, I’m pretty sure I’d do just about anything to make you happy again.

You are so much more alert this month. You stare at Daddy and me, or whoever is holding you, and you take in every sound, every facial expression, every movement. You stare at lights and colors and objects (like the camera!), and it’s almost as if I can actually see your brain absorbing it all.

We’ve been trying to get you to enjoy tummy time, so you can continue to strengthen your neck muscles, learn how to push up on your arms, and eventually develop the skills to roll over. The trouble is that when it comes to tummy time, you’re just a teensy bit lazy. You’ll hold your head up high for a few seconds, but then you push your face into the blanket and lie there. You’re such a little stinker.

We are still going strong with breastfeeding. It used to take some effort to get you latched sometimes, but now you go right on like you know exactly what you’re doing (and you do). Although I’ll admit to multi-tasking during your feedings sometimes, I do love to take some quiet time to just focus on you and stare at your little features while you feed. One thing you’ve started to do that I especially love is that you “hold on” with your hands. When you put your tiny hand on my chest, it’s like you are trying to make sure that I’m not going anywhere. It’s such a small gesture, but I love it so much.

For the most part, you have continued to be a fantastic sleeper. Seriously, we are so blessed. This month, we’ve worked to try to figure out what works best for you. We’ve made several adjustments in how we handle your sleep, most of which have been driven by your “signals.” Several weeks ago, you started on a kick where you slept through the night—like 10-11 p.m. to 7-8 a.m. It was awesome, and we were ecstatic. But as soon as that started to seem routine, you changed things up on us. You started to wake up frequently throughout the night—not to eat or anything, but just to make grunting noises and move around a lot. It was frustrating for you and for us. I could tell you weren’t as well rested as you should be.

For help, I started reading a book called Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. I discovered that perhaps we were doing you a disservice by waiting to put you to bed at our bedtime. We started being more observant of your sleep patterns throughout the day, and began paying more attention to the signs of sleepiness. As a result of those things, we started putting you to bed at 9 p.m. After a few days of that, you seemed to want to go to bed even earlier, so we moved it up to 8:30. Now, you rarely make it to 8:15! Not only have you been going to bed earlier, but you’ve been sleeping longer. Your current routine is to go to bed at 8:15 p.m., wake at 6 a.m. for a feeding in our bed, then go back to sleep until 8-9 a.m. So, yeah… you’re a rockstar. Still, you’re very young, so I’m already expecting you to throw us another curveball and switch things up again soon. We’ll see what happens!

Last weekend, I packed away my maternity clothes. It made me a little sad to fold everything and put it away in a box. As much as I love having you on the outside, there was also something so very special about having you on the inside. Even more sad, though, was that I had to pack away some of your clothes. I started with all of your little Halloween-themed outfits and jammies, and I was so sad to look at how tiny they are and know that you will never wear them again. I’m afraid that all of your newborn-sized clothes will not be far behind. You are definitely outgrowing them, Angel Face. Cue the tears for Mommy!

Tomorrow, we will take you to the pediatrician’s office to get you weighed and measured. You’ll also receive a batch of vaccinations, which I’m not looking forward to at all. When you got the Hepatitis B vaccine, the scream you let out was so sad that it nearly made me cry, too. Thankfully, it was only for a few seconds, and you were easily comforted—after all, it was only one shot. But tomorrow? Yikes, I’m scared! At least I know you will not remember all of this.

You *LOVE* baths (especially the part where I wash your hair). You kick your legs in the water and you will hang out in there as long as we let you. Your eyes are lightening and becoming more blue. You could stare at the owl mobile above your swing for hours. You make the cutest little sounds (I can’t wait for you to start “talking” to us). You are starting to find things with your hands and grip onto them. Your crazy toes continue to make me giggle on a daily basis. You rarely cry. You are the world’s best snuggler.

Simply, you are the greatest joy in our lives.

Daddy and I often look at you and say to each other, “I just love her so much.” It’s overwhelming sometimes, the love we feel for you. And it only seems to get stronger with time.

Happy 2 Month “Birthday,” Nora Grace.

With all of the love in my heart,
Mommy