Dear Anna,
You have changed so much in the past month, you’re like a completely different baby! For one thing, you now have eyebrows. Actually, they’re still so light and fine I’m probably the only one who notices the difference.
Let’s see. You started waking up and noticing the world more. You smile, a lot, and it’s pretty funny what we’ll all do to get you to do it again. I’d smile a lot too if two adults and a medium-sized kid were all cooing and gooing and making goofy faces at me just so I’d smile one more time. You have no interest in toys unless they have faces, so at the moment you mainly adore the teddy bears hanging on the mobile over your pack & play, your “Anna Bear”, and the approximately seven billion other stuffed animals and dolls scattered throughout the house.
You’ve become quite a bit more vocal. You’re still a fairly quiet baby, but sometimes you talk to us – “gaa”s and “eh!”s and other little baby noises. And sometimes you outright chuckle in your sleep, big belly laughs that make me wonder what kind of jokes those angels are telling you in your dreams!
You are fast becoming a dedicated thumb-sucker. It takes you quite a while to actually find the right appendage and get it just so, but when you do it’s there to stay…until you decide you’re hungry. I don’t know why I find it so cute, but the sight of you with that teeny-tiny thumb stuck in your mouth makes me smile. I swear, it’s like 1/2 an inch long, it can’t really be all that satisfying, can it?
I’m worried that just typing this will completely jinx it, but you’ve slept seven hours straight for three nights in a row now. Not always seven hours that I’m actually in bed, but it’s definitely a start! You’re still not interested in sleeping in your crib for any length of time (seriously, you wake up within two minutes of being put in there) but I don’t think your big sister was at this point either!
The amazing thing is, even though I’ve been through this all with your big sister, it’s still all new and different. The first few weeks you were here I spent ages searching for her features in your face and comparing what you did when with what Carrie did when. Then I realized that no matter how similar – or different – the two of you may be, you’re two entirely different people, so I have to just wait to get to know you the way I got to know her. I can’t get over how much you change every single day – you barely resemble the brand new person I met just two months ago, and I wonder what discoveries I’ll make about you tomorrow.
Love, Mommy