Anna

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

Dear Anna,

You are a month old today. I thought time flew by with your big sister, but this time it’s going even faster, if that’s possible. And at the same time, I’m having a hard time remembering what life was like before you joined us. We’ve all been spending the past month figuring out how to be a family of four, but somewhere along the line it just happened, and now it’s our new “normal”. (I can’t really have you thinking that you joined a truly normal family. You didn’t. We do our best, though.)

It’s been a busy month – you’ve been out and about much more than Carolyn was at this point, because I’d go stark raving mad if I had to stay home and watch one more kids’ show. (Honestly, I think your sister might have gone stark raving mad too!) So at eight days old we took you to church, the next day we hosted playgroup, a day later we all went to the mall, and the very next day I faced my fear of taking two kids out by myself and the three of us went to the library and the farmer’s market. We haven’t looked back since.

Once again, I’ve given in to the need for every last minute of sleep I can get at night, so you are spending the vast majority of the night tucked in between me and your daddy. Your sister survived it, and as long as she doesn’t squish you when she crawls in along with us on occasion you will too – don’t worry, I’ll make sure you don’t get squished, though a bigger bed might be a good investment… Since you sleep about three hours in our bed in between wakings vs. only an hour and a half in the bassinet, this is a no-brainer. You occasionally even sleep for almost four hours. This makes for a happy (although still a bit sleep-deprived) mommy. So, thanks.

I don’t know if you’re just way too mellow for your own good, or I’m way more relaxed about things this time, but you really are the easiest baby ever. (And that’s saying something, because Carolyn was also a really easy baby too.) You sleep, you nurse, you fill up diapers, you get visibly bigger every day, and occasionally you do really cute things like chuckle in your sleep or wave your fists around and accidentally punch your sister in the nose. I won’t say that you never cry, but you honestly don’t cry more than five minutes out of an entire day. You have this funny habit of keeping your big toes pointing straight up – unless you’re asleep, and then they’re just as relaxed as the rest of your toes. I don’t know what it means, but I’m taking it as a sign of your superior intelligence.

Just for the record, your hair is not highlighted (despite the blond natural highlights) or hennaed (despite the occasional glimpse of a reddish tint). I’ve been accused of doing one or the other or both, and I don’t want you thinking when you see the pictures when you’re older that I’d do any such thing. :) Oh, and your eyes are pretty much purely gray. I’m going to guess they’ll turn brown like Carolyn’s, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

In the past few days, you’ve really started waking up and noticing the world around you. And that comes along with cute little baby cooing and gooing, and the most beautiful smiles ever. And when you’re sleeping, I get to snuggle your warm little body and drink in your perfect little dimpled hands and the delicate artist-brush eyelashes. If I could just make one wish, it would be to freeze these moments in my memory to savor for all time.

Love, Mommy