Photos and milestones

It's always interesting for me to see what ends up on my blog when I log in with no particular post in mind, but I wanted to post some new pictures of Valerie, and I prefer to put some context around them.



We spent the afternoon at Jeremy's parents' house yesterday. I derived more amusement than I probably should have at how the pattern of her sleeper camouflaged her against the pattern of the blanket. So I took a lot of pictures. Because I am silly like that.

It had been a week since I took any pictures of Valerie. She had a stomach bug this week, and she wanted to be held constantly. Which I was happy to do for her, most of the time, but it meant that I had very few opportunities to photograph her. I did my best to catch the bug from her, but it took me until Friday to do so, in spite of kissing her constantly. I never thought I would try to get sick before - motherhood is a funny thing. Once I caught (a very mild case of) the stomach bug, we were both over it by the next day. Breast milk is an amazing thing.



Valerie has been growing a lot this week. I don't know how much she weighs or how long she is, because I don't own a very accurate scale and I can't find the tape measure. But her legs are now too long for her newborn sleepers, although the newborn onesies still fit, so I think she is all leg. There is potentially a modeling career in her future, if the whole E.S.P. thing turns out to be simply a coincidence. Or, she could possibly make a career of projectile pooping. Two blowouts in one day! Hooray!



Twenty minutes after this picture was taken, Valerie pooped her way through the diaper, the tights, and the adorable, little, blue dress. That's what I get for trying to play dress-up.

This week was also punctuated by several non-poop-related milestones. She had been sortof smiling for a while, but this week, she started to really, for real, smile. She smiled at me for the first time three or four days ago, then she smiled at Jeremy the next day. Today, she has smiled at me at least three times, and every time is still extremely exciting. I have yet to capture her smile on film, but I can assure you that it is big, and bright, and beautiful.

She is also getting stronger every day. She holds her head up really well, and actually held it up for almost an entire minute the other day. She pushes with her legs so much that she has almost propelled herself off of my lap on several occasions. And just now, as I was holding her against my side, she pushed down on the couch, raising herself briefly to a standing position.

Oh, and this is very exciting, for the past three nights, we have spent more nighttime hours asleep than awake! I know it might not last, but it sure has been nice! Besides, she is so beautiful when she's asleep...

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