We think she's advanced

At first, the bouncy seat was a piece of baby gear that Piper didn't seem to like very much, but I still loved it because it was a safe place to put her while I was in the shower, brushing my teeth, etc. But over the last couple of weeks, she's really started to enjoy hanging out in the seat and has been moving around and bouncing more and more. And then yesterday afternoon I put her in the seat so that I could put laundry away, and low and behold, she discovered that she could kick the things hanging down with her feet and make them move. So she kicked and kicked for about ten minutes, clearly enjoying every minute. She did the same thing this morning as I got ready this morning. I know I just said this recently, but it is absolutely amazing to see her learn right before our eyes! And while kicking the hanging fish might not seem like a big deal, it definitely is because she spent the first 11 weeks of her life ignoring them. And the picture doesn't do it justice, but when she kicks, she blows spit bubbles out of her mouth so she ends up covered in her own slobber. Super cute, though.

The other big change I've noticed, literally over the last few days, is that Piper is just starting to enjoy her stuffed animals. Today we played with her pig and one of her monkeys and she was smiling and trying to get the animals into her mouth, bit by bit. She also seemed to be hugging them - I don't think this was really intentional, but it was definitely cute :-)

As for growing, I think she might be headed into another spurt. Yesterday, all she seemed to do was eat. She ate SO often that by the time bedtime rolled around, I felt like a walking zombie. Outside of a couple of walks that we took, I spent the entire day feeding her, and then me so that I could feed her some more. And then today she's been a tired, sleepy baby. Maybe she's just making up for the lack of long nap yesterday, but I swear her legs somehow looked longer today. She used to be all torso with short little legs, but now her legs look like they've stretched out. So many changes in such a short amount of time!

Here's my little lady in her baby bjorn. She smiles so much more often than she used to, but I never seem to catch them on camera.

Latest stats

I know what I meant to include in the last post and forgot - Piper's latest stats! She had her two month check up last Thursday (Sept 10), where she weighed in at 11 pounds 8 ounces and measured 24 inches long. She's probably bigger now (her thighs look bigger to me today), and as for how she compares to other little ones, our little peanut is 93 percentile for height and 70 percentile for weight. While she's chunking up nicely, her length is quickly putting her into 6 month clothes (the ones with feet anyway), unless we want to do some Chinese torture on her and curl up her feet. She started wearing the 6 month sleepers yesterday, and while the sleeves are a little long, the legs and feet are just right. She's growing too quickly!

Also at her 2 month check up, she had her first round of vaccines. In full disclosure, I used to do PR for one of the world's largest vaccine manufacturers, so the thought of vaccinating Piper didn't freak me out at all. I felt like a well-informed consumer and honestly was happy to know that she was on her way to being immune to some pretty nasty viruses, but what I wasn't prepared for was the mother response to watching your little one get vaccinated. The crying definitely tore at my heart strings, as it did to her dad too who wouldn't put her in the car seat afterwards to go home until she was fully content (AKA sleeping soundly). I brought home the snuggliest little baby ... all she wanted to do was be up on my shoulder, nuzzling into my neck, but then the pain must have set in because she became super fussy about 45 minutes after we got home. A little Tylenol, a 30 minute nap, and we had our happy baby back. She did have two green bowel movements later that day - and when I say green, I mean the color you would find a lawn in Seattle to be in March. Pretty as grass, but concerning when it's poop. A quick call to the nurse on call that night put our mind at ease ... it was just the rotavirus (a nasty GI issue) vaccine and she would be fine soon. Sure enough, the next poop was back to normal.

Enough about poop - it's Friday! That means we have Reid home with us all weekend starting in not too long :-) Love it!!

Digital baby book

This past weekend, Piper and I went to Boston to visit some of her many amazing aunts while Reid was at a bachelor party and it was a great trip for so many reasons. While this might seem silly, I was a nervous wreck before we left for Boston. I was worried about traveling alone with her for the whole weekend to a place that was a pretty significant drive away. I was worried about how she would travel - whether she would start screaming on the highway, whether she would sleep at Heidi's house, whether she would eat enough since I was planning on just breastfeeding and not doing any bottles of pumped milk, whether I would be able to sleep at all ... and the list goes on and on. You name it, I was worried about it, but the fact is, the weekend was GREAT and all of my worries were unfounded. Phew! Because of this, it was a pretty awesome confidence builder. If Piper and I can travel all the way to Boston and back, then a day trip here and there is easy. And just heading to Saratoga for errands and to see a friend? Piece of cake. I'm finally feeling comfortable going places with her and it feels great! The fact that this has taken over two months has been a little bit frustrating - I'm not usually a wimp.

And of course it was amazing to see some of my friends and introduce them to Piper. Over the trip, Piper also met two of her future friends - Anna (5 months old) ...

And Mariko (6 months old) ...

It was amazing to see how different Anna and Mariko were compared to Piper. I felt like I had a glimpse into her future, both from a developmental perspective, as well as a growth perspective. Both Anna and Mariko were so expressive, and BIG. I don't want Piper to grow too quickly, but it was exciting to see the types of changes that she's going to go through throughout the fall. More fun is definitely on the way!

We stayed at Heidi's parents' house, and while we were there, Heidi broke out her and her sister's baby books. It was so interesting to hear what their parents wrote way back when ... and it got me thinking - we have a keepsake box and are storing lots of fun things to go through in the future, and we are taking lots of pictures, but we don't have an official baby book where we're keeping track of her progress. But, can this count? The thought of making time to write the blog and write a baby book seems a bit overwhelming. I already have a hard time keeping up with this, but going through the baby books made me realize how important it is to keep documenting. So a priority this blog will be! Not that it wasn't one already, obviously ...

On that note, Piper has been changing like crazy. Learning and growing and becoming more of a little person. A couple of weeks ago (this pic was taken one day shy of her two month bday), she was really into sucking her hand, and every once in a while, her thumb would find its way in.

I have to admit that Reid and I weren't that excited about this. You can take a pacifier away, but you can't take a thumb away. And while I had buckteeth without sucking my thumb, why encourage the dental destruction? But at the same time, if she can soothe herself, then that is HUGE. Regardless of what we thought, she's kind of cooled down on the hand/thumb sucking anyway. Not sure what changed for her, but she appears to have lost interest.

And then, over this past weekend, Piper discovered her reflection in the mirror of her gym and was absolutely mesmerized by it.

That was probably one of my favorite changes so far because I felt like I could see her learning and changing before my eyes. The mirror has been there all along, and I've tried to show it to her before, but she never looked at it with any interest. Then all of a sudden, while I was eating a bowl of cereal, she couldn't get enough of checking herself out. She smiled and cooed at herself and was captivated for a good ten minutes. Since then, she's done that at least once a day. It's absolutely adorable! Anna has the same gym at her house and Heidi was telling me how fun it's been to see Anna's interests change over time. The hanging parrot is now her favorite and she likes to roll onto her belly and play with the elephant's crinkly ear. For those expecting little ones, I highly recommend this! http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2266983

Piper is just so cute and we are so in love. I don't really know how to put it all into words, but I love our family more than I thought was possible and am so excited for all that is to come, which will be documented here :-)

Snarfing breastmilk and monster hands

Poor Piper! She was hammering a bottle of pumped milk earlier this afternoon, very enthusiastically after sleeping for two hours, coughed and snarfed breastmilk out her nose. I felt a little bit badly because I did laugh out loud when I realized she was fine and just being a little piggy.

Earlier this week, Piper and I went to our first play date through the Meetup group, Kid's Incorporated. Obviously she's too little to appreciate a play date at this point so the play date was really for me. I've been really excited to meet other moms and their kids in the area. Having worked from home for the past almost three years, it hasn't been easy finding friends in the greater Glens Falls area, and obviously we didn't have Piper to make friends, but I think the expanded social circle is a nice side benefit of having a child. There are so many young families in the area, and even after one play date, I felt a huge since of relief. It was so nice to just hang out with a few other ladies and chat - not to mention it was nice to get out of the house and not be running an errand. Social time is a must!

She continues to grow at break neck speed, but there's one part of her in particular that may be growing faster than the rest. HER HANDS. Check out the paws ...

Reid has been scheming about which professional sport she can pursue so that we can retire and live off of her winnings. Tennis and golf have been the leading contenders - and not just because that means we'll have to have a second home somewhere where it's warm all winter long (which I think sounds great). But after seeing her hands expand over the last several weeks, I'm starting to think she's either going to be a basketball player (since she'll be able to palm a ball a age 5), or a swimmer. Hopefully she'll just grow into her mitts so we can be back to tennis or golf and not be heading to the pool at 4 am on a cold winter morning ... plus, can you imagine how much she'll get made fun of if she doesn't grow into those things? YIKES. I hope she doesn't find this blog later and hate me for it!