Thursday, April 7, 2016

Tew Months Down, a Lifetime to Go!

Best two months of my life? Without a doubt! Not a day has gone by that I haven't been with my girl. The longest we've been apart was the short time that she was shopping at the mall with her dad while I was at The Wizard of Oz .... buying her presents, of course!  

She's growing up way too fast. I had to retire my favorite of her newborn pajamas sadly, as well as one pair of newborn pants and one regular onesie. Katura is still too small for 3 month sized onesies, so I'm getting maximum use out of her remaining newborn clothing and picked up a pack of 0-3 onesies and pajamas to get us through her transitional period. She's not a chubby baby by any means, but she seems to be gaining in length. We are not a tall people, so it will be interesting to see how much she grows and if she ends up taller than her father an I! Her little body is growing though, and she no longer wears newborn diapers. She still seems a tad small for her fancy* new style of cloth diapers, but I'm sure the day we start using them isn't far away! *I say "fancy" because people don't do the old school cloth with the diaper pin stuff anymore. These have buttons and cute colors and patterns and pictures all over them, easily adjustable to grow with her!

My upstairs living room has become an annex of her downstairs nursery. She has her own baskets set off to the side, one for clothes, one for burp clothes and one for her toys and books. Obviously she doesn't understand what I read to her yet, but she sure does enjoy story time, especially There's A Wocket in my Pocket!, a book of ridiculous rhymes by Dr. Seuss. If she could actually make laughing noises, I'm sure she would have when we read that for the first time!

Even though she doesn't make laughter noises yet, her dad and I get our fair share of big smiles and adorable squeaks during playtime on the floor. She has a play mat with piano keys to kick at, and boy does she love to use those big feet to kick and make music! Her favorite toy so far is a danging green frog that tinkles when she hits it. At times she refuses to even let go, which means her frog joins us for things like diaper changes and every ride in the car!

Katura loves her car rides, and is getting quite the musical education when she travels. Her dad tries to introduce her to Aerosmith and AC/DC while I let her listen to Broadway, hip hop and Jimmy Buffett! We have an new thing going, and that is the newly discovered fun of doing laundry. What? Yeah! I bring everything up and put it on my bed. She "sits" in her Boppy pillow and watches. We listen to music while I sing and dance and put away the laundry. I've even got her to start moving her arm with me all by herself! Favorite laundry song for her? "Life is a Highway", the Rascall Flatts version from the Cars soundtrack.

She's discovering her hands and that they are fun to suck on. Perhaps she'll discover her thumb soon? I woke up this morning to the sound of her sampling her hand and it was adorable! Bath time is still her favorite. She loves to "swim" while rinsing off. I hold her head and neck while the rest of her floats. She gets the cutest look of happiness and calm on her face. It's like she's at her personal little spa! Also she is trying hard to master lifting and holding her head up. Her hair is a new discovery, and I catch her grabbing hold of it more and more. She's making progress and growing up way too fast!

In this second month of life she had her first to the Wildlife Safari. She didn't exactly stay awake the whole time, but it was still fun to take her there and visit the animals in the village. **If you're looking for something free to do some afternoon, you don't have to pay to go into the village, FYI!

And what about me and my life as a mom? Well, I learned once you push a baby out you cease to exist and all eyes are on the baby. Can you blame anyone for that though? She is so darn cute! I am loving being her mommy. We are together non-stop and it makes me dread going back to work and leaving her for four hours a day. There seems to be a popular misconception in the universe that I was just a surrogate and went through years of trying to conceive and an obscene number of injections and drugs, pregnancy and labor so that my mom would raise her and not me. Um, no. Not going to happen. Pretty sure I am capable and I will do a fine job of raising her in my own way. So far she and I are having a blast together!

I don't miss work at all. I check my work email every day to forward along any important messages and voicemail that made it to my account. I still keep in contact regularly with a gal at work that is just too darn sweet. I certainly do not miss the negativity that wafts through occasionally. Heck I am not even there and people still gossip about me over the stupidest things that have absolutely nothing to do with them. Hello, Bitter party of 3, we have your table ready in the corner! 

I've been taking Katura on walks pretty often, and it feels great to be back out there on my old running trails. I bought a new Garmin since I lost one of mine, and it has made me so antsy to resume running and racing. I have to go buy some new clothes I think. Umm.... my old shirts are a little too tight now given the fact that I am always nursing a baby and have developed these ginormous boobs that I've never had. 

And with that, I have  our Eddy Arnold songs playing (she's clearly my Mini-Me with this one!) and we have some laundry and dancing to do together!