And the Little One Said, "Roll Over"

I've noticed that Libby finds tummy time less miserable in her crib (maybe the mattress with the elevated head puts less pressure on her tummy?), so we've been practicing in there lately. I put Ms. Caterpillar in, and Libby is fairly content for a few minutes.

So I put her in Saturday and started straightening up her room. Next time I looked at her, she was on her back. Little Ms. Libby rolled over! (Of course, she has yet to replicate the feat; however, I take it as no less a sign of her pure genuisness.)

By the way, Ms. Caterpillar is a super-awesome Leapfrog toy from Aunt Kim's family for Christmas. I highly recommend it and suspect it will grow with Libby for the next couple of years. It's called Baby Counting Pal.

**Note: My apologies if my post's title got the song stuck in your head. If it makes you feel any better, it got stuck in my head, too.

New Slideshows!

I'm finally posting the Christmas slideshow (called Christmas in Ohio). I also posted one called 4 Months because I've taken so many super-cute pictures of Libby in the last couple of days. Some of them are doing that weird shaded thing again; I can't seem to figure out why. If you wanted that picture to download, e-mail me and I'll send it to you.

I was going to post my favorite picture (the one of her with her burp cloth on her head), but Blogger isn't working right now (what a shock). Oh, well -- you can see it in the slideshow.

Our Little Peanut

Libby's still just a little bitty shrimp -- 11 pounds and 15 ounces. She's such a tiny little thing. Seeing as how Martin and I are so petite, she surely must get that genetically. I told the GI doc that I couldn't understand how I could have a child so uninterested in food, and she told me that -- alas -- Libby will likely enjoy food just fine when she's older. Enjoy the slimness while it lasts, kid.

Libby adores two main pursuits these days (God knows she doesn't send much time eating): giving expert raspberries and being a Libby Monster.

Her raspberries are bountiful and enthusiastic. I try not to take it personally when she greets me with one every time I get her from her crib. I turn on the light, she realizes I'm in the room, and "Bbbbbllllttttttt." I have a video clip of her doing raspberries to her cloth diaper burp cloth (her favorite toy these days). Someday I might even have time to post it.

The Libby Monster has nothing to do with our peanut's behavior (which, by the way, was very smiley and giggly today). The Libby Monster is the gravelly, guttural voice that Libby has learned she can make. All day long all you hear is "Grrrr." She loves it, and it's guaranteed a laugh from unsuspecting strangers.

These pictures are from a little photo shoot I did on a very smiley day last week. However, as soon as Libby sees the camera in our hands, she becomes very serious and curious as to what that infernal contraption might be.... So we never get good pictures of her smiling. This is as close as I came that day:

I will give you $1,000 dollars if you go to sleep right now

No? How about a Pony? A MacBook? A Wii? Your own apartment?

So Libby decided after her 4am feeding that, on second thought, she was done sleeping for a while. I say on second thought because she'd fall asleep, but as soon as we moved her to the crib she'd immediately wake up again. After Kerri repeated that procedure for for about a half hour I took over. 40 minutes later I finally got her to fall asleep, but only by giving up on the crib and putting her in her swing. And that left me with a whopping 20 minutes before my alarm was going to go off anyway, I just went ahead and went to work. Nothing like strolling into the office at a leisurely 6:45.

The kids just not sleeping and, the sad irony is, the less sleeps she gets, the less sleep she wants. If it was socially acceptable to put your kid in a medically induced comma, I'd so be there. Maybe I'll start spiking her formula with a little sudafed. That can't be toooooo bad for her.

Libby's La Vida Loca

Libby's had a bad few days where something clearly just ain't right. She just started Zantac this afternoon, so let's keep our fingers crossed that this will cure what ails her. If not, well, if you hear on the news that someone has been spotted swimming in Lake Michigan, it's me--trying to escape the crying, crying, crying.

In another attempt to help her, we're supposed to keep Libby upright for 30 minutes after she eats. I usually just hold her, but it's led us to try some new things to break the monotony for me. First, the Exersaucer from Grandma and Grandpa for Christmas.

[Looks at photo.] Hmmm. Well, maybe not just yet. Did have Mommy peeing herself with laughter, though, at the sight of her little applehead trying bravely to stay upright.

We propped her up with a blanket, which helped a bit. Still not quite ready for this fun, though.



Next, the Bumbo seat. A winner! Thanks to Kelly and her girls for the loan on this one. And thanks to Joane and Brian for the teddy, which Libby clearly loves. Jeez, Teddy and Libby. Get a room already!



And the last bit of news: Libby visited my old school with me last week. She was so good! The kids and teachers loved her (of course -- because she's awesome!). Here she is with my advisory (what we used to call homeroom in the good ole days). I shared a boys advisory last year. They're sophomores this year. I can't get over how mature they've gotten! Thanks to Khushali and the boys for such a warm reception.

Gaming Gals

Libby's seen a lot of the Gamers lately. First, we visited with Kelly and her beautiful girls last week. I believe the conversation when I invited myself over went something like this: "Kelly, Libby just woke up from her second half-hour nap after I've spent 45 minutes getting her down. Are you busy, or can we come visit?" Yes, Kelly, Evie, and Sophie saved my sanity that day. God bless them, one and all.


Then we met Jill and Julie for lunch. Jill works at Crate & Barrel HQ now, so we got dressed up in our fancy duds for the visit. (Well, Libby did. I'm still in maternity clothes. I really need to do something about that. Mom and Dad are coming to visit this weekend, and I plan to do a little shopping for some transition clothes.) Anyway, thanks to the Noble women for this beautiful outfit for Libby. As you can see, she looks like a doll in it!


(And thanks to Kelly and Julie for the pictures for this blog. I need to start remembering my camera more often!)

Flat Stanley

Kennedy sent me Flat Stanley to take around Chicago and write a letter to her class about my city. Libby helped me. You can see how much she liked it! Our little crab is happier now, but she still has her days (as you can see).

Lots more pictures and stories to post! I'll get around to them sometime soon.... We're working on setting up her nap schedule these days, and it seems to absorb an inordinate amount of time. Why is that?!?

Great Gobs of Grabbing

Just a quick post to tell you about the new goings-on of my genius daughter. This week she has really discovered the power of her hands and how she can control them. She is now perfectly content to sit under her baby gym for ages and ages and grab at the fishies and listen to their crinkling as she smushes them in her hands. I haven't looked it up in the week-by-week book, but I'm pretty sure this early for that. By at least ... uhhh ... four months. Yeah, that's right -- she's at least four months more genius than most babies.



Thanks to Ronda for the super-wonderful gym as a shower gift. You can see how much Libby adores it! You can also see how Nub likes it, too:


And, yes, I know. I haven't posted the new slideshow yet. I shall try to do it soon.

A Post from Kennedy

Sorry I've been silent so long. I took one look at our Christmas bills and knew I needed to start freelancing like a madwoman. I'll try to post more stuff later.

In the meantime, as I said in an earlier post, the kids were all wonderful with Libby over Christmas. It was great to have all of those nice, strong legs to pump Libby up and down (the only motion she seems to like are if you do deep kneebends or if you lift her up and down in the air).

Libby reminds me so much of my niece Kennedy with her brains and her stubbornness. Kennedy wrote this post for our blog after the visit:

I had a fun time playing with Libby. She's a great cousin. Love, Kennedy