A chilly walk

Today there was a chilly wind (ok, chilly for Sacramento in October) when we went for our morning walk, and so I put on this hat (crocheted by my Lance's coworker Adrianne) on Judith. She turned her head from side to side trying to get it off, but otherwise she really didn't complain about it.

We walked through a more affluent neighborhood near here. It's an older neighborhood, and there are lots of trees overhanging the road and shading the houses. I would imagine that the people actually know their neighbors, and have kids that play together! We even saw two flocks of wild turkeys wandering around! It seemed almost a different state.

Also, what you can't see in the picture is that for the first time Judith has a red ring around her mouth from her pacifier. She fell asleep halfway through the walk, and apparently sucked on it hard enough in her sleep to leave the mark. How she can do that in a moving vehicle, but lose her pacifier every five minutes in her crib is beyond me! :-)

deep conversations

As I write this, Judith is lying in her crib happily chatting with the mobile. I had gone back to bed for a little nap this morning, and she woke me with her noises - but then I realized that they were happy noises, and so I'm leaving her in there until that changes. It is so amazing to listen to her!

In other updates: yesterday we drove up to Auburn to surprise Grandma Sandy at her store. Judith did just fine during the car ride (35-40 mins each way) even though she didn't sleep on the way up. I could hear her periodically sucking on her fingers. She was a little tired at the store, and perhaps a little overstimulated by all the noise/lights/colors/smells/people. But she slept on the way home and was fine the rest of the day.

Music

This is one of those time (more frequent recently!) that I wish I had a video camera. What these pictures don't show is that Judith is crowing and squealing (quite musically, of course) while Lance plays to her. It was so fun to listen to! I'm not sure whether or not he's played to her before, but this is the first time that I remember her responding so enthusiastically.

I also sing to her all the time (she doesn't mind if I'm out of tune!). I sing a wide variety of things, and I have fun making up new words to old songs. Some of our favorites:
With apologies to CCR: "I put a bib on you - 'cause you're mine. I put a bib on you - I ain't lyin. I won't take none of your spitting around."
With apologies to the Beatles: "Hey Judith, it's time to eat. Mama's milk is really yummy. Remember to let it under your skin; then you begin to fill your tummy."
With apologies to Abba: "and like a super pooper nights are gonna find me, smiling back at you, feelin' like a number two."

In good Sjoerdsma family tradition, she also enjoys "The Wreck of the Old 97," "Good morning to you", and Carole King's "Child of Mine".

hair!

As you can see in the picture (I hope), Judith has hair growing in. She still has patches of the long hair that she was born with, but especially on the top of her head she has all new hair. It's quite a bit blonder than what she was born with, but not quite as blond as I expected given the toddler pictures of Lance and me. I have fun rubbing her head now - it's fuzzy!

Update

I've been going longer between blogs lately, partly because I've been a little busier, but mostly because I feel like I have less to write about. I'm thinking about just chronicling what we do each day (some days will be quite boring!) instead of trying to find something momentous to blog about.

Judith continues to grow. She is now almost completely out of the 3 month clothes, although I keep trying to squeeze her into some of my favorites. I've gone through and cleaned out all the 0-3 and 3 month outfits, washed the 3-6 month stuff, and moved them into the top drawer. 3-6 is a little big, but not much!

In the past week I've started to really use all the bibs we got. Judith is spitting quite a bit, but it's more like constant leak than big spits. It means that if she doesn't wear a bib she soaks through her outfits within an hour. So now she just gets a new bib frequently! Fortunately we have LOTS.

She also finds her fingers almost whenever she wants them now, even if it means contorting herself to reach them. It's fun to watch her strain for them, and then examine them closely and pull them in and out of her mouth. It's a game that can last half an hour sometimes! Whether or not she gets them seems to correspond to her level of tiredness...which means that the pacifier is still her preference at bedtime or naptime.

Her sleep patterns have been a little wacky again. She's back to 10-6 (praise God!) but nap time is a little confused. Last weekend she seemed to be sleeping about 45 minutes and then waking up. On Monday she slept about 1.5 hours out of every 3 (that's about normal). On Tuesday she slept about 3 hours the entire day! And today she slept about 2 hours out of every three. I'm sincerely hoping that she will be back to "normal" tomorrow, and not repeating Tuesday. I'm thinking that she might be trying to move from lots of little naps to just a couple longer ones. We'll see.

Birthday

Today is my 33rd birthday. Lance "helped" Judith to make me a card! He said he put the pen in her hand (like all infants, she has a phenomenal grip) and held the paper up. It was while she was trying like mad to get her thumb in her mouth, so she moved her hand all over and made quite the picture...although Lance did have to sign her initials for her. Beautiful!

If you had asked me a year ago, on my 32nd birthday, if I thought I'd have a child by my next birthday, I'd have said not only was it extremely unlikely, it was also quite cruel of you to bring up such a painful subject (and on my birthday no less!). And now, a year later, God's faithfulness and grace, and my husband's courageous faith have given me more than I could ever have dreamed of. Happy Birthday to me!

sleeping

After her growth spurt, Judith's sleep patterns have been all messed up. She still goes 8 hours between feedings, but she's now almost impossible to wake at 10:00 p.m. for the last feeding, so, instead, she sleeps 8-4 or 9-5. Given that she usually goes right back to sleep for three hours after her first feeding of the morning, that's not so bad - except that I don't go to sleep at 8 or 9, and my body had finally adjusted to her old schedule...and now everything's 1-2 hours off from that. It's extremely frustrating for someone who really likes to stick to a schedule! But yes, I know, babies are unpredictable, and God's teaching me to loosen up. I just pray for naps.