Letters to Lyla and Lottie

• She can see at greater distances which includes from the couch to the tv! This is a problem for me because I tell her she's only allowed to watch 30 mins of TV a day but she disobeys! If it's on, she's watchin.
• She does this funny thing with her hands when she's sleeping. It's like she's revving a motorcycle.
• She has grown very thick and long eyelashes (didn't get that from me!)
• She coes now when she smiles and almost giggles
• Her hair is kinda falling out (has a few bald spots)
• Her hand-eye coordination is scarily good. She has this playmat thing with different things that make noise, etc. She grabs right on with interest. She also enjoys pulling out her dad's chest hair and pulling on my shirt while she eats.
• The other day in the early morning she grabbed on to my garments and rubbed the silkiness on her face.
• At 8 weeks she rolled over. No lie. I lied her on her back on her playmat, walked 2 feet to grab the camera, turned back around, and she was on her tummy. Freaked me right out.
• She has become a spoiled breast feeder. If my let down isn't immediate she throws a mini tantrum. It's funny.
• She is alert and awake most the day and enjoys looking around at things.
• She is sleeping much better-with about a 5 hour stint at night. Feeding in bed laying down has been a godsend. It allows me to snuggle her and dose while she eats.
• She LOVES riding in the baby byorn (presumably because it allows her to be upright, helping with the reflux). I do all my cleaning and computer work with her in it. Lately she's been riding face out and she looks about at different eye-catching things.
• She has taste discrimination. Her reflux meds are bubble gum flavored and she laps that stuff up! Her vitamins are butt flavored (like really bad-you can smell it across the room) and she spits it out!
• She is discovering her tongue. It's like she's not sure what that big messy thing is in her mouth. She smacks and sucks on it slobbering profusely in the process.
• She understands and recognizes the feeding trough and gets excited and pants when she sees it.
• She has had two bottles from dad (with me watching like a left-out middle schooler from across the room) and she loved them...but was a little miffed about the easy flow of the bottle (i.e. milk squirted all over her face).
• The other day she manged to get poop up to her shoulder blades.
• She enjoys her bath like a high society woman enjoys the spa. We have an facet that detaches so I put her bath on the counter and have warm running water the whole time she bathes. She stretches out, closes her eyes, and looks completely content.
• She has porked out a bit. Her thighs have major rolls and her knees have dimples.

Mostly she is constantly developing and evolving. It's almost impossible to keep up. I love her so much my heart physically aches at times when I look at her. On another note, I have absolutely loved watching her relationship grow with dad. He has already informed her that she can't get married until she's 30. He tells her all the need-to-know BYU sports trivia and speaks to her like she is 15. I always thought I would be the push over and Todd would have to be the disciplinarian, but I was sorely wrong I think. When he dressed her the other night he sneakily left her mittens off (the mittens I make her wear religiously) because "she doesn't like them". He prolongs diaper changes because "they stress her out" (perhaps that one is just a ploy to get out of changing though!) and habitually takes off her bow the minute he sees her because "they bug her". I think we're in trouble because we're clearly....

Head over Heels

• You wake soaking wet and can't decided if it's from sweat (because the thermostat now rests at a reasonable 80 degrees), drool, or if it's just an untimely little expression from those lovely little humps that used to be sexual... not share a purpose with a freaking milk cow.
• Your greatest achievement of the day is honing in on the perfect oxyclean to spray N wash ratio for removing the stubbornest of blow outs
• Your night stand that used to hold expensive lotions, books of intellect, and dare I say, *nightime items* have been replaced with diapering essentials, an extra pj in the unfortunate case of a nightime blowout, butt paste, books with titles like, "the baby whisperer" and the remains of an umbilical cord (shameful, but true).
• You've grown accustomed to things leaking from every single oraphus (sp?) in your body. If you're wondering what comes out the rear you've obviously never experienced something that starts with a hem and ends in a ROID.
• You don't make it through the shower without poking your head out at least once to listen for crying'
• Time lacks no meaning except to mark the space between feedings and the number of weeks since birth.
• You are shocked when you hear about the weather because you haven't been outside in days.
• the color and/or texture of the latest dump makes scintillating dinnertime conversations
• The only math you do is to measure out MLs of medicine, note the most recent weigh in, and of course, to count the number of poopy and wet diapers made in a day.
• The term sex now only has one definition: male or female.

....you get the point.

It's a wild, beautiful, amazing ride