Merry Christmas!

Pater gets the whole week off! There shall be much pajama lounging and fun with baby, and we shall bake cookies.

It’s been a while since we’ve posted a real update, so I’ll share a few developments (I’ve given up on Monday Night Footbal tonight–I can’t bear to watch Favre throw another interception).

Linnaea is rolling from her back to her stomach and from her stomach to her back with ease these days. In fact, three or four times in a row I’ve found her on her tummy in her crib, and she hasn’t been upset about it. A couple of those times she rolled over onto her back after I came in. I wondered if she was rolling over before she fell asleep or after she woke up. Pater just came downstairs after putting Linnaea down for the night, and he said that she rolled herself onto her tummy to suck her thumb and fall asleep. So much for “Back to Sleep” – it’s out of our hands now!

She has two teeth coming in. The second appeared shortly after the first, and they’re both about a millimeter or two long now. Her grins just get cuter and cuter. I can’t get enough.

Her manual dexterity has really improved. She’s using what the American Academy of Pediatrics calls a “raking grasp,” using her fingers to bring things towards her thumb (as opposed to simply making a fist on top of whatever it is she wants to grab). Pater even saw her starting to use a “pincer grasp,” using just the thumb and forefinger to manipulate an object.

She hasn’t slept all the way through the night on a regular basis in a long time, but she usually wakes up only once, and she goes right back to sleep. Our current pattern is: bedtime at 9 or 10, feeding between 3 and 5, up for the day at 10 or 11. She doesn’t nap regularly (I’m happy if she snoozes for 15 minutes).

And, as always, bathtime in her favorite tub is fun (pics from 11/14/05):




Neat! Water droplets captured in mid-air! (In case you couldn’t tell, she kicks and splashes a lot. It’s hilarious.)