dear clara (one month)

Dear Clara,

Today you are one month old. Although I'm not really sure about the whole age thing exactly... the months vs. weeks dilemma that I encountered during pregnancy doesn't really go away until we start counting your age in years instead of months or weeks. So, to be exact, I suppose right now you are one calendar month old, or four weeks and two days old. Same diff.

You have most definitely grown over the last month, but I don't know exactly how much you weigh since baby weight is also micro compared to big person weight. Our home scale puts you somewhere right around 8 pounds, which is nearly 33% greater than you weighed when you were born. Congratulations are in order, because this also means you finally outweigh Owen. And according to the precise measurements accorded by the length of my thighs when I have you lying on my lap, you have also gotten taller. Your little legs, although still pretty scrawny, are starting to resemble baby more than chicken, and your sweet soft baby tummy is definitely getting fuller and rounder. You most definitely have your daddy's mouth, and are starting to use it to create some hilarious and adorable expressions. You also use it to torture me with crying and squawking, but this thankfully doesn't happen often unless you are hungry or fighting sleep. (Why fight the sleep little one? Don't you know how valuable the sleep is????) And I'm slowly getting better at listening to you when you do cry without wanting to burst into tears myself.

In the last two weeks, you slept through your first movie in a theater (The Departed), we learned how to breastfeed in public without flashing everyone in sight, you made your debut at LMU (to much acclaim), and you charmed your way into the hearts of a whole slew of aunties, uncles, and cousins on both sides of the family who had been dying to meet you. (And lest you think you've met everyone in the family, you're probably about halfway there. We have a very large extended family. A very large, crazy, extended family.) You had your first babysitter, who, despite some table-pooping, sock-losing, and screaming (on your part, not Uncle Mike's, as far as we know), still loves you and might actually want to babysit again. And, hooray, you are slowly starting to come around to bathtime, which we think you like because you tend to protest loudly once the actual bathing event is over and the drying and the dressing begins. You are definitely a Hazlitt, because you looooooove getting your eensie amount of hair washed and your head scrubbed. I think you'd probably be one happy little bunny if you spent all day with your head under the kitchen sink faucet.

Unfortunately I don't have many new pictures to post because we left the camera, which is chock full of recent photos waiting to be downloaded, at your great-aunt Helen's last night. (Bad parents!!) As soon as we get the camera back, I'll update this and be sure to post extra pics for good measure.

I can't wait to see what the next month will bring. Smiles? Laughs? A tiny saddle constructed for the dog so that you can ride around the house on his back?

I love you, my funny little turtle.
Mama