Lately Nora has turned from a little newborn blob into a real person. There really is something magical about that 12 week mark. Suddenly she is full of smiles and coos and makes firm eye contact. Also, suddenly, she's really good at telling you what she wants. And her cries are meaningful and communicative and not just newborn colic. Often, she is happily sitting in her bouncy seat (securely on the floor, of course) and then suddenly starts whimpering or crying. Nine out of ten times she is telling me that she has pooped. The girl cannot tolerate poop in her diaper. This is new to me as Liam would have sat in a poopy diaper all day without a peep.
Nora is working very hard the use her hands. With fierce concentration she tries to control her arms enough to make contact with her toys dangling in front of her in the bouncy seat. If she's fed and rested, she can keep herself occupied like this for long stretches of time. She has also been working hard on sucking her fingers. She gets her hand to her mouth with total ease now. But once it's there she has a hard time deciding what to do next. Her hands mostly still remain in fists so, after slobbering around for a while, she usually settles for the top of her pointer finger. A few times she has gotten a thumb in there - but it often ends in violent gagging for some reason. This is also really entertaining for me because Liam was strictly a boob guy. He had no interest in his fingers or any pacifiers.
Hands down, Nora's absolute favorite activity is bathing with Liam. We fill the big tub and then place her full baby tub in Liam's water. She is starting to learn that when I undress her in the bathroom it means bath time, because the smiles usually start then. Once she's in the water she just smiles and smiles as she stares and coos at Liam. He also loves having her in there and manages to curb his usual shenanigans so that he doesn't accidentally dunk her or something. Adding to her happiness, I think this may be the only time Nora is warm enough. No matter how many layers I put her in, she always strikes me as being cold.
Nora also seems to like being on the go. She's happy in the Bjorn, in the stroller, or in the car seat as long as they are moving. When the motion stops - watch out. Anytime we eat out I end up with a sore left arm from rocking her up and down while I sit. Total, complete motion junky. But that makes getting her to sleep very easy. She still doesn't stay awake (happily) for more than about an hour at a time. So when the crankiness sets in, we turn on the exhaust fan over the stove and rock her. The combination of the white noise and motion has her eyes drooping within minutes. When she is sleeping soundly, we lay her in her bed. We have yet to begin putting her down drowsy but awake because our current method is so easy.
In sum, we think she's pretty great- and only getting greater.
