Grass

If Sonia is cranky inside, she often relaxes and wakes up out in the sunshine. The intense light used to make her cringe and hide her face. Now she still closes her eyes but she takes little peeks to see if she can open them fully. We have been spending more time sitting in the yard. She pulls on the blades of grass. She tastes them. One day the chickens got out of the coop and were prancing around the yard but she hardly noticed that. On the other hand, she kept craning her neck to get a better view of the ruckus that the hummingbirds were making in the pine tree.








As you can tell from this photo, she is oh-so-close to laughing out loud. She gets so smilely and full of joy sometimes she can hardly make a sound. Eventually a little squeak gets out that is so close to a laugh, but just not quite.

Coy Pond

Sonia has something in common with her Grandpa Jeff and Grandma Tammy. They all love looking at fish.



When she gets fussy at their house, looking at the coy pond is her Grandpa's favorite way to soothe her. It works well, especially when he holds her face down and horizontal so she looks a bit like a fish herself.

Thirteen days ago, Sonia grabbed her rattle. It is amazing how dexterous she has become since then. She swings her hand into place, steadies it, then carefully opens her fingers and places them into position. Then she snaps her finger closed around the rattle or whatever she has fixed on. Amazing since it is something most people do without thinking about it. How is that possible? It is a pretty complex process! She is getting better and better and can now even grab stuff beside her that she cannot see. Luckily, dog hair is too small for her to grasp since her main goal is to get any and all objects to her mouth.

It will not be long before we are feeding her some real food. I almost wrote, 'adult food', but I do not know many adults who even taste rice cereal or strained peas. She looks interested in our food now. We still let her smell our food, but now I feel more like I am teasing her rather than helping her explore. Don't worry- we will post pictures when the big event happens.

Cries

When Sonia cries, she does not always want to be fed or bounced. Just a few days ago, she was screaming and not responding to jiggling and not hungry. It took me a whole ten minutes to figure out she wanted her poopy pants changed. I know, one of the basic things a baby could want, right? The thing is, she never used to mind. Not that I want her in the dirty diaper, but it never used to be the cure for her fussing. Good thing to know.

In addition to diaper, she lets us know when she wants to lie on floor or change position in our arms. It almost sounds like she is saying, "Haaaay". This is also the sound she makes when she wants us to come closer.

Wow, it seems I take days to write entries these days. It is now August 31st. I'll report on more tomorrow, but I thought I would relay the events of today. Sonia got her vaccines today and is completely wiped out. She wakes up to nurse a bit then falls back asleep. Poor baby, but lucky parents. The first time she screamed for hours off and on. I put her down for a minute about an hour ago and she gave me such a pitiful expression. Not a cry, but worse. I picked her back up and put her over my shoulder in a little baby hug. Dinner can wait until Dad gets home.

Travel

It has been a hectic couple of weeks, but we were so happy to see our family and friends. Sonia has an awful lot of loving admirers. I will try to post some of the amazing photos people took when I get them.

During our road trips, first to Dallas and then to Denver and Longmont, Sonia started clasping her hands together and putting them in her mouth. Sometimes she just holds up her hand and studies it, completely ignoring the toy I might be dangling in front of her. This new development came at a perfect time. She started getting a lot more sleep in her right eye without any redness which is classic for a blocked tear duct. Usually these clear up on their own, but in the meantime the poor baby has a messy, goopy eye. Really, I think this is harder on us then it is on Sonia, but now she can rub her eye with her little fist. I try to let her do it, but sometimes I just have to clean the goo. She is not a fan. She fusses when I do it, then lifts her fist to her mouth.

In addition to rubbing her eyes and her mouth, she is holding up her head. She can keep it pretty steady for a good half hour. This picture is from August 15th when we went to see my friend Jessica and her baby, Clyde who is about 3 months older than Sonia. Clyde is sure a charmer, and so active! Jessica and I were marveling at how far babies come in such a short time. In another 4 months or so, Sonia will probably be rolling, sitting, holding her head up all the time.

In the past few weeks, the stars have aligned to let Sonia sleep for 5-6 hours in a row at night. Ahhh... At this point I would not call it her routine, but it sure was nice. Sonia is not one for routines anyway. She does go to bed around nine every night, but she wakes up for the first time anywhere between eleven and three. Some mornings she eats every three hours, sometimes it is every forty five minutes. I remember someone in the NICU telling me that at least she would be on a schedule when she got home, but keeping that feeding-every-three-hour schedule in the NICU sometimes meant waiting to feed her when she was rooting and fussing like crazy and not changing her when we heard her poop an hour before it was time to eat. I felt like I was betraying her trust. I can see enforcing a schedule a bit later when we can distract her and talk to her more. Spoiling? Naw, we just want her to know she can trust us.

Road trip

I am sitting in the back of the car now with Donia, driving back from Dallas. Sonia is sleeping, which is her favorite road trip past time. I am using up my battery and now realizing I am losing my signal. Later...