19 Weeks... Family!

If you are anything like your dad it will take you a while to appreciate your family.  Yes they are nice to have around and can be fun to play with, but the real significance of family didn't sink in for me until some time around my mission.  And I still learn every day how meaningful a kind and loving family is.  Not just for growing up in and living with, but in an eternal perspective.  The quicker you learn that last one the better off you will be.  But you are a girl so you already have a head start in the loving department.

Anyways, we took a trip to your Gramma and Grandpa Compton's this last weekend in Wapato.  I hope they stay there forever because it is so nice to be able to go back there and have a room for everyone and spend time with family.

You got your first REAL experience with your cousins Chloe and Bryson.  Sure you had seen them before but all you could really do was stare at each other for a while and then cry or keep staring.  This time Bryson was walking around and Chloe, well Chloe is still mellow and likes to lounge.  You could take some lessons from her on chilling out and calming down some.  But Chloe got propped up and you guys really got to experience each other for the first time.

Your daddy grew up at Gramma and Grandpa's house and he had lots of cousins there all the time.  We didn't always play nice.  Sometimes your uncle Jacob would get some of the cousins and be kinda mean to your dad because he was a little smaller, a little slower and really easy to get angry.  But most of the time we had good laughs and had lots to do.  I really hope that you get to have some kind of similar experience with all of your cousins and second cousins.  You already have a great group that are close to you in age.  I can only hope that you are close enough geographically to get together often.

That also makes me hope that even if you are geographically close enough to be in the same school or spend every day together that you make good friends.  I hope you develop good social skills and make life long friends that you can share your life and heart with.  I hope you can be the instigator of conversation and laughter.  I hope that you aren't shy.  I hope your mom and I aren't embarrassing to you and you feel comfortable inviting people over to socialize.  I want you to live life unafraid to be yourself with the only restrictions being living according to the gospel.

I think you are on the right track for that.  But for now... you are mine!

18 Weeks. Definitely Teething

So here we are at 18 weeks.  What do we have to show for it?  Nothing.  But we are 99% sure that you are teething.  If we weren't convinced before we sure are now.  You don't like to suck on your pacifier any more.  You want to chew on it.  You want all of your toys in your mouth not to feel, taste or learn.  You want to chew on everything!  When you get a hold of my hand and chew on it even without teeth and I amazed at how much it hurts.  Almost to the point of wanting to say "OW!"

As of your official 18 week mark we hadn't crossed into the cranky, fussy, can't-handle-the-pain teething stage.  I think as of last night (3 days after the 18 week mark) we have crossed that line.  You don't want to sleep, which is no real surprise since you have been fighting sleep for months now.  You don't want to chew on things for longer than half a second.  You don't want to stand.  You do want to lay down for a while but that gets old fast, especially laying on your tummy.  You just want the pain to stop.  Guess what?  It's just the beginning.  Your mom and I are so thrilled! (Sarcasm by the way.)

Regardless of the crying and whining, we still love you so much.  It really hurts me to see you suffer and not be able to find a happy place.  But such is life and growing up.  One day it will dawn on you that that is just how life goes.  But that is several years down the road.  Unless you are smarter than I am, which is a constant hope of most parents.

Little girl you bring such happiness into my life.  I was telling your mom the other day that some times I still can't believe that you are ours.  It's like you are just some baby that we are watching for a while and then it hits my brain that, nope, this is my baby and she is here to stay.  And I am STILL overwhelmed by the responsibility and life-changing aspects of it all.  Normally I am fine going with the flow and not having everything planned.  But I find myself with you wanting to know every little detail.  I want to know how we are going to pay for your wedding and college.  I want to know what schools you are going to go to, who your friends are going to be, what hobbies and activities you will want to do.  The uncertainty of it all just kills me!  I want to know who you are!  But you don't even really know who you are yet.  And I think discovering that together will be a great adventure.  One that I don't want to miss.

4 Months! Mobility?

So here we are and you are one third of a year old!  It really does seem that you just got here the other day.  And yet it seems like you have been with us forever.  Funny how life is.

Since your monthly milestones are so close to your weekly milestones I really don't have much to report.  Just some AWESOME videos and photos of you working on getting mobile!!

Here is an awesome video of you laughing (not mobility but still awesome).  It is getting much easier to make you laugh.  In fact, today as I am finishing this post you are very ticklish!  You are just laughing up a storm.

This next video is of you reaching for things in front of you.  That can only mean that you will be crawling soon.  While we are excited about that, we are also a little worried about you getting around.

And here is a photo your mom got at the same time as the video.  I think it sums up all our beliefs in your ability to start crawling soon.

How exciting!  I think we are due for some big changes soon.  And I think you would agree, too, if you could.

17 Weeks and Being Consistent

So what can I say about your turning 17 weeks old?  You are being consistent.  In some things.  Sure you don't sleep on a real schedule and your poopy diapers are thinning out, but some things you are getting more regular on.  Like laughing!  You have laughed several more times from tickling and other random things.  For example, the other day your face needed wiped up and your mom noticed that when she was wiping your face you were smiling.  So she wiped your face again.  And you chuckled.  And the more she wiped your face the more you laughed!  It was awesome!!

What else have you done that is consistent?  You rolled over on camera!  Don't believe me?  Here's the proof.

Pretty soon you will be parroting back words that we say and walking all over the house destroying things.  But it is OK because you will look so cute doing it.