early training

I love to receive and open packages. As a freshman in college (which admittedly, was a dark time in my personal history) I even instructed my mom to send more packages. Good mom, she did. So, I feel that my daughter should also love packages, so I'm training her early. (My husband likes what is in the packages, and somehow doesn't understand the joy of the actual opening of the box.) So here is Leni with some of her packages. While she has received packages before, this is certainly the first one that is actually bigger than her. Since this will happen less and less as she grows, it seems that she should enjoy it now. Thanks Grandma and Aunt Melissa!

my husband cracks me up

The real reason it is called "the diaper genie"

on a roll

Since mastering the roll to the side about a month ago, Leni has tried to roll over completely at various occasions - and usually stopped by that pesky extra arm. Each time I told her that I don't know how to teach her how to roll over, she would just have to figure it out herself. It's a good thing I didn't try to teach her (beside the futility of attempting to instruct a four-month old who doesn't understand the english language), because I never would have come up with her method, which she discovered on Thursday, and perfected yesterday.

She lifts her legs up straight into the air, and lets them fall to the right. Then she continues to turn her body, burying her face into the floor. She then straightens her legs to complete the rotation, which of course pins her arm underneath her. A few grunts later and the arm is free.

This process would be vastly harder if she was proportioned like an adult, but somehow with her little baby body it works just fine. It's fascinating to watch her brain go through all the steps, and the excitement the fresh perpective gives her.

and bedtime makes four

My daughter is extremely good natured. If she is crying, which is she normally is not, she has a reason. At first it was just to express that she was hungry or tired. Then she added car seats to the list (but has since outgrown that aversion - thank goodness!). Recently she has added to more reasons to complain to her list: strangers holding her and going to bed.

Yes, at four months my daughter has a full-blown case of stranger anxiety. If my husband or I are holding her the world is a beautiful place with lots of fun people to smile and interact with. If someone else is holding her, she cries as though her world is ending.

And then the real kicker - the bedtime routine. We started it recently so she would know it was bedtime, and would learn to put herself to sleep. She knows the routine already - and starts crying as soon as we start reading the book.

I suppose I could see it as sweet, that my daughter loves me so much that she actively protests any seperation, but instead I just wish she would go to bed, and let me out of the house with my husband for 20 minutes.

my daughter wears hats

We try to go outside for a little bit each day - even if it's just the walk to the mailbox. Since I'm planning to take Leni to girls camp (an idea that overwhelms me, but still feels right), I'm trying to get her used to the hat she will wear the whole time. It's still too big for her, and doesn't match a thing she owns, but I think she's adorable in it.

blog envy

My sister started blogging a while ago. I encourage all my family members to read it regularly because "it's a little slice of les right there on your computer." Then I learned of my sister-in-law's blog, then another sister-in-law started, and blog envy set in for real. I love the convenient way it is to keep up with their families, and see those I love that are far away. Surely they would like to know about us as well...

My two big concerns were the public nature of the blog - hence the pseudonyms - and the fact that I really don't have time to be doing anything in non-Leni time except my dissertation. But since I know that I can't dissertate all the time, at least this will allow the peace of mind of knowing that I am keeping track of my immediate family - and helping my more extended family and friends keep track of me. So thus starts this foray into a chronicle of our life.

ps- my daughter can put herself to sleep in her crib - WA-HOO