the days fly by

seven weeks and counting...

My baby is getting so big! And she is the delight of our lives...smiling, cooing, making funny faces. We can't get enough of her sweetness.

The thing with parenting is, just when you think you've gotten it down, something changes. She was sleeping 4-6 hour stretches and then she wasn't. She was going down easy to sleep, now it's taking a while. She seemed to ease off on the nursing and then she was back to every 1 1/2-2 hours. But it is all worth it, because now in my seasoned-parent-mindfulness, I know that all things are just phases and she will soon move on to new (greener) pastures.

Our first trip to visit family has been scheduled for 3 weeks from now. We're so excited for Maddie to meet the Painter family, including Grammy and Papa, Uncles and Aunt, cousins, as well as great-grandmas and grandpa. It will be so wonderful to have her with my family after so many weeks without meeting these wonderful people.

Maddie did great on an all-day outing for her daddy's birthday. She slept in the car on the way to Napa, continued to sleep all through breakfast, nursed at the first winery, put on a smiling and cooing show for the adoring fans, slept to the next winery, nursed, and slept the way home. What a good girl!

She's also now fitting into some "big girl" clothes, much to her father's chagrin ("I'm not ready for big girl clothes! Put her back in the onesies and sleepers!") But she has so many cute outfits...I can't keep her in 0-3 forever! There are so many moments when I'm snuggling her (after nursing, in the middle of the night) when I think to myself, if I could just keep her here forever, this perfect little size with the sweet breath and kissable neck and little sighs. But I know my love will only continue to grow with each day she's with us!