Five more things...

1) In the last three days, Reilly’s vocabulary has increased noticeably. Instead of simple babble like “da-da-da-da-da” or “ma-ma-ma-ma-ma,” she has started to mix her syllables. The result is something like, “ma-da-pa-ma,” which is not only more developed, but exponentially cuter. For the first time, it really seems as if Reilly is trying to form words. It is still so shocking to me how Reilly can just flick a switch one day and quite suddenly become a totally different little person.

2) Reilly is now an official graduate of sleep training. She goes to bed at 7:00pm without any crying, and sleeps all the way through the night without waking up to breastfeed. Her naps have lengthened from thirty minutes to one hour and thirty minutes. To say how this has changed the lives of Reilly’s parents should be obvious. What is surprising is how twelve hours of straight sleep has benefited our daughter. The extra rest has made Reilly a more hungry, happy, and healthy baby.

We have the Sleep Lady to thank for it. Her book, "Good Night, Sleep Tight" was a kinder, gentler way to sleep train our baby. It only took three nights to see dramatic results, and a week to have a routine in place. Sleep Lady, I could kiss you.

3) This morning, we all went out for breakfast at French Roast café. To keep Reilly occupied while we ate, we gave her some Cheerios to eat. Reilly has grown very adept at feeding herself finger foods, putting away a Cheerio every ten seconds. She’s like a tiny vacuum.

After our meal, while we were waiting for our check, we broke out the Cheerios again, since Reilly was getting a little fussy and impatient. This time, instead of feeding herself the Cheerio, she turned back to me and put it in my mouth. Then she tried to get her finger in my mouth to get it back. When Reilly saw that I had eaten it, she picked another one up from the table and stuck it in my mouth. We continued this cute ritual until the Cheerios ran dry.

4) Now that it is warm enough to take Reilly outside without a hat on, we’ve noticed all the colors in her hair. Her hair is lightening by the day, and if you look at each strand in the sun, you can see a bit of red in there too. The big question is, will she end up a blonde?

5) Reilly is very good at tolerating her parent’s crazy whims. Yesterday morning, before I stepped out to the Farmer’s Market, I wondered aloud if Reilly would fit in our Earth Day bag. (The Earth Day bag is just one of those woven bags that we use at the market to avoid having to use plastic bags.) So, Donna picked her up and put her in, and Shawn started snapping pictures: