This week we had a momentous “first” from Reilly—she laughed! Shawn was holding her, and her dad and mom were making silly noises and faces, and then Reilly wiggled and said, “ah-ha!” I mocked her, and said, “ah-ha” back at her, and it wasn’t until Shawn said, “She just laughed!” that I realized what our little girl had done. Though Reilly has yet to repeat this feat, Shawn and I have not let up in our acts of silly persuasion.
Reilly has decreased her spit bubbles this week, instead increasing her “conversations” with us. She will talk to anyone and anything. She will talk to her mom, she will talk to her doll, she will talk to her dad cooking dinner and she will talk to the pot that he is stirring on the stove. Her favorite thing to do is stick all four fingers in her mouth and then talk a blue streak.
We’ve been watching with interest and some trepidation as Reilly becomes more adept at rolling herself over. Though she has yet to complete the process all by herself, she seems on the verge. This morning she nearly had it while she was playing in her crib. She threw up her leg, twisted under her arm, and made it to her side, teetered there for a moment, then fell backwards and cried in frustration. As a result of this soon to be developed skill, Shawn and I have to watch Reilly closely when she is in her swing, her changing table, and on the bed, lest she finally decide to roll over when we’re not looking. Yet another thing to worry about!
At 14 weeks, Reilly has become proficient at taking a bottle, a duty that usually falls to me, since Shawn has to pump simultaneously. As parents, this new development is key, as it now allows Shawn to leave her baby for more than four hours at a time (not that she ever wants to). In fact, I write this entry as Reilly sits next to me in the swing, drowsing in the warm room, as her mother has dinner with her friends Kristi and Christi, who came to visit this weekend. (More spoiling from her “aunts!”) Reilly’s ability to take a bottle is also important for her transition to daycare, which is coming sooner than we all want to admit.
Shawn and I toured our first daycare (FedKids) this week, and though we felt comfortable with the location, facility, and teachers, it was still difficult to imagine her all alone at the place. Of course, this is not a hang-up for Reilly, but for her parents. Shawn and I still can’t believe we are parents, and it would be nice to get used to the idea before we begin to let others parent our baby for two days a week. Then again, if we don’t get going, we’ll never find a place to enroll Reilly anyway—FedKids declined our application—the daycare was already full for January 1, 2006!
“Full?” we asked.
The woman who had led our tour looked back at us. “Yes, we’re full until next September.”
“I guess we should have started earlier,” I said.
The woman looked at me with arched eyebrows, and it made me feel a bit unworthy to be a father. This parenting stuff never gets easier, does it?
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