Week Ten!

Holy shit, Val! Your age is now double digits. You're both so big now, and yet, still so small. It seems unreal that 10 weeks ago today, you made your dramatic arrival into this world, growing our family by a couple of very small feet.

I've mostly made my peace with the way you arrived in this world. In many ways it's good that it took so damn long for you to get here, since that Monday was the worst day of my life (for the record, yes, the Day of Hellish Labor Without Drugs was worse than the day Alice died or the day Grandma died, both of which were among my worst days ever, until 5/15/2006). Since you arrived on the 16th, that awful day was over and though many many parts of the 16th sucked, it only sucked until 1:26 pm, when you made your triumphant emergence into the world.

Since then, it's most certainly been a whirlwind. Every day, you grow a little, change a little. You no longer look like a newborn, all floppy and small-headed. No, you look like an infant now. A small but important distinction.

Most of the time now, I can say your whole name without tearing up at the thought of you carrying my Grandma's name for your middle name. Someone said you looked like a little doll the other day and I couldn't help but smile since Grandma always said that I looked like a little doll when I was your age.

We sent out birth announcements to everyone on our list to send them to. It took ordering a second set and far too much time addressing them but they went in the mail last week. When I dropped the lot of them into the mailbox, I really felt like I'd done something.

You smile. A lot. And for that, I thank you. You laugh, now sometimes three laughs in a row! You like to hold on to things: blankets on your lap like an old woman, toys that wind up in your mouth. You also suck on your hand like Squiggy used to. The other day I woke up to the sound of you sucking mightily on that hand in the bassinet that you're just about to grow out of. You also love to look at ceiling fans and lights.

Given your recent growth, where your torso seems to have been stretched out, you now are officially out of just about all the 0-3 month clothing we have for you. It's onto 3-6 month stuff for you now!

It's going by so quickly, this time I have home with you. Some of the days get a bit long but I know that I can't get them back, that soon I'll be back to work trying to pretend like it's okay that you're not there with me every day. So I'm cherishing these days, even if you were unlucky enough to be born into a summer filled with crazyass heat waves.

Happy Week Ten, Val. I can't wait to see what happens next!