Two and a half months my foot, Mommy. I'm outta here!

So, everywhere that is medical that has to do with babies (such as the hospital, Katie's pediatrician, and the health dept where she got her immunizations) gives us some kind of milestones chart we're supposed to follow to see if our baby is developing properly.

Please note: I'm about to brag incessantly. My baby is a super genius.

Also please note: she's two and a half months old. Ten weeks. Not even three months.

Here are the milestones for three months: rolls to side, props herself up when on her tummy, inspects fingers, brings hands to mouth, reaches for parents, follows objects, regards toys.

Guess how many of these she has met? Yeah, all of them.

Here are some milestones for four months that Katie has already met: clutches at clothes, plays with rattle, reaches persistently, holds onto breast, mouths objects, stares longer at new faces than familiar ones, shakes rattle.

Yeah, she's way too smart. Also, she can hold her weight when standing up. She just hasn't figured out the balance thing yet.

BIG WEEKEND BONANZA!

So, Katie survived her first road trip this weekend. But first, the story I began writing last week and never posted.

In case some of you have never seen a baby, they spend 98% percent of the time with their hands curled into very tight fists. This is most assuredly the case for my kid. The result of this: fingerjam. I mean, anyone who's worn socks with their sneakers knows what toejam is, but fingerjam? Come on. It's become a habit for me to use my free hand to clean the lint out of her fingers while I'm feeding her.

Also, she tends to suck on the aforementioned fists, so I feel obligated to keep her from eating lint. Not to mention stopping her from sucking on her fists because sometimes a finger gets loose and she tries to gag herself. Geez, kid.

Now back to our program.

We decided to go to Boise this weekend for two reasons. First, things are getting crazy stressful down here as we approach the end of the semester (and graduation!!!!!!!) and we needed a break to help us power through our tests and projects and finals week. Seriously, it was direly needed.

Second, my dad is going to India. His company is sending him out to train the new people after they outsourced the rest of his department. So he has to go for a month. He isn't all too thrilled about missing the concerts and recitals and my brother's Eagle project, not to mention the beginning of baseball season (my dad=Little League in Boise). So we thought we'd come bring a grandbaby to cheer him up before he leaves tomorrow.

However, this weekend quickly turned into a giant brawl over who got to hold the baby next. Which means it was "who can stress the Katie out the fastest?" I won't lie, she loved all the attention (and for some reason thought Parker's monkey face was hilarious), but getting passed around to a lot of people who were not her mommy made her a little tired. She slept a lot on the way home, and has spent most of today sleeping also.

The good news is that Katie is a happy traveler. She spent several hours in the car staring out the window and giggling. She likes going outside, LOVES her stroller, and we figure likes the car when she's not hungry. She's pretty stellar.

But I think this trip was really good for my parents. The next month is going to be hard for both of them, what with my dad being off in a foreign country where cholera and dengue fever are still rampant and my mom being alone for a month with a herd of elephants. They both really needed some Katie time and some love.

And some priesthood. Mike was able to help their home teachers give both my parents a blessing to help get through all of this. I missed the whole thing because Katie decided on that moment to get fussy and loud, but I think it really helped.

So now we must press on in the madness that is March. (Speaking of, BYU beat Gonzaga on Saturday. Pretty good. Did you see it?)

Top Reasons 2-month-olds Have More Fun

#1 - Gaining weight is a GOOD thing.

#2 - It is not unacceptable to grunt loudly while pooping in a public place. And then people love it when you giggle about it.

#3 - Bathing means a full-on massage. All you gotta do is lay there.

#4 - You can remain the center of attention while napping and it's not because you've got something embarrassing on your face.

#5 - Entire stores are devoted to your entertainment, and it doesn't cost as much as a TV or video games.

#6 - Swings with mobiles are AWESOME.

#7 - As a follow up to #2, it is perfectly acceptable to be naked whenever you want. Well, whenever your mommy lets you.

#8 - Responsibility doesn't exist. Rather, everyone is responsible to you.

#9 - All you have to do is squawk loudly enough and anyone will play with you.

#10 - Come on, guys, baby shoes and headbands are the cutest thing that ever happened ever. Ever.

How's that? If it weren't for chocolate and husbands and getting to be the mommy of a 2-month-old, I'd want to be one myself.

This morning Katie had her two-month well-baby appointment at the doctor. She was 11 lbs even! Holy bananas! Kid's huge! I woke her up when I got her wrapped up to take to her appointment, so she was all cranky, until I stripped her down to measure her. Naked on something that feels like her changing table? She loved it!

She was marginally less happy when the doctor started poking her and moving her legs around. But everybody was impressed with how good she was doing, especially with how well she was holding her head. Apparently she's not supposed to roll over or be able to hold things until 4 months, but today when she and Mike picked me up from class, she picked up her binky and threw it at me.

How's that for precocious?

Confession Time

One thing that multiple older moms/grandmas said to me when I was pregnant was "don't let her sleep in your bed or she'll never stop."

Well, I let her. Sometimes it's the only way to get her to go to sleep without bouncing in the dark for several hours or until my knees fall off. Whichever comes first.

And . . . maybe I like cuddling her to sleep in my bed as much as she likes it.

Whew! I said it!

Seriously, as long as I keep her on the side opposite from Mike (man sleeps like he's in the middle of a shark attack) we both love snuggling. When Katie had her cold, I snuggled her all day too, and I guess she got a snuggling-mommy addiction. Well, I have a snuggling-Katie addiction. Who wouldn't want to snuggle this kid?

My little BYU basketball enthusiast

This is Katie during the San Diego State game on Saturday.

Go Cougars!

Final score: BYU 80, SDSU 67. The fans were so angry they started throwing stuff on the court.

My baby could eat yours for lunch!

Okay, not really. But only because she's not really into that whole "solid foods" thing.

When we went to church on Sunday, everyone was like "whoa, she's so tiny!" And compared to all of their babies, yeah, she is. But their babies are mostly boys and are all, like, six months bigger than her.

I'm talking compared to her birth weight. Kid's a tank compared to the dainty little 7 lbs, 14 oz she was when I met her. Also? FIVE INCHES LONGER. Maybe her daddy's tall-and-skinny-ness will save her from being short and round like her mom. (Don't try to deny it. I've got "curves." I can deal with that. :)

In other news, I have almost NOTHING to blog about. My class was even canceled this week. Which means that when we have class next Tuesday, I will have not been to class for two weeks. Who does that? Only a project class. And I don't have a full schedule like the rest of my class. I stay at home with my six-week-old daughter, who's not quite up to peekaboo level yet. Mostly she just giggles while I'm changing her diaper or suckering her nose, then when she's hungry she pulls the baby bird quickly followed by soprano accompaniment (fortissimo, by the way. Ain't no dulce piano music around this house).

It's nearly 4 pm and I just barely put on some makeup. It's like the 1950s all over again. I spend all day in my pajamas with the baby, then manage to shower and put on my pearls before Mike gets home. (Okay, I give. I don't get as far as the pearls. A hairbrush and some mascara happen on a good day. But still, most people shower in the morning, or sometimes leave their house.)

We've also discussed actually getting the swing from my parents' basement. Unproductivity has driven me batty and Katie doesn't do well just on the floor. The problem: for the next three weeks we have obligations every Sunday, and can't get up to Boise. Drat. I'll have to entertain the baby myself. Let's just hope I can get to the dishes before we have to just pour our cereal directly on the table and eat it like puppies. (ps- mom, we still have your hat. If we ever do manage to come visit, make sure you tell me to pack it.)

I wasn't kidding. I don't have anything else to say. Besides, Katie's gonna wake up soon, and then she'll be hungry, which will mean that I have to feed her and won't be able to do anything else. Maybe I should just sit on the floor and watch my toenails grow.

My first experience with REAL vomit: Katie vs. the World

This weekend has been a particularly eventful one. Last week, Mike had a cold and sore throat. He did his best, but he ended up giving Katie his cold and me his sore throat. What could be more fun?

Now let me tell you how Katie let us know she had a cold . . .

Saturday night, we had some friends over to play games (hallelujah! A social life!). I spent most of the time holding Katie because (for some unfathomable reason) she had been rather clingy all day. When they left our house, Katie started making some gagging noises, so I was patting her back to help. They hadn't even gotten all the way down our stairs (we can hear rather well) when she aimed down my shirt and vomited the entire contents of her digestive system. Every piece of clothing I was wearing (mostly the articles located at the down-my-shirt area) became drenched in a substance that smelled like sour milk and had the consistency of raw egg. I had to shower and put on new underwear. Did I mention that she also got the carpet and Mike's shirt because he was standing too close?

Note: Let me clarify the title of this post. As I am the oldest of seven children, this was NOT my first experience being puked on. Just my first as a mother. That being said, on the rankings of epic being-puked-on, this comes in second. First is still the time Emma Grace puked several plates worth of half-digested spaghetti on my lap. She was, like, three, so she probably doesn't remember. But oh, I do.

Anyhow, we used our highly evolved brains to deduce that the mucous in her throat made her puke (hence the raw egg consistency) and that she wasn't having stomach problems--mostly because as soon as she was done puking she expected me to feed her. Geez, kid.

On another completely unrelated note, Happy (the day after) Valentine's Day! I hope your day was full of chocolate and conversation hearts and less puke than mine. Due to our recent acquiring of a sick baby, we stayed home. But that didn't stop my handsome husband from getting Carraba's to-go and watching Letters to Juliet with me. I think he was just disappointed that I spent most of the movie snuggling the aforementioned sick baby instead of snuggling him. Sorry, handsome.

One final note: Katie also started smiling on purpose this weekend. Guess what she finds funny? That's right, the snot sucker. Especially when I'm using it on her. Weirdo . . .