Daddy's First

Maribelle has an amazing daddy, and she already seems to know it. He has a way of making her laugh when no one else can and a knack for calming her down with just the whisper of his voice. Of course he's more entertaining than any old baby toy could ever be, with his crazy voices, silly faces and catchy songs.




There are moments when I just love seeing them together, like during storytime right before bed, or when I get out of the shower in the morning and see a sleeping Jeremy and Maribelle, curled up with one another, looking as peaceful as ever.


We're two lucky girls, Maribelle and I. And we can't wait to spend Jeremy's first Father's Day together as a family.

Cutting Teeth

It's been confirmed ... Maribelle is cutting her first tooth! Poor girl ... we should have known with all the signs she's been giving us. Rash? Check! Fever?? Check! Fussy, irritable and not sleeping well??? Check, check and check! Plus she's been rubbing her right eye and face for the past few weeks, which now makes perfect sense since the tooth that is cutting through is one of her top-row canine teeth! The whole thing is a bit surprising to us and probably would have gone unnoticed had Maribelle's daycare provider not pointed it out to us. Not only is it somewhat early for teething (especially since Maribelle was born five weeks early), but also the first teeth to break through are usually one of the two bottom front teeth, followed by the two top front teeth. Leave it to Maribelle to cut a tooth that NORMALLY doesn't show up until a baby is 16 or 22 months old!! I think we're quickly learning that Maribelle's not interested in being among the "norm."

We don't have any pictures of the tooth yet, but here are some photos that Jeremy took of Maribelle earlier this week.

Five Months

Movin' and Groovin'

Here's a video of Maribelle "working out" on her play mat. It's a pretty good example of how noisy she can be and how close she is to rolling. (I just don't know how to get her more interested in rolling the entire way!) Her newest thing is squealing, but we haven't been able to catch much of that on video yet.



These past two weeks we've been dealing with major sleep issues, and from what I've researched, the four-month wakeful/sleep regression period is to blame! Babies develop so much during this month that they literally don't let themselves go to sleep. And that's what Miss Maribelle has been doing .... taking FOREVER to fall asleep and/or falling asleep and only sleeping for 30 to 45 minute increments. Yeah, it's been LOADS of fun, and we've been experiencing some major sleep deprivation around here. However, for the past three days, Maribelle has been sleeping a ton .... and has a fever, poor girl. I think we're dealing with a virus, or possibly, possibly some early teething. Either way, in one of my delirious moments this week, it occurred to me that this time a year ago is when we discovered that a little Baby M was in our future!

It's just amazing how life takes you from this (well, about four of these) ....



to this ..... in the blink of an eye!