Babies on the Mend, Babies on the Way

Well, Baby Brigid seems to be feeling much, much better. Her cold is just a few sneezes now with some boogies thrown in for good measure. Mommy is also on the mend and just has a stuffy nose to deal with. Now that Brigid is feeling better, she's spending her energy walking all over the place. She spends more time on her feet now than on her hands and knees, although, if she really wants to get some place in a hurry, she'll drop and crawl because she's very, very fast. But walking is getting better and better and she's much more secure on her feet. It's hard to believe that in another six days she'll be a year old. Too hard to believe in fact. It went by in the blink of an eye. She's grasping so much of her world, she's understanding so much. You can see her develop. I'll tell her to give me her hand, and she'll hold her hand up. She can point out my nose or my eyes. She knows her books, and if you receite any line from them she knows which book you're talking about. I started saying some things from "Pat the Bunny" and she got it and wanted to crawl up on my lap for me to read it to her. She does all the Pat the Bunny directions and knows what's coming up in anticipation. She has been saying "Mum Mum" for Mama, I think, but also "Bah Bah" when she comes over, patting my chest. I'll say, "Do you want boob?" and she pats my chest and gets all excited. She definitely knows boob, so she's showing no sign that she's ready to give it up. But then, I'm not, either. But her eating in other areas has improved. She goes back and forth between wanting to pick stuff up herself and feed herself to wanting you to spoon or fork it into her mouth. Sometimes she'll eat very well if you feed her with a spoon even if it's regular-people food and not babyfood. I gave her some whole milk the other day and I don't think she was very impressed, but she's at the age where she is supposed to be drinking whole milk to get the nutrients from it. She'll drink whole milk until she's 2, then you switch to skim or 1 percent.

She loves to wave hi and bye to people. She waves all the time. It's adorable because she waves with her fingers. She'll wiggle her fingers ate people with her hand outstretched. She does this without prompting, too. And she loves to wave to little kids. Grown-ups get their share of waves, but it's when she sees kids that her face lights up and her fingers start waving before her arm is even outstretched. I'm working on having her blow kisses, and sometimes she puts her hand to her mouth. She's so darned cute, you just want to hug and kiss her all over.

And she sure loves her sisters. She gets very excited when they come home from school. And speaking of school, Margaret is doing very well, having made straight A's this quarter again. We get Patricia's report card next week. She's doing very well, too.

Well, I've got to run. Paula, my colleague, just reported her water broke and I'm taking her to the hospital to deliver her daughter.

UPDATE: Paula delivered a healthy 7.3 pound baby girl whom they named Mariah at 6:39 p.m. yesterday (Tuesday). Mom and baby are doing well.