what a difference three months make

We spent Memorial Day weekend with Matt's parents in Virginia for the traditional Baker family reunion on Saturday the 24th. Saturday was a significant day for several reasons, most importantly because it was Anastasia's three-month birthday. But I little dreamed how significant it would actually be.

We spent Friday night at Matt's parents' house with his brother Jeff and Jeff's wife Heidi, along with their two children, Isaac and Olivia. Olivia was born two days before Anastasia, so we were excited to introduce the cousins to each other! -- more excited, probably, than they were. Although we did manage to get some video footage of them smiling at each other.

Saturday morning, as we were all getting ourselves and the babies ready to go out to the cabin where the reunion would be, Matt decided to put Anastasia under a little toy of Olivia's. It's a mobile that sits on the ground with dangling toys, music, and flashing lights--exactly the kind of toy I never want to own. But Matt thought it would be fun to see how Anastasia reacted to it, so he put her on her back under the mobile while I was about to go get dressed. I stopped to see what she would do.

She didn't seem particularly interested in it, but she didn't mind it, either. She lay there cooing and looking at Matt, ignoring the flashing lights and the toys. Then she rolled on her side, maybe to get away from the lights, or maybe to get closer to Matt. She's been rolling onto her side from her back for quite a while, so none of us thought anything of it. But then, after just a minute on her side, she kept going--all the way to her stomach!

Those of you who aren't parents might not understand why this is a big deal, but rolling over is a big developmental milestone. Naturally, Anastasia is very young to be achieving this--most babies don't roll over until they're four months. But I never could have predicted exactly how exciting this would be for me. "Oh my gosh!" I shouted. "She rolled over! She rolled over! I can't believe it! She rolled all the way over! Anastasia, you're so clever!"

Matt and Jeff were a little startled by my shouting. To tell the truth, I was a little startled myself. "Uh, is it really that big a deal?" Matt asked uncertainly.

"It's a huge deal! This is an important developmental milestone!" I appealed to Jeff, since he's been a father now for almost two years. "Jeff, tell him what a big deal it is!"

"Uh, it's kinda like graduating college, or getting married," Jeff agreed obligingly.

"I see." Matt looked down at Anastasia, who was starting to cry because she couldn't get her arm out from under her.

"Heidi!" I shouted up the stairs. Maybe this was something only another mother could understand.

Heidi was appropriately excited for Anastasia and me, but by the end of the week, I don't think anyone could quite appreciate just how significant the accomplishment had been. Because that was only the beginning. Over the course of the week, Anastasia gradually started staying awake for longer periods--and sleeping for longer naps. Instead of being awake for an hour and then sleeping for an hour constantly throughout the day, she started having a two-hour period in the afternoon when she was awake--and more surprising, happy. Then she took a two-hour nap in the late afternoon. She also started going to sleep more easily at night, and I was able to leave her once she was asleep and hang out downstairs for two hours (from 9 to 11) before she woke up to eat again.

She also amazed me by going holding her pee for longer stretches--especially at night. One morning I got up at 4:30 am, thinking her restlessness was because she needed to go to the bathroom, to discover she had a completely dry diaper. And the first morning after we got back, she was still dry when I changed her at 8 am. It's not a pattern yet, but I'm hoping that soon we'll be able to go diaper-free at night with a towel for back-up!

On Friday she laughed for the first time--not the infant shriek she's been doing for a while, but a real, rolling, gurgling laugh. Olivia's first laugh was also this week, three days earlier, so Heidi and I got to enjoy that together. But the strangest part about that was that Anastasia's first laugh was in the car, and she hates the car. Heidi, Jeff, Olivia, Anastasia and I were going shopping, and I sat in back with the babies to try to keep Anastasia happy. I was desperately playing with her to stave off crying: "Where's your nose? Boop! There's your nose! Where's your chin? Chin! Chinny-chin-chin!" It was tickling her chin that elicited the laugh: a chuckling, cooing, rolling laugh such as only a baby can give.

But perhaps the most exciting accomplishment of all was that she started reaching for things. As Matt put it, she discovered her hands at last! It's hard to pinpoint exactly when this happened, as it's a gradual process from flailing arms and reflex grabbing to actually reaching out and picking something up. However, it was Wednesday when I left her on the floor for a minute to go get something and came back to find her holding my sunglasses, which had been lying on the floor next to her, in her hand. Reflex? Maybe. But they are bright pink, a color she definitely enjoys looking at. At any rate, by the time we were driving home, I felt like I had a different baby than the one I'd brought on the trip up. She spent an hour sitting in her carseat happily playing with a few brightly colored tissue papers from a present her great-grandparents gave her. I folded them into a kind of mobile and held them in front of her, and she batted at them and fingered them with great interest. She also enjoyed playing with a beanie baby crab from her great-aunt: I held it so the legs dangled down, and she batted at them and pulled them into her mouth. She's turning into a real baby at last!

Now if only I could catch some of these brilliant accomplishments on video...