Cate is Eight Weeks Old!

Here is Cate sporting her 80s-style headband for our first trip back to the gym since she was born:
Book Smarts Yesterday, Cate and I went to visit a friend of mine who is probably a few years older than my parents. Cate had gotten a little fussy in my friend’s lap, and I put C down on a blanket, gave her her pacifier and told her to pull herself together so that she could visit with her new friend. It took her about 30 seconds to get it together and then I handed her back to my friend. “Oh, so did you read all sorts of parenting books?” my friend asked. Nope. Totally made that “pull yourself together, Cate” line up myself. Honest truth: I’m totally winging it.

It’s definitely not that I’m unfamiliar with the parenting book movement. Let’s be honest: most of my new Mom friends are late twenty-somethings and early thirty-somethings with doctorates. We’re a bookish bunch. My friends’ nightstands are stacked with books like, “How to Ensure Your Child Reads by Six Months” and “101 Things Your Child would be Better at if You’d Eaten all Organic while Pregnant.” It’s not that it didn’t occur to me to read a parenting book or two, but I know myself well enough to know I can’t handle that kind of guilt. (Confession: I didn’t read Consumer Reports about a single baby product, either.) Our parenting strategy basically involves talking to Cate like she understands English and giving her lots of kisses. Cate isn’t reading yet, she doesn’t have a white noise machine, and I let her fall asleep on her blanket in the middle of play time. I don’t wash her clothes in special detergent and most of the time when she drops her pacifier I just put it back in her mouth.

We’re keeping our fingers crossed she’ll get in to college.

Knuckle Sandwich Cate still hasn’t figured out how to suck her thumb. She’s gotten close, but she just can’t seem to get it untucked from under her pointer finger. As a result, she gets her little hands right up there in her mouth and then sucks on the knuckle of her first finger like her life depends on it. It’s as if she thinks that if she sucks on her knuckle hard enough her thumb will pop into her mouth. Silly girl.

Goobers be Gone! Cate’s eye boogers are gone! Her tear ducts finally unclogged! Hurrah! It happened really suddenly just a day before she turned two months old. She woke up to eat in the middle of the night and her little eyes weren’t crusted shut. I’m very excited for her! Jack won’t be the only boy making a move for long!