little black journal

My hope is that I’ll chronicle each of Juliette’s monthly milestones with a few notes on what she’s currently loving/hating/learning.  But seeing as how I was busy wandering the parking lot of Southcenter mall on her actual one-month birthday, I’m a little late on this one.  Nonetheless, this is what we’ve figured out about our little girl thus far:

She is really stinkin’ cute when she sleeps. She’ll cycle through several different facial expressions as she dozes, first furrowing her brow and pouting her lips, then suddenly turning that frown into a smile and quietly chuckling to herself. And her arms are often stretched out straight in front of her, like she’s conducting an orchestra in her dreams. Thank god for these angelic moments of rest – they have offset some pretty intense bouts of fussiness.

She likes the shower – Shane or I bring her in with us every morning to hose her down, and she seems soothed by the sound and the feel of the spray of warm water. But ho-ly cow, this girl screams when you take her out. I have tried everything to ease the transition, drying her off and dressing her in the warm, steamy bathroom, but to no avail – my eardrums were vibrating this morning with the sound of her post-shower shrieks.

Her hair gets crazier (and cooler!) every day.  When she’s really cranky, Shane blames it on a “bad hair day”.

Shane is convinced that she loves Coldplay.  When she’s really fired up, he’ll sway her in his arms while singing along to X&Y.  And I’ll be danged, it works.  Once she’s mellowed out, we turn on the Yo Yo Ma to keep her cool.

She still really hates her car seat. We had barely made it out of the driveway this morning before Shane threatened to turn the car around. Juliette called his bluff and yelled even louder. Our friends tell us this is just a phase, but sweet Jesus, make it stop.

She’s a girl of many faces.  And these days, that face is flashing us more and more smiles.  Be still my beating heart.