7 things we have learned about our daughter in the past 4 weeks!

Happy Girl (brother's b-day cake is coming)

The 3 posing in Lia's room

1. She has the most awesomely infectious laugh I have ever heard. It is this really high pitched giggle. Seriously you cannot hear this and not burst out laughing. If you surprise her (she's a little jumpy if you come up behind her) and smile and laugh, she will laugh back, otherwise she will cry. She does not get peek-a-boo at all! She looks at you like you're nuts!

2. She wants cuddles- on her terms. She will let you know (raising her arms and then throwing them around your neck when you pick her up) when she wants a snuggle. She'll say 'Mwah' when she wants kisses. If you try to smother her with kisses or hug her when she is not in the mood she will wiggle away (unless it is one of her brothers, then she'll usually tolerate it). Although she's incredibly ticklish and will let you kiss her lots if you're tickling too!

3. She LOVES to eat. The last few days she has out-eaten her brothers COMBINED! Seriously, one of us has to sit at the table with her for about 10 minutes after everyone else is done. She loves fish, chicken, bread of any sort (toast with jam is still a big favorite), ADORES fruit and is a big fan of whole wheat waffles with blueberry. Not so big on grapes or rice (she has a hard time eating it) and HATES any sort of baby food. She will scream like crazy if she sees her bottle while you're making it (we've enlisted the boys in distracting her while we 'hide' it). She loves drinking out of a straw when we're out and about (it's what her brothers do so of course she has to too!)

4. She is generally an easy-going baby. When she cries we know she is either tired or hungry. Otherwise she is happy to sit on the floor next to me and play with a few toys while her brothers create mayhem around her. She does get mad when they run around and she can't keep up with them but she generally follows us around from room to room. She has a weird love/hate relationship with her brothers' Geotrax trains. She always crawls over when she sees them playing with them but then when the trains start up she howls (but will crawl right back over when you move her away from them!) She loves carrying around empty Pez poppers (weird). And even though we have loads of girly toys her favorite thing to play with so far are her brothers' cars. Figures!

5. Naptime is challenging. It's not really all her fault though. Although she can sleep through almost anything once solidly asleep she needs virtually complete silence to fall asleep. As you can imagine that is hard to come by in our house. Generally, once I have her almost there one of the boys will burst in loudly or I will hear something worrisome coming from the room next door where the boys are. Arrrgh. Frustrating. And keep in mind since there are 3 naptimes a day here (2 for her and 1 for Jack) I pretty much always feel like I am putting somebody to bed. I have learned that if I hold her close against my shoulder (no eye contact, she thinks it's playtime if I look at her), rub her hair and humm softly (I think it blocks out some of the background noise) I have a better shot. But it is immensely frustrating to do all that then lay her down and have her eyes open up wide. As beautiful as those big eyes are it means I have to start all over again as I have learned there is NO chance she will fall asleep on her own.

6. I thought I would love light pink on her. But while I think she would look absolutely adorable in a paper bag I was surprised to find I really love darker, more vibrant colors on her (deep purple is my favorite but also bright orange, yellow and red). Someday maybe I'll figure out how to get a bow to stay on her head, not there yet.

7. She is a smart cookie. Not that I'm biased at all, of course : ) But we have been so impressed by her waves (she gets hello and goodbye), her sweet little "Mama" and "Dada" squeals (still uses Nana for food and bottle). She will repeat pretty much anything we say repeatedly- our little parrot! How quickly she is learning to walk (we're up to 12 steps in a row now!) The studious little look I catch occasionally on her face when she seems to stop and check us out, as if confirming to herself, 'ok this is the deal now and these are the food and cuddle people'.

**** We have learned that she is a perfect fit for our family and we learn more about her and love her more every day!****