Ripley at 6 weeks

So, Becca's post yesterday (7/8/2008) coupled with trying to make Ripley's photo book of people who love her, but are far away, got me to thinking I should really try to do this blog thing. As you can see from the archives, I didn't do so well for the 8.5 months she was in utero, but I am going to see what I can do.

[insert break for a baby who just woke from sleeping in the sling. she has an uncanny way of knowing when your full attention has shifted away from her, and she expects this full attention even when she is sleeping]

Let's see how much more of this I can get done before she wakes again.

My intent is for this writing to serve several purposes:

1. To keep those of you far away posted on the life of Ripley.
2. To be a record of my thoughts during this motherhood adventure.
3. To be a gift I can give to Ripley one day - where she can read all about our lives before she was too young to remember (at least I hope she is too young to remember - otherwise, Chad and I probably should stop watching DVD's like Alien versus Predator 2 in her presence)

Per the inspiration for starting up again, I want to write my thoughts about Ripley at 6 week (she turned 6 weeks yesterday - she's been home with us for 5).

Ripley - Six Weeks Old
It is hard to know where to start. This has been an amazing week because she's come into her own with smiling. This morning she lay on the boppy "newborn lounger" (thanks Aunt Jen) and stared up at me for at least 10-15 minutes and just made smiley faces and little coos. She is finding her happy voice, which is a good one to hear as opposed to the high pitched sad wails, which seem to only come now when we don't keep up with feeding her the way she thinks she should be fed.

One of the places she likes to smile the most is on the diaper changing table. Little girl loves being naked - and loves getting her diaper changed. I think the beautiful colorful quilt hanging over the change table is part of it (thanks to friends of my mom's in Texas), but I also think she just loves having her tushy wiped clean. Our friend Kate gave us a recipe for "poop juice" which we can spray on little flannel clothes instead of disposable wipes (although we have some of these for real blow-outs). It has a nice lavender scent - maybe she likes that? Or maybe she really just likes having her tush wiped. Sometimes we consider changing her diaper even when she doesn't need it - just so we can see her smile.

I don't think I am going to get much more time now. There is so much to write - including going back and trying to recount the story of how she came into the world (not too exciting, but seems like it should be recorded for posterity) and about her first week of life. I'll get to that - at least as long as I can fly under her "all-attention on me" radar so she'll stay sleeping.