Roxi is sporting her best "Yarg!" pirate face here. She has recently started reaching out for things (toys, fingers, whatever) and exploring them by cramming them in her mouth. Here, she's in the process of chomping on her good buddy Monkey.

The picture is grainy because it was taken without a flash at night (didn't want to wake the sweet girl). This is our latest attempt to even out Roxi's lopsided head. So far, so good: she seems much more likely to look left these days. And her head looks a bit rounder ... though Rob and I might just be seeing what we want to see.

Happy, happy girl! 

Firsts

Roxi went to her first wedding on Saturday. She looked adorable in her white and pink dress with wee white sneakers to match. I snapped a photo on the way out the door, which turned out to be good thinking. She was a sweet little angel right until the ceremony started. And then, whoa. The girl cried and cried. Rob removed her from the area (it was an outdoor wedding on CSU's campus). She seemed to calm down afterwards, so we went inside for the reception ... where our darling girl proceeded to wail. Roxi already knows how to make an entrance, it would seem. Needless to say, we bagged the whole affair. Signed the guest book on the way out so at least the bride and groom would know we were there, stopped at the liquor store and Big City Burrito on the way home for sustenance and then enjoyed our burritos and large martinis while Roxi slept happily in her swing.

Then, on Sunday, and this makes me giddy just typing it, Roxi said "mom" for the first time. I swear. Rob was right next to me and heard it, too. Of course, she had no idea what she was saying. Roxi has become quite the babbler of late, and "mom" was just one of the syllables that came out. But it was crystal clear, and she paused a bit after saying it - and before launching into her next nonsensical soliloquy.

The hard part lately has been evenings. Roxi has been screaming consistently for the past several nights, sometimes for several hours. It nearly brought me to tears last night. I have a new appreciation for parents of colicky babies. Anyway, the crying seems to be gas-related. She arches her back, shoots out her little legs and wails. We were concerned that it might have something to do with switching to formula, but the crying only happens in the evening. I broke down and called the doctor today. Rhonda, his wonderful nurse, recommended giving Roxi gas relief medicine in the afternoon and again in the early evening. If that doesn't do the trick in 3-4 days, she said to put 1 1/2 teaspoons of dark Karo syrup in her afternoon bottle. Interesting, huh? The Karo syrup apparently helps with constipation. This story might already have a happy ending though. No screaming so far tonight. Fingers crossed ...

Making the Scene

A random assortment of things to blog today ...

Roxi went to her first picnic today. No three-legged races or tug-of-war for the sweet girl yet, but she seemed to have a nice time at Rob's work soiree. She got to hang out with her friend Lucas (the son of work buddies who is 2 weeks older than Roxi), and Rob and I got to eat BBQ and hang out. It was the perfect day as well - 70 degrees and sunny.

The pump has officially been retired. Roxi is on formula now. And though I still wish so much that breastfeeding would have worked, I am happy to have lots more time to play, read, bathe, laugh with and generally spoil my daughter. Not to mention how happy I am not to have to hook myself up to that infernal machine several times a day (mooooo). So, Roxi ended up getting 9 weeks of breast milk, and I've decided to get over the guilt and make peace with that. Here's the weird thing: I had lots of stored milk in the freezer, which I thought would result in another week or so of feedings. However, it didn't agree with Roxi. It gave her gas, made her cry and came back up on a couple of occasions. Freezer burn, I guess. The formula, on the other hand, is sitting with her quite well. If anyone hears of coupons or special offers on Enfamil, I'm all ears :)

And ya know what they say about formula resulting in stinkier poo than breast milk? All true.

Roxi is really starting to get control of her hands. She routinely reaches out for our fingers and her monkey toy. You can tell she wants to stuff everything in her mouth, but she hasn't quite figured that out yet. Though she has gotten pretty close to shoving her entire fist in there. Maybe this means she'll be a dentist ... or a fire eater.

We're getting close to the beautiful day when Roxi sleeps through the night. She went nearly 6 hours last night, and is getting more and more content to hang out in her crib after she wakes up - giving her parents a few extra minutes of shut-eye. Lovely child!

And last but not least, a self-centered note from the mom: I fit into a pair of pre-pregnancy jeans this week. They used to be loose and now they're a bit tight, but STILL.

Wordy Rappinghood

First, an addendum to the last post. Roxi did indeed experience some after-effects from her immunizations: a low-grade fever for 2 days and general fussiness. The Tylenol we gave her for the fever also seemed to make her sluggish and sleepy. So she wasn't our normal sunshine girl until today. Saturday night, in fact, I took her to Urgent Care because she cried for a half hour straight. Now, I understand that babies cry, but Roxi had never screamed so loud for so long before ... and I got scared. The diagnosis? Gas. The very sweet nurses and doctor were polite enough not to call me an overly paranoid and ridiculous mom (at least not to my face).

The upshot of all of this is that Roxi is just super now. Rob and I drove her all over the place today: to brunch at a fun Mexican place in Old Town, to the bookstore, to our favorite second-hand children's clothing store (we were shopping for a semi-fancy outfit for her to wear to a wedding next weekend) and then to Denver, where she met Rob's high school bud Sheryl and her husband Kevin who were driving through town. Roxi was a dreamboat the entire day.

But I digress. The reason I'm typing this post is to document Roxi's first pseudo-words. She's turned into quite the proficient gurgler. And she seems to have picked up a love of Mexican food from her Grandpa Wessel ... if you listen very carefully, she clearly will say "hola" and "guac" among her other babbles. Otherwise, it's a lot of "a-goo" and "ahhh" and "oooo". Rob has requested that we work on "dada" more. I won't be surprised if her first intentional word is "monkey" (her favorite toy to date) or "swingies" (her favorite activity) or "manatee" (the subject of my current favorite book of hers, which I read to her daily). Or she might start with "NO! (insert cat name here)!" - a common exclamation in our house.

What's up, Doc?

Happy birthday to Roxi - she's 2 months old today. And cuter than ever, if I do say so myself. Hey, the doctor even said she was ultra cute, so it MUST be true. Rob pointed out that he is probably equally enthusiastic about his other patients. Always the pragmatist, that one.

Anyway, here are the latest stats:
- 10 lbs., 11.5 oz.: in the 50th percentile for her age
- 23" long: 75th percentile
- 15.75" head circumference: 80th percentile (and no worries about the flat spot on her noggin - it's normal and will sort itself out as she gets older and spends more time sitting up, crawling, etc.)
- A clean bill of health: Dr. P gave her the thumbs up in every category

Plus, Roxi weathered her first immunizations with style ... OK, and some screaming. She got three shots today - two in one thigh, one in the other. The needles were super huge, so I can't blame the girl for being bummed out. However, the nurse was wonderfully quick. Roxi didn't realize what was happening until the second shot, and it was all over lickety split. We popped a bottle in her mouth, and she was good to go. As for after-effects, she's been fussy. But no fever, redness or swelling.

I also have to add how wonderful our doctor is. Such a sweet guy in addition to being a great at what he does. And the staff at his office - especially the nurses - are equally brilliant. We couldn't be happier with our care (he's our doc in addition to Roxi's).

Soggy Shoulders

Hooo-eeee, the chile can drool. When I put Roxi on my shoulder to burp her, she chews on my neck. When she's in her car seat, she attempts to eat one of the straps. Last week, she was laying next to her dad on the sofa and starting chowing on his clothes ... giving "eat my shorts" a whole new meaning for the ol' Tusselwupper family. So there are drooly spots all over the place these days. At one time in my life, I would have thought that was gross. Now, it's precious. Go figure.

Roxi found her feet today; the first time that's happened as far as I can remember. We went to meet Rob for lunch. Roxi was sporting her stripy orange and yellow socks that her Nanna bought for her. And dang if she didn't stare at them for half the lunch. Time to break out the foot rattles, methinks.

August 5 marks the Roxster's 2-month birthday. Instead of a big cake and party, she gets to go to the doctor for her first immunizations. I suspect this will come up in therapy somewhere down the line. Anyway, Rob and I are looking forward to the visit so we can ask the long list of questions we've been compiling and so we can see how much our little peanut has grown. She's already starting to pop out of her newborn (0-3 month) clothes and is getting ever stronger (oy, the girl can kick!). Can't wait to find out the particulars. I'm dreading the immunization part though. Other new moms tell me they cried as much as their babies. Yipes.

As far as looks go, I'm starting to see more and more of Rob in her, particularly in the eyes and nose. She and her dad also stretch in exactly the same way and have the same warm core temperature. I can tell I'm going to be wearing a lot of sweatshirts in the future; I'll be outnumbered when it comes time to set the thermostat. Other physical notes: her nose "acne" has almost cleared up completely, the birthmark on her forehead is about the same, she's developed a bit of a heat rash that flares up during hot car rides, her eyelashes are a mile long and dark now, the Buddha belly is looking good and her head is lopsided because she always looks right. Asleep or awake, she just prefers looking to the right. I've read that this is normal, that most babies favor one side or the other and get funky head shapes as a result, but Rob and I are going to ask the doc about it on Thursday anyway.

Going out to eat has become a bit of a challenge. Whereas before she would sleep through outings, now she gets excited by new surroundings. She doesn't want to miss anything, I guess. This is cool, stimulus-wise, but she ends up making herself overtired and then a fuss biscuit soon after. Think it'll be take-out for us when we want a treat until she gets over this phase.

Good news though, Roxi had her first slumber party and did great. We all went to Boulder and spent the night with good friends Scott and Renee (along with Denver buds Jen and Mike) on Saturday. Cookout, bocce tournament, hanging out, loud outbursts ... Roxi dealt with it all like a champ and slept just like she normally does. Gold star for the girl! This bodes very well for our North Carolina trip at the end of the month.