Remember this

So my little girl is only 6 1/2 months old and I'm already finding myself getting wistful the way mommies with older children do before they hit the "I want to have another one" emotional breakdown. As I was holding Elizabeth the other day I realized... I won't get to do this again. Unless God decides to override us and give us a whoops, Mike and I have decided that two is enough. We're stopping while we're ahead folks... we have two beautiful, very healthy kids. Time to stop. But I see now why moms suddenly get the urge for another. There are just so many beautiful moments that you don't want to forget. So I promised myself I'd write them down so that I will never forget these beautiful, crazy, silly moments since I won't have them again with another baby of mine...

"sleeping" with her - I use quotes for "sleeping" because you don't really get to sleep with Elizabeth. She is a thrashing, squeaking mess when she sleeps (your welcome mom, Karma has indeed returned the favor). Although it makes me dead tired, I do love it when she wakes up super-early to eat and then falls back to sleep on me for an hour or so. It's so warm just lying there with her on my chest, both of us snuggled under a blanket. I just love to hear her little breath sounds and doze off with her there. Of course, I wake every few moments as her hands fly and sock me in the eye... but still...

baby giggles - right now Elizabeth thinks her brother is the coolest thing ever. I love to hear those full "belly laughs" that he can get merely by running up to her. And I got them out of her yesterday as I sat her on our granite kitchen island and drummed my fingers loudly on it and then ran them up her belly. She thought it was hysterical.

baby babbles - I have to remember to record her because I just LOVE to hear her babbling. Right now the two most popular babbles sound like "bababababa" or "mamamamamaaaa" and she will just lie on her play blanket, toy in hand, feet in the air babbling forever.

sleeping in the sling - I have a sling that I carry her around in when I'm shopping or doing housework and she needs to be carried as it keeps my hands free. The other day I'm walking through Wally World (Walmart) with her in the sling when I feel her little head just fall against my chest and I realize she's fallen asleep in the sling. She looked so sweet that I was stopped every couple feet by some fellow shopper who wanted to look at her.

feeding her - Elizabeth is the most DISTRACTED eater. With solids, breast, bottle... it doesn't matter. That head is always snapping around looking at something other than food. It's funny to hear Mike feeding her because it's a never-ending cycle of suck-pop-Elizabeth! as the bottle pops from her mouth and Mike shouts "Elizabeth!" because milk keeps flying all over. Now, while breast feeding this is not convenient as she never seems to remember to unlatch before doing so (yow!), but I still have to laugh because she's just so funny. Even funnier, she apparently doesn't like me distracted because if I try to do anything else while she's nursing (I've tried eating, reading, playing with William, walking to get the phone... I could go on) she will turn her head up (the "pop" as the turns her head would be comical if it weren't the sound of her forgetting to unlatch first!) and look at me like, "excuuuuse me! I'm eating here! focus on me" and then she'll go back to nursing.

rocking her - Elizabeth is not the most still child. Even when she wants to be held, she would still prefer that you be moving while holding her. But every once in a great while she slows down and will just sit with me in the rocking chair before a nap. I love feeling her body slowly get heavier and her head falling toward me and the tickling on my arm as she graps and ungrasps her hands (this is her little pre-sleep fidget) while she gets sleepy.

feeding her new foods - starting solids is so much fun because I love watching the "new food face" when you give a baby something different. I love turning my kitchen into a labratory while I make and freeze all my baby food. And, as mentioned before, I love feeding my little distracted girl because it's kind of like an arcade game getting the spoon in her mouth while she turns her head. Her little face is usually covered in whatever it is she's eating, because I will invariably miss at least a few times.

hearing her wake up - Elizabeth, like her brother, wakes up happy more often than not. I'm not usually greeted with crying on the monitor, but babbling or some other noises. With Elizabeth it's usually her "dolphin" sounds as we call them. She's not really a coo-er. Instead she makes these high-pitched, happy squeals that make her sound like she's trying to talk to dolphins (and probably makes my dogs' heads explode) It's the coolest thing.

dolphin kicks - Elizabeth does this thing where she lies on her belly (like a penguin abou to slide on ice) and kicks her legs really fast. She usually does it when she's excited. It is the funniest sight. Her little arms stick straight out, her legs stick straight out and the only thing touching the floor is her belly and she just kicks and kicks and kicks. My favorite sight when I go to get her out of her crib in the morning is the way she does a little push-up to see who it is (so I see her little head pop up above the crib bumper) and then, when she sees it's mommy, she drops onto her belly with her arms outstretched and does her little happy kicks. I LOVE IT!

"happy eating" or "happy drinking" - Have you ever heard someone who's really hungry or thirsty sort of happily groan as they take a bit of food or a large swig of water... a nice loud "mmmmmhhhhhh"? Elizabeth does this often. It's hysterical because it's SOOOO LOUD when she does it. It's the funniest when I'm nursing her in public because I use this huge "shield" (looks like an oversized poncho) to feed her without exposing myself.. so you just hear this huge (mmmmmhhhhhmmmm!) coming out from under the shield and see little feet kicking happily. She did it a lot while I was in California and it just cracked up my mom.

baby kisses - Babies don't know how to kiss, so they usually just take their big open mouth and plant it on whatever they are trying to kiss, thus getting slobber everywhere. I will miss having these big, messy, baby kisses planted on my cheek, my shoulder and the best recently... the dog. The other day I look over at Elizabeth on her toy blanket just in time to see her grab Sasha by the ears (she held them like two handles of some old-fashioned water pitcher) and plant a huge baby kiss on Sasha's head. The look of surprise on Sasha's face was only matched by the look on Elizabeth's as she realized that she had dog hair in her mouth! (Don't panic germaphobe parents... I immediately removed the dog hair and she's fine!)

I hope I never forget all these little moments because it's amazing how fast they go by. My babysitter was just telling me about her daughter being exhausted and sore from nursing her newborn and I realized that I had already forgotten all that. It goes by so quickly...