Soooooo Big!

Millie is starting to enjoy the "soooo big!" game as well as kisses on her neck a la Grandma Lainey, singing songs with motions (e.g. head/shoulders/knees and toes), and dancing around. The smiles are a little more frequent and every now and then we get a darling "coo" to go with them. And the "sooo big" phrase is certainly apt these days. Millie just keeps growing and growing! I never would have imagined she could grow so fast! Millie had her 1 month check-up on Monday and she weighed in at 8 lbs. 6 oz.!!

Just like during the pregnancy, Millie is growing right on schedule -- the Dr. said that they look for babies to gain 2 pounds in the first month and Millie gained just over that. We're very proud of her.

It also amazes me that Millie grows so well despite the fact that she doesn't really follow the "norm" in terms of her eating habits. She's very much a "snacker" eating every few hours (sometimes every hour and a half) but small amounts each time (at least compared to what the books say). Millie generally doesn't eat for more than 15 minutes total. There's none of this "20 minutes on each side" stuff. Which is okay with me :). She's just a very efficient eater and apparently mommy's milk has been tailored to her eating habits so that everything works out just right! Just another one of nature's little miracles.

We've decided on Millie's childcare for when I go back to work in January. She's going to join 5 other children at the home of Stephanie. Stephanie runs a daycare out of her home and lives about 10 minutes from my work. The location is one of the main reasons we decided to send Millie to Stephanie instead of a center daycare. It will make it easy for me to drop off/pick up Millie as well as give me the ability to go and visit her on my lunch break. The other children that Stephanie watches include her own two children -- a one-year-old little girl, and a 4-year-old little boy, as well as 3 other toddler-aged children. She runs a very organized home and the children were all very happy and well-behaved on the day we visited. I'm a bit anxious about leaving Millie there, but I'm pretty sure that would be true no matter where we leave her. At least this way she'll be close enough for me to go to her whenever I need to.

For now, I'm just enjoying the fact that I get to spend all my time with Millie and I don't have to leave her anywhere... I'll continue to share her with Daddy for the next month, but that's about it :).

More pictures to come -- I know that's what everyone wants! We may go see Santa this weekend at the Fairfield Christmas Tree Festival (the proceeds of which are going entirely to the school I work at this year :)), so there will definitely be pictures of that!