Ariana's Onemonthaday

Well, our baby girl is one month old tomorrow if you go by weeks...one month old on Friday if you go by months. ;) She was born four weeks ago tomorrow, and she's already changed so much! She can watch you with her eyes now, and she does, relentlessly. One of her favorite games is staring at things. ;) At her last appointment, which was yesterday, she weighed in at 9 pounds 4 ounces, which keeps her perfectly "status quo." When she was born, she was in the 95th percentile on height and then 50th percentile on weight. She is still in the 95th percentile on height and the 50th percentile on weight! She seems to be keeping her balance very well.

Right now she's a little goth baby! She was diagnosed with thrush at her last appointment, which is just a minor yeast infection that's very common with newborns, and the medicine stains her mouth a very deep purple. So my four week old little girl looks like she's got dark purple lipstick on! She looks like she's been sucking on a marker.

She loves talking, too. Her favorite words so far are "Oouf" and "Boop." Her eyes have turned into a pretty slate blue color and she still has more hair than both of her parents. ;)

Justin is loving his new semester. His major iTeach assignments (the program he has to complete to become a certified teacher) are almost done! Only two more to go and life will be getting a lot easier for him. There was a bit of excitement at his school this past week when a student was caught with a gun. He said half the kids didn't show up the next day, despite the hallways teeming with police officers.

His teaching style is rapidly evolving to be very effective. I, for one, am incredibly proud of him. His iTeach instructor bragged on him and how much improvement he's made over the last semester, even finishing her comments by saying that he's on his way to becoming an exemplary Spanish teacher in his district.

Not much has changed with me. I'm still sick off and on but I think it's getting better. I'm really enjoying taking everything one day at a time. My favorite part of the day is when she's just eaten and isn't fussy, and we sit on the couch and read. My favorite is "Thumpity Thump Gets Dressed," a book my great-grandmother gave me when I was four. My mom brought a bunch of my old books down and I'm really enjoying reading them to Ariana and I can tell she enjoys the time too, though she has no idea what a book is. ;)

She's getting along well with the dogs. They know they aren't allowed to go near her. Once I even laid her on the floor and stepped just out of site, but close enough that I could get to her in a split second, and just watched. Toby and Talsi wouldn't go anywhere near her. In fact, once I was sitting on the floor holding her when Justin called Toby. I was in his way, so Toby went up to me and just laid down until I moved - he wasn't about to go around me when I was holding Ariana. Toby and Talsi are both doing very well with her and I have no doubt that they will be excellent playmates when she is older.

Let's see, a quick review of favorites and least favorites before I go:
Favorite place: Mommy or Daddy's lap
Favorite sound: Daddy singing in a low voice
Least favorite flavor: Mylicon drops
Favorite thing to stare at: Faces and mini-blinds
Favorite body part to eat: Left pointer finger
Favorite place to nap: Lying on Mom or Dad
Least favorite activity: Bath time

And at the rate she's going, my next blog will be talking about how she can hold her head up for a whole minute! :)