Vivi: Thirty-Six & Thirty-Seven Weeks

We got trouble! Right here in River City!  Trouble with a capital "T," and that rhymes with "B", and that stands for BABY!

(Any Music Man fans?  No?  Just my husband? Okay then, moving on...)

Vivi is one mischievous child.  Every facial expression, every movement, every dastardly plan for world domination lurking in her eyes...it's all trouble.

Her most frequent facial expression is this one:

 Yup.  Trouble, trouble, trouble.

She speaks entirely in little growls and evil laughs.  "Ahhhrr! Heh-heh.  " She might actually be a pirate now that I think of it.

Plus, she's got an incredible knack for getting her hands on everything she's not supposed to touch.  I mean, I know that's what all babies do, but we never had this much trouble with Madeline.  We have to clear a three-foot radius around her when we go out to eat.  She somehow managed to fling a knife across a restaurant the other day even though I swear I removed them all the second we sat down.  Was she hiding it in her diaper?  I wouldn't be surprised.

She's the kind of kid who likes to play with objects more than toys.  If I give her something like a plastic cup, box, or pan to explore, she's content.

If there's nothing interesting in her line of sight to play with, she grabs my hair instead.  Sometimes she goes for my mouth or nose, but she prefers the hair.  In fact, she falls asleep yanking on it.  My hair has become this kid's security blanket.

Madeline's toys are no longer safe.  All the Lego towers get destroyed by hurricane Vivienne.  Luckily, Maddie is a good sport about it and usually just laughs.  I'm afraid this is only encouraging Vivi to wreak more havoc though.

She's still not crawling, and I'm thankful for that.  Once that event occurs, I will never be able to sit down again.  As it is, she wiggles to get down sometimes when I'm holding her.  I don't know where she thinks she's going.  Vegas?

The switch to formula has been a wild success.  Not only has she seemed to gain a lot of weight over the past two weeks, but her eczema is clearing up, and she's sleeping ten times better.

My baby, who refused to nap for longer than ten minutes, is suddenly taking two naps a day.  (Please don't smite me, Internet Gods!)  Meanwhile, she's getting eight-hour stretches of sleep at night.  She's really only waking up once during the night instead of two or three times, which is fantastic.  She still nurses in the middle of the night, partially because I'm too groggy to get a bottle made up, and partially because a bottle is not what she's looking for.  I'm sure the well will be drying up soon though.  Get it while you can, Vivi.

I'm a little sad about the end of my breastfeeding journey.  Vivi really loved nursing.  It's also sad to let go of this amazing thing my body can do for the last time.  But...I'm really glad she's feeling better.  Also, I ate ice cream for the first time this summer over Labor Day weekend.  Bonus.

In other news, her hair is redder than ever.  It's thickening up a bit.  Today it was sticking straight up in all directions.  She looked like a mad scientist.  And I thought her eyes were turning brown, but they haven't yet.   Eric thinks they look deep blue.  I say green.  They're sorta pond colored...which sounds gross, but is actually quite pretty.  We'll see.

We love this little ball of energy even if she seems to have made it her mission in life to bring everyone in her path to their knees.  She's a feisty little thing, and I adore her.