Pipsqueak

Isn't that a sweet two-month-old? We like her. Mom and I took Miss Halle to her 2-month check-up today, and she's put on 4lbs in the last two months. She now weighs 10lbs, 4oz. She's making that transition from newborn to "big" baby, which I'm sad about for a couple of reasons. The first is that I love the newborn stage (okay, mostly I just love to photograph it). The second is that this means her parents, whomever they are, have now completely missed her tiny newborn-ness. Fortunately, I've got lots of pictures for them. ;-)

Let me tell you why we love this 2-month-old. Halle, or "Pipsqueak" as my dad calls her, is full of personality. And by personality, I mean coos and smiles when she's happy and really loud, shrill squeals when she's not. She does not hesitate to let you know when she's the slightest bit unhappy about something. We love her huge eyes. Everyone loves her eyes. And, believe it or not, Mom and I are positive that her eyelashes doubled in length one day last week. She's so gorgeous.

She's finding her voice and smiling more and more all the time. Her favorite time of day is around 4am when she gets up for her feeding. This is when we see the most smiles from her (which is why you haven't seen any pictures of real smiles - we don't feel like snapping pictures at 4 in the morning!). I got up with her last night, and I'm not sure what she was more excited about - her bottle or getting to look at the lamp by the couch. She just smiled and smiled at that light! So, no, she's not sleeping through the night. We're working on that, but until she is, we'll continue to enjoy our happy little night owl.

Halle is an avid reader. I read 2-3 books (she usually reaches her limit by the end of the 3rd book) to her just about every night and she loves it! Her favorite is Dr. Suess's Oh, The Places You'll Go!, probably because she hears that one every day. I want her to hear one book regularly, and I figured the rhythm and rhyme of Dr. Suess would be easy for her to recognize. My hope is that her adoptive parents will continue to read this book to her, so she'll hear something familiar when she moves to her new home. I hope it will make her transition just a little bit easier.

Her hair's starting to get curly. But it's not really curly yet. It just kind of sticks out in all different directions. It may be time to break out the hair care products.

She likes to watch TV sometimes. She likes to swing in her swing sometimes. She really, really loves to be held all the time. We're working on that, too.

And for anyone who's wondering (and I know everyone's wondering, as this is our most-asked question lately), no, we don't know how much longer Halle is going to be with us. She is a "pre-adopt" baby, and typically we have these babies about a month. Halle's case is a little more complicated than most, which is the reason for her extended stay. We are more than happy to have her as part of our family for as long as she needs us. And, no, my parents do not plan on adopting any more children (and I do not plan on starting to adopt children, at least not yet). Halle will be someone else's miracle, and we'll do our best to help her get to them.

Now for some pictures, of course!

Excuse the poor quality of this picture. I took it with my cell phone today while we were waiting at the doctor's office. Sadly, it's probably the best (awake) smiling pic that I've gotten of her!

And here's a short video of Halle's 1st bath when she was just a few days old . . . to help you understand why Dad calls her Pipsqueak (though it's more of a SCREAM than a squeak in this video!).