To My Little Stella,
This 7th week of your life marked the first one where you lost a family member. Sadly, you never got to meet your Great Granny Ann, but she was SO excited when she found out you were here and demanded that we send her pictures asap! I love that as long as I’ve known your Daddy, he has made a point of calling her every single week, just to talk. I hope you are that close with your grandparents when you grow up! This has been a really hard, sad week for your Dad…it’s hard to lose people you love so much. We are thankful she was at peace and ready to meet God.
Just so you know, your GreatGrannie was a crazy, funny lady that we all loved very much. It was not uncommon for us to groan and say, “Oh, Ann” while shaking our heads and laughing. She was manipulative and needy (in the funniest of ways!) and always wanted us to tell her that we loved her “the best” and that we had visited her first (i.e. before the other grandparents) when we were on a trip to St. Louis. She would sneakily slip comments into conversation, just to see if she could get you to agree with her. It drove us all a bit batty, but it was funny all the same. She was a great lady. 🙂
Today is her funeral, and I think it was really good your Dad got to fly out to St. Louis to say goodbye. He said they made dozens and dozens of chocolate chip cookies yesterday to bring to the wake, and they’re even going to bury a few with her in her coffin. Chocolate chip cookies were her favorite! Daddy made sure he “stole some sugar” from you to bring to her. Grannie loved stealin’ sugar (kisses) from her family.
Since your Daddy and Auntie Jaime flew out early Tuesday morning for Grannie’s funeral, it’s been just you and me this week. You’re such a snuggler and love to cuddle and be held all the time. It’s something I hoped for (to have a snuggly baby!), but I sure don’t get much done without your Dad here to hold you sometimes.
We do a lot of dancing to loud music lately, as well as lots of bouncing on the exercise ball in the evenings. That’s your fussy time of day lately, but as long as you are being held and moving, you’re happy, so we oblige. 🙂
Most of the day, you SMILE all the time lately. It makes me smile back at you every single time! You’ll have a quiet, pensive look on your face, and all of a sudden you’ll coo and giggle and break out in the biggest grin. You crack me up, child.
You’re definitely still growing – and quickly! I had to put away almost all of your newborn sized clothing this week – you’re just too long and hate when you can’t stretch out in an outfit. I can still squeeze you into a couple of my favorite onesies that don’t go to your feet, but those days are numbered. For the most part, you’re in 0-3 month clothes and size 1 diapers (on your cloth diapers, we leave 2 buttons on bottom and 4 on the top showing. When we started you in those diapers three weeks ago, we left two and two – so your cute little belly is definitely growing!
Your head control is growing by leaps and bounds – you are just so darn strong. I took you on a couple of walks this week in the stroller without you in your car seat for the first time, and you did great! When I hold you, you constantly look around, and love nothing more than looking OVER my shoulder and up and around at things. I’m going to have to take the newborn insert out of your car seat this week too – you’re too tall for it!
You still LOVE the water, and probably every other day I’ll give you a bath or take you in the shower with me. You instantly calm down and smile when the water touches you. Cutest thing ever. 🙂
Chief still rarely notices or pays attention to you, though as you get louder and move more, I’m sure that will change. I hoping you two will be best buddies as you grow up.
