3 1/2 months

I have this cute little 1950's book of poems for children, which includes this little poem:

I am the sister of him,

And he is my brother.

He is too little for us

To talk to each other.

So every day I show him

My doll and my book,

But every day he still

Is too little too look.

I love it, because it describes exactly how Penny and Meimei are with each other. Penny is excited to have a little sister to play with, but Meimei is just "too little to look." This doesn't really bother Penny at this point, though, because it's fun to have your own personal living doll who doesn't take your toys, doesn't tell you "No," and doesn't care if she sits in the front or back of the stroller. This won't last for long, though, I can tell.

Naomi is 3 1/2 months old, and she's starting to be more and more fun. She smiles a lot, and she has started to laugh. She usually laughs when I take her clothes off over her head or wipe the drool off her chin. Glamorous, I know.

Naomi's hair is still softer than silk. It's all getting longer, but she has these random super-long Charlie Brown hairs on top of her head. I'm not sure where they came from. I don't think my hair has ever grown that much in 3 1/2 months! She's doing her best to rub a bald spot into the back. When she moves, her whole body moves more than Penny's ever did, so her bald spot might not be as polished as Penny's was.

Naomi's already quite a bit more mobile than Penny was. Sometimes I'll put her down in her crib facing one direction, and when I come back, she'll have rotated 90 degrees. Penny never did this. Ever. Not even when she was old enough to sit up and crawl. Penny had a lot more mass to heft around, though.

Her eyes are still bluish-brown. They're brown in the centers and blue on the edges. I'm not sure which way they'll go or if they'll stay this way, but we had to pick one or the other on her passport application. I forgot which color we chose, but they didn't have a box for "blue and brown."

Naomi has started to like sitting in her Bumbo, or "Bumbo-bee," as Penny calls it. Every time we get it out and ready for Meimei to sit in, Penny rushes over and parks her behind in it.

Naomi likes her hands. She chews on them and sucks on her thumb sometimes. She's started grabbing her blanket and sucking on it as well. Chinese people really don't like her to munch on her hands. They'll take them out of her mouth and tell her, "Yucky, dirty." And I've heard many parents tell their kids to keep their hands out of their mouths. It's a good idea... but it's also pretty cute when Naomi does it.

I read somewhere that kids cry more in the first 3 months of their lives than at any other time. We're certainly seeing the truth in that. She's still pretty grumpy and needy in the evenings, but otherwise, she sometimes doesn't even cry when she wakes up. She just talks and coos to herself in bed. Right now, I happen to know that neither of my girls is sleeping, but they're both lying happily in bed and will soon nod off.

I'm going to go do the same.