One month old

Mimi* is one month old today. It's amazing how fast (and slow) this month has gone by. On the one hand, it feels like she has been part of our family forever; on the other, she's already one month? Where's my newborn?

She is precious and beautiful and afflicted with baby acne. (And a stuffy nose. I shoved a book under her bassinet mattress to give her a slight incline on which to sleep, poor baby.) She makes me think of nothing so much as a baby doll--she is so delightfully round cheeked and double chinned and small and sweet. When she wears feetie pajamas, her head looks like it is set on a stuffed fabric body. I love it.

When Mimi was only 19 days old, I was rocking with her snuggled up close to me, "loving on her" as Gee says, and she looked into my eyes and...smiled? The expression in her eyes was obviously happy, and her little rosebud mouth was slightly open with the corners turned up. I was so surprised I doubted what I had seen. After all, babies don't smile that early, do they? It must have been gas.

Except she didn't burp, wasn't uncomfortable, and keeps doing it! She will look into your eyes, crinkle up her eyes, and, if you smile, she will smile back. It is so adorable. Obviously she is a child prodigy.

Occasionally Mimi still thinks three in the morning is a good time to be awake and fussy, but we are working on that. Otherwise, she is practically a model baby--she eats and sleeps well, doesn't fuss too often, and is patient with her eager and loving siblings.

Hebs and Gee are settling into this new normal. It helps that Gee has preschool now (yay!), and Hebs gets Momma to himself (with Mimi) two days a week in the morning. The oldest two are loving school (as is Gee, who was deliriously happy on Tuesday to go back to school) and Bradley loves walking to school most mornings with the kids (he then catches the bus to BYU from the elementary school). I am getting back to normal, slowly. I can't overdo it, like yesterday walking up to the school and back twice, or I'm super sore and slow, like today. A whole month later, it's a little crazy.

And I am SO excited for the "-ber" months. I love the fall, and we are already cooling off. Hooray!

*There seems to be a little confusion over her name. We will not be calling her "Mimi" in real life, just as we don't call her older sister "Em" in real life. (Except we do call Zee "Zee" in real life, sometimes. I am inconsistent, I know.) "Mimi" is just her blog and facebook nickname.