So, we are officially in love with our daughter. Is she NOT the cutest enfant ever seen on God's green earth?? She had a "photo shoot" at our house last week to mark her 2 month birthday, and it was a lot of fun. Lucy Capell (i.e. "Big Lucy") took the pics of our (wee) Lucy, and her two youngest boys enjoyed getting to know the baby. "It's a BA-by! It looks like a BA-by," Aric helpfully pointed out.

It's odd the things I find myself doing now that I'm somebody's mother...I stay up late searching the internet for toys made of organic cotton or wooden toys with non-toxic, primary-colored paint...I worry that Lucy's head is only in the 75th percentile for circumference, while the rest of her is in the 97th percentile (height-weight)...I have been calling Montessori schools and the Waldorf school to see if I can observe their kindergarten classes, because I ONLY HAVE FIVE YEARS and then a schooling decision MUST be made! I look at the websites of our town's elementary schools and frown at the hot lunch menus and generic descriptions of classes.

I am hungry for fellow-mom companionship, and I notice that I have scarily-good stalker qualities when I spy another woman with a stroller. Suddenly I want to hear every gory labor & delivery story, and interesting diaper anecdotes. I used to think moms of young children were nice, but a bit strange. We are. I don't care. It's a nice-but-strange little club we're in, and we paid our swollen-ankled, sore-bosomed dues!

Lucy-Lu has been to her first musical (of course), and we took her to Shakespeare in the Park a few weeks ago...She has listened in on a few rehearsals of "Faust" at the Portland Opera, and she went with Grandma Peggy and me to the Ballet's outdoor rehearsals. (She met several of my old compadres there, and she was a big hit!). We play Yo-Yo Ma or the Brandenburg Concertos (Brent's fave) during bath time, and I am singing lots of Sondheim to her....Whether any of this will impact her or not, I don't know....but we're having fun in our effort to make her as cultured as a vat of yogurt....and it's fun to include her in the things we like.

She's growing so quickly...and we're starting to KIND OF figure her out. The first few weeks are so...topsy-turvy...and the learning curve feels as steep as a glacier. But we're doing a lot better. Our next goal: find a bottle that Lu will actually drink from (for when Mom's away for more than an hour!) and really enjoy every minute we have with her. She's a blessing, a huge one. Well, she's still pretty little.

Last note: on Monday she had her 2-month shots. Yi. Lu cried, mom cried, hot pink band-aids were applied...and I'm glad it's OVER. The only thing that makes it better for us is to realize that we don't remember getting our shots...so Lucy probably won't either. Probably. :-/

Peace to you, our friends!
-chanda