The Amazing Lexie

So here it is, Monday night, and Andy and I are relaxing on the couch, reading (me) and Internet surfing (him). Then, in the silence, comes a tiny squawk through the monitor – little Lexie, waking briefly and then quickly falling back asleep.

The sound is so adorable I can hardly stand it. Every time it happens, I picture her tiny little form tucked into her little sleep sack and curled up against the side of the crib on her tummy, and I’m just filled with this sense of love and adoration. It never fails, even on nights – like tonight – when she’s been fussy and irritable and we put her to bed, frustrated, after an hour or more of crying bouts and rocky feedings.

Though her moodiness can be hard to take, we know she has good reasons. Not only is she still teething, but she’s literally doing brand-new things every single day lately, and that can sure take a lot out of a girl. In the last week alone, her crawling has advanced by leaps and bounds – she’s really starting to scoot around now. Then on Friday, she started sitting up on her own from a full lying-down position (leading to some rough afternoon naps when she won’t lay down for 30 or 40 minutes, but also to some adorable wake-up times as we walk into her room to find her sitting up, happily and expectantly peeking through the bars of her crib). And today, before all the fussiness started, was amazing, too.

I got home after picking her up around 5, as usual, and we settled down to play on the living room floor. She was making her way around the room, going from toy to toy (as Jennifer says, she sometimes has a bit of toy-related A.D.D., switching from one to the next just about every few seconds), and I was goofily applauding her every move like the typical fawning mother. Then she sat down in front of me and started flapping her arms somewhat wildly (and amusingly) around as she tends to do, so I put my hands in front of her, palms up, thinking that she might have fun slapping them. But what did she do instead?

She grabbed each of my hands with one of hers and, easy as pie, pulled herself up to the standing position! Just like that!

She’s been working on pulling herself up for the last several days, but she hadn’t quite found the right vehicle yet. I only wished Andy had been there to see it, but he ran into traffic and was later than usual getting home. Luckily she was able to do it again for him a little later. Unbelievable! It’s just so thrilling to see as each new skill clicks in her mind and she just gets it.

I can’t wait to see what she does next. It’s like Andy said to me the other day – you know that each milestone is coming, but that doesn’t make witnessing each one any less amazing.

I just realized something else, too. I was feeling pretty grumpy after Lexie’s bumpy feedings and bedtime tonight, along with the general work-related stress that I’ve had lately, and even a nice dinner and some relaxing time reading weren’t shaking me out of my doldrums. But now, I feel a whole lot lighter after just taking a few minutes to re-live the excitement of her latest advances.

Who’d have thought?