Waiting For My Real Life To Begin

Hey there all,

So I have to say that today was a good day. Good ol’ Ice Cube knew what he was talking about. Sara’s becoming a bit more mobile, as is little Emi, who is starting to show signs of personality. I love that little girl.

  

Emi has been a bit more active today, and is starting to look and act a bit more human. She’s having some success at picking up her own head for about a second at a time, as you can sort of see from the picture above. By the way, I’ll mention here that all of the images I will post from here on out can be clicked on to view a larger image size in a new window. They are kept small here to keep the flow of the posts intact.

Emiko is starting to open her eyes more and more now, and really fix onto what she is looking at. It’s good to see that the fog is clearing and that she is starting to be able to see on her own. She recognizes mommy and daddy so far, which is nice. She seems to like to spend most of her time looking out of only one eye rather than both. It’s strange because it’s not always the same eye, so it seems to just be her preference at the moment.

  

On the upside, the hat Sara made before she was admitted to the hospital fits my little Lowercase Emi perfectly. The socks we have, on the other hand, are not so perfect. They are too big in the ankle so they keep sliding off, but they are too short from heel-to-toe. Emi was born clocking a 9 cm foot length, which I am afraid she inherited from both of her giant Irish parents.

On a more personal note, I had three of the best hours of my entire life today. Sara was tired, and Emi was a tad fussy, so I took her up and walked her around the hospital. When we left the room and went out into the hall, she just watched me with a big wide-eyed stare as I talked to her. I walked and talked, she watched and gave a couple of little twitches that were her first attempts at pseudo-smiles. It didn’t take long before her eyes started to droop, and she fell asleep after just a pass and a half down the newborn wing.

When we went back into the room, Sara was just about out, so I sat on the couch holding her. After a few minutes of watching her sleep, I laid down myself with her on my chest, where she slept contentedly for about two straight hours.

  

She started to get a little fussy after Sara got up to use the bathroom, so I picked her back up and went for a walk in the hall again. She was watching me again while we walked, and I started humming to her. She closed her eyes, but after a trek and a half down the hall, she started to cry again. I stopped humming and just said her name a couple of times, and she quieted a little.

Being a scientist, I put two and two together and I started making up lyrics to the tune I was humming that involved saying her name every other line. Another trip down the hall and she was sleeping once more. I swear I saw a couple of little smiles, but that may just be wishful thinking on my part.

So I learned two things about my daughter today. First, she likes it when daddy sings to her, which is good because I tend to sing a lot at random times. Second, she likes the name Emiko, and seems to identify with it already, which is almost scary.

Holding her there in my arms as I sang to her, watching her look back at me and then fall asleep, I remembered how it feels to fall in love.

My little girl stole my heart today, and I don’t think she’s giving it back anytime soon.

M