The Golden Age

Recently, Erin was reading the book "What to Expect in the 1st Year", and came across a statement declaring that from about 3 months old until 7 or 8 months old (or when a baby starts crawling) is considered the golden age for infants. Their reasoning is that usually, starting around 3 months, babies start sleeping better at night, are smiling, begin laughing and making happy noises, playing with toys and other "fun" things but are not yet very mobile. I know several parents that would disagree with the above description, however, I really feel that the golden age for Abigail has begun.

Taking care of her is still quite the chore, but I have found that more and more time has been spent playing with and interacting with her verses doing work to simply maintain life. For the most part, she spends her days being very happy.

The past couple of weeks have been a lot of fun. She has gotten much louder with her noises and at times seems to be yelling at us. She can now grab onto objects that are either handed to her or placed near her and is just beginning to reach for objects held above or in front of her. She has rolled over from her tummy to back a few times when propped up on her teddy bear, but isn't quite there yet when placed flat on her tummy. She can now get her thumb and whole hand up to her mouth whenever she wants and drool is flowing freely.

One thing that Erin and I discussed yesterday is that she seems to be understanding social interaction more. She will turn to look at us when we talk and smiles at us when we walk into the room. When we smile at her she will smile back. She also can tell when we are and aren't paying attention to her and she prefers the former (and lets us know by making loud noises when we aren't paying enough attention to her).

Last Saturday was a BIG day for our family as Abigail was baptized at 4:30 mass. I'm not even sure how to describe how happy it makes me to be raising our daughter in the faith that both Erin and I have been raised in. The Catholic church is an amazing community to be a part of and God's Grace has definitely blessed Abigail since the day she was conceived. I think back at all of the worry and stress that was involved during Erin's final months of pregnancy and through the first couple of days after Abigail was born. All of the things that could have gone wrong but didn't, that was God and work. For her to become a part of our faith family, makes everything seem whole.

To end this entry, I would like to take a moment to thank Erin and both of my parents. The first 2 months of Abigail's life were very hard for me. Throughout that time, Erin and my parents spent countless hours listening to my struggles and encouraging me as a dad. Becoming a parent for the 1st time is the hardest thing that I have done in my life, and it is just so great to have the support I need to do it. Ironically, as I have seen happen so many times in my life, I don't think I would be where I am at in my role as a father today had I not struggled through those first couple of months and I am a better person today because of it.