Every little thing she does

‘Of course I’m bias, but I’m not gonna deny Phoebe is one heck of a cute baby …

So it was more than a little frightening when I had a dream last night that she had grown into an ugly baby literally over night. In the dream, Kates and I put her to bed one night and when we raised her from her crib the next morning she had grown dark black hair, she was wearing thick, dark-rimmed glasses and she had a full mouth of huge, squirrel-like teeth. Oh, the horror … If only I could paint a picture of the image that’s stuck in my mind. It was like a two-foot long Ugly Betty dressed in baby clothes, but without the braces.

Thank God it was just a dream. And she remains cute.

At one point while I was working this afternoon, a vision of that huge, toothless, clown-faced grin of hers popped into my head. I let out a little giggle and shook my head. And then felt thankful I'm able to have such warm feelings ...

The best part of every one of my weekdays for the last several weeks has been coming home in the evenings and seeing her sitting on Kates’s lap, or lying on the floor with Kates playing beside her …

Every little thing she does is magic to us … The way she kicks and bounces with reckless regard when we lay her on her back -- our friends at Tom’s wedding last weekend delighted in seeing that whole act … The way she stops eating every time I talk and looks in my direction with that smile to make sure she’s not missing anything … The way she focuses so hard and furls her eyebrows and lips when she’s trying to grip the object in front of her …

... The way she lunges at our hands, or any other object nearby, just so she can suck on them … The way she sighs, the way she yawns, the way she sneezes and then laughs about it, the way she talks while she’s feeding on a bottle … And the way she bursts into her own babbling conversations with her surroundings …

With Kates back at school now, and leaving around 7 every morning, Phoebe and I are developing a good morning routine, too … Kates leaves after I’ve finished showering, and I set Phoebe up in the living room, either on her belly on the floor or in her saucer. She plays, I eat my breakfast and we watch Sportscenter together. She loves it. … By about 7:20 or 7:30 a.m., she’s ready for her bottle. And depending on how quickly she downs that, we’re in her room by 8 a.m. … I get her dressed in the outfit Kates has laid out for her the night before. We take care of the vitamins, the allergy medicine and all of that fun stuff. And all of this is happening while we listen to her Rock ‘n’ Roll playlist. If she’s in a good mood, we dance and bounce around her room. She loooooves “We Are the Sleepyheads.” … And by 8:15, if all has gone well, we’re on our way to the daycare, and she’s falling asleep in the back seat of my car.

My friend Tom warned me about this a few months ago with his newborn son, the way that -- after about three months -- he was quickly becoming a little man. Now, at 4 ½ months, Phoebe is becoming a little woman more and more every day …