Living the Life as an S-B: a couple of new "firsts"

It's me, Erica! I'm back once again to quickly make note of a couple new things that Derek has done the past couple of days.

1.) we put Derek in his crib while he was still awake but drowsy and he actually fell asleep! as most parents know, you usually wait until your baby is fast asleep to put him/her in the crib to prevent them from any unnecessary crying and to make bedtime smoother for everyone. up until yesterday, Derek usually fell asleep while nursing, which was super easy, but usually involved me being (for lack of a better word) stuck in a chair nursing him until he was good and asleep. getting up at any point before an hour had elapsed was just not an option, cause then he'd wake up during the transfer from my lap to his crib. but yesterday, Dean and i decided to leave the room and close the door while Derek was moving around with his eyes half open in his crib, and he managed to get himself to sleep. Dean and I were in awe at how easy that was. Obviously every night probably isn't going to be that easy, but it was perfect that very first time. :)

2.) Derek spit out his pacifier to talk to me. :) i was holding him this afternoon and had his pacifier in his mouth cause he looked like he was gonna cry, and i was talking to him. he was staring at my face and started to "talk" in response to what i was saying. i talked back to him and he used his tongue to get the pacifier out of his mouth, and then talked back to me. when he spit out his pacifier, it seemed very intentional, like he did it just so he could speak to me. we had a nice long conversation, in which he told me all about his day, complete with facial expressions and leg and arm movements to illustrate the day's happenings. =)

a photo taken during one of our many conversations

3.) Derek's first "full-body smile." A full-body smile is one that you see not only on a baby's face, but their whole body just comes alive with excitement. i saw his first one today, when i went to Dean's parent's house to pick Derek up. Derek looked at me, he smiled and let out a little laugh, and his arms and legs started moving like crazy! it was the most adorable thing to witness and totally made my day.

4.) a new facial expression: when you touch the tip of Derek's nose, he opens his mouth wide and crinkles his nose. very similar to the face he makes in this picture: