When Anna woke up from her nap last evening, this is what I found:

That’s right, folks—still swaddled!

I was intrigued by the miracle blanket Megan told me about in her comment on my “Houdini” post. You really should go there and watch the short video clip of them wrapping up a baby—it’s impressive and a little funny.

I realized I don’t need a $30 blanket to do that; I just need a scrap of fabric!

And that’s what I did. I laid Anna on a long skinny strip of cotton knit fabric, then for each side, brought the fabric up between her arm and her side, wrapped it over her arm and tucked it under her back. Then baby, with arms now immobilized, went into the swaddling blanket.

Last night went pretty well too. We only had to get up once with her other than her feeding; she was fussing a little and needed David to help her get back to sleep. I think we all had a much better night’s sleep than we had been getting recently!

I hope this works for a while. Maybe I’ve at least bought us 3 or 4 more days until she figures a way out of this one too.

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… does not apply in this situation, sweetie! Now get that arm back in there and go to sleep!

(What, did you think this was going to be a commentary on Shane’s recent run-in with the Tulsa P.D.?)

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This is the outfit we brought Anna home from the hospital in. It’s a newborn size; it’s supposed to fit a 5- to 8-pound baby. Now that she’s nearly 3 months and 11 1/2 pounds, it fits. When we brought her home, it just swallowed her, like, is there a baby in there somewhere?

She’s also wearing some 6 month clothes that fit perfectly now, and she’s got some 0-3 month clothes that are still too big. Crazy! It makes it a little hard to organize her stuff!

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I was nursing Anna at the computer, like I often do, and popped in the new Steven Curtis Chapman CD that JoAnne got us. The first song, “Miracle of the Moment”, is one of those songs that K-LOVE plays probably a little too much, but I’ve never really paid attention to the words. I guess I’m a visual learner—stuff doesn’t really sink in until I see it. So I was listening and reading along with the words that came in the CD, and I thought, “This is actually a pretty cool song…”

It’s time for letting go
Of all of our if only’s…

… this is the only moment
We can do anything about

So breathe it in and breathe it out
Listen to your heartbeat
There’s a wonder in the here and now
It’s right there in front of you
And I don’t want you to miss
The miracle of the moment

Sweet, huh? Anyway…

While we’ve had a wonderful time with Anna, I’ve also had some “if only’s” about her birth and our first few weeks together. So as the first line of the song was still sinking in, the chorus started playing; right at that moment Anna suddenly stopped nursing, looked up at me, and with excitement in her eyes, smiled the biggest smile I’ve ever seen! I wish I had a picture because I can’t come close to describing it—it kind of looked like she was laughing her head off except there was no sound, just the expression. We just stayed there a few minutes, smiling at each other, me talking to her and her cooing back.

It really sealed the meaning of the song for me and became my own little miracle moment I won’t forget. I think this might be my new favorite song.

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Here is a sweet picture from David’s first Fathers Day. He sure loves his little girl!

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Thanks a million to Jenny, who took some cool pictures for us last night! Here are a few:

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No, it was not a gathering of Ronald and the Fry Guys. It was the McMillan family reunion this past weekend in Mountain View, AR. My dad is one of five siblings, and each year the five of them and their families gather somewhere for the weekend.

Most of us stayed at Sylamore Lodges just north of Mountain View. David, Anna, and I shared a house with my parents and my brother and his family—that’s six adults and 2 babies in one house—but it was plenty big, and it served as the gathering spot for the rest of the family. On Friday night we all had dinner at Angler’s White River Resort. David and I both had catfish and shrimp. Then everyone sat outside at the lodge and visited for a while. On Saturday everyone picked their own activities. David and I mostly hung out at the house, but we went into town for a little while in the afternoon, poked around a few shops, and picked up a Tommy’s Pizza to take home with us. Saturday night everyone had dinner at our place—fried chicken, barbeque, and plenty of sides. Sunday morning we again gathered at our house for breakfast before everyone headed home. Some pics: (more…)

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At our family reunion this past weekend (more on that in another post), Anna got to see her cousin Addison. Here are a couple of cute pictures:

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As I mentioned before, Anna has to be swaddled to sleep. The problem is she can eventually wriggle her arms out, and then we have to go in there and re-wrap her for her to fall back asleep soundly. I’ve been pressing David for several weeks to get a swaddling blanket. I finally insisted enough, and he sweetly stopped by Babies ‘R’ Us after work yesterday and picked one up.

It basically goes something like this:

• Insert bottom half of baby into sack.
• Wrap flaps around top half of baby and secure in place with velcro.

The reviews were promising—story after story of people whose babies would wriggle out of even the tightest swaddle and wake themselves several times during the night, just like Anna, but after they started using this blanket, they started sleeping through the night! Aha! This is the answer!

Last night was David’s night to check on her. At 3:30 he had gotten up twice with her. She had come out of the blanket. I mean completely out—legs and all.

How the heck?!?

I just hope this skill comes in handy someday. Maybe she’ll make us a lot of money in the circus.

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It’s the 23rd again—Anna is 2 months old today! I took her to get weighed, and she’s 10 pounds 4 ounces and doing quite well. She smiles a lot, she loves it when we talk to her, she likes her play mat and bouncy seat, she holds her head up well, she likes to lie on her back on our bed and kick her legs and stare at the ceiling fan, and she takes really good naps! And while it’s a little sad that she’s growing up so fast, she just gets more and more fun the older she gets.

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