Crying is for little babies

This is not a repeat photo...I promise.

As you can see by these first three pictures, Thursday, January 3, was the day Mommy has been dreading since the last week of October. Today was the day Diana had to go back to the doctor for a second round of shots. After the 30 minutes of uncontrollable sobbing in the doctors office during the first round of innoculations by Becky and the 20 minutes of heart wrenching crying by Diana, Mommy expected another difficult day waiting in anticipation for that horrible moment, knowing that her poor, helpless daughter would be poked repeatedly by needles in her chubby little legs. When the moment of truth finally arrived, Diana cried for about 2 minutes...then stopped.

Proving that crying is for little babies, Diana showed off her much more advanced forms of showing displeasure after those first 2 minutes by furrowing her eyebrows and glaring at the world with the cutest little pouting face. By the time Daddy got home from work, Diana had forgiven the world for causing her this great discomfort, and she even smiled a bit for these cute pics of her new band-aids.

This photo was not taken today. It was actually taken late in the day yesterday after Diana had shown us a new found skill. After a couple weeks of showing signs of wanting to interact more with her environment, reaching out and touching things nearby, and even the occasional lean forward, Diana surprised both Mommy and Daddy by her new abilities to show what she wants.

After a wonderful morning spent together, Daddy and Diana were walking around the living room with Diana sitting in Daddy's arms so that her back was to her Daddy's chest. Both dad and daughter were perfectly content. Suddenly, out of the bedroom walked Mom. Without any hesitation, both Diana's arms immediately stretched out towards Mommy as she leaned forward, clearly saying, "Mommy! Come take me away from the Daddy-man. I'm done with him." (It was only well later that she graced us with this rather unhappy face.)

Pictures of our happy little candy cane are much more pleasant to look at.

Then, of course, there's this one where Diana tries on one of her bath robes for the first time. I can almost hear her thinking, "Well, now that I'm so big, I guess I'd better start wearing big people things like bath robes. I sure am going to miss my snuggly hooded towels though."

And finally, tonight, I've got to share with you something that we all know but sometimes fail to remember. That, of course, is...LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER.

On December 22, I thought the best Christmas present I would receive this year would be having my mom and sister with me to celebrate Diana's first Christmas. On December 24, my sister almost topped that by giving me the best scrap book I think she's ever made. However, by the 26th, my mom had given me the best gift of all. Knowing that I have had many frustrating experiences trying to get my little girl to fall asleep, quickly giving Diana to her mother after crying a while, and having had easy grandmotherly success throughout her weekend here, my mother, rocking her soundly sleeping grandaughter during her morning nap, looked up at her son and said in simple, motherly wisdom and direction, "You just need to be a little more patient."

And, of course, she was right. At least 4 times this past weekend, Dad showed that he really can show more patience than his daughter can show discontent. The reward of snuggle time with a sleeping Diana is worth more than any of the stress of involved in getting her there.

Thanks, Mom.