Her eyes are changing color, and it looks strange. She has the newborn deep blue on the outer ring of her iris, then a light grey blue next to her pupil. Matt says she has my eye color, but since I never paid much attention to what my eye color is, I’ll take his word for it. I think she does have my mouth, but her nose is new. It isn’t pointy enough to be like Matt’s nose, and it is too round to be like my nose. It is, of course, an eminently adorable, cute and perfect nose that suits her to a ‘T’.

Her head stays up most of the time now while I am burping her. It is really sweet to see her on my shoulder with her head high and waving it around looking at me, mouthing her diaper and staring at me again. I’ve never had such a rapt audience. My world shifted today from the way she was staring at me. I was the center of her world, and all I could think was, I have to be strong enough to protect this little one, and I must be the best I can be to show her how to be the best she can be. Oooh, she is a special one she is. She steals hearts, and then hands it back to you somehow better than before. Carolyn says she misses her very much, and I know Mom is really looking forward to seeing her again. As it was with Patty, I am in second place next to my daughter when it comes to mom. Mom loves her babies! Since I love her too, it just gives us something in common.

We’ve been listening to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone on audiotape when we are in the room with Sam. She naps or plays, Matt works on his reading or programming, and I pump breastmilk or try to catch up on my e-mail, etc. The reader did an amazing jo with the many different voices. You could really see the characters in your mind with the different shadings of tone in his reading. I miss it now that we are done. I’ll have to see if they did the other Potter books on tape, or what other books are out there. It is much easier to get into books now if they are on tape. My hands are always busy doing something, diapers, folding laundry, typing. I get into the story and the time just goes by. It’s as though the laundry folded itself.

Sam’s face is covered in acne right now. I think she is just reacting to having milk spilled on her skin all the time, and neither of us have been washing her face after she eats. We are now, but it takes a while to clear up.

I don’t know who ever described a baby’s sounds as coos, but that isn’t what Samantha sounds like. She grunts like a weight lifter, which often means a smelly fart is coming, or she wheezes like she is squeezing the air out of her throat. Dr. Pangburn assures us she is breathing fine, she is actually playing with sounds in preparation for speech. Well, all I can say is, she is doing a lot of preparation and it sounds loud and scary sometimes. None of this quiet cooing crap for Samantha!