16 weeks!

The edibly adorable, highly addictive Gia Tamayo Batshaw will be 16 weeks old tomorrow!

Our little girl is growing fast: She’s definitely outgrown her “0-3 month” clothes. Her torso, legs and arms are longer (with a dimple at the elbows), hands and feet are getting bigger, her tummy is rounder, and of course her cheeks are rounder, too. Her eyes are getting more curious, and her energy is more and more alert. She’s smiling a lot, vocalizing all the time, laughing more, and starting to squeal. She just squealed right now and seems to have momentarily scared herself! She also has an adorable sneeze … a-CHOO – oo.

Everyone asks: How’s Gia’s sleep? We’re working on it, day and night (literally). The vital updates are these: (1) She’s out of our bed and happily sleeping in her co-sleeper at night, and (2) She napped on her own (meaning, not being worn in a baby carrier, but in her co-sleeper) for the first time today … for 45 minutes! So sleep is getting better … ask again in a couple of weeks.

A few people have also asked after her “weekly” pictures. The last couple are missing because we left town, and whilst away, our camera was dropped. It’s being repaired as I write, so rest assured that more pictures will be on there way soon. You can only imagine how many times a day I want to snap a shot.

Two weeks ago, the three of us ventured across the country to Washington, DC to celebrate Passover with Drew’s family. Gia’s first airplane experience worked out relatively well: She refused to nurse or suck on a pacifier on departure or landing, so cried, poor thing, when she had pressure in her ears; she slept maybe an hour of the 5+ hour flight; and she cried only a few times in between. Drew and I were so busy keeping her entertained and walking her up and down the aisle that the flight passed relatively quickly. At Pa and Dida’s (Drew’s parents’) home, she got to meet four of her cousins for the first time: Benjamin (almost 6) and Rebecca (2), who live in St. Louis with parents Auntie Elissa and Uncle Bryan, and cousins Julian (almost 4) and Sophia (1), who hail from Manhattan with Uncle Michael and Auntie Natasha. We’re glad Gia got to meet more of her family, and wish that we had taken more pictures before the camera-dropping incident.

Unfortunately, I got sick early in the trip, Gia wasn’t sleeping well at night (though she didn’t have jetlag), and so neither were we. On an ill-considered whim, I decided to add dairy back into my diet the night before we left DC, and Gia’s little tummy got so upset that she (and again, we) were up most of the night. We got up at around 5 am EDT, after about one hour of sleep on and off during the night, and flew home. An exhausting and mildly excruciating day! However, there was an angel sitting next to us on the plane: A very sweet 50-something Korean grandmother who offered to hold Gia while we ate. Miraculously, Gia was totally entranced by her talking and singing, and stared at her face until she fell asleep in her arms.

I say “miraculously” because Gia, who’s obviously an advanced and emotionally-tuned-in being, developed a bit of stranger anxiety around the beginning of April. When others hold her, she usually cries and looks for us. Unfortunately, that meant that others didn’t get to hold her much our visit, and we didn’t get to go out for a romantic dinner. Fortunately, we know that she’s already quite attached to us. The challenge is that of course we want her to be comfortable with other people, and yet that might involve letting her be uncomfortable for a little bit. At the same time, we don’t want her to cry and teach her that we’re ignoring her needs. So we’re accepting that she is where she is, and attempting slow transitions for others to hold and love her.

This past weekend, Gia got to meet her two other cousins, Lillian (14) and Ben (12), who came to visit from the Bay Area with Auntie Wendy and Uncle Eric. It was sweet to see how much her cousins wanted to see, hold and adore her. My mom is coming back for Mother's Day in a couple of weeks, and we're looking forward to having her here, too. Being with family makes us wish that we lived closer and could spend more time together as our kids (and we) grow up.

Alas, work and amazing friends keep us in LA for now.

Finally, a word about Amy & Drew. My friend Scott asked me today how having Gia has impacted my love for Drew. The short answer is that Gia’s presence in our lives vastly expands and elevates my love and experience of being in love with Drew. I get to see his sweetness, tenderness, protectiveness, dedication, generosity, hilarity and resourcefulness channeled into fatherhood. I get to witness the way Drew and Gia look at each other with such love in their eyes (I mean, really … I didn’t even know that was possible for an infant!), and I get to watch their dance at night as Drew sings and chants her into slumber. Tonight, she was crying at first (as she almost always does), and Drew was practically running around the living room, bouncing her (in the Moby wrap) and singing a Krishna Das medley. Imagine that!

Having Gia has invited us to dive more deeply into partnership and depend more on ourselves and more on each other every day. We are both more generous, supportive and loving with each other, and probably more appreciative, too. Because we have chosen more traditional gender roles, Drew is working hard (thankfully, from home) and is providing more financially for us; I am hardly working for money, though working hard at being a great mom and providing more domestic ease. It’s working for us right now, and I feel really, really grateful for the opportunity to spend these precious months getting to know, be with and actively love Gia.

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Coming soon: Next time, we’ll tell you about our first afternoon date away from Gia … our friend Mikki has generously offered to babysit for a few hours next week, and we’re keeping our fingers crossed that all goes well …