5 facts

Written when Monroe was almost 3 months old.

Five unique facts about our little Monroe:

1) She's literally "headstrong," meaning she's very uncomfortable in any situation where she can't turn her head or neck anyway she wishes. In a video taken in the hospital when she was just a few hours old, I remarked on the "power in her neck." And she was able to lift head up while lying on her belly, and even to turn it from side to side when she was just 3 days old. With all this prowess comes a determination to control her head which thwarted every attempt to carry her in a chest-facing baby carrier. Monroe will not be fenced in! Or at least, her head won't!

2) She is the loudest sleeper I've ever had occasion to room with. Whoever coined the phrase, "Sleeping like a baby" had clearly never watched MY baby sleep. Snorts, grunts, farts, sighs, shrieks, cries, slurps, squeaks, and even little sweet smiles all cross her face. It took me weeks to learn to distinguish her run-of-the-mill "asleep sounds" from what I call "the snooze alarm," which is a sharp little "huh" noise that tells me she's going to need to eat soon. It's called the snooze alarm because she kindly gives at least 30 minutes' warning before the first "huh huh huh" and any actual cries, so we get to avoid nightime upsets!

3) Something seriously funky is going on with her hair. She was born with brown hair, which started falling out around week 2, and completely fell out by around week 6.... EXCEPT for a ridiculous ring of hair at the back of her neck. This created a stunning illusion of a balding old man. We waited in vain for the "old man hair" to drop, but instead she started growing new sweet peach fuzz on the top of her head (in approximately the same brown color it seems, so I don't know why the Almighty felt it necessary to send her with a temporary version) and the old man hair is now GROWING. So she is starting to look like a tragically hip balding baby-boomer who makes up for the lack of hair on top by wearing a ponytail in back...

4) She smells amazing. Yes, all babies smell amazing so this is no unique fact and therefore doesn't technically belong on this list. Still, it has to be discussed, so here I am including it. Her natural smell is so precious. At the moment of birth, she smelled salty and faintly sweet, exactly like being out in the middle of the ocean on a small boat and smelling the sea spray in the air. After her first bath and for the first few weeks, she smelled like nothing in this world--I can't describe that smell. It breaks my heart to admit this, but I can't even completely remember that smell... it was so different than anything else that my brain couldn't fully store the information. Now, she smells like a human, which is much more relateable but somewhat less miraculous than her other-worldly newborn smell. But it's a very sweet, clean, precious, cartoon of a baby smell. No grown-up could smell this clean even if they scrubbed for hours in scalding water.

5) Monroe likes to party. Seriously, we've taken her to two parties where we showed up at the invite time and stayed until her bedtime. She quietly, happily mingles with people on one of her parent's shoulders, charming every guest! And as a result of taking in all those new sites, sounds, and smells, she always crashes out afterwards.... partying until she passes out... could this prevision her early twenties? Let's hope not!