Baby laughs

You will agree with me that there are few things as contagious as a baby's laugh. I have no idea why but our brains are almost trained to start laughing or at least draw a smile on our face every time we hear a baby laugh. Well, when that baby is yours, there are even tears of joy.
I don't know if it is because Belinda and I had such a rough first three months with Lucia, but when we heard her laugh for the first time we both looked at each other and realized that this little person may actually like us! I'll try to record her laugh one of these days and I will post it here.

As I mentioned in a previous blog (dog years), these past few days have been like years in terms of the new development and new things she's discovered. The last time I stared at my feet for more than 10 seconds was:
a) definitely before my belly blocked the view, and
b) over 30 years ago

Our little Lucia just found out that those funny-looking things at the other end of her changing table are actually her feet and it feels nice to hold them (and taste them too). It is amazing to see these new 'discoveries' and how they change her life. I sometimes wonder what goes through her mind when she wakes up every morning. It may be something like "hmm, I wonder if those feet-things will be on my changing table this morning again... boy, where they fun to play with yesterday... I wonder how they will taste this morn......... taste? ....... hmmm....... speaking of taste, a little milk would be great about 2 instants ago..... whaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!"

Speaking of baby thoughts. Have you ever watched a baby sleep? They seem to have dreams. Lucia smiles and giggles through her sleep and sometimes she also cries for a few seconds. I sometimes don't give her enough credit as she is a person that is learning a ton from this world and she gets to re-live some of those experiences all over again in her dreams. I would tell you Belinda's baby-dream theory but I am too shy to do it here so you'll have to ask her one of these days when you see her.

We have a full house. Malcolm (Belinda's brother) arrived on Tuesday all the way from Cape town, South Africa. Glenda (Belinda's mom) arrived one day later. It is so nice to have family around. We forget how nice it is to have loved ones close to us so that we can enjoy a family trip on the weekend or even a family dinner every now and then. Belinda and I have grown in our marriage without any family around. On the one had it helps build a strong marriage as we rely on each other for everything, it has also given us the opportunity to make amazing friends who we consider our Oregon family. But it is also true that we miss our families. Having Lucia makes this even more obvious. I grew up surrounded by cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents from both sides of the family. It makes me a little sad that Lucia will likely miss this experience. But oh well, we'll see what the future has in store for us.


For now, I must go downstairs and get some sleep. We're flying to Mexico on Thursday so I will probably update the blog when we get back by the end of August. Have a good night.