Dear Emily Joy,

You've been with us for one month now.  And it is safe to say we are positively smitten with you.  Except from 6-10pm when you begin what Nana KiKi calls the "witching hour".

I swear you smiled at me today.   Twice.  Of course it very well could have been gas...but you were content and playing on your mat, and you smiled when I leaned over and said hi.  So I'm going to go ahead and chalk that up to you smiling at me.

The other night, I was rocking you to sleep and you were quite in between phases...your eyes kept closing, then opening again, then closing again.  I was exhausted - I think it was around 4:45am, but I also thought that at some point in your life I'll want to cuddle with you, and you'll want to go play or be by yourself, and I'll desperately miss the sweet moments when you fought off sleep in my arms.

Your eyebrows are quite possibly the cutest things ever.

We tried to do a one month photo shoot yesterday.  I'm sure that if you're reading this you'll have a strong appreciation for how determined your dad can be about getting a good picture   Ask me sometime about the time he dragged me all over Mount Rainier maniacally trying to chase a sunset picture.  This time, however, it  was me who had a picture I wanted.  I wanted one of you curled up naked in your Moses basket, with your new white headband surrounded by your new pink fleece blanket.  Given the fact most newborn pictures I've seen look something like this, I figured it wouldn't be too hard to pull off.

Wrong. Suffice it to say it ended with you peeing all over me.  On the upside, dad got a couple pictures of you with your headband on and you looked adorable.

Maybe that's what motherhood is all about: making great plans, your child having no desire to participate in said plans, and the result being you standing in your living room with pee all over you and marveling at how precious your daughter looks in her new headband.  I'm sure there's a metaphor in there somewhere.

We love you, Emily Joy...it's only been one month, but I can't imagine our lives without you.