Maia Week #7 Battle Report

Maia is now 7 weeks old and somewhere around the 10 pound mark (9.6 lbs at the last Lightweight 8 weigh-in). I have not been as present and engaged as I would like to be this week, dealing with the red-giant-star-sized void left by Booty and a full week's work, but I also recognize that there will always be times where we aren't as good as we want to be. No one bats 1000 every day (or, "no one bowls a 300 every day" if you prefer your cliches to avoid stupid sports).

Luckily, we took on an indentured servant named Annie from LA to help us through this week, and she's done great work feeding us, doing tiny loads of tiny baby clothes, and keeping Rebecca entertained while I'm at work. As soon as she makes us one more bacon-based dinner, we'll return her driver's license and release her from service.

In terms of new skills this week, Maia is now very alert and wants to spend much of the day (and half of the night) awake and in a staring contest. She still doesn't quite understand limbs yet, so her tiny arms and legs will involuntarily dance The Burro while lying on the floor. She can "social smile", which means she can bow to society's norms by smiling in order to evoke a positive reaction from the people watching her, and she sometimes sounds like Yoshi eating some fruit when making noises after feeding.

Here is a picture of Maia with her mom and her aunts, Sara and Annie.