The Wonder Weeks

These are the wonder weeks, the most wonderful, miraculous, and extraordinary weeks of my life.
My baby girl Maia is seven wondrous weeks old today! She has been changing daily since the day she was born, and now after almost fifty days on this planet, her pacific blue eyes are brighter than ever.

I notice things like the way her smiles have changed, from superficial into pure joy and delight! She is developing rapidly and becoming more and more interested in her surroundings. I imagine her world looks and feels different as it starts to come into focus... as she begins to distinguish sounds and faces and gets to know us. Other changes I can see are that she cries real tears, stays awake for longer periods, falls asleep on her own in her crib, and likes to listen to her daddy and me singing along. She is eager to start the day, my baby girl, happy to get out of bed and say good morning to the boats in the marina, the birds outside our window and the orchids in their pots.

She stares at me now for really long periods all wide-eyed, while she's on my breast or when I'm changing her diaper. She's fascinated when I eat or cook, looking intently from her cradle-chair.
This week we've started taking baths together and I was surprised to see how she's gone from being super tense in her baby bath to completely relaxing in the water when she's with me, letting go of her clenched fists and floating on her back while i hold her little head in the palm of my hand. My little star fish. She makes different happy sounds when I change her diaper, when we dance together in her room, or when we sit by the window in the light of day.

Other times she gets upset. She whimpers and cries and sometimes screams really, really loud. Her little mouth stretches tight and she cries with such emotion that it breaks my heart. As the tension mounts in her tiny body, I pick her up and hold her tight and tell her you're alright my darling, you're alright... I use my voice to help calm her down and feel comforted. Thankfully, it doesn't last long and soon she's falling asleep in my arms again. And so a brand new world opens up for my little baby and I'm right there next to her, comforting her when she gets more impressions than she can handle. We are observing, experimenting and discovering together.


This week Maia's greatest discovery has been her hands and she delights in putting not one, but all of her long fingers in her mouth. She tries to put in one fist and then the other and soothes herself that way. When I put her down for her nap she spends at least 15 minutes looking at her hands and waving them in the air like birds, my tiny flamenco dancer! She has started to hold on to things too with those precious little hands, like my hair, my necklace, my bra, daddy's nose and mouth... But the most heavenly hold of all is when she puts her tiny arms around my shoulder; it's like she hugs me! Nestling blissfully on my neck or on my bosom while I melt away. I breathe in her delicious caramel buttery smell and close my eyes. She is what heaven smells like... And her skin as soft as rose petals sends me floating through the clouds with a thousand smiles.