Rapt Attention

It's neat to see a baby start to engage. My Mom loves the newborn phase, and has held Nora a lot these past few weeks.

My sister-in-law Judy and I were just saying last night how neat it is when you start seeing their personality come through as they engage with you with smiles, coos and other ways of communication (besides screaming).

Nora has been awake for well over an hour now. It's 7 a.m., and she woke up just before 6 for her feeding and changing.

Then BOING! We're AWAKE!

We've had a sleeping/eating/pooping Nora for most of the 5 weeks she's been on this planet. Like most babies, it's all you come to expect out of them.

But lately, she's spent a little more time awake before and after feedings, where she doesn't just fall asleep on the bottle, but looks around a bit, interested in your face (well, my face anyway). Still, she had not really reacted a whole lot.
Up until this morning that is.

As anyone knows, newborns grow so fast, and it seems like every day there's something new to notice.

As Nora's gotten older, her cries have gotten louder (and boy does that girl know how to belt it out when a diaper is being changed), but other than that, we haven't gotten to see much else in the way of emotion.

Well, this morning she got ALL excited about breakfast when she must have FINALLY put together that the ritual of diaper changing, putting her on a pillow on my lap, and the bib on her chest -- all led to ONE THING. BREAKFAST!!! LUNCH!!! or DINNER!!!

"YAHOOOOO!" she must be thinking.

Then, she's stayed awake, and still is, listening to and watching the new mobile. Here we are over an hour later and as you can see by the picture, she's still paying rapt attention to it.