Today is Cate’s two month birthday. I thought about writing one of those monthly “dear baby” letters that a lot of bloggers do, but I’m not sure where to start with that. So instead, here are some milestones from this past month:

* Cate now smiles in reaction to us, but it isn’t entirely consistent yet. There are times when my refined sense of comedy seems lost on her (meaning, I make goofy smiley faces at her, or do silly little dances, and she just stares at me like I’m crazy). Oh well, we’ll work on continuing to develop her sense of humor in the future. She’ll be cracking up at Monty Python movies with us in no time.

* She’s getting really good control of her head, and I stopped wearing my engagement ring the day she thrashed her head right smack into the corner of the diamond. The screaming that ensued broke my heart, I almost cried for her. It left a mark on her temple, and I felt absolutely horrid. So, it’s just my simple little wedding band for the foreseeable future.

* She can also do push-ups when Dave or I put her lying tummy-down on us – I think she wants to raise herself up to look at us. But Baby Girl is super strong, even though the motivation seems to be lacking when it comes to her little “tummy time” playmat, because all she does is fuss when we try to lay her on it.

* She makes little talky noises when she’s happy. And in fact, she’s already had her first word: “hey!” Ok, it doesn’t count because she doesn’t know what it means, but we thought it was funny. She also says “nih” a lot, which brings up all kinds of jokes about how she is of the Knights Who Say Nih (see, I told you we’re working that Monty Python angle). And apparently she’s already a fan of Indian food, since she talks an awful lot about ghee.

* She’s almost figured out the pacifier thing. Once she gets it in her mouth, she really seems to like it, and it does calm her down when she’s fussy (for example, in the car seat). But I kind of have to hold it in her mouth, because she can’t seem to hang onto it herself for very long. I’ve tried at least four or five different types so far, but it’s all pretty hit-or-miss.

* Last night she slept for four and a half hours – from 12:30 to 5 a.m. Which would’ve been a lot more awesome if I hadn’t been tossing and turning until 2 a.m. (I was doing that thing where you think about all of the items on your to-do list and can’t shut your brain off. Fun!) Oh well, hopefully it’s the start of a new trend. Fingers crossed, anyway.