RedBird

Mazie does not have much hair. Although she has some coming in, it isn't easy to see. She has big pretty eyes with mile-long eyelashes. We are not sure what color her eyes are going to be yet. They can sometimes look blue, but more often than not they have a green or hazel tone to them. Her cheeks are full and her lips are distinctly defined. Our favorite facial feature of hers right now is her pair of eyebrows. They are darker than the other two's, making us think she will have brown hair. Her eyebrows are so expressive, conveying everything from joy to frustration to curiosity.
We call Mazie our red bird because her skin was so red the first few months of her life; she had no body fat to conceal the blood just under her skin. She has since fattened up but we still think of her as our little red bird, partly because she is delicate like a bird. At six months she is now twelve pounds. She doesn't look significantly smaller than her siblings, but she feels much lighter when you pick her up. Physically though, she does not lag behind. She is exhibiting signs of crawling: bending her knee up and inching toward toys. She can easily pick things up and put them in her mouth.

Mazie has a sweet spirit. She will hold onto my hand and softly rub it for ten or fifteen minutes. She studies us and watches the moves we make. I call her my big cheeser sometimes because of her different smile. Her smile is big like Lucia's and Elliott's, but while their smiles are broad across their faces, when Mazie smiles it is like she is scrunching up her whole face in the smile. She loves to look adoringly at Elliott and Lucia and at us too.

While she is very sweet, Mazie is comfortable making her needs known. She will cry so loudly over a wet diaper sometimes that you think maybe she has been hurt in some way. We will rack our brains over what might be wrong, only to finally solve the problem with an easy diaper change. She definitely uses volume to make sure she is not ignored.

One way that Mazie is different from her siblings is that she still truly, unabashedly loves her swing. Elliott and Lucia like them fine, but Mazie loves to get in. She waits for us to crank that swing up to high, then she tilts her head to one side and splays her arms out to the sides and revels in the relaxing monotony.
Like her brother and sister, we enjoy our treasure Mazie everyday.