The one-eyed Fiona

Shortly before we found out that we were having a girl, we settled on the name Fiona. It was Jim's idea. He was listening to the Thistle and Shamrock show on NPR one Sunday night. The host's name is Fiona Ritchie. It struck a chord ... with both of us.

As I spread the news at work that we were indeed, miraculously, having a baby girl, a colleague and fellow Lyle Lovett-o-phile mentioned his song "One Eyed Fiona." I'd never heard it, oddly enough, and had no idea just how apropos some of those lyrics would be.

You better not cross her/You try to boss her/Then you better duck Mister/ Here come a cup and saucer/
... And she'll look right through you/With just one eye

She's fierce, this girl. We have a whole gallery of "if looks could kill photos." And a raft more of videos capture her rather intense, um, vocalizations. Fiona's antics remind some of my younger sister, who was (affectionately, I'm sure) referred to as the "nerd of the night" for her tendency to go from drowsy to wide awake in two seconds.

And that's just what we've been dealing with here. Many moms say they love to watch their babies sleep. I look for a split second then bolt stealthily to the farthest point in our house from her crib. Lingering is risky. Holding your breath and not making eye contact is highly recommended. She has been sleeping much better, though, giving us a total of 11 hours most nights. Sometimes she wakes up and complains for a few minutes and settles back down on her own. When she wakes crying hysterically in the night, though, one of us goes to her. When it's me, I pick her up with her little piggy and comfort her, but put her back down and try to pat her back. Her reaction? She howls, bolts straight up and looks at me like "If I had a gun, I'd shoot you, lady." Her father can usually get her to lay down while he pats her. However, if he so much as moves a muscle, she opens one eye wide and just stares at him like "Don't even think about leaving me, mister."

So if my second baby is like my sister, can my third one please be like my brother Paul? Calm, quiet, wise looking. My mom said she wished she'd had three more just like him.

If looks could kill ...