Growing Up Isn’t Easy

Apparently Not.

Happy Father’s Day!

Rob’s first father’s day was quite a success! We napped…

Smiled…

Showed off our silly hair…

Lounged in our bathrobes…

Napped some more…

And some more…

Went for an adventure to Cabelas…

And finally to church, all dressed up!

It was a great weekend, indeed. :)

Two Month Update!

Are we at two months already?! I’m sure it’s cliché to say, but time is really flying by! Everyone I know has been telling me to enjoy each moment with her because the time DOES go by so quickly, and I am starting to see that they are right. On one hand, I’m so excited to be able to watch her learn and grow (and SLEEP), but on the other hand it’s sad to watch my tiny new baby already getting bigger. I’m also learning that the older I get, the smarter my parents get. Thanks, MOM. :)

So, on to the details! Monkey-Do helped us out again for her two-month photos. She liked him a little better this time!

 

At two months, Emily:

…is much more awake and alert! She smiles all the time and has even tried to giggle once or twice. Right after she wakes up in the morning is when she’s the happiest, smiling and cooing all over the place. She’s starting to be quite the little talker! (But really, were there any doubts about that one? She IS her mama’s daughter after all… ;) )

…is eating and growing like crazy! We’re still exclusively nursing, and she seems to want to eat every 2 hours during the day and 3-4 in the evening. She lasts the night now without wanting to get up and eat, but she’s sure hungry in the morning!

…has found her hands and feet! She’s started sucking on her hands and arms, and noticed her feet for the first time yesterday. Her eyes get huge and she seems to be thinking, “What the heck are THOSE?!” She’s also started drooling and blowing bubbles a lot. Lets hope she’s not teething yet, I’m not ready for that!

 

…has become a great sleeper. I’m afraid I’ll be jinxing us by writing this, but for the last week she’s been sleeping about 8 hours in a row. We’ve started to put a little bit of a bedtime routine into place and it seems to be working. We watch for sleepy signs, and when we notice she’s getting tired we put her jammies on, swaddle her up, feed her, and rock her to sleep. Usually she’s in her bassinet by our bed by 8 or 8:30 and sleeps until 4:30 or 5. Then she’ll wake me up to eat again and go back to sleep for another 3 hours or so. I hope this keeps up!

…had her two-month check-up yesterday and got her first round of vaccines (hence the update post is today, not yesterday when it should have been). Vaccines are something I’ve done a LOT of research about lately and I’m still not fully on board, but we did get her started on a few of the most important ones. One of these days I’ll do a post solely about that topic, because I really do think it’s important. But not today!:) At two months exactly she weighed in at 11 pounds even and measured 22.5 inches. Growing girl! They put her stats on a growth chart for us that compares her to other baby girls her age, and she falls almost exactly at 50% in all categories. The doc told us she’s growing well and is just perfect! Of course she is! Ha. :)

…has some of the craziest hair ever. It stands straight up in all directions after her bath, and no amount of combing seems to help! It’s okay though, we love her silly hair!

…makes her parents smile and laugh with her every day. I am so happy to have her! I am trying to take the advice and cherish each moment (even the hard ones) and love her as much as I can. What a sweet baby!!

We love you so much, Punkin. Keep on growing and making us proud!!

Oot and Aboot!

What a day we had today! One of us decided that 7:30 was a great time to get up on a Saturday morning… One guess who that was. So we went out to breakfast and then spent the rest of the day adventuring around the area. We went from Federal Way all the way up into Seattle and back again, with a few stops along the way. The sun was out, the sky was blue, and we had a wonderful time!

I think this is the cutest little outfit! I have been waiting and waiting for it to fit her, and then, of course, the hat was too small. Oh well! It’s still adorable. :)

She wasn’t too sure about the hat.

At Gasworks Park in Seattle. See the Space Needle in the background?

It was windy! Again, the too-small hat didn’t want to stay on very well. Poor little baby looks like a cone-head, haha!

There goes the hat!

View from the top of the hill.

Emily and Daddy.

Happy to be home! She was quite the little trooper today. We stopped twice for diapers and to feed her, and she didn’t fuss at all the whole time! Well, at least not until the very end. And once we were back in the house, she was all smiles!

I don’t think there are many places I’d rather live than here in the Seattle area. It’s a great city, and despite what everyone thinks, it really doesn’t rain that much here. Warm summers, mild winters (usually!), lots of things to do and places to see… All we need is for our family to move over here near us and we’d be set!

Hugs to everyone, we love and miss you all!! And here’s to great days and nice weather for a while! :)

Photo Friday!

Relaxing in the boppy

Hi!                                                                 

Like my hat?

Ready to go!

Tummy time

Why are you upside down, mom? (She was playing with her new baby mat. She loves wiggle time!)

Big smile!

On her new quilt from Great Aunt Dotty

My favorite! :)

See ya next time!

I still won’t be wearing a bikini, though.

When I first got pregnant, or possibly even a little before, I came across a website called Baby Center that’s basically everything you’d ever want to know (and some things I wish I’d never found!) about pregnancy, childbirth, and having kids. Somewhere along the way I became hopelessly addicted to reading the forums and chatting with all the other crazy pregnant ladies that were on the site also. (And can I just say that putting 8,000+ hormonal, bitchy pregnant women together in an anonymous setting like that is really just not a good idea! There were some really involved internet fights, lots of hurt feelings, and more snarky comments than I could even keep up with. And that was just in the group that was having babies in April 2010 like I was!) I wasted a lot of time on that site!

But, that’s not really my point.

The women on the Baby Center site aren’t all mean and horrible, and there was also a lot of support for people when they needed it, and some good laughs to keep us all sane, too. Eventually we all had our babies, and things kind of mellowed out for a while. Obviously when Emily was born the days of wasting hours online quickly disappeared, and I stopped keeping up with things there.

This week I revisited the site and came across a really good post that I thought was worth sharing. I don’t go swimming much anyway, but after reading this, I just might! So here goes, from one brave mama to the rest of us.

So today my dad called and invited our little family to come out and swim tomorrow. I accepted without a thought because I LOVE swimming. After hanging up the phone I realized that the only bathing suit I have is a two piece from last year.

Let's just say this, when my mom describes my stretch marks from the last week of pregnancy she refers to them as "a sun burst." They go from the bottom of my sternum to being on my mound and across my hips. So...I'm covered in stretch marks, fat as hell, and want to go swimming. Then a thought occurred to me that I'd like to share. And I hope it helps everyone else this summer with decisions on what to wear:

We fought a battle. A 10 month battle, uphill, in the snow, barefoot. We puked, had heart burn, gained hair, lost hair, gained weight, lost weight, peed in tons of cups, gave more blood than most donors, were poked, prodded, shot, measured, gooped up, listened to, scolded, advised, tested, and tried. We have carried, given birth to, and take care of the next generation. We watched them grow on little white hospital monitors for almost a year. We have fought our battles and cried our tears. And I'll be damned if I let anyone tell me that I look bad because of the scars I came out of my war with. I will wear my two piece with pride and take my little warrior swimming tomorrow. And if anyone says a word, I'll just smile and kiss my little splashing victory.

Very well said! And now I’m off to go swim suit shopping! Maybe.