Fall Holiday pics

I realize I never did a post about Grace's first Halloween or Thanksgiving! How terrible. Better late than never, right?

Halloween 2011

Grace enjoyed her first Halloween as much as you'd expect a 2.5 month old to! We took a trip to the local pumpkin farm the weekend before, and then listened to music and got hot chocolate at our local coffeehouse afterward. A new fall tradition.



At the pumpkin farm



Listening to music



Not a fan of this song!



Our purdy pumpkins

On Halloween night, Grace visited the next door neighbors, Mr. & Mrs. Neuland, our neighbors across the street, Mr. & Mrs. Norris, and Great Grandpa! Then she helped hand out candy to all the cute Trick or Treaters.










"I love Halloween!!!"



Ready for bed

Thanksgiving 2011
Thanksgiving was spent at my parents house with my mom and dad, grandpa, Grandma H, Cindy, Kevin, Nick, Steve and Jess! It was a little hectic. Grace was a bit overwhelmed and decided she would not let anyone but mommy and daddy hold her. That was ok by us.


Playing with Daddy




Snuggling after a long day

Since I'm blogging from my phone I unfortunately can't upload the pics from our camera which were taken during our visit. Grace also got to see her friend Emily, who is my friend Sara's 18 month old. Grace was totally fascinated by her!



Heading home after an exhausting Thanksgiving visit

3 months old

Happy 3 Monthday, my beautiful baby girl! On Friday, our sweetie turned 3 months old.

This month, Grace not only started smiling a lot but she started laughing, too! She's such a happy, energetic, interested baby. She loves to "talk" to you and will happily do so for ling periods of time. She is exploring all of the different range of sounds her voice has, and loves to experiment. She hoots, coos, shreiks, gurgles and cackles. She tries very hard to mimic the sounds of adults and sometimes succeeds in doing so with amazing accuracy. It's obvious she's really trying hard to communicate. It's adorable and so much fun.











Grace has also become very animated and is trying her darndest to sit up, crawl, and walk. She's been rolling from belly to back for some time and is thisclose to rolling back to belly. She lives "tummy time" and can doing it for long stretches. She's also learned to grasp objects with her hands and bring them to her mouth - a skill she's quite pleased with, since she's teething.



kicking like crazy in her crib!



tummy time



chewing on her bib. Teething makes her drooly!

Grace also discovered two new favorite activities this month: bathtub time and using her play gym. She especially loves using the play gym while I perform some tunes on the viola. Good thing I still remember most of Suzuki books 1-4! It's certainly coming in handy now.



bathtime!


enjoying her activity gym

Happy 3 Months, Grace! I love you more than life itself.

Grace is growing; I'm struggling to keep up

I feel like the last few weeks have been a blur. The days speed by and before I know it it's time for bed again. But I haven't been feeling right for some time and things came to a head this weekend. I found that every little thing was bringing me to tears, and when I woke up in the morning I already felt so overwhelmed that I didn't want to begin the day.

Everyone tells you how amazing and wonderful having a baby is. And they're right! But what they don't tell you is that it's emotionally and physically draining. That combined with my recent Crohn's flare left me feeling completely out of whack. Sad, angry, TIRED, and confused and feeling guilty. I tried so long to get pregnant. It was the only thing I wanted for the past few years. Why couldn't I enjoy the fruits of my labor?

On Monday I met with my doctor, who diagnosed me with Post-Partum Depression/Anxiety. Given my mental health history, the diagnosis wasn't all the surprising. Tonight I will begin taking an antidepressant, and I'm seeking out a talk therapist as well. I'm feeling hopeful about these changes.

But even though life has been hard, I'm still so thankful I get to be a stay at home mom to my beautiful baby girl :) She is the light of my life.

my little sweetie


napping on the Boppy. Don't worry, she was supervised!