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!

Two months old

On Tuesday our sweet Grace turned two months old. Icant believe how much she's grown up in the last month. Her little personality is really starting to emerge and she has revealed herself to be a sweet, smilely, fairly laid-back child. It's such a joy being her mom and I feel so lucky that I'm able to stay at home with her.



Here is what Grace has been up to this month. She's spent a lot of time bonding with her grandparents and great-grandpa.



cuddling with Nana (my mom)




napping with G-Dood (my dad)




visiting with Gram and Grandpa (Mr. E's mom and dad)<



snoozin' on her Great-Grandpa's lap

This month, Grace also met her Great-Grandma, Great-Grammy, and several aunts, uncles, and cousins for the first time. Here she is with her Great-Aunt Kristen:


We learned something very important about Grace this month and that is, she soothes herself by suckling. A lot. The pacifier has become her new best friend, and she is a much calmer, happier baby because if it.





Grace is also becoming very mobile. She wants to go, go, GO! She loves to lie in her Pack 'n' Play and kick up a storm! She's been holding get head up even more and is enjoying tummy time. When she lies on her stomach she pulls up her head and moves her arms and legs like she's trying to crawl. I think she's going to be an early crawler.




kicking in her crib



Enjoying her first experience with the Bumbo

But of all the fun, new developments this month, by far the most exciting has been seeing Grace smile. And she smiles a LOT. She loves to watch you face and grin, squawk and chortle. She lights up when she sees me :) It absolutely melts my heart! Here are some pics of our happy girl:
















Such a happy girl!!

On Wednesday, Grace had her 2 month physical. She weighed 9lbs12oz and was 21.5" long. She is in the 25th percentile for height, weight and head size. She's our little peanut! She's small but mighty :)

Happy 2 Months, my sweet little love!

One month old (yesterday)

Happy One Monthday, baby girl! I have a feeling I'm going to be saying this a lot, but where has the time gone?! The days are flying by.

wearing her favorite hat from her Nana, kiwi hat

Here's what's new in Grace's world:

She is nursing better than ever! She's a hungry little gal and I'm so proud of her. She's filling out nicely and I'm tremendously happy knowing that my body is providing her with such good nutrition. She eats whenever she's hungry but in general it's every 1.5 hours during the day and every 2.5 hours at night. I'm thrilled that we're not dealing with ANY feeding issues whatsoever. She likes to growl, gulp, and sigh when nursing. It's too funny and cute!


snuggling with mommy

She's STRONG. She's been holding her head up since day 1 but over the weekend she started holding it up for extended periods of time. If you place her on your chest she'll prop herself up on her arms, hold her head up and look around. She can also roll from her back to her side, and
vice versa.


She's beginning to see more, track objects, and respond to faces and voices. She's always been really alert and has a ton of facial expressions that make everyone laugh. But the absolute BEST gift was the one I received yesterday morning. We visited my parents over the weekend, and
she has her own pack 'n' play there that she sleeps in. I reached down, pulled her up to me, and said "good morning, sweetheart!" She locked
eyes with me and gave me a big, gummy grin that lasted about 5 seconds! It was heaven.



She's lanky! I font know how much she weighs in ounces but when I weigh her with me on the scale she's approaching 8lbs. Still a peanut, but
this peanut has long arms and legs! She's already outgrown most of her newborn clothes. Today I washed some 0-3 month clothes and put
away many of her newborn ones. So bittersweet!

road trip to visit Nana and G-Dood

Happy One Monthday, my little love! Being your mommy is the best thing in the world.

Pictures of our girl :)

Oh my goodness, time is going by waaaay too fast!! Grace will be 4 weeks old on Thursday and I haven't even posted any pictures of her! Here are some of my favorites. I love this little person so much it's ridiculous.