a bit of cuteness for your saturday.... (or whenever you happen to check my blog)

June 27

Why firstborns are so smart - their parents have time for things like this when they're 6 weeks old. = P (wait Aleah, you're looking at the wrong page)
Playing with dad and staring at mom


Skypin it up with far away auntie and cousins
July 4th - we came home from Dave's work party and she was so smily and happy laying on the floor.
oh WOW!! that's crazy (she seems to be saying)
She would usually grin really big as she turned her head away, so I got a couple of these shots.

Here's my asymmetrical gluteal folds (more on that next post)
"Hello, I'm 8 weeks old today (July 9th). I know my tummy looks like I just ate a whole pizza, and my face looks like I just drank a whole 2 liter, but neither are true."

A random assortment of thoughts...

I guess I've mostly been posting pictures lately so I thought I'd shoot for some words. Although I did get some good pictures of the bubbly tonight that would be fun to post. Anyhoo, I guess I feel as though I don't have much to say lately because my life consists mostly of hanging out and taking care of small child. Nothing earth shattering. I could go on and on about random facts about her but I'm scared that will bore you to tears. But that's all I have to talk about. No wait, here's something - I stole something from walmart the other day. = ( It's true. Sigh. Those dang hormones make you do all sorts of funny things. Um, when do I have to stop using that as an excuse for every odd action? Hopefully not anytime soon. Anyway, it really had nothing to do with that. It's like this. I took Aleah to walmart, actually, it was Dave's birthday, and was buying all sorts of things. The problem is that her car seat takes up most of the cart. So I was putting things all around it. It was a boiling hot day, cranky baby who wouldn't sleep in walmart, etc. Just the logistics of doing anything become so much more complicated when you are lugging around a baby who is gaining a fat roll a day, plus a heavy car seat. ANYWAY, we get out to the boiling hot car, and I realize that a can of peaches was under her car seat out of sight when I went through the check out. RATS! never paid for it. What to do - didn't want to lug her and myself back in the store, so I saw one of the guys pushing carts and asked if he'd be willing to take it back to the store for me. I told him what happened and he said - ah, I'd just keep it! Don't worry about it. Rats again. I wasn't going to stand there arguing with him so I threw it in the car and figured I we could decide what to do with it later. arg. It's still sitting in the car from 3 weeks ago. = ( That's my story. I was thinking that giving them to a homeless person might cancel out the evil of the situation...

We're sitting at home listening to the boom of fireworks and wishing we were watching them. We were going to go, but again, small child had a way of rearranging plans. It was a busy day with church in the morning and a get together with Dave's work people in the evening. And a screaming baby part of the evening who is now happily laying in bed not quite sleeping but would greatly prefer that to fireworks I think.

Here's the latest on Aleah - this will probably be really boring to most of you so feel free to skip. We haven't had her weighed for a couple weeks, but we both think she looks like she gained about 5 pounds in the last couple days. okay, not quite, but she's getting huge. Okay, here's something weird. Her one thigh is considerably bigger than the other - like one whole fat roll bigger. I even took a picture tonight to document it. Is this normal? It seems so odd to me and I keep obsessing over it and wondering how she'll buy pants and if she'll lean to one side when she starts walking. Poor kid - I think she needs some siblings just so I don't have time to freak out and obsess over her every abnormality. Her feedings have been going better for the most part, but in the evenings, she'll still often have a feeding where she just cries and acts hungry but won't eat, even though it's been a long time since she last ate. Tonight she did that so I just stopped trying and she slept a little bit, then ate a whole bunch. It's a mystery. We took her pacifier away for a week and she did better but then started having some trouble again. I don't know how much was related to that, so now she has the pacifier mostly to fall asleep (and stay asleep). She has trouble staying asleep during the day and can go forever without taking a good nap, which is frustrating. But she consistently sleeps great at night. I even got 7 hours last night! whoo hoo. And it's so interesting to me that she will nearly always lay right down in her bed and put herself to sleep, without the pacifier, if it's night time or early morning. I'm glad because that means I'm not getting up all night to stick the thing back in. During the day - that's another story. One more thing - we have matching birth marks. Right over the left knee, exactly the same place and shape - isn't that a bit strange? Okay, that's the end of Aleah news.

Ummmmmmm... I thought I had more to say... This morning in church, Aleah had a huge poop explosion up the back. The church meets in a gym so there's no nursery in there. I took her back to the locker rooms where there's a couch, but the room was dark and I couldn't find the light anywhere. It was great fun. I stuck my head out and got Dave's attention and he came and helped me. That's the end of my boring story.

Well, I'm tired and Juniorette is sleeping so maybe I should too. I'll try to post pictures soon.

Father's Day, etc.

I got these sunglasses for Aleah and didn't tell Dave - took some pictures and then gave him one in a frame on Father's Day.

Okay, this is getting old...
A pile from Sunday - snuck a mommy one in, since she thwarted my plan of having a "real" mother's day this year. = P

My sweetie's first father's day. Aleah wasn't in the best of moods, having just gotten home from church and all... so we do what we can.

haha
I so wish Aleah was happy on this one (above) because it's a great picture of Dave. So I posted it anyway.


The next 2 pics - I've been trying to finish for a month now, a wall hanging for the nursery. FINALLY got it done last night. It's a little busy and high on the decorations, low on the pics. But oh well, I think it's pretty fun, and turned out okay. You can tell me you love it or you hate it - I'd like to know! The first one - can you find the hidden photographer? haha. Also, I should give credit to my sister for some of the ideas, like painting right on the glass around a picture and doing dots on some of the letters. Okay, I think the rest were my ideas. = ) You can't see it really, but the big blue letters have green dots and the green ribbon under it has blue dots. oh so fun. It was like doing a giant scrapbook page. Okay, enjoy the pics, I think that's all for now. I need to go pick up this house - it's sorta a wreck. Happy Thursday! Oh, sidenote, looking at these pictures I think Aleah has changed a bunch just since last Sunday - she's getting so big and looking more and more grown up all the time. Man, can't she just stay tiny for a little bit??

Still more Aleah...

Hello all - I should have been in bed ages ago so I won't write much, but I wanted to get these pics on here. Life here is going alright. Aleah has been having some eating issues that have been quite frustrating for both of us. She acts hungry and should be hungry, but then sometimes gets really frustrated when trying to eat and won't latch on. Yesterday afternoon we took away the much loved pacifier to see if that would help. Today was a long day. Poor baby just loves that thing and really wants to suck. It's really messed up her sleeping during the day. But on the bright side, she sleeps great at night, so I shouldn't complain too much. Or at all. Anyhoo... in other news, my former roommate in IN, Bethany, and her mom are visiting for awhile. They got here this evening. Um... I can't think of much else noteworthy. Aleah continues to gain weight like a little pigster - she was 10 lbs 7 oz this morning. So it's not like she's starving or anything with her eating issues. Gained about 4 pounds since leaving the hospital. craziness.
This was taken June 8th - same day as the last pictures on the last post. I was trying to capture her chub but there's now about another pound of it on her.
Daddy's girl.

This red shirt was my way of telling Dave we were going to have a baby. wow - here she is, wearing it already. (already? okay, so that feels like 100 years ago)
Going out for a night on the town on Mom's birthday.
This is one of my new favorites. I'm trying, at my sister in law Rhonda's suggestion, to take more pics with no flash and close to a window so there's lots of natural light. The flash makes her eye balls red and her skin pale and washes out. I think it worked great on this picture. (not trying to toot my own horn or anything)


The latest in the "I don't know when to stop posting because they're all so cute" series.


Hanging out on the bed while mom folds laundry. These last 2 are the most recent - taken yesterday I think, or Thursday I should say, since it's Saturday already. Oh, she's lost a bunch of hair recently. So sad. = ( Okay, that's all, good night.

Little Miss Aleah

So, I've had grand notions of faithfully updating my blog and putting pictures on it frequently of Aleah and life around here. Well, Dave was taking care of the picture department on FB (does anyone read this who isn't on FB? Joy? Anyone else? = ) So that unmotivated me somewhat. Plus, life sort of has a way of slapping you upside the head at times, becoming parents probably being one of those times. Yes, life has seemed totally nutty. Talk about a major lifestyle adjustment. Someone told me that having kids was a bigger adjustment than getting married. I think I'd have to agree. I'm sure marriage is a bigger relational adjustment, but Dave and I still had our carefree do whatever we feel like whenever we feel like it lifestyle (mostly - I mean, we were still responsible adults and had jobs and things like that. But if we felt like being gone all day or going out late or what have you, we could do those things). Now it's all about watching the clock and racing home in time for feedings and exhaustion and things of that nature. But she is a total sweetheart and we wouldn't trade her for anything. Dave is happy that she started smiling at him instead of saving them all for good ol' mom. She's sleeping really well - has even been going 6 hours between feedings at night without any problem. And since weight gain isn't even remotely an issue, the doctor told me I could let her go as long as she wants. I can't believe how huge she's getting. Even looking at these pictures there's a big difference between the first ones, taken about a week and a half ago, and the last ones, taken today. She's getting so chunky and losing that newborn look. She has some frustration with eating (although she clearly gets enough) - she'll get mad at times when trying to eat, and she also chokes/coughs/barfs a lot. I suspect from things I've heard/read that she might have a bit of reflux, but don't know for sure. It doesn't usually make her fussy, whatever it is, except when eating or right after she's eaten. Anyway, I guess it's been a little while since there's been new pics on FB and certain people were getting impa... I mean really wanted to see pictures of their new niece, so here ya go! = ) OF course I have to go overboard and post a million and most of them aren't that great. We've had a hard time getting really good pictures of her lately. arg. She'll be looking so adorable and I snap the picture and viola - instant alien. Oh well, some are cute. enjoy.


She loves her swing. At first she didn't like it - she had no head control at all and looked so uncomfortable in it. So we put it away for a while. Now she loves it and it puts her to sleep and keeps her asleep quite well. Hopefully she's not becoming addicted to it. I hate to think that at 12 years old she'll have to sleep in the living room in a swing while listening to Avalon.
Ack - that last feeding between 10:30 - 11:30 is totally killer. I almost think it's worse than getting up at 4 sometimes. Both of us are always so tired.


Nice spit bubbles.

Mom and Dad getting her to crack up. She still has so many smiles. It's great! And it's really hard to get them on camera. (check out the dimples)
And if her eyes look creepy on these pics, it's because I got rid of the red eye with the black marker thingy.


Another smile.

I tried and tried today to get some nice looking pictures for her announcement, but none of them turned out that great. They're cute, but not birth announcement worthy, in my humble opinion. I have a lot of trouble with the flash/lighting and getting pictures to look right. Anyway.... I should get moving. Hope you're all having a cheery day!