My First Mother's Day

I really enjoyed my first Mother's Day. We woke up early and went to church.  One of my favorite things to do as a family is go to church. Usually we go to the contemporary worship but that morning we decided to go to traditional to hear one of our new pastors.  We have not taken Addie to the nursery yet so we sat in the back with her. Generally she does great in church and usually falls asleep.  But, this particular morning she was quite vocal.  So, Addie and I spent the last half of the service sitting in the coffee bar listening to the service.  That is okay though.  We left church and decided to go to Applebee's for lunch.  When we got home I had a few little things waiting on me.  Recently I had been begging for Zumba for our XBOX 360 Kinect. I had been taking classes and I love Zumba. But Brandon was giving me the run around...excuse after excuse on why we shouldn't buy or rent it. Geez!  We hardly ever buy anything without discussing it with the other first, so it's not something I would have just bought before mentioning it.   But it's not like him to not want me to buy something that simple.  So..anyway, when we got home it was waiting on me! Yay!  I have never been the fru-fru type, I'm not big into jewelry and flowers are usually a waste of money in my opinion...Except for the occasional star gazer lily, Brandon knows flowers are not on my list of favorite gifts.  So my Zumba video game and t-shirt with the sweetest card ever was perfect for me.  And of course spending the day together.    Here's a picture of the front of my card he ordered for me. 

We spent the rest of the day at home. Mom comes up on Sundays to keep Addie on Monday. Brandon grilled steaks and shrimp for us for dinner.   I couldn't have asked for a better day. I am so grateful for my family. 

April/May random phone pictures.

3 months!

Addie is 3 Months Old!

My sweet girl. You are just amazing. Sometimes I stare at you in disbelief.  You have such a sweet kind soul.  You melt my heart with your smiles and little giggles.  You are a very happy baby.  You only get fussy at night when it's time for you to go to bed and occasionally when Mommy has kept you out shopping too long. 

You love being outside.  We go for walks often and you just stare up at the trees.  All the neighbors love to stop and and talk to you.  You usually smile for just about everyone when you meet them.

Last week you started going to the play care at the gym.  Mommy was very nervous and even cried when she dropped you off...even though you were only 20 yards away.  Mrs. Earline takes good care of you and you haven't cried once.  Mommy is feeling much better now that she gets to exercise. 

You suck on your hands a lot.   You still don't like a paci too much, but Mrs. Earline got you to take it for a few minutes the other day. 

You are starting to try to roll over from your back to your stomach.  Your turn your head way back and try but you haven't mastered it just yet. 

You like your swing a lot more these days and often take naps in it.  You like to watch Mommy and Gigi cook and do dishes while you swing.  The swing sits right in front of the washer and dryer so I think those noises are soothing to you.

You are sleeping like a champ.  Like clockwork every night around 9-930 you get a little whiny and I know it's time to give you a bottle and when you fall asleep you don't wake up if we make too much noise, unlike during the day.  Lately you have been sleeping until 5-6 am and then back to sleep until 8 when Mommy and Daddy get up.

Gigi has been keeping you two days a week since Mommy went back to work.  It was so hard for Mommy to leave you, but Daddy made her.  :) Just kidding.  We have spent all our days and nights together so far. So when it came time to leave you for 13 hours, Mommy was very sad.  Thankfully Gigi was here to take care of you.  She sings you songs, reads to you, plays with you, and makes sure you get a good nap or two each day.  Daddy comes home and takes over for the evening shift. This is about the time you get cranky.

You are in size 2 diapers now.  You are wearing 3-6 month clothes and even some 6-9 month onesies.  Last week you weighed just a little over 13 lbs.  You have not been sick yet..although you did have the start of a little eye infection last week that we caught early.

You are grabbing onto things now very well.  The sweetest moment for me is when you are eating and you hold tightly onto my shirt. Your little fist holds tight until you are finished or until you fall asleep.    You tug on Mommy's hair all the time.  You have learned to tug on the toys hanging from your play gym also...and you put them right into your mouth. 

You like tummy time more-so these days, especially if I put you tummy side down on the nap nanny.  You can sit up in my lap so well if you are supported a little bit.  You hold your head up all by yourself now even though every now and then you have a little bobble, mostly when you are tired.

You are such a blessing and I love you very much!

May flowers

April Showers bring May Flowers!

I can't believe it's already May!  It seems like just yesterday I was taking pictures of my big belly and counting down the minutes until my sweet Addison was here with us.  She is growing so much...just like a weed! :)  I have already began to teach her all about flowers and planting this Spring.  Last year I was too sick and tired to do much in the yard.  I wondered how I would plant flowers and work in the yard with an infant this Spring.  But we have done a great job together.  Addie sits in her bouncer while I plant flowers and kill weeds.  While I'm watering the flowers I teach her everything I know about each one.  I have such wonderful memories watching my Mother make our yard so beautiful. I watched and was interested as much as a little girl would be at 7 or 8, but I didn't come value those memories until I was much older.  Our front yard was a masterpiece...She had tons of flowers lining the fence in our front yard.  I remember her teaching me to pinch off the dead marigold blooms and sprinkling the seeds around the flowerbed so new ones would grow.  Just a few weeks ago we were out front in my yard and there she was, teaching me to pinch off the marigold blooms and sprinkle them about!  I hope to give Addison the same gift my Mama gave me.

Not only are there tons of new plants and flowers growing in the yard, we have some other new things this year.  Last week...and I never thought I would be so happy to say this...we got a new barn and a privacy fence!  If you had told me when I was say 20 that I would be so excited about a barn and a fence, I would have laughed.  The old barn/shed that came with the house was not appealing to the eye at all...it was time for it to go.  We decided to get a privacy fence for several reasons and had just been putting it off. The old chain link fence worked fine for Kobe to stay safe, but it too wasn't too pretty.  It also didn't give us any privacy from the main street on the other side of the hay field that connects to our property.  The fence gives me a lot more peace about being outside with Addie this summer. We are excited about the warm weather and can't wait to get a little pool for Addie to play in.  We have decided to sell the wave runner.  We want to spend our free time with her and would rather not have someone watch her so we can go to the lake.  There is no sense in it staying in the garage so we'll find a new home for her.  We love it and hate to see it go, but we'll maybe buy a boat in a few years.  We are lake people and would love to spend the summers on the lake with our kiddos. :)

Easter!

Addison had a great first Easter.  We were just home from Kingsport so we spent Easter at home.  Gigi came up and spent the weekend with us. It was also her birthday so we had a lot to celebrate.  Sunday morning we went to church. Addison did so great.  She was precious in her bunny bubble suit.  She slept through most of the service.  We had a new preacher and it turns out that it is the pastor from Mom's church in Argo.  I really liked him and we are looking forward to his sermons.  Addison hasn't gone to the nursery yet. I'm really impressed with the security system they have set up though. It requires fingerprints to pick up and drop off. They also print a name tag that goes on her with both our pictures on it so there is extra care not to give the children to the wrong people.  I'm just still a little nervous to drop her off.  She is still so little and whooping cough as well as hand, foot, and mouth disease is going around.  I realize the importance of getting her out and letting her immune system get strong, but I want to keep her away from these bad little bugs for a while longer.

Anyway, after church we went to Carrabba's for lunch and celebrated Mom's birthday with some spaghetti!  

The Easter bunny left Addison some goodies too. Here are a few pictures from our first Easter with our sweet baby girl.

Kingsport Trip

We planned at trip to Kingsport for Addison to meet her Tennessee family.  We had no idea how the trip was going to go with a 8 week old.  We went back and forth on strategies of how to get her there and not make all of us miserable.  Brandon suggested we leave the night before when Addie went to sleep and drive through the night.  I thought driving through the day would be fine while stopping for breaks from the car seat.  We finally decided to meet in the middle and leave early in the morning at Addie's early feeding time, which is usually between 2-4am.  She woke up at 330 and so we got up.  We packed the truck the night before so after feeding her and getting the rest of our things together we were out the door close to 5am.  Addison slept until Knoxville where we took a break and stopped at Target.  She woke up right when we pulled in the parking lot.  We changed her diaper, ate, and walked around target for a few minutes.  Then it was back on the road.  She went right back to sleep and slept until we arrived in Kingsport at lunch time.  We wondered..were we just lucky?  Nope-she did the same the on the way home.  She's a trooper.  She loved meeting our Tennessee family and we had a great time visiting. There is just never enough time. While we were there we got a surprise shower thrown by Doris, my Mother In Law.  Here are some pictures from our trip.

2 Months!!

Addison is 2 months old!  

 

I can't believe how much you are growing baby girl.  Sometimes I just sit and stare at you and try to remember what you were like as an itty bitty.  I love how you are starting to recognize me and your Daddy and smile when you see us.  You laugh at me when I sing to you now instead of looking at me with a blank stare. 

Addison's Stats at 2 months!
 Weight: ~ 11 lbs 9 oz
 Height: 22 inches

  Clothing Size: 3 mo, some 3-6 mo

We were doing great on a sleep schedule.  You were taking naps at 12 and 4 during the day like clockwork.  You are starting to stray from that schedule now into your own little routine, which I don't quite understand yet. I think you wake up each day and determine that you are independent and will sleep when you want!  You just started taking a few cat naps during the day and they usually last 30-45 minutes.  You do get cranky when you get too tired and then it's even harder to get you to take a nap.  At night you are doing fabulous. We have transitioned you to sleeping on your back on a flat surface.  You still sleep next to Mommy in the pack and play.  We swaddle you but somehow you always get your hands free and rest them up by your head to sleep.  Your hands are always cold when you wake up, but I guess that's what's most comfortable for you.  Soon we will have to start transitioning you to the crib, but Mommy isn't ready to let you go yet. You still only get up once a night. Usually it is between 2-4 and we are up an hour after changing and feeding and then back to sleep you go. You wiggle a lot during the night but you don't wake up usually.  Sometimes you will startle and hit yourself in the face with your hands but you go right back to sleep if you open your eyes.


You still love the changing table, or the "talking table" as Gigi calls it.  You usually giggle unless you are hungry in which then you commence to screaming while you are being changed.  

 You still love to be held but are getting used to the swing more.  You will stay in it for about 30 minutes but sometimes you fall asleep and stay a little longer.  We still use the nap nanny and you sit it in while you watch me blow dry my hair and get ready in the mornings.

You still do great during baths and have started kicking and splashing a lot more.  You giggle when you splash with your feet.  We put the bathtub over the kitchen sink and put your bath towel in the dryer while you get your bath.  When we are done you have a nice warm towel to dry you off.    

You pretty much go everywhere we go now.  I haven't taken you to any type of daycare or nursery yet.  I'd like to take you to the childcare center at the Y but you haven't had your vaccinations just yet and whooping cough is going around a lot this year.  I also am ready to let you try out the church nursery, but not until you get your shots. 

You have been doing great in church.  We go to the contemporary service so the music is a little loud with the band, but you sleep right through it usually.

You love outside. When you are upset we take you outside and you love to look at the trees.  In the evenings we put you in the baby bjorn and take you and Kobe for a walk.  You look up the entire time in amazement.  You especially love the big giant tree in the back yard. 

You don't mind the carseat but I think you would rather not be in it as much as you are.  You took your first long road trip to Mimi's house at 2 months old.  We got up at 330 for your early feeding and then got in the truck.  You slept all the way to Knoxville and we took a break to change and feed you.  Then you slept all the way from Knoxville to Kingsport.   You did so great.  You generally do good with Mommy as far as shopping and running errands.  Sometimes you do get impatient though and you make sure to let me know about it.

You haven't stayed with anyone besides Mimi, Pop-Pop, and Gigi. When I go back to work you will be staying one day with Gigi and the other days with your Daddy.  I'll miss you, but I know you will be in good hands.  It's going to be tough on me.  I love you more than words can say and am going to miss my baby girl every minute that I am away!