We Have A Baby!

A Bedtime Story

2012-01-22T22:06:00.003-06:00

Once upon a time, there was a very cute little girl. This little girl was 3 years old. She had recently learned how to use the potty. Every night when it was time to go to bed, her mommy would take her to the potty one last time. Then her mommy and daddy would pray with her and get her all tucked into bed.

Ten minutes later, the mommy and daddy would hear that familiar sound of the door opening, followed by the pitter patter of little three-year-old footsteps, and the words, "I have to go potty." The mommy and daddy were puzzled. "You just went to the potty; why do you need to go again?" But because the little girl was just in the beginning stages of learning to use the potty, they would let her go. And she usually did. And then she was sent back to bed.

If the mommy and daddy were lucky, the little girl didn't come out of her room anymore and fell asleep quickly. But usually the mommy and daddy were not so lucky. Time would go by and they would think the little girl was asleep. And just when they felt relieved that everyone was sleeping, the mommy and daddy would hear that familiar sound of the door opening, followed by the pitter patter of the three year old's footsteps, and the words: "I have to go potty!" And again, the little girl was given a chance to go to the potty.

This continued night after night. And the mommy and daddy wondered if the little girl was just trying to play them and look for ways to not have to go to sleep. But they wanted to believe their little girl. However, they were growing frustrated with their little girl taking up to two hours to fall asleep after being put to bed. And then the next morning, sometime before it was really a good time to get up, the little girl would come into mommy and daddy's room. "I need to go potty!" And mommy would get up and help her and when they were done, mommy would take her back to the little girl's room and tell her she needed to lay back down because it wasn't time to get up yet. And every morning, the little girl would lay back down in her bed, but wasn't able to fall back asleep.

The mommy and daddy wondered how long this phase would last. And they are still wondering...

to be continued...

(This is a picture of the cute little girl:

I Wish...

2012-01-21T22:42:00.002-06:00

...Zane would realize he can take more than 3 steps at a time and just start going!

...that potty training Karys didn't mean that she would have a way to keep from going to bed. "Mommy, I have to go potty!"

...I wouldn't have to deal with weight. Why can't those extra pounds just fall off??

...everyone would believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the ONLY way to get into heaven.

...people wouldn't cuss at their kids (and on that note, teach their kids to cuss and think it's funny)

...I could take all of the kids that are being mistreated and bring them home to my house.

...we didn't have to deal with politics. Hearing everyone bash each other just gets annoying.

...I had a minivan!! Can't believe it, but it's true!

One Year Old

2012-01-15T15:48:00.007-06:00

I started a blog last week about Christmas, and then what I was writing was boring me so I quit. :) So for now I'll just skip Christmas and go on to Zane's first birthday. It absolutely blows my mind that we're already talking about this boy being one!! Going from one kid to two has been so much fun and so much of an easier transition than going from zero to one, in my opinion. And I think that's what has made the year seem to fly by. This time around I had a lot more confidence in my abilities to take care of a newborn baby. Plus I already had one kid so it was like Zane just joined into our world..my world wasn't completely changed like it was when I went from having no kids to having one. No matter the reason, though, this year FLEW by!!

Since Zane's birthday falls right after Christmas (December 28), we didn't end up doing his party right away. On his actual birthday we were still at my parents' house so we just did a little family party. And when your birthday is so close to Christmas, it doesn't take any time for you to remember how to open presents!!

Zane did not disappoint us eating his cake! He did just as a one-year-old should do...he went for it! When it was all said and done he was sent straight up to the bath. :) Once the holidays had cleared out we still wanted to do a birthday party for Zane that involved friends who are important in our lives. As is becoming our "traditional" first birthday party, we did lunch for everyone, which this time consisted of hot dogs and chips. The most exciting part of lunch was that the night before the party I was setting out the food that didn't need to be refrigerated and I started telling Ryan, "Okay we'll do hot dogs here, chips and fruit here, drinks here, and cake here," and realized that with our new kitchen...there was enough room for everything!! Talk about a great feeling!! :)

Once again, Zane knew EXACTLY what to do with his cake! :)

At Zane's one year well-check he weighed in at 25.6 lbs. (84%) and 31.5 inches (91%). He still wears 18 month clothes, which is the longest amount of time he's spent in the same size in his whole life! He's been in 18 month clothes since about August and prior to that he'd been changing sizes every 6 weeks to 2 months! He did, however, move up to size 5 diapers!! Whew! Hope he stays in those for a long time!!! Just as a comparison, when Karys turned one she weighed a little over 17 lbs. and was still in 6-9 month clothes!!

At this point in life, Zane:

*loves the lights! He usually points at them first thing when you take him out of bed in the morning or at night.

*communicates most by pointing. For example, if I'm feeding him a couple of things for a meal, he'll point at which thing he wants a bite of! I'm sure words will follow eventually. ;)

*jabbers a lot!! He may not say real words yet, but he's definitely talking!!

*takes some steps independently. He'll take maybe 3 at a time and then get a little top heavy, or just get nervous and sit down!

*has 8 teeth!! Again, for a comparison: at this age, Karys had 2! I think he might be working on some one-year molars too. He sure does seem to keep sticking his finger in the back of his mouth and chewing on it.

*Just yesterday, he was playing "peek a boo" with my sister and instead of putting his hands over his eyes like she was, he was putting them behind his head!

*will hold up a phone to his ear (well, really it goes on his shoulder!)

*will clap his hands if you sing "If You're Happy and You Know It", or "Pat A Cake."

*thinks it's funny to be "wrestled." I'll play around with him on the couch and he thinks it's hilarious.

*has the most pitiful sad face and knows how to use it!! Likewise, he can be cuddly/clingy and knows how to make you feel sorry for him if you don't pick him up!

*Almost forgot! He got his first haircut the day after his birthday! Ryan said I had to wait until he was one. :) Poor guy isn't having as much luck with it growing on top, but the back was really growing out. Ryan said he had a baby mullett. :) So we got the back trimmed up and it's adorable!!

I had no idea what a joy a little boy would be to my life, but I sure am glad I know now!!

Reflecting...

2011-10-10T15:43:00.001-05:00

I never seem to be able to make myself get on here and post. The truth is, as a kid I really enjoyed writing and as I grew older I still thought it was fun. As an adult, I still like it, but I guess not enough to make significant time for it. Plus, I don't always feel like I have anything interesting to say!!

I've been really debating writing a blog about my life and things I've been thinking lately and convictions I've had. Why the debate? Because I'm terrible with confrontation!!! There's a definite reason I wasn't interested in the debate team in high school! I'm terrible at arguing (I usually just back off and surrender), and I never want people to be made at me.

While all of those things are still true, I'm choosing to say what I'm really thinking and feeling, even if others don't agree with me. I feel like God has really been teaching me some things and I want to share those things. Maybe what I'm learning will make a difference to you, maybe it won't.

First off, weight loss. Zane is now 9 months old. I've been "trying to lose weight" for 9 months now, people!! When he was born, I was DETERMINED not to make the mistakes I made after Karys was born. After she was born I worked out, but definitely did not eat as well as I should have. I remember when she was about 6 months old thinking, "Maybe I'm just going to be this size forever." Then about a month after that, a friend started doing Weight Watchers and when I saw her having success, I had an "Aha!" moment where I realized that if I made some changes in what I ate and continuted with the exercising, I could have that success too. So when she was about 8 months old, I really started working toward weight loss. Sometimes I did really good, other times not. Overall, I lost about 25 lbs. Fast forward to 3 months before I found out I was pregnant with Zane. I was stuck in my weight loss efforts and realized that I relied on sweets and desserts WAY too much! They were on my mind a lot more than they needed to be so I made the decision to cut them out completely. I did this for 3 WHOLE MONTHS!! I've never gone that long without candy, cookies, ice cream, etc. in my LIFE!! But then I found out I was pregnant, which for me is almost a license to eat. :) So fast forward again to Zane being born. I was a lot more conscious once he was born about the fact that I didn't want to have a nonchalant attitude about getting back into my regular clothes...I wanted back in them ASAP!! I've been trying (without a lot of success until recently) to get back into those old clothes. Then a little over a month ago I realized that the sweets were causing me to sabotage myself. It really does no good to work out if you're just going to eat tons of ice cream later that day!! It kind of all cancels itself out. Basically my workouts were just helping me maintain my current weight. So I decided to give it up again. This time I haven't been quite as strict, but I'm still pretty strict. I've had a couple of sugar-sweetened sodas (which I didn't have last time I did this) because drinking a soda is not going to cause me to binge and give it all up. When we have our MOPS meetings (where we get to enjoy amazing breakfasts!!) I'll eat donut holes or other sugary things because, again, eating a donut hole is not going to make me run out and buy a container of ice cream. So after giving up the sweets, I realized that there was another thing causing me not to lose weight: fast food. I was picking up takeout at least once a week, especially on the weekends. And it would cause me to feel like I'd wasted a week of working out and eating well when I'd step on the scale on Monday morning only to see I'd either: a) not lost any weight or b) gained weight. It was because of all the sodium that's in fried food (and probably the fat too!) because it'd make me retain water. Feeling like you've done a good job all week, only to not see your efforts rewarded in weight loss can be depressing! So out went the fast food, too. And in my first week of doing that, I dropped 2.5 lbs.! Talk about motivation!

Through this experience I've really been feeling like I need to be doing what I can to honor God with my body. I was not created to be a sluggish, fat-filled being who sits on the couch eating and watching TV. That doesn't do anything to show God to people in their lives. Living with discipline honors God. I'm not sure how or when I'll add sweets or fast food back into my life. I'm a little scared to add sweets in because I feel like I'm probably a sugar addict and when I give myself a little, I just want more and more. Sometimes I wonder if, like a recovering alcoholic or drug addict, if I'm supposed to cut those things out of my life completely because I can't handle it correctly when those things are in my life. That thought makes me nervous!! What would life be like not eating cake at people's birthday parties (which I've already done!) or not enjoying ice cream out with friends (which I've already done!)? Hmm...

Another thing that I love and have cut out of my life (at least for now)? "Dancing with the Stars." I had so many conflicting feelings about this one!! If you know me, you know how much I love this show!! I don't even care if I don't like any of the stars on the show. Once the season gets started, I end up liking certain contestants even if I'd never heard of them before the season started (which is usually true of the athletes!). Once the stars for this season were announced, though, I was conflicted. I could not decide if I should watch the show because of Chaz Bono being one of the celebrities. I heard lots of backlash on TV about Chaz being on the show. The group, One Million Moms, was telling people not to watch the show because we shouldn't have to explain "transgender" to our young kids. People were accusing ABC of supporting the LBGT agenda by having Chaz on the show. Other people were accusing One Million Moms of being a hate group for speaking out against Chaz. Here's what I was feeling: for Chastity Bono to decide that God made her incorrectly and therefore it was up to her to fix the problem, becoming Chaz Bono seemed to me to be like a slap in God's face. Now, I know that homosexual people have been on DWTS before and I've still watched it but for some reason, the whole transgender thing wasn't sitting well with me. I do believe that homosexuality is a sin as well (the Bible clearly speaks about this), but this time I just really felt unsure. I was asking so many different trusted friends for their thoughts and opinions on whether or not watching DWTS this season was saying that I support people being transgender or not. And finally, the decision I came to (for me), was that if I was having to ask around so much it seemed like I was trying to justify something that didn't quite feel right in my heart. So I decided to listen to my conscience and do what seemed right for me and not watch the show this season. And trust me, it's been HARD!!! I see updates when I watch "Good Morning America" but I have to remember what is more important on this earth and that's following my convictions and living for Jesus. So that's what I'm trying to do. :)

Zane: A 6-Month Summary

2011-07-01T17:24:00.000-05:00

(Disclaimer to all of the second-, third-,etc. born kids: I do take pics of Zane by himself, but this is a pic I took for Father's Day and it's one of the more recent ones...and I really like it! Just didn't want anyone concerned that he's always in pics with Karys and never by himself. :)

I'm not good at blogging about my kids' development monthly like some people are. Maybe I'd like to be, but oh well. We took Zane today for his six-month well-check and it seems like a good time to fill everyone in on what I think you should know about this cute little guy.

First things first...results from our doctor's appointment.

Weight: 21.2 lbs. (94th percentile)

Height: 27.75 inches (88th percentile)

I don't have Karys's height and weight from this age in front of me right now (and since both kids are napping, I don't want to go get it out of their room!) but if my memory serves me correctly, she was 15 lbs. some-odd ounces at 6 months. I don't remember her height, though. So, obviously he's considerably bigger. :) Oh, and he's only 3 lbs. less than she is...as in, right now!! :)

He is still wearing 6-9 mo. clothes, although some of them are starting to get a little snug. The crazy part is that whenever we run out of diapers, we're going to be buying size 4 next time!!! Karys probably started wearing a 4 sometime between 18 mos. and 2!!

Okay, there's more to know about Zane than just what size he is. Here's some things I'd like you to know.

*He loves his sister. And she feels the same way about him. He laughs so much at the silly things she does for him and whenever I put him in his high chair to feed him, she'll bring him toys to play with while I'm getting his food ready.

*He sits up by himself! He just started that about 2 weeks ago and has really gotten it mastered. One of my friends told me that she thinks the bigger babies learn to sit earlier because they have a more supportive base with their bigger bellies. :) The doctor told me today that there is truth to that, but the bigger babies are also slower to crawl because they have more to move around. :)

*I like to call him "Zany Man." And I do it so much that Karys calls him that most of the time, and Ryan's starting to say it too.

*He's such a pleasant baby. He's really not fussy, unless he's tired. He's so content--he loves to sit with his toys and play or just observe what's going on around him.

*He'll eat whatever you'll give him. :) So far he's had cereal, avacado, applesauce, banana, and green beans.

*He can be reserved with his smiles, but Karys can get great smiles from him all the time and I can get them most of the time. :)

*He takes a great afternoon nap, which makes it so great for me!! He'll take a nap for about an hour in the morning, but then in the afternoon he'll nap for about 2 1/2 hours (and it coincides with Karys's naptime!). I learned that if I try to wake him up from the afternoon nap (so that he'd feed on an every 3-hour schedule), he'd just fall right back asleep. But if I let him nap pretty much as long as he wants, we're good!

*He sleeps really well at night! I've been trying to keep him from taking a short catnap in the late evening (usually a 30-minute nap around 7:00) and then just feed him around 8 so he'll fall asleep and go straight to bed. He'll usually sleep until after 7 the next day. And if he wakes up in the 6:00 hour, I can put him in the swing and he'll go back to sleep for me.

*Most important thing for you to know: I don't know what I'd do without my little man!! :)

She's A Witty One! :)

2011-05-19T22:41:00.001-05:00

If I don't write this down right now I'm going to forget it and then I'll be sad that I never remembered to share my funny Karys stories. :) Both of these stories happened today...she must've been in a really good mood and was feeling quite witty!

I learned from a wise friend that the best time to fix a little girl's hair is while she is eating breakfast. So this morning I was trying a new style on her and it required 3 rubber bands. I had them sitting on the kitchen table and Karys picked one of them up and was playing with it. When the time came that I needed it I was holding her ponytail in my hand and the rubber band was nowhere in sight. Slightly irritated by this, I looked around the table saying, "Aarrgh, Karys, why do you always do this to me?" She was looking around the table trying to find the rubber band too and then said, "Under table." Now I was even more irritated because I had to let go of her ponytail to get down on the floor and look for the rubber band. I'm looking around and getting really aggravated because the rubber band is nowhere to be found which means I'll have to go back to the bathroom to get another one. At the time that I stand up to go get another one, my witty child holds up this rubber band in her hand! While I can't remember exactly what she said, it was something to the effect of, "Look, Mommy!" She'd had it the whole time!! Not only that, she knew exactly what she was doing because then she said, "Funny!" :)

The second story happened at my sister-in-law's house. She has a basket of school supplies on her kitchen table and Karys found an Elmer's glue bottle in it and pulled it out. I told her to put it back and she looked at the bottle and said something I didn't understand. I told her that was "glue" and I thought she tried to repeat me, but didn't get it right. So I drew the word out so she could hear all the sounds, "Gllllluuuuuue." To which she goes, "Cooowwwwww." :) She had been pointing the cow on the Elmer's glue bottle, not the actual glue bottle itself! :) It really cracked me up!

"Yo, Elmo!"

2011-05-04T15:19:00.000-05:00

Hopefully this story will translate well since it's being written and it won't make my child sound like a brat! :) We've been working with Karys lately on how to ask for things properly, partly based on the story you're about to read. For anyone that doesn't know, Karys is being seen by a speech therapist for some speech delays. One of the things she can't do is repeat after you if you use too many words. For example, if I tell her to say, "May I watch Elmo, please?" she'll say, "Elmo, please!" So I've been shortening it and having her repeat, "May I," "watch," "Elmo, please." and now she remembers it all and can say it by herself. We just started having her say this much because I used to accept her just saying, "Elmo, please." Or, "Juice, please." So here's the funny story:

There have been a couple of occasions where Karys wants something and when she decides she wants something she will not give up on it. Usually she just repeats herself over and over, even if I've said no or not now. So on this particular occasion she wanted to watch Elmo. So she said, "Elmo, please." I think I just ignored it at first so she kept saying, "Elmo, please. Elmo, please." I probably finally said, "No, not right now." But still, she kept going: "Elmo, please. Elmo, please." And when she didn't get the response from me she wanted she goes, "Yo! Elmo!" (If this makes her sound bratty, it's not meant to...it was totally hilarious!!) I really have no idea where she got the word, "Yo!" but it cracked me up. Although after thinking about it for awhile, I have one place where she might have gotten it. If you don't watch "Sesame Street" daily like we do, you might not know about a new segment they have called "Murray Had A Little Lamb." There is an orange monster on "Sesame Street" now whose name is Murray and sometimes he and his little lamb go and visit different schools (ex. karate school, ballet school, etc.) and the segment has a theme song. It starts out singing, "Murray has a little lamb..." to the tune of "Mary Had A Little Lamb," then breaks out into a rap that goes, "Yo! Murray has a little lamb who wears a little bow..." That's the only place I can think of where she would've heard someone say "Yo!"

*Disclaimer: She does not get what she wants for saying, "Yo! Elmo!" just in case you thought I might let her have anything she wanted for being cute/funny. :)

*Second Disclaimer: This story was intended to make you smile/laugh. Hopefully it did that and nothing more. :)

Schedule vs. Routine

2011-04-21T23:00:00.000-05:00

I guess one of the goals of being a parent is to grow and change in how you parent. Always learning more, aiming to not make the same mistakes, etc. In growing and changing, I'm learning hands-on that what works with one child doesn't necessarily work with every child. With Karys, I found out about the "Babywise" method of sleep-training. By 8 weeks she was sleeping through the night and eating at 3-hour intervals throughout the day. It was a perfect schedule. I thought it was flawless.

...And then came Zane. I really tried to set him on a schedule like I did with Karys. I REALLY did. By 8 weeks, when he was still getting up at 1, sometimes 2, times a night, I was discouraged. I kept hearing of friends with babies around his age (or younger) who were already sleeping such long hours at night. And I gotta say, I was envious. But still, I pressed on, attempting to follow the schedule I had set in my head. And then, one night when he was about 3 months, he slept...ALL NIGHT! And then he did it another night! And then...another night! It might've taken him an extra month from what it took his sister to start sleeping through the night, but he did it! And he might not eat at exactly the same time every day, but he does eat at approximate times. I've always followed the "Babywise" strategy of "Eat. Play. Sleep." in that order and so I'm learning that it's less important to follow what time it is as it is to set up a predicable routine. He does things in the same order every day...but not the same time. And it's working for us. He's a sweet boy who's really never fussy unless he's tired. He eats well (obviously!) and when he's sleeping, he's the most peaceful baby.

So this schedule-oriented mommy, who loves knowing what time things are going to happen has had to mellow out. Big time. But I can't become a better mommy unless I'm willing to bend when needed. Thank you, Zane, for teaching me how to adjust. :)

Extremes

2011-04-06T15:54:00.000-05:00

Everyone's probably going to get tired of me talking about this, but I just can't believe the extreme opposites I have in children! Zane is very big for his age (not just weight, but length as well) and Karys is just not! Granted, she hasn't always been quite the featherweight that she is now, but still. At 3 months Zane is about the size (perhaps bigger!) that Karys was at 6 months. I know for sure that at 3 months Karys still fit into 0-3 month clothes, although there were some 3-6 month things I started pulling out because I wanted to have her wear them and I was ready for a change in clothes! She wore 3-6 month clothes until she was about 8 months, I believe, and then moved into 6-9 month clothes which she wore past the age of 1!

Zane, on the other hand, moved out of 0-3 month clothes at about 6 weeks and now at 3 months, he's getting close to moving out of 3-6 month clothes!! He has a few 3-6 month outfits that just really don't fit him anymore at all!! Just to show the difference (I'm not sure how well you can tell it just from pictures) here's a picture of Karys sitting on a couch at 3 months and Zane sitting on a couch at 3 months. Hopefully you'll be able to see what I'm trying to show...he's SO BIG and she's SO LITTLE. :)

Karys:

Zane:

Two Thumb Suckers!

2011-04-06T15:37:00.000-05:00

It appears that both of my kids are going to be thumb-suckers. Obviously Karys has been ever since she was 3 months old. But Zane started it as well last month and seems like he will continue it. Thankfully it's not something that bothers me!! Now that I go back and look at the pictures, it appears that Karys was a little less than 3 months when she started thumb sucking. So I guess they were both about 2 1/2 mos. when they started it. Either way, here's a picture of Karys in her early thumb-sucking days:And here's Zane:

I have to admit I think a thumb-sucking baby is one of the cutest things ever!! :)

I Have A Good Excuse...

2011-03-15T15:40:00.001-05:00

...for not posting anything lately. I haven't had batteries in the camera to be able to take any pictures! :) Ryan prefers using rechargeable batteries but every time I want to put them in the camera they're not charged, so while I was at Target yesterday I chose to buy some regular batteries so I can get some pictures taken!

We've had a little bit of craziness going on at our house lately. Although at this point, I think things are pretty much back to normal. A couple of weeks ago, Zane developed a cough. The first day it wasn't that bad, but it got progressively worse. He developed the cough on a Thursday and that evening we headed out of town to spend the weekend at my parents' house. It ended up being really good to be with so many other people because we had a lot of help with our sweet little sick baby. Every time he was fed you just had to sit with him with burp rags nearby because he was going to cough so hard that it gagged him and he threw up. It was a pretty difficult weekend. On Monday I was able to get an appointment with our doctor (which was pretty remarkable in itself...usually the day I call she's booked up and I have to see whoever is available). They did a swab on him for the flu and RSV. His flu test came back negative, but he did come back positive for RSV. We were given prescriptions for breathing treatment meds and a cough medicine. Those first few days I felt a little overwhelmed trying to keep up with everything I was supposed to do for him: breathing treatments 3 times a day, cough medicine 4 times a day, give him PediaLyte between feedings to help loosen up congestion, remember to feed him in the first place!!!...just lots to do and remember. But he gradually started getting better and although he still has some lingering congestion every once in a while, we're pretty much back to normal.

Here are some new pics that I took today (now that I have batteries for the camera :)

We started putting Zane in the Bumbo seat a few days ago because his head control has gotten really good, and the strength in his upper back is really good. I wanted to take his picture looking really happy in his seat, but it turned out more like this:

I saw this shirt Zane is wearing a while back at Target and thought it was so cute. Ryan's always using the word "rad" and it just seemed like Zane needed this shirt. But since it really wasn't necessary, I didn't buy it at the time. However, yesterday it was on clearance so it suddenly became worth it to me. :)

And since I was scouring clearance items at Target, I found this shirt for the Elmo lover in our house for only $2!! Doesn't she look so happy wearing it? :)

"Video, Please!"

2011-02-17T22:20:00.000-06:00

This story is too long to post as a facebook status but it's too cute not to be shared so here goes. This morning I figured out the best way to workout: get Karys to do it with me. :) I moved the furniture around in the living room to get myself set up to do a Biggest Loser workout video and told Karys we were going to do this together. I even pulled out my 2-lb. weights for her and told her those were her weights. As the video went on, she stood next to me and tried to do what they were doing. After awhile she got tired of that and sat on the couch watching me for the rest of the time.

After her nap and all evening she'd periodically ask me, "Video, please?" I didn't even realize she knew what the word "video" meant since I usually call them "movies" but I kept telling her she could watch a video after she ate dinner. After dinner, she enthusiastically asked, "Video, please?" I asked her what video she wanted to watch and she went to our entertainment center and pointed to one of the doors that holds DVDs. I opened it and saw that her VeggieTales SweetPea video was in there so I held it up and asked if she wanted to watch it. She told me no. I looked down in the cabinet again and saw the cover for the Biggest Loser video we did this morning. I held it up and asked if that was what she was talking about and she told me, "Yay, video!" :) I told her she didn't really want to watch that. :)

Second cute story: The last few nights Karys has been difficult getting to bed at night. I don't understand what it is because she's not taking naps that are very long but she lays in bed for the longest time and doesn't fall asleep until after 10! She's also been crying when I leave the room and telling me, "Rock." Now keep in mind I sit in her room and rock her for a good 10 minutes or so before putting her in her bed. A few times I've fallen for the tears and rocked her a second time, but tonight I told her that I was going to rock her and whenever I put her in bed she wasn't going to cry. It didn't really work...but I didn't cave and rock her a second time! She cried at the door for a few minutes, saying, "Rock!" and we'd periodically hear a few tears. One time Ryan went in to tell her to quit kicking the wall and she told him, "Rock!" So about 45 minutes after this all began I went back into her room to put Zane in his bed. When I walked in, I heard her say, "Rock!" I looked over at her bed expecting to see her laying there but then I caught her silhouette sitting in the rocking chair rocking herself! :) I just died laughing!! It's like she was thinking, "Fine. If you won't rock me, I'll just do it myself."

To Sleep or Not To Sleep... :)

2011-02-12T21:31:00.001-06:00

That's the question I'm asking these days!! I'm starting to wonder if Zane will ever be a good sleeper. :) Poor guy...he just gets so hungry!! This kid is an eating MACHINE!! It's so interesting to see how different he is from his sister. Just today I fixed him a 5-ounce bottle because he consistently doesn't make it 3 hours from one feeding to another. 5 ounces!! He's only 6 weeks old!! :) Oh well, he seemed to be happy with it! It will be interesting to see how that translates tonight...will we get more sleep at once, or won't we? I remembered that at this point Karys was sleeping so well--almost through the night. I went back and found this post that proves what I remembered. Zane still gets up twice in the night. For example, last night he ate at 10:00 and then woke up to eat at 2:15 and then again at 5:45. It's starting to get exhausting!! :) However, with all that said, I'm so thankful for this sweet baby boy and I'm trying to slow down with him more than I did with Karys and really cherish every day, every stage, all of it. He's such a sweet boy. :)

BUT the hard part is that with our house being as small as it is, I don't really have a good place for him to be where I can let him cry a little bit to see if he's actually hungry or just waking up out of habit. If I leave him in his and Karys's room he'll wake her up, but even if I just leave him in the living room we're all in such close proximity to each other that he'll bother everyone!! Oh well, everyone sleeps through the night eventually, right?? ;)

Just a couple of cute pics:

The other day he woke up early from his nap SCREAMING so I finished out his naptime cuddling with him. I guess it could be worse. ;)

Karys loves her baby brother. She's never really asked to hold him, but she does love kissing on him and giving him toys of hers to play with. But on this day I offered to let her hold him and she decided she wanted to. :)

Birth and 2 Week Pictures

2011-01-13T10:45:00.000-06:00

For those asking me if Zane looks like Karys did as a baby, I thought I'd post a couple of pictures of the two of them so you can do your own comparisons. First, a picture from birth:

Karys

Zane

And now at two weeks:

(Neither of these pictures were taken at exactly two weeks, but close enough. The picture of Karys is one of my least favorites, honestly, but she does kind of resemble Zane which is why I'm showing it!)

Karys

Zane

2 Weeks Comparison

2011-01-13T10:16:00.000-06:00

I'm going to basically copy an idea that my friend, Amy, does on her blog. At least I'll do it for this post!! As her kids are growing up, she blogs about the different things they are learning to do each month. I neglected to do that for Karys and will probably regret it one day, but hopefully I can get it going for Zane! I thought in this post I'd list out some of the things we're learning about him, but also compare what life is like at 2 weeks with Zane versus what I remember it being like with Karys.

Zane had his two-week check-up at the doctor yesterday and things are looking good! When he was 6 days old we went back up to the hospital for a weight check. When he was born, he weighed 8 lbs. 1 oz. When we were discharged from the hospital, he weighed 7 lbs. 10 oz. At 6 days, he weighed 7 lbs. 6 oz. Here's how things stacked up yesterday:

Weight: 8 lbs. 6 oz. (43rd percentile)
Height: 21 inches (60th percentile)
Head: 14.25 inches (29th percentile)

Now to compare that to his big sister. He started out basically a pound heavier than her at birth. She was 7 lbs. and 20 inches at birth. At two weeks, she looked like this:

Weight: 7 lbs. 6 oz. (20th percentile)...notice, still exactly a pound difference!
Height: 20.75 inches (66th percentile)
Head: 14 inches (38th percentile)

I know that they are on different charts since he's a boy and she's a girl, but it's interesting to see the differences.

At two weeks, here are some things I've learned about Zane:

--He is a snuggler!! Karys was absolutely not that way. She tolerated being held but she had too many important things to do to spend time snuggling. :) She's still that way. ;)

--He sleeps best when he is swaddled. The first day we were home I tried laying him down in bed and after about 5 minutes he was screaming!! Then I read Amy's blog and saw that her baby really liked being swaddled because her startle reflex was so sensitive. This seemed to be his problem too so I found a swaddler that a former co-worker had passed on to me when I was pregnant with Karys and we've all been in love with it ever since! (Karys did not want to be swaddled as a baby...again, she had to many things to do to be restrained in any way!!)

--One thing Karys definitely had on Zane was she was an awesome nighttime sleeper! I remember at her two-week appointment telling the doctor I had been waking her up every three hours for feedings and wondered when I could quit doing that overnight. I remember her telling me that I could just let her go, but no longer than 5 hours at a time. So at two weeks Karys and I were only getting up once in the night. At two weeks with Zane, we're getting up 2 or even 3 times in the night. Hopefully that will be gone soon!!

--I'm still tweaking Zane's schedule. It's crazy how I felt like I knew what I would do with his schedule before he was born, but now that he's here, I feel like, "What do I do??" :) He seems to LOVE to eat so I'm still playing around with how much to feed him and how often. Today we're going to try 3 1/2 oz. every 3 hours. We'll see how that goes! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to nurse again this time. I did it for like 4 or 5 days and then when I realized that I had the same super-low milk suppy I had with Karys I decided I couldn't deal with the emotions that come with that. It's a real bummer because Zane was an awesome nurser (which his sister never was!) but for some reason my body doesn't want to do what it's supposed to!

--Zane will get to take a tub bath soon!! During the night last night I changed his diaper and realized his umbilical cord stump had fallen off...yay!! As soon as it heals up completely, we'll be all about submersion! :)

I am absolutely loving having a baby in the house again. Even in spite of the lack of sleep. :) I know it will just continue to get more fun. :)

Zane Elliott Magan, 12-28-2010

2011-01-03T11:47:00.000-06:00

Back at home

Sister and brother meet for the first time

Daddy and Zane

Mommy and Zane...I love how intently he was looking at me :)

Sweet sleeping baby...who will take a paci!! :)

It might take me all day to get this finished, but I'm determined to blog about Zane's birth story! :) First of all, in case you were keeping track my due date was January 9, 2011. And as you can see above, Zane was born on the 28th...12 days early!!! Believe me when I say, I was as shocked as anyone!! If you're ready for a story, keep reading. :)

On Monday the 27th, I had my 38 week check-up with my doctor. When she walked in the room she said, "Are we having a baby today?" To which I said I didn't think so. But I was glad that I was feeling better than I had on Christmas Day. I spent most of that day with Braxton Hicks contractions that just came and stayed. I was so cramped up most of the day...not fun at all!! At that appointment when she checked me she said I was at 3 cm. which was exciting because the previous week I hadn't made any progress and was still at a 1. She then told me that she thought I would deliver sometime within the week. I tried not to get my hopes up too much because I've just been expecting the entire time to go late since Karys was late.

Later that day my parents came to get Karys and take her back to their house for a couple of nights. Since they were off from school on Christmas vacation this would be a fun time for them and her, plus it would give me and Ryan a chance to have a little time to ourselves before adding to our family. I had all these plans of fun stuff we could do...like go see a movie, go out to a restaurant childless, all that fun stuff. Monday night we did end up renting a movie so I guess at least we got to do something! :)

During the night Monday night I took a couple of potty breaks and when I got up I thought that I was feeling a little crampy. But I was able to go back to sleep so I didn't really think anything about it. Around 5:30 I woke up again and thought the cramping was coming at fairly regular intervals so I decided to start timing things. I still wasn't confident that this would mean anything because on my due date with Karys I woke up contracting and after a few hours of watching TV on the couch everything had subsided so I didn't get my hopes up too much this time. After 30 minutes of laying in bed I was tired of just staring at the clock and since I couldn't sleep I decided to get up and watch some TV. Actually the first thought that occurred to me was that I hadn't gotten a chance to paint my toenails like I'd wanted to and I figured if I got out of bed I could accomplish this (which I did). I also knew that if this turned out to be the real thing I wouldn't be allowed to eat anything once I got to the hospital so I decided to eat some breakfast. Around 7:30 Ryan woke up and asked me what I was doing and I told him I was timing things. At this point I also called my doctor's office to find out how I would know to go to the hospital. The on-call doctor told me to call my doctor back at 8:30 and ask the nurse if I could get in for my doctor to check me because that way if I wasn't making any progress she could just send me home and I wouldn't waste a trip to the hospital. I didn't end up getting to talk to anyone from my doctor's office until 9:30 but they told me I could come in right away. Since Ryan and I were expecting to get some things done last week without Karys we had to spend some time before we left for the doctor's packing up our bags for the hospital!!

When we got to the doctor's office, she walked in and said, "Are we having a baby today?" To which I told her I didn't know and I was hoping she could tell me! I told Ryan before she got in the room that I thought one of two things would happen. She'd either tell me I was still at a 3 and to go home and wait it out or if I was lucky I might be at a 4 or possibly a 5. So she checks me and says, "You're at a 6!!" Of course my first response was, "Are you serious?" And she told us that we needed to head straight for the hospital.

On our way to the hospital I called my parents and told them that apparently they didn't come get Karys so Ryan and I could have a break. Apparently they took her so we could have a baby! Once we got to the hospital they got me hooked up to the monitors and my IV to get 2 bags of fluid in me so I could get my epidural. This was around 10:30. My doctor came in around 12:15 p.m. and broke my water. Unfortunately there was about a 45 minute delay between this happening and the anesthesiologist being able to get in and give me the epidural. I had been feeling pretty good up to that point but those contractions were ROUGH!!! And then once the anesthesiologist got in there he had a million questions about family medical history and all I could think was, "Hurry!!" But once my epidural was in, things were good again. :)

The thing that amazed me this time around was how quickly things progressed. I dilated pretty quickly and the baby moved down fairly quickly too. We got to the hospital at 10:30 and he was born at 3:11 p.m. All in all, it was a really good experience! Here are his stats:

Date: Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Time: 3:11 p.m.
Weight: 8 lbs. 1 oz.
Length: 19 1/4 inches

So far I can tell that his nose and mouth are similar to Karys's but he really doesn't look like her that much. But he's a total cutie!! He's a really easy baby so far too. I've spent his first few nights sleeping with him but after reading that one of my friends has success getting her baby to sleep by swaddling her, I tried that today and it really seems to help! I'm looking forward to our life as a family of four. :)

Reflections on Pregnancy #2

2010-12-20T16:12:00.000-06:00

Just thought I'd record a few things I've noticed as being different this time around of being pregnant. First off, today was my 37-week check-up and everything looks good, but I didn't make any progress from last week which is a little bit of a bummer.

I'll start with the good differences I've noticed in Pregnancy #2:
1. All of my rings still fit!! At this point in Pregnancy #1 (and even before now) my rings no longer fit and I was wearing a fake wedding ring so people wouldn't think I was unmarried! :) Granted, my first pregnancy was in the summer, but still. :)

2. I am not dealing with swelling! I think I've had maybe two occasions where my ankles started swelling, but nothing like last time. Again, it's not summertime right now, but it's definitely nice not to be dealing with that!

3. I'm not having heartburn like I did the first time around. I've had it a few times, but again not enough times to even really be bothered by it.

4. I started out this pregnancy about 15 pounds lighter than I was at the start of my first pregnancy. The downside is that I've put on more weight this time than I did last time, but the upside is that I'm not yet at the final weight I was at with Karys. :)

Now for the bad differences in Pregnancy #2:
1. I've dealt with more digestive "issues", I guess you could say. Whatever you want to call it, it's a nuisance!

2. I feel WAAAAY bigger this time around!! I stick out more in the front whereas with Karys I was a lot wider so I didn't feel as big as I do now! :)

3. Now that I'm right here at the end of the pregnancy I'm dealing with contractions way more than I remember dealing with them my first time around. I'll deal with them, though, if it means that I won't be overdue!! :)

As much as I feel ready for sweet little Zane to come, I know I need to cherish the time that I still have him kicking me from the inside and getting those sweet little baby hiccups. :)

New Updates

2010-12-19T21:13:00.000-06:00

I realized I haven't blogged anything recently...and I've actually done really poorly on blogging this year!! I was looking back at my posts from 2008 to see where I was as far as progress in my pregnancy with Karys at the point I'm at now with Zane and saw that I had like 60-something posts in 2008 and like 15 this year!! Pathetic! :)

So to give a few new updates. I'm 37 weeks as of today and really getting ready to be done!! :) My stomach sticks out way farther than I did with Karys and I have contractions more often than I remember having with her. Needless to say, it makes me a little uncomfortable!! Plus there are so many friends at church having their babies now that it makes me anxious for my turn! :) Last week at my 36-week checkup I was already at 1 cm. and 60% effaced. Looking back at my posts in 2008, I'm doing better than I was then! I go back to the doctor tomorrow so I'm hoping to have made more progress. It would be so wonderful if he came a little early!! My doctor was thinking it was possible for him to come a couple of weeks early!! I guess we'll find out...I'm trying not to get my hopes up to much. :)

Second update is on Karys's speech. Things just keep getting better and better. She improves on words all the time and has been doing a great job lately at putting words together. Her next appointment is Tuesday and I'm excited to tell her therapist how well she's been doing and get more ideas and suggestions for ways to help her. :)

The picture at the top of the post is Karys wearing all her pretty dress-up stuff given to her by her friend, Stephanie. Such a pretty little princess! :)

"Bye!"

2010-11-23T14:39:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was Karys's second ECI speech therapy session. We've seen several improvements in her speech since her last session. One of those improvements is in the word "mommy." When Karys was about 20 months or so she would say "mommy" as "eh-mee." Then as she got older, it became "ommy." Between our last speech session and this one, we were able to get her to add the first "m." It was cute because Ryan would remind her, "Say mmmmm-ommy" and really over-enunciate the first "mmm" sound so Karys would say, "Mmmmmm-ommy!!" and eventually could remember how to say it without a reminder (and without the extra long "mmmm" :) Another word that saw improvement was "mess." It used to come out as "meh" (as in, without the "s" and now it's the whole word.

Since her last therapy session we've been watching the LeapFrog Letter Factory video daily (sometimes she chooses to watch it more than once a day!) and it is definitely helping her. She's learning letters and their sounds and can recognize them both in the video and out in real life. The other day she saw a magnet that I had and found the "F" and made the "f" sound and the same thing for an "M". It's really impressive how quickly she's picked up on this!

Her therapist was impressed at how much progress she's made in two weeks. At this session, she worked with Karys using the picture cards that she gave her last time. They practiced words, and also did an activity where Becca would hold up two pictures (ex. a ball and a cupcake) and ask, "Which one do you eat?" to try to get her to say something like, "Eat cake." Although she didn't answer in that way, she did know the right answer!! :)

Becca also gave us some new words to work with: "bee, bow, boo, bay, and bye" because all of these words combine the "b" sound with a long vowel sound and long vowel sounds encourage Karys to talk with her mouth open, which is something she definitely needs help with. She's pretty close-mouthed when she talks which is one of the problems with her speech. In practicing those 5 words yesterday, she could say the first three pretty well, but "bay" and "bye" she said with a "d" sound instead of a "b" sound. I had a feeling she would do this, because she's always said "bye" with a "d" and when she says "baby" she substitutes "b's" for "d's." It's definitely something I've been trying to work with her on!! Becca said that maybe it's the sound that comes after the "b" that trips her up sometimes.

For her next session, we're supposed to help her start using a two-word phrase consistently and improve at imitating words.

The funny/cool part about yesterday occurred as I was putting Karys down for a nap. She was sitting in her bed and I was about to leave the room and she looks at me and says, "Bye!" I looked at her and said, "What did you say?" and again she says, "Bye!" I happened to be on the phone with Ryan at the time and I asked him, "Did you hear that?" and he had heard the same thing I had. Karys said it for me again, and the last time she also waved, so I knew that she knew what she was saying. I'm not kidding when I say that she has NEVER said that word correctly...she didn't even do that during her therapy session yesterday!! I don't know how it clicked in her mind to say it the right way, but I was so proud of her!! And today she still wants to revert back to using the "d" sound out of habit, but she just needs a reminder and she remembers how to say it correctly. I can't wait to see what happens between now and her next appointment, December 7! :)

First ECI Visit

2010-11-08T13:25:00.001-06:00

Today was Karys's first ECI visit to start working on improving her speech. It went so well!! I wasn't really sure what to expect, but I knew I was happy that the woman that will be working with her is someone I used to know. Having known her in the past and what a fun person she is made me know things today would be great.

The great thing about ECI is that they come to your house to work and I think that helps Karys be more comfortable. She had no problems doing anything she was asked to do and warmed up to Becca (her therapist) pretty immediately. At this first appointment, Becca brought Karys a little mirror that we are supposed to use to work on imitating words. When Becca would use it, she would act like she was watching herself say a word in the mirror and then ask Karys to copy it. Every time Karys would do whatever she was asked. And I could tell she was really trying hard to copy Becca. She also gave Karys some picture cards that we're supposed to work on. They're all common words and we're supposed to work on making the words sound like they're supposed to and then using those words to start putting words together. For example, I'm supposed to be asking her object function questions. Instead of saying, "What is this?" for a picture of a car, I should ask her something like, "What does Mommy drive?" in hopes that she'll eventually say something like "Drive car."

I bought a notebook today so that I could take notes of everything we're supposed to work on between now and her next appointment in two weeks. Here's what we're going to start with:

*Associating long vowel sounds with words to get her to start using vowels in her words

*Have her drink out of a straw more often

*Practice clicking her tongue

*Use the mirror to practice words she's highly successful with so she can see what her mouth is supposed to do

I can't wait to see how much she improves as time goes on. :)

God Is So Good :)

2010-10-21T13:04:00.000-05:00

In case you weren't aware, Ryan and I have had concerns over Karys's speech for months now. Well before she turned 2, we realized that she was not progressing in ways typical for kids her age. It's not that she's not intelligent, it's that the words that she does have are very hard to understand. Back in the spring we were referred by our pediatrician to ECI (Early Childhood Intervention) and we had a lady come out and do a developmental assessment on her and she said that she was going to get in touch with the speech therapist and they'd come back together because she had a feeling she would qualify. The time that she called with a speech therapist available we weren't going to be available and then I never heard from her again.

At Karys's two year check up I told the doctor about this and she referred us to a private therapy center. The problem was going to be that our insurance wasn't going to kick in for it for awhile and it's quite pricey. So Ryan told me he wanted me to get back in touch with ECI again. I called their main office a couple of weeks ago and was told they'd get me a new referral and someone would call back in a few days. This past Monday I hadn't heard back yet so I called again and this time someone actually put the referral into the computer while I was on the phone with her. I was told I'd hear back from someone in 7-10 business days. The NEXT DAY I got a call from the lady we worked with previously who said that she was going to get in touch with the speech therapist and call me the next day with whatever times she might be available. This morning I got a call at 8 saying that the speech therapist had a cancellation for today...could they come over and do her evaluation at 11:30. I was so psyched!! Getting things going this quickly is pretty much unheard of!!

They came over and asked lots of questions about development and language (things like: Does she play make-believe?...Answer: yes. Will she ask me "What's that?"...Answer: no.). They determined that she's right where she should be developmentally, but she's definitely lagging behind in speech. One thing the therapist noticed was that she doesn't open her mouth very much when she talks (which I've already noticed) and said she was a little advanced in her language, as far as what she knows...she just can't articulate the words herself.

The next cool part in the story is that Karys will probably be working with the speech therapist's assistant, who just so happens to be someone I know!! Her son was in one of the classes I worked with at a daycare I worked at here in town several years ago. I don't know if she'll remember me, but she's a really nice woman and I'm so excited that we'll be getting to work with her!

I'm just seeing God's hand so clearly in this situation...the quick timing (which is almost unheard of), the availability of the speech therapist so quickly, and now getting to work with someone I'm familiar with. We've been praying about this situation and I can definitely testify that He answers prayer. God is good...all the time. :)

Baby Boy Has A Name!!

2010-10-14T23:21:00.001-05:00

After lots of deliberation, we FINALLY have a name picked out for our little boy!! I'll tell you the story about how it came to be, but for those that aren't interested in that, I'll go ahead and give you his name first. :)

Zane Elliott Magan

Wow, it actually feels kind of weird to write it and realize that yes, this will be our son's name forever! :) I found the name "Zane" in a baby names book that was passed down to me by my sister-in-law, Misty. In the book it said that it was an English variation of the name "John" so it means the same thing, which is, "God is gracious." Elliott is also Biblical and means "The Lord is my God." Love both of those meanings!!

As most of you know, we've been going back and forth about names for months now. I'd make a list of names I liked; Ryan would look at the list and then tell me to keep searching for names; I'd search for more names and add a couple at a time to the list; they'd get shot down again by Ryan. ;) And so on and so on. Eventually we had it narrowed down to either Zane Elliott or Reid Elliott. (Although Ryan liked to spell it "Reed.") Then it dawned on me one day last week that if we went with Reid, I'd be saying this sentence a lot: "I've got to go feed Reid." And the thought of rhyming like that multiple times a day turned me off of that name!! But I still didn't feel quite sure about Zane. Then the name "Evan" came to me and I REALLY liked that one. But Ryan told me he knew someone growing up named Evan and the guy was weird so Ryan totally didn't want that at all.

All along, I've been waiting for a name to feel "right" to me and felt that God had led us to Karys's name and I knew He had the perfect name for this little guy as well. I was just waiting for that "this is it" feeling. Yesterday I was watching an episode of "The Little Couple" (a show on TLC). The couple in that show is in the process of building a house and this episode involved them trying to pick a color for the exterior of the house. They got it narrowed down to two choices. He liked a greenish color, and she liked a blueish color. So they're back at the house they live in now trying to hammer it out and decide which color to go with. And finally she says, "Let's paint the house green." Her reason? Because she loves her husband and he wants green so she wants to do something he'd love. All of a sudden I got my "this is it" feeling because I realized that we were in a similar situation. We both had a name that we felt drawn to...I actually liked both names, but was favoring Evan (Ryan, hated Evan, but still...similar scenarios. ;). I started thinking about how Karys's name was my idea and it just happened that Ryan liked it so that's what we went with. This time around, we're having a boy and I just felt like I wanted to let our little boy's name be the one his daddy wanted him to have. So now it's set...he has a name! :) (If you hate it, try to get used to it...maybe you'll like it. ;) If you love it, feel free to say so. :)

**Disclaimer: For those of you who know Jaime, I promise I found the name "Zane" in a book before I knew that's what they would be using as a middle name. I promise I didn't just rip it out of the name they chose!!

Life With A Two-Year-Old

2010-10-05T22:24:00.000-05:00

(The first picture was taken at the park last Friday and the second was after AWANA one night. :)

Recently I've started noticing how much Karys is maturing and growing up, even just compared with how she was a few months ago. It's so neat to see her start to become more independent and actually want to do things that she sees us do (i.e. housework) that I know in a few years we'll be hard-pressed to get her to do!

Last week at MOPS our speaker topic was Time Management and the thing our speaker said that really stuck out to me wasn't even something she probably intended to be useful to anyone. She said something along the lines of: A two-year-old can be expected to put shoes away in a bin, and even to pick out a match to a shoe from the bin. They cannot, however, be expected to line up their shoes in a nice little row. Back in the summer when I redid Karys's room I took out the dresser and put in its place a tall bookshelf with different bins for onesies, bibs, etc. I don't think I took into consideration that she would soon start wanting to get her own shoes out of the closet, so I did line them up neatly. That system is definitely not working and I am now on the lookout for the perfect shoe bin!!

This morning I saw some of that helpfulness come out when I REALLY wasn't expecting it. I was refilling our dog's food bowl and about to take it outside to him when I heard Karys say his name. (His name is Leon, she says something like "Yee-yah".) I turned around to see what she was doing and saw her carefully carrying his water bowl!! Thankfully, it wasn't very full! I got it from her quickly and gave her the food bowl to take out to him. She looked so proud of herself carrying that food bowl outside and putting it down on the ground for the dog. It made me proud of her and showed me that she's eager to be given more responsibility. Guess I'll be asking for more help with chores!! :)

Baby #2 Is A Boy!! :)

2010-08-12T16:12:00.000-05:00

Here's a true story for you. Before I found out I was pregnant again, I told Ryan that I didn't care if we ever had a boy. I didn't feel like I had any idea what to do with a boy because I never grew up with a brother and I don't like to do things that I feel are "boy" things to do. I'm not an outdoorsy person, I've never been good at sports, I hate being dirty/sweaty...all boy things!! I didn't feel like I could relate to a boy at all! When I told all of this to Ryan he told me that boys don't expect their moms to do that kind of stuff. :)

Fast forward to May 7, 2010. That was the day I found out I was pregnant. That night, I had a dream that I was at my ultrasound appointment and we found out the baby was a boy. I'm thinking maybe that was God's way of working on me because from that point on I just felt that this baby was a boy. And the more time I had to think about what that would mean and how I really could handle that...and not just "handle" it, but enjoy it, the more excited I became about having a boy.

Fast forward again to my July appointment. I was 14 weeks at the time and told my doctor that I felt like this baby was a boy and I knew that you could tell that really early so I thought we should wheel in her little portable ultrasound machine and just see if we could see anything. She laughed and told me that the quality of that machine wasn't very good and they could barely tell the head from the tail with it! Then she told me that she'd let me find out at my next appointment in 4 weeks. I was really surprised about that because with Karys she told me I had to be 20 weeks at least before I could find out.

We had the ultrasound done yesterday. When the sonographer started, she said that she couldn't determine gender at that point because the umbilical cord was in the way, but that we'd come back to it. She started taking all of the measurements that she's supposed to take and was great at telling us everything she was seeing as she was seeing it. Then at the end she said that she could tell what the sex of the baby was, but she couldn't seem to get a good picture of it. I told her that I thought the baby was a boy and she said I was right! She pointed out his "parts" to us and said that he was turned in such a way that she just couldn't get a good picture of it. I told her I didn't care about that, all I really cared about was finding out the sex of the baby! :) She told us she was certain she was right about it being a boy. She was also able to get us some really good 4D pictures, which surprised her as well because at this point the baby is really small.

I really do love the doctor that I have and I'm so thankful that she was willing to accomodate this impatient mommy! :)

Here are a couple of pictures of our little guy (who is nameless as of yet!):This is a full-body picture...head is at the top and the body is curved around. Unfortunately these did not scan in that well!!

This is a really sweet profile picture. I look at it and think, "That really looks like a boy!" But I don't know if I think that because I know or not! :)

And I like this one because I'm just wondering if we're going to have another thumb-sucker on our hands!! :)

I gotta say I'm excited to be joining all of you "boy moms!" :) And I'm so thrilled to not be having a summertime baby...it's way too hot to be "big pregnant" right now!!

Vacation 2010- Myrtle Beach, SC

2010-07-10T09:13:00.001-05:00

We had such a blast on our vacation this summer! It really didn't even get planned until two weeks before we headed out. My parents own a timeshare and are able to get access to different resorts for a week during the year. We knew that we wanted to use one of those resorts, rather than renting a hotel room because we'd have tons more space, plus a full kitchen, and washer/dryer. We stayed in a 2 bedroom/2 bathroom condo and it was WONDERFUL!!

My parents weren't able to join up with me, Ryan, and Karys on our first couple of days because they had tickets to see Sarah Palin in Tyler on the first day of our vacation so they didn't join up with us for a couple of days. Ryan, Karys, and I started our drive to Myrtle Beach (a 17 hour drive...without stops) on Friday, June 25, at 4:15 in the morning! I took the idea from a friend, who told me that for long car trips, they kill it on the first day so that the second day's travel isn't as long. We headed to Atlanta, GA, where we had made a hotel reservation for that night and didn't make it there until around 7:00 p.m. (It was supposed to be a 10.5 hour drive!) The next morning we got up (not nearly as early) and headed the rest of the way to Myrtle Beach. We would've gotten there about 2 hours earlier than we did, except that there is one main way to get into Myrtle Beach once you leave I-20 and it goes through this small town that has like 2 stoplights that backed all the traffic up for a long time! The part of the drive we were on was supposed to be about 20.5 miles, according to our google maps directions, and it took us about 2 hours to travel that distance. It was so frustrating!!!!! Karys was an absolute trooper in the car. She really didn't fuss about being in the car for such long periods of time. That first day when we left so early in the morning, we figured we'd just put her in the car and she'd fall back asleep. Nope!! She stayed 100% awake until after lunch, just like a normal day!! Thankfully, she was happy so we didn't care! This first picture is on our drive that first day. She was playing with all of these toys, and then just fell asleep with everything still in her lap! :)

One of Ryan's sisters, Misty, and her family live in North Carolina, about 2 1/2 hours away from Myrtle Beach. She and her kids were able to come stay with us on our first night in Myrtle Beach which was great because we don't get to see her very often. The first night we got there, we went to eat at Cracker Barrel and then got the kids in bed. The following day we headed out to the beach! We didn't end up taking any pictures at the beach until our last day there because we really didn't want to leave an expensive camera just laying around. Although I will say I like the atmosphere at the beach. It seemed to be safe, in that everyone just picked a spot for their belongings and no one messed in anyone else's stuff. But I didn't want to leave anything too expensive out there just to test that theory! After we got back from the beach, Karys took a 4-hour nap! I knew that the lack of sleep the day before would eventually catch up with her!

On Tuesday, my parents were finally able to join up with us, but not until the afternoon. In the morning, we headed back to the beach. Let me just say that Karys was only sort of a fan of the beach. Going in the water was not fun for her but being in the sand walking around she did find enjoyable. :)

I think all but one day were in Myrtle Beach we went to the beach. We also went to the Ripley's Aquarium one evening. Here are a few pictures from that:

And one night we went to Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede. I don't have any pictures from that because photos weren't allowed during the show so we didn't bother taking our cameras inside. It was a really fun show...kind of like going to Medieval Times but with a Civil War theme. We were still served food that you could only eat with your hands and during the show were split into the North and the South and were supposed to cheer for our side during the different competitions they had. Karys LOVED watching the horses especially. She did really well during the entire show. :)

On our last night in Myrtle Beach we did take a camera to the beach because we had to get at least a few pictures! Here they are:

These last two pictures are from our trip headed back home. We ended up taking longer to get home and spent the night in two different hotels. One of those nights was July 4, so here's Karys in her cute 4th outfit. The lei was given to her by the lady at the front desk of the hotel. :)This picture is from our last day. Karys decided to catch herself a ride to the car!Can't wait for next year's vacation when we'll have an almost 3 year old and a 6 month old baby! :)

Baby #2's First Pictures

2010-06-01T13:35:00.000-05:00

Today was my first sonogram with Baby #2. It's so weird to me that I felt like I'd already done this before so I knew what would happen today. In some ways I did, in some ways it was a little bit different. First of all, when I had my first sonogram with Karys I thought I was almost 9 weeks pregnant. Then the sonogram showed me to be quite a bit behind that (8 days) so my due date, which I thought was going to be July 18, turned out to be July 27. In the long run, that wasn't a big deal, but when you're really trying to get through the first trimester, an extra 8 days feels like a really big setback! This time around the due date that I calculated online was January 9, and my sonogram was showing me to be measuring for January 11. So I really am as pregnant as I thought I was! I was totally prepared to go in today and get a due date closer to the middle of January. So I think this was a nice surprise. (Although the later in January the baby comes, the closer Karys will be to being exactly 2 1/2. Probably doesn't make much difference!)

I go back to see my doctor in 2 weeks. I was scheduled to go next week, but the nurse said that she wanted me to get the appointment pushed back another week so that when my dr. checks the baby's heart rate she'll actually be able to hear it externally.

Both of my pictures look pretty much the same so I'll post the "better" of the two. This was also different from my first sono with Karys. Her picture actually looked like a grain of rice. This time, that grain of rice is starting to morph. Although it still doesn't really look baby-like yet! The sono tech showed me where the head was and where the arms were starting to form. The head is toward the right and the arms are starting to come out of the middle of the "peanut" shape. :) Oh, the baby's heart rate today was 164. I had a dream the night that I found out I was pregnant that the baby was a boy. But Karys always followed the "higher heart rate = girl" scenario, so I guess we'll see what happens! :)

Big Sister Coming Soon!!

2010-05-12T21:40:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it, but my sweet little Karys is going to be a big sister!! We just found out this happy news last Friday and I think it's taking me some time for it to really sink in. Honestly, I can't let too much of it sink in yet because then my mind wanders to all of the questions that stress me out! (i.e. How do we fit everyone? How do you parent a newborn and a toddler at the same time?) So for now I'll just be excited about being pregnant again because it was honestly fun the first time around, and the fact that we're expanding our family.

And now, for more details. :) This time around is already different than it was with Karys, enough so that I had to google my symptoms to see if they were possible pregnancy symptoms. I'd share a little more about them, but it's possible that male family members might read this and there are just some things we don't need to know about each other! :) But I will say that I've had to deal with some morning sickness, although it doesn't make me throw up.

So anyway, last Thursday I googled my symptoms and discovered that I was very possibly experiencing early pregnancy symptoms. This past weekend we had my sister spend the weekend with us so on Friday morning I got up early to work out (and take a test). I was pretty sure I knew what my test was going to say, so I wasn't too surprised when the two pink lines started appearing immediately. In an effort to not wake up anyone else in the house, I opted to take the dog for a jog as my workout so I left a note in the bathroom that said "SURPRISE!! Let's see who finds this first" and put the test with the note. I left with the dog, in hopes that when we got back both Ryan and Julie would be on the couch and would jump up when I got home and run over to me all excited. But I returned with the living room dark and empty like I'd left it. ;) However, a few minutes later my sister emerged from Karys's room saying that she found the note first. And later, I just took the message into my room and told Ryan that he had missed out on getting to know first. :)

At this point, I will be honest and say that I was surprised by this baby as I was with Karys. However, with Karys we weren't expecting to start trying for a baby any time soon when I found out I was pregnant. This time we're just a few months earlier than I was hoping for. My plan was that I wanted to have another baby in the spring of 2011. It looks like we'll be having a baby sometime around mid- to late January. We have lots of family birthdays in January (just like we had when Karys was born in July), so I'll be hoping that this baby doesn't end up being born on a day that's already "taken" (my mom's birthday is the 10th, my cousin's husband is the 11th, one of my nephews is the 19th and another is the 21st). I like for everyone to have their own special birthday.

When I found out I was pregnant with Karys, it was the day before Thanksgiving which meant we had a big holiday coming up that we got to tell everyone. This time it was two days before Mother's Day, which meant that we would see my parents on Mother's Day and be able to tell them in person in a special way. We went with an idea that Ryan had as our way of telling them. We had them take a picture with Karys, just a regular picture, where we told everyone to say "Cheese":

Then the next picture, Ryan told Karys to say "I'm going to be a big sister!" The idea was that my parents would have a shocked look on their face and then Ryan would snap their picture. However, they kept this fake smile on for the picture, and THEN looked over at me, asking, "Is this true?"Everyone is really excited...my parents and sister couldn't wait to post the news to facebook, and were disappointed that I made them wait until later Monday evening so I had a chance to call some people that I didn't want to have just read it over facebook.

One of the things that is different this time around is that for several days now I've been dealing with my heart beating much more forcefully than usual. It's super-annoying because, for example, as I'm sitting here typing, it's doing it and it feels like I'm stressed out or nervous. But nothing about typing on the computer makes me feel either of those emotions!! I'm going to visit my MD tomorrow to see what she suggests/recommends.

My first sonogram is scheduled for June 1st, and my first visit with my doctor is June 8, so hopefully after those dates I can get a more accurate due date. I had a dream Friday night that the baby was a boy so I'm gearing myself up for that to be the case. I didn't grow up with a brother so I feel a little inadequate when it comes to raising/living with little boys! I guess we'll see what happens!

Nothing New in Awhile

2010-04-28T15:57:00.001-05:00

I always seem to forget to post new blogs. I tend to be bad at posting pics on facebook too. We take pictures quite a bit, but I just upload them to the computer and then forget about them!! That being said, I decided I should put up a couple of pics. This first one is one that Ryan took on his phone probably around a year ago. I noticed it in our Pictures folder on the computer one day and it felt like it had been taken ages ago!! I just can't believe how different things can get in a year's time. When I first looked at this picture, my reaction was that I didn't remember her legs ever looking so chubby...I love it!! :)

And I realized I never posted anything from Easter. Here's my sweet little girl in her Easter dress. :) (And being the money-saver I like to be, I can't post the pic without mentioning that I bought this dress at a consignment store in Mesquite for $5.50!! It's a Children's Place dress.)

She Makes Me Laugh :)

2010-03-15T22:20:00.000-05:00

I usually keep Karys's jacket hanging on the chair I unload my purse and diaper bag on. No real reason, just laziness I guess. :) Keeps me from having to hang it up all the time and then get it back out of the closet (although this is what I do with my own coats!!). So anyway, tonight there were two jackets hanging up on the chair. Karys saw them hanging there, pulled both of them down and brought them to me, which meant she wanted them put on her. So as the air conditioner is running to cool down our too-warm house, she's wandering around wearing two jackets at the same time. :) Silly girl!

And THIS is what happens.... :)

2010-02-06T16:21:00.000-06:00

...When Karys has to spend extra time in her bed because she wakes up from nap too early!! :)Let me give just a little bit of explanation. This week I've been trying to start eliminating the morning nap from our routine. She was getting to the point that she would either just play in bed for an hour, or she might actually sleep which would mean she wouldn't sleep as long in the afternoon. So I've been putting her down for one nap somewhere between 12:30 and 1:00 with the idea that nap time isn't "over" until 4:00. The only problem I've had is that she has a tendency to "do her business" during naptime, unfortunately. It's not cool because it always wakes her up. So on a day that she's only taken one nap, if she goes to sleep at 1 and wakes up at 2:30 because her diaper's dirty, that's totally not enough sleep for her!! So I'll go in and change her quickly, and put her back into bed knowing that there's like a 90% chance she's not going back to sleep. But at least she'll have had a "rest time" if nothing else.

This is what happened today. She was asleep somewhere around 1ish and woke up around 3 with her dirty diaper. I went in and changed her and put her back in bed. Obviously she stayed awake the rest of the time. When I went in to get her at 4, the first thing I noticed was one of her socks on the floor outside of her crib. This isn't all that unusual. I actually had to look at her for a second before I realized SHE TOOK HER SHIRT OFF!!!! :) Once I realized that, I started laughing hysterically and called Ryan in to see her. He didn't find it as humorous as I did, but apparently he was trying to decide if I was laughing because I realized that I had forgotten to put her shirt on her or if she had taken it off herself. But it was hilarious to me!! :)

This Is What Happens....

2010-01-21T16:28:00.001-06:00

....when a 17 month old has to have her food taken away because she was throwing it on the floor, but she wasn't allowed to leave the table. :)

This picture was from lunch today. For months now we've been dealing with Karys throwing food she's tired of eating onto the floor. We've tried so many things to make it stop, but we have a stubborn child. Slapping her hand does nothing for her...doesn't phase her one bit. TAlk about frustrating!! I've told her "no" about this and explained that we don't throw food on the floor so much I think I should just record it and push "play" a million times a day!! Obviously what we've been doing hasn't been working or we wouldn't be dealing with this problem. So we decided to try something new, and hopefully this will work. The new plan is that whenever she throws food on the floor, it's going to mean she's done and her food will be taken away. Then she has to pick up whatever she threw on the floor and throw it away, and if it made the floor dirty, she is given a paper towel and has to help me wipe it up. We just started this yesterday. At breakfast this morning, we did have a "nothing on the floor" meal, but then at lunch, a piece of cracker and a piece of ham, and a cup ended up on the floor. Hopefully if we're consistant it's going to work.

Back to the picture. At lunch, I fixed her lunch and she was already eating while I was fixing my lunch. Then stuff ended up on the floor so I took her food away. (And I'm not being totally rigid with this. If she's barely eaten anything, then she does have to clean up her mess, but she gets another chance. I promise, I'm not starving her!!) However, I still hadn't eaten lunch so she had to sit in her high chair while I ate my lunch. Apparently she was getting bored with not too much to do, so she started playing with her shirt. First it was playing with the sleeves...and then she did what you see in the picture. I have to admit, it made me laugh. :)

If you're reading this and you have another suggestion, I would LOVE to hear it!! :)

A Girl After My Own Heart

2010-01-18T21:20:00.000-06:00

I'll start by saying, I love organization. When things have a place, and everything is in its place, the world just feels right. When my house is a mess and cluttered, it makes me anxious and just leaves me feeling unsettled. However, when everything is put away, I feel relief. Today was a happy day for me because I was able to create more space in our house. Allow me to share, in pictures. :)

My parents gave us money for Christmas to get a new entertainment center. The one we picked allows us to hide our DVDs inside of it (something else I love...hiding junk!!). We weren't able to get it until yesterday, because we had to do something with our old entertainment center (my parents took it from us). Here's our nice, new entertainment "credenza" (as it is called on the box!):

On Saturday my dad came down to empty out the storage building he had been renting us so we could take all of our stuff that doesn't fit in our new place to my parents' house since they are so generously going to store it for us. While we were at their house, we got to take this over-the-toilet shelf that had belonged to my grandmother, but wouldn't fit over the toilets in my parents' house. Today, I went to Big Lots and got a few baskets to go on it so that our toiletries can be in the bathroom, but not advertised to everyone who comes in!! That looks like this:Emptying out our old entertainment center meant finding a new place for all of the Wii accessories. Once again, I like my stuff HIDDEN!! I went to Big Lots today intending to find wicker baskets for the bathroom, and a big one for the Wii stuff. I didn't find the baskets I wanted, but I did find better things. I ended up finding this really pretty planter for only $12 and it holds all of the Wii stuff wonderfully, and looks great under the end table!
And finally, the reason for the title of this post. Tonight while Karys was in the bathtub, this is what she did with her toys. She did this all by herself, with no help or suggestions from me:WOO HOO!! :)

She's A Big Girl Now!!!

2010-01-05T11:17:00.000-06:00

Don't worry, we're still around....even though I only seem to be able to talk myself into posting once a month (or sometimes less!!). I'll try to get better. I have lots of updating to do, but my child has already woken up from her nap, so I'll just do a short one right now with hopes of posting the video I took earlier later on today. For Christmas, my parents got Karys her "big girl" carseat. At her 15 mo. checkup (when she was actually 16 mos.), she weighed in at 19 lbs. 4 oz. and the doctor said it was okay to go ahead and turn her around. This was at the beginning of December, so we figured that by Christmas it'd be even more likely that maybe she'd hit that 20 lb. mark. I'm not sure that she really has quite yet, but she was really starting to outgrow that baby seat. So at 17 mos. old, she finally got to face forward in the car!!! :) She looked like such a giant in her infant seat, that now facing the other way in such a big seat, she looks tiny!! :)
(Oh, and I finally got around to changing my header and background!! :) Those pics that were on my header were over a year old!! And since I'm about 25 lbs. lighter than that picture, it was way past time to take that down!! :)

15 Months Old

2009-11-13T16:31:00.000-06:00

Karys is really almost 15 1/2 months old, but it's occurred to me over the last couple of days that she's doing so much stuff now, and you'll just love it! :) Some new things she can do:

* Give hugs--as shown in these cute pictures with her puppy. This puppy dog was given to me by a school co-worker and I put it away when she was little and just remembered it a couple of weeks ago. He is a huge hit!! Karys loves him so much! :)

* Eats like a champ!! So much so, that today she decided she REALLY loves her milk! She was hugging all over her milk cup. :)

* Gets into things she's not supposed to (while Mommy takes her picture!)

* Grabs her puppy whenever I come to get her out of bed, carries him, and hugs all over him!

* Has learned some new animal sounds:

- Cow (she says, "Mmmm"

- Sheep (she says, "Aaaaa"

- Dog (she makes a whimper-type sound)

- Snake (she can make a "hiss" sound)

(The cow, sheep, and dog she can remember on her own and just has to be asked what they say! :)

* Knows where her eye is. Ryan taught her this one, because she kept trying to poke his eye, so he taught her, "Where's Daddy's eye? Where's Karys's eye?"

* Can "flap her arms like a chicken" with Elmo! Ryan taught her this one too. Usually, she'll do it with both hands, but she couldn't drop the puppy!!

* Can play pretend. She watched me pretend to drink out of a cup, and now she can do it too! She makes a smacking sound, which was basically what I was doing, while holding the cup to her face. :)

*She can also follow the directions of "sit down, stand up", but I couldn't get it on video today! :)

Nothing Big :)

2009-10-13T16:01:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted in forever, but I don't know that I really have a lot to post about!! We have moved into a duplex now and we're still in the unpacking process. The stuff that's left is pretty much just junk, I guess, but it still needs a place!! :) It's starting to drive me crazy to have all of this stuff around and not have the place totally together, but I know it'll come. :) We're really thankful that our house sold with no complications and that it didn't take months to sell even though it's really sad to be out of our house and into a place that doesn't feel like "home" as much as a place to live. (Yes, there's a difference!). However, things are okay. The main time I miss our house is when it's raining because I don't have a garage anymore!! :)

I haven't really been taking pictures lately, but I'll share a few cute ones that I took back in August and September:

What I saw looking into the backseat one day...such a cutie!! :)

Wearing the princess stuff she got at Ethan's birthday party...and making a silly face! :)

She loves her princess wand!!

I love this picture!! This was taken at our last play date with Ethan and Stephanie before Ethan moved to Amarillo (We miss you, Ethan!!). Karys was not happy about something, but we were trying to take pictures of the babies. So here she is screaming, while Ethan gives one of his best smiles! :)

And finally, back at our old house, all of the baby utensils were in the bottom drawer in the kitchen. Karys had figured out how to open it and loved taking out a spoon for herself and just carrying it throughout the house!

Dancing Queen

2009-08-26T22:21:00.000-05:00

I promised my sister I had a funny video to post of the baby, since I never seem to make time to post anything!! However, the video I told her about needs to be edited down and since I don't feel like doing that tonight, I'll post a funny video I took tonight. Karys got the LeapFrog Fridge Farm for her birthday and just now started "dancing" to the songs it plays. She does it every time and it's total cuteness!! :)

Happy Birthday, Karys!!

2009-07-31T16:46:00.001-05:00

Thursday was one of those surreal days in my life. My sweet Karys turned one!! It is so hard for me to believe that she's actually been in our lives for a whole year. I'm really excited about all the things that are to come in her life, and yet it's also a little sad that her first year is already over and she's really not even considered a baby anymore. It feels like a lot to take in all at once!

Over this past year I've learned a lot about this sweet little girl:

She is funny!! She'll do anything for a laugh. :)

She has a really easygoing personality. I've thrown changes in her schedule at her for various reasons and she's really good about just going with the flow.

She loves people and loves for people to love her. :)

She's the only kid most people have ever heard of who sucks both of her thumbs at the same time!

She is loved by a lot of people!

We decided to have her birthday party on her actual birthday because my sister is going to be in a wedding this weekend and wouldn't have been able to come if we had waited until the weekend. Prior to the party we had her open the presents from us and ones that had been mailed to her. Ryan was most excited about her opening a push toy that we got for her to hopefully motivate her to start taking some steps. She has the capability and has even stood independently for a few seconds. But when she catches herself standing independently she feels the need to sit down, or balance herself in some way. Now that she has tried out and liked this push toy, we're hoping walking is just around the corner. (Although, I'm sure once she starts walking we'll be chasing her around even more!!)

In hopes that we'd have a happy baby, we scheduled her party for the evening knowing that naps would be done with for the day and she should be good until bedtime. And for the most part, everything went according to plan. This was my first time doing a child's birthday party so I felt a little like a fish out of water but everyone seemed to have a good time. (Especially since we grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner!!) Here's one of our party pics:

I posted this one on facebook and had people ask what was on the walls. It was my way of saving money buying party decorations. :) I typed up a sheet for every month of the last year and listed the important things she did that month and put up pictures from that month around it. This went all the way around the room. We also had everyone play a game where we had two funny pictures of Karys and everyone was supposed to write a caption for each picture. The winners of each picture got a prize. :)

Here are some more fun pictures from the party:

This one is funny in a sad way...I picked her up from crawling on the floor so we could start opening presents. Can you tell that idea was not well-received??? :) But she got the hang of it and got happy again!

And now, the best pics from a one-year-old's party....the cake!! I made cupcakes for the party. At first, she was really excited about trying to touch the flame!!... ...And then mad that we wouldn't let her!!Then she played in the icing for awhile...

...but when she finally touched some icing to her lips, it was on!! :)

Happy birthday, sweet girl!

Funny Faces and Funny Places

2009-06-25T17:26:00.000-05:00

This is mostly just a blog of funny pictures you need to see!!

Here is one of Karys's new funny faces~ wrinkling up her nose...so cute!!

And another new face-- she kind of puckers up her lips!!

And these pics are what happened the other day while I was blowdrying my hair and she was playing in the closet. I thought she was just pulling laundry out of the basket, but instead....

And this is what happens when you're in the laundry basket...it opens up a whole new world of things to find!! (P.S. I have no idea how she got in here because I never heard anything!! I do know how she got out because I watched her. Only, I don't think this was how she meant to get out!! She kind of leaned forward and the basket fell over, and she landed on the floor! No crying, though! :)

Beach Blanket Baby :)

2009-06-17T16:55:00.000-05:00

Today was Karys's first time to wear her new swimsuit and play in a swimming pool!! She didn't really seem all that thrilled by the whole experience. Hopefully that was because it was new. I tried to put her in a baby floatie and she cried, so we didn't do that anymore!! She kept a serious look on her face most of the time but eventually started splashing the water a little bit. And then when she got to sit down in the water (the pool we were at had a beach entrance) she seemed to be a little bit happier. Check out this cutie!(I only put this in here because it shows off most of her swimsuit...I'm not trying to model mine for anyone!! :)
Bathing beauty

Playing in the water

Things "Bad Moms" Do

2009-06-13T16:07:00.001-05:00

I think this probably qualifies as something on the list of things that "bad moms" do. :) She did all this by herself while I was drying my hair...and then when I saw her, of course I grabbed a camera!! :)

She's so proud of herself!! :)

First Pig Tails

2009-06-02T11:31:00.001-05:00

We spent Friday night and all day Saturday in Forney with my family, partly because my mom, sister, and sister's fiance were all participating in the Forney Relay for Life.

*Side note: My mom had breast cancer when I was a child. At Relay, cancer survivors wear purple shirts that say "Survivor" on the back and do a special lap all together at the start of Relay. Watching that at the Longview Relay always brings tears to my eyes---just thinking about all that these people have been through, what some are still going through, and the strenght of the survivors and their families. Watching my MOM walk that lap felt even more emotional. I was so young when she was going through it that I barely remember it, but the fact that she never had a relapse and it was caught early and she's still HERE just makes me that much more appreciative of her!! :) *End Side Note :)

My mom and my sister are always buying things for Karys and this weekend was no exception. My mom got her these cute little flower clips which really excited me because I've been wanting to try her hair in pig tails, but knew I needed two matching bows for that. So here are the results!

(And here she is playing with my parents' cat...which actually was the cat I had in college. :)

I Love My Cat!!

2009-06-02T11:24:00.001-05:00

Our cat, Simon, likes to spend a lot of time outside (probably to get away from a baby who chases after him!! :) Now that Karys is pulling up, she loves to look out the window and we have the perfect windows for that because they are low to the ground. Whenever she's going to be around playing, I pull up the blinds so that she can look out the window. (Otherwise, she'll just play with the blinds!!) This has happened a few times, but I was able to get a couple of pictures the other day...she loves this cat!! :)

"There he is!!"

"Where did he go???"

"Siiiiimonnnn...." :)

First Trip to the Zoo

2009-06-02T10:21:00.000-05:00

Two Fridays ago, I told Ryan we should take Karys to the zoo sometime. He asked when. I responded, "How about now?" (This was around 8:30 or so in the morning...Ryan's job has him off on Fridays). So we decided to make a spontaneous trip to the zoo. So spontaneous that when we were almost ready he asked if he should call his sister and see if she and her kids were interested in going. Even with the VERY short notice, we all got to go together! :) We had a blast and Karys definitely enjoyed herself. I might have a zoo obsession now because I've talked my friend, Alison, into taking the three kids she's babysitting this week to the zoo and Karys and I are going with her. That way, between me and Alison, we'll each be in charge of a baby and a big kid. :)

Here are some of our fun zoo pics.

Looking in the pond with Daddy

(I was so excited for her to get to wear this hat!!)

Karys and Daddy...awww!!

I forget what these things were called, but right as we were standing there one of them started peeing!! (This happened to us with several of the animals!)

In front of the lions

Looking at the penguins

The cousins

This is what happens when I try to ask Ryan to take a real picture!The petting zooThe goats really liked Connor's wheelchair!! Eventually they were all pretty much climbing on him!!I just found out recently that the Caldwell Zoo here in Tyler is the best zoo in this area (better than both Dallas and Fort Worth), so I'm happy that Karys has been to it. It's possible we'll be going to San Antonio this summer with my family and I just read a list of the Top 10 Zoos in the country in Parents magazine and the San Antonio Zoo made the cut!! :)

Clean up!

2009-05-24T17:11:00.000-05:00

This is Ryan's way of getting Karys to help clean up toys. He holds her over a toy, waits until she picks it up, "flies" her over to the toy basket and waits for her to drop it it. :) Kinda reminds you of the crane game at the arcade, huh? ;)

New Laugh

2009-05-21T21:15:00.000-05:00

I'm finally getting that video posted that I wanted to show off. This is Karys's latest laugh...well, basically an addition to her laugh! She does this sniffing thing...too cute! :)

(And yes, that is Ryan in the background humming the "Spiderman" theme song! :)

9 Month Stats

2009-05-15T13:30:00.001-05:00

We went for Karys's 9 month checkup last week, only to find out she's still long and skinny! (Gosh, I wish I was her!!) She weighed 17 lbs. 2 oz. (18th percentile) and was 28" long (63rd percentile). And either her head was measured wrong last time or it grew a lot this time. Last time it was 16 1/4" and that was the 7th percentile. This time it was 17 1/4" and that was the 43rd percentile!

I did find out that she's old enough to have soft table foods. I got really excited about that and went out and bought all kinds of things for her to feed to herself. And realized really quickly that it wasn't going to be that easy. Check out these pics of her eating Cheerios!

Checking them out

After I put one in her mouth!

I have since slowed things down and am trying to get her accustomed to eating the 3rd level baby foods that have chunky pieces. Oh, and she's getting better at liking the Gerber Puffs. Yesterday I decided she was never going to get used to them if we didn't practice eating them more often so I broke up a few pieces and put them on her tray. When she would pick one up, I'd guide her hand to her mouth so she could feed herself. I then put a couple of whole ones on the tray for her to experiment with while I sat in front of her, filling out her calendar of things she's done this month. Then I start hearing this gagging noise and she has one of the Puffs too far back in her mouth so I had to pull it out...and upon doing that, realized, "Hey, she put this in her mouth by herself!!"

I will be posting a video soon of a funny thing she does lately. While laughing, sometimes she will scrunch up her nose and do this sniffing thing that is so funny! My sister used to do it when she was little...kinda funny that Karys does it now too. The only reason I can't post it right now is because I haven't downloaded it to the computer. I'll do my best to get to that ASAP. For now, I'll leave you with some of our latest pictures:

Our latest play date with Stephanie and Ethan:

And some fun bath time pics:

All the Latest

2009-04-24T17:58:00.000-05:00

I seem to be getting really bad at not posting lately...it just seems to take so much time to think of what to say and decide on pics to post!! :) Anyway, here's the latest:

-As of last weekend, Karys can now pull up to standing. She did it in her crib last Friday and since then there's no stopping her. (Now can you guess what she does the minute you put her in bed?? ;)

-We've started her eating baby food three times a day as of this week. So far, so good.

-She's a crawling MACHINE! (See video at the bottom).

-Here's just a funny pic of what she does with those crawling skills (chases the cat!):

Today we went for a play date...here are just a few pics of Karys, Stephanie, and Stephanie's cousin, Luke:

Such pretty girls!

Would you guess Karys is the oldest in the bunch? ;)

And now, here's her crawling skills!

Her Very First...PONYTAIL!!

2009-04-24T17:53:00.001-05:00

Today we went over for a play date with Catherine and her daughter, Stephanie, who is 2 1/2 weeks younger than Karys. Anytime we're going on an outing like that, I make sure Karys wears one of her super cute outfits, since going out is more special than staying at home! Today's outfit of choice is an adorable romper we found at Sam's. After she got up from her morning nap, her hair was CRAZY!! I decided to see if it was long enough to be put into a ponytail and it was!! I think she's ready to be a cover model. :)

A Video as Promised

2009-04-14T22:19:00.000-05:00

I posted a couple of videos on facebook, for those of you who are on there. However, there are plenty of people not on facebook, so I'm posting a video that I think is hilarious! And, it's actually about a month old! Ryan started doing "The Robot" with Karys and it's just so stinkin' funny to me. You be the judge:

Easter 2009

2009-04-13T22:43:00.000-05:00

Sorry for being MIA for so long. I just can't seem to find enough time to do a lot of blogging...or much computer stuff, period! :) I would say that there just isn't all that much exciting stuff going on in our lives, but then that would mean I was neglecting to tell you ....we have a crawling baby!! :) Maybe that's why I can't seem to get other stuff done...I'm too busy chasing her around! She is a huge mess...she loves to get into things she's not supposed to and has started figuring out how to climb on things (like the other day when Ryan turned around to find that she was sitting on the treadmill!----of course it was off!)

She's also climbed under the coffee table...

...and the Exersaucer!

Yesterday marked her very first Easter. I'm still not sure what traditions we'll do each year because I definitely didn't do that great with any kind of traditions this year! She did have an Easter dress--which I've had for about a year now! Last year, after I had found out she was going to be a girl, I went to Kohl's to look for some maternity clothes, and of course had to wander over to the baby section. I started going through all of the stuff that was on clearance and figuring out in my head what month she'd be what age (does that make sense?). Anyway, I found this beautiful dress for only $3.20! It is the perfect Easter dress...so sweet!

In my first attempt to take pictures, we'd just gotten home from church and she was hungry. So I sat her in the chair (not knowing she was so hungry!) and she started crying. Which is why the picture doesn't look all that great!

After a much-needed nap (for her, of course) we went over to Ryan's sister's house like we do every year. Amber always does an Easter egg hunt for her kids, so I made up some eggs for Karys. Since there's really nothing to put in an egg that she can have, I put dried rice in some eggs and pennies in some and glued them shut so she could just have rattles. I'm still not really sure if she likes them. I don't think she gets what to do with them! While we were over there, she decided she needed to clean the spokes of Connor's wheelchair! :)

And when we got home, we took a family picture:Stay tuned for videos to be put up here soon! :)

Spring Break Fun

2009-03-23T21:46:00.000-05:00

Even without being a teacher where I actually get a Spring Break, we did get to enjoy a little Spring Break fun. Last weekend, we went to Houston to celebrate Ryan's grandmother's 80th birthday. It was so great to be with Ryan's middle sister, who lives in Connecticut, and her two kids. We put all 7 of the kids (both sisters' kids, plus Karys) together for a picture and printed it and framed it as a gift from all of us. His sister, Amber, is the one who took the pics, but I managed to get a shot of the kids through the stair railing. The picture we actually gave her was taken of all the kids on the stairs, from the bottom of the stairs. We had the kids sitting on the stairs in order of age, with Karys sitting on the bottom step, which she is capable of doing. However, when none of the adults were paying attention, she lost her balance I guess and fell over and hit her head on the hardwood floor....before a picture was ever taken! Poor baby!! I figured we were done for, but we managed to cheer her up and got her in her cousin, Madison's, lap for some great pics. And thankfully the pictures were taken before her forehead got a little bruise on it and her eye got a little red! Here's that picture from the stairs:

Then last Tuesday, Karys and I drove up to Nacogdoches to spend the day with my college roommate and BFF, Stephanie. I don't have pictures from that, but we had a great time!

Karys and I made our way out again on Thursday, this time to Forney. My sister got engaged almost a month ago and while she was on Spring Break, she wanted to go look at wedding dresses. We had a great time together and she picked an amazingly beautiful dress! After returning from shopping, we took Karys down to the playground in their neighborhood for some fun. The girl loves the swing!! Here are some fun pics of that, plus a short video of her swinging. :)

And of course, the slide! :)

A Bunch of Randomness

2009-03-06T22:03:00.001-06:00

I keep thinking that I need to make a new post, and yet it is just now happening! Karys went to the doctor on Monday for her 6 month check-up (even though she is already 7 months!). She got her last shots for the next few months (until she's one), thank goodness! She also weighed in at 15 lbs. 4 oz. (17th percentile) and was 26 1/4 inches long (44th percentile). Apparently her head is much smaller than most girls her age, because at 16 1/4 inches, it ranked in the 7th percentile! :) But having a petite baby (that's what other people call her!) has its advantages...our 3-6 month clothes are lasting quite a while! I have had to put away about half of them, but there are still several things that fit!

We haven't been up to too much lately. She did go have her first studio portraits done at Sears last Thursday and this past Tuesday. Why the two days, you ask? That would be because last Wednesday she was having lots of nasal congestion problems and did not sleep well that night. So when we went to have her pics made, she was not feeling her best and was also tired. We got through one picture before having a complete meltdown, took a 30-minute walk around the mall, came back, took 3 more pictures, changed an outfit (which started complete meltdown #2), and rescheduled for this week. The pictures are so cute!! :) However, now that I've said that, I won't be able to post them because I didn't buy one of their huge portrait packages so I could've gotten a CD.

Karys is getting really close to crawling. In the last two days, she's also figured out how to get herself into a sitting position, from laying down. Twice I've caught her on the video monitor after putting her down for a nap, playing and eventually sitting in her crib! :) Yesterday I had her playing with toys in the living room while I was unloading the dishwasher (at the other end of the living room...not like I'm leaving her to fend for herself!) and I would walk over periodically to make sure things were still good. Once I walked over and she was laying on her tummy...a few minutes later, she's sitting up again! I still haven't actually gotten to see her in action, but obviously she knows what she's doing! As for the crawling thing, I'm not ready for that!! :) Although the way she's been lately is getting so close that she might as well be crawling. I'm just not ready to have her be so non-stationary!

Here are a few pictures for your enjoyment:

At Monday's doctor's appointment, I was told that she is big enough to start having those Biter Biscuits, which as every mom knows is a really disgusting food since all it does is dissolve all over the place, like this:

And this picture is just to show what she'll do if there is any fabric to grab on her clothes (it goes straight to the mouth!):

Check out this pretty girl (her shirt says "Trend Setter")And then this video is to show what happened the other day during an act of determination to get a toy. See what I mean?? Almost crawling!

Play Date

2009-02-21T10:58:00.000-06:00

Yesterday Karys and I went over to visit Stephanie and her mom, Catherine for a fun play date. Stephanie is only 2 1/2 weeks younger than Karys so we're hoping these two will grow up to be good buddies. We had a lot of fun with them, especially now that the babies are getting older and a little more interactive--especially with each other. Here's a few pics from our day, and then a video of the two girls "talking" to each other...so cute! :)

By the way, take notice of her outfit. She's only worn it one other time and I was afraid it might be too small now, but actually it fits perfectly. I absolutely love this outfit!! :) I thought she looked so pretty in it. In fact, I really want to take her up to the Sears Portrait Studio (because we have some really great-deal coupons) and have her picture made in this!

Look at this pretty girl!

"What?" :)

"My toy!" "No, my toy!"

Karys: "Oh forget it. I've got my thumbs!"

Playing together nicely again

And now, for the really cute video. They seem to understand how to have a conversation!

More Valentine's Day Fun

2009-02-21T10:48:00.000-06:00

I just have a few more pics from Valentine's Day that seem worth sharing. On Saturday, Ryan gave Karys a Valentine's Day gift, so I got a few cute pics of that:

Ryan's helping her open her gift

"Ooh, thanks, Daddy!"

And then on Sunday my parents came over to hang out for the day and they brought Karys a Valentine's gift.

Nana reading Karys her card

Where's Karys??? :)

Lots of books...much to Ryan's dismay! :) (FYI...He hates reading!)

Karys's First Valentine's/Show Off Outfit #2

2009-02-14T17:48:00.000-06:00

Happy Valentine's Day! If you read this blog, it must mean that you have a slight interest in the goings-on of our lives. Since our lives are not all that exciting, you must like us as well. And so for that reason, let me say to you that we like you too! :) Hope your day is great and full of love!

First off, today is Karys's very first Valentine's Day! What do you give a 6-month-old for Valentine's Day? Well, you give her a gift that was intended to be a Christmas gift that her mommy did not get made in time for Christmas! Ta-da....instant Valentine's Day gift! :) I had the intention of painting/decorating step-stools for Karys and my youngest niece and nephew for Christmas and let time get away from me before I got them done (or started). So Will and Jillian have 2-months-late Christmas gifts coming to them soon and Karys has a Valentine's Day present!

Picture #1: Karys's Valentine's Day Outfit (#2) given to her by my sister, her Aunt Julie. Notice her adorable ruffly booty! :)

Picture #2 and #3: Top and side view of the stool. And it may be true that I am only posting these to brag on myself. I really like the way that it turned out! :)
Picture #4: Looking at the "card" on top. Yes, this did turn out to be the best thing for her! :)Picture #5: Checking out her gift.Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day Outfit #1

2009-02-13T22:24:00.000-06:00

Karys has two Valentine's Day outfits to wear. One was a short-sleeved onesie and the other, a long-sleeved footie outfit. Since today was warm outside and tomorrow is supposed to be cooler, it was a good day for the onesie. My awesome friend, Alison, has a new embroidery machine that she's learning to use. Yesterday she brought over a onesie that she embroidered for Karys. It turned out so cute! The first picture is the design on the onesie because I don't think it shows up too well in any of the pictures. Oh well--it looked so cute on her! Thanks, Alison!

More Exciting Firsts

2009-02-12T17:18:00.000-06:00

1. She has held her own bottle! (Not all the time, but hey, she tries! :)

2. She pulls herself forward in the swing. I guess she doesn't have time to sit back and relax!

3. She tries to grab at the things on the mobile.

4. She can sit up independently!!

5. Why you would want to do this, I don't know, but she can put her foot in her mouth. Literally! :)

This girl is just growing up so fast!! :)

Our Funniest Video EVER!!

2009-02-06T19:54:00.000-06:00

Karys thinks her Nana (my mom) is the funniest person ever. This is the second time Mom has gotten her laughing for long periods of time over the simplest thing. The first time was over Christmas weekend. Ryan, my sister, her boyfriend, and I all went to Six Flags and my parents got to babysit. My dad recorded this 5 minute long video of Karys laughing at my mom feeding her cereal. All my mom did was make a funny noise each time she put a bite in Karys's mouth.

Yesterday my mom stayed with Karys while I was having surgery and since I got to come home around 11 a.m. we were all able to hang out together for the rest of the day. She got Karys laughing harder than I have ever heard her laugh before. I hope you laugh as much as she does!

Baby's Firsts

2009-02-06T19:39:00.000-06:00

What firsts has Karys experienced, you ask? Her first time to drink out of a sippy cup, and her first haircut! We'll start with the sippy cup, since that happened first. I read that at 6 months, most babies are able to start using a sippy cup and to try the kind with handles first. We have some of those so last weekend I put some PediaLyte in one and gave it to her to try. She was able to hold on to it and put it in her mouth. I'm not sure how much drinking is being accomplished so far, but it's a pretty big deal that she knows what to do with it! Here are a couple of pics:

And now, on to the haircut! Those of you that see her on a regular basis know that her hair has been growing really long in the back, much faster than in the front. Call it what you want--it either looked like a mullet or a rattail. Not acceptable. :) I've been on Ryan for weeks to let Mary cut it for us but he kept saying no, she's a girl, she should have long hair. I kept trying to explain that it just needed to be evened out and finally he agreed to it.

Here is the "mullet", pre-cut:

Doesn't she look so big getting her haircut? :)

And now, the nicely trimmed back---so pretty!

Ryan thinks I let Mary cut it too short. I think it looks exactly like I wanted it to look because now it will grow evenly. I often mention to Karys how pretty she looks with her haircut, in front of Ryan! :)

Really Quick...

2009-02-05T20:58:00.000-06:00

Just wanted to say that I did have my gall bladder removed today and things went amazingly well. I don't think I could've imagined it going so well. I'm having very minimal pain (like a 2 on a scale of 1 to 10) and they gave me the good drugs. :) My mom was able to come last night and stay with Karys today during surgery, plus help Ryan take care of her. And now Ryan gets to be in charge of her for the next couple of days while I get better. Sorry to anyone that I am springing this on who was not informed that the surgery had actually been scheduled! :)

I will be posting pics and video as soon as I can sit at the computer for longer periods of time. I got a great video of my mom making Karys laugh harder than I have ever heard her laugh.

Ahhh, Finally...Pictures! And Video!!

2009-01-25T22:24:00.000-06:00

My sweet friend, Alison, asked me this morning at church how I was doing because my latest blogs haven't been as perky and upbeat as usual. Honestly, I haven't been feeling quite as perky and upbeat because I'm kind of in the middle of a little pity party I'm throwing for myself. :) However, I can choose my own attitude and I'm am aiming to try and choose a happy one as often as possible. Starting.....NOW. :)

So, here are some new pics for your enjoyment. Karys is getting really close to being able to sit independently. I attempted to catch some pics of that. She does pretty well having the Boppy behind her for support. (And to my sister, Julie: this is the Winnie the Pooh outfit you gave her!)

And now, video #1: My wonderful friend, Stephanie, gave Karys what is turning out to be her favorite toy for Christmas. It's a ring stacker that stacks stars and has lights and plays music. I have to admit, it's a pretty fun toy. So this video is highlighting her "almost" sitting skills and her love of this toy.

And this video is funniest if you get the background behind it. If you don't watch "The Soup" on E! this might not be as funny. The show highlights/makes fun of clips of shows that are on TV during the week and every once in a while they make fun of a kids' show called "Yo Gabba Gabba." The part they highlight has a kid by himself saying "My name is ___ and I like to dance!" followed by said kid doing whatever "dance" moves he wants to do to music being played. Recently Ryan started doing that with Karys and I find it totally hilarious...especially since it makes her smile and laugh too (although sometimes she smiles/laughs because I'm doing it, but oh well!). Tonight after her bath, Ryan had her in front of the mirror doing that and she was hilarious because when he'd move her to one side she'd hike up her leg which made it all the more funny. Hopefully you find it funny too!

Latest Updates

2009-01-22T17:25:00.000-06:00

Once again, I am being boring with no new pictures. Of course, I'm typing this while I have a napping baby.

We actually showed our house this morning to some friends from church looking to buy. I think they're hoping to find something a little bit bigger, but it was worth a shot, both for them and for us! We're having a realtor come out tomorrow to talk with us on what we need to do, plus look at the house. So we feel optimistic that things will work out.

I heard back from my doctor today and she feels that my next step definitely needs to be having my gall bladder removed. She's supposed to be getting me an appointment with a surgeon and then we'll get this all under way. What a great time for all of this, huh? ;)

Poor Financial Decisions + Economic Slump = House for Sale

2009-01-21T15:37:00.000-06:00

As the above title states, we are going to be in the position of selling our house ASAP. As a couple, we have probably not made the best financial decisions over the course of our marriage and that, coupled with the fact that Ryan is not able to get overtime at work anymore means that we really don't have the money to stay in the house we are currently in. We are hoping to get our house on the market and sold ASAP...hopefully. We would love for you to pray that that will happen for us and that we can get a new house soon. :)

In other news, I had my Hida Scan last Thursday but have not heard any results from it as of now. If I don't hear anything by Friday, I'll definitely call the doctor's office. :)

Sorry I don't have any pictures to share right now...I'll get to work on that!

This Time It's About Me

2009-01-13T22:34:00.000-06:00

Usually I post about Karys or things about our family because, let's face it, we've become more interesting people since she's entered our lives. :) However, I just want to post quickly about something going on with me for those who are not aware. Starting back in September, I've been having really excrutiating stomach pains that come in spells. They last for different amounts of time and I've discovered Prilosec to be the only thing that will make the pain stop. Last Monday I visited a new doctor (after awakening to the pain at 2:30 a.m. and not having it subside until 10:30 a.m. and the only reason it finally went away was because I took a Prilosec at 8:00 a.m.). She had some blood work done on me and I got a call on Tuesday that my Liver Function Test came back high. That meant more blood work and an ultrasound on Thursday. I was told from that that my gall bladder looks abnormal. Today I got a call confirming that and so this Thursday I have to go have another scan done where I'll be injected with dye to make sure that my gall bladder really is the culprit. From there, I will probably be having my gall bladder removed. All that to say, I don't want to leave people out in the dark. :) If you think about me, I would love your prayers. If surgery is the next step, it'll be "fun" to figure out how to recuperate and take care of a baby at the same time! Luckily my family is already trying to figure out ways to come and take turns staying with us mainly because I'll need help caring for Karys. Oh well, life goes on and we'll be fine. :)

What A Difference!

2009-01-13T22:18:00.000-06:00

My friend, Jennie, posted pictures of Karys on her facebook page that were taken yesterday. She's been taking pictures of her since September at a Bible study we do with some other girls. I ended up looking at all of the old pictures and it was then that I realized how much difference a few months makes. That prompted me to post a couple of comparison pictures for your enjoyment. When Karys was really little, I would sometimes prop her up on the Boppy after eating to help prevent spitting up. Now that she is 5 1/2 months old, she's almost able to sit independently and the Boppy helps her with that task. So this first picture was taken when she was less than 3 weeks old...

...and this picture was taken tonight at age 5 1/2 months. My apologies for my foot being in the picture. :)

See what I'm talking about?? :)

Also, a couple of weeks ago we got together with my aunt and uncle, and cousins, because my cousin, Anna, and her husband, David, were in town from Chicago and it was their first time to meet Karys. So here's a picture of Karys and Anna, especially for Anna's benefit.

Aren't they just so cute? :)

More Christmas Pics

2009-01-02T17:25:00.000-06:00

For those of you not on facebook, I added more pictures from Christmas. Click here to see them. :)

New Discoveries

2009-01-01T10:04:00.000-06:00

I just have to share a couple of pictures of Karys's newest discoveries. First of all, she's been a thumb-sucker for quite some time, but I'll guess that most people have never seen a double-thumb sucker! :) I'm thinking she figures that if one thumb is good, two must be twice as good!

Then, on Christmas Day she discovered how to roll over from her back to her tummy! She's been able to go to either side for a few weeks now, but has not been able to go all the way over. She was laying on her play gym and rolled up onto her side. Then she kind of swung one leg over the other. The arch from the gym was kind of a hinderance because she couldn't figure out how to get her arm out from under her because she didn't have room for it. But she finally got it! It was really exciting to watch her do something she hadn't been able to do before. :) And now that she's done it several times she's gotten really fast at it! Here's what she looked like after that first time:

And this last picture is just fun. The Monday before Christmas we got together with friends (we had 4 babies at our little party!) and of course we had to put the babies together for pictures. This one is funny to me because Karys is looking at Stephanie's mom, Catherine, and Stephanie seems to be looking at me! Oh well, still a cute picture. And of course there's Ethan chillin' to the side. :)

And yes I do realize there are only 3 babies in this picture but Jackson had gotten tired of the whole picture-taking process! ;)

Better A Week Late Than Never

2009-01-01T09:32:00.001-06:00

I'm talking about my post describing Karys's first Christmas. We didn't come back home until Tuesday afternoon and then yesterday had a lot of craziness of it's own, so now that she's taking a nap, I can put up some pictures and describe the fun that we had celebrating Christmas (and New Years too, I guess!) with a baby.

On Christmas Day, I got up early so I could get ready before Karys woke up because we wanted to get on the road for our various destinations during naptime to make the best use of our time. When you don't go to bed until almost midnight, 6:30 a.m. comes really quickly! :) We started our celebrations here at our house, where Karys's big present was an ExerSaucer. She is really loving it! Here's one of the pictures of her playing in it:

I think we probably had a bit of present "overload" because we put her in the ExerSaucer first thing and then I kept pulling toys and things out of her stocking and putting them all around her. That looked like this:

Here at our house, her presents included: (from us) the Play Tray for her Bumbo seat, a book, plus the Exer-Saucer and stocking stuffers; (from Aunt Misty and family) clothes, adorable shoes, and a book; (from her great-grandmother, Mammaw) two fun toys; and (from her great-grand-parents, Grandpa and Grandma Jo) a cute outfit.

After that, we went to Ryan's sister's house here in town and exchanged gifts with their family. Karys got a really really adorable hooded ladybug towel.

We left there and were on our way to Forney to have Christmas with my parents and sister. They successfully spoiled the baby! One of her stocking stuffers was a small bear that said "Baby's First Christmas" on its tummy. Here she is loving on that bear:

From her grandparents, she got some great new headbands and hairbows, lots of books, a set of Baby Einstein toys, a rock n' roll guitar toy (because my dad plays bass guitar), and stocking stuffers. From her Aunt Julie, she got some great new outfits, a teddy bear, and a Care Bears movie (because my sister loves the Care Bears). I know there was other stuff too, but I just can't remember it all! Here she is once all of her presents were opened:

I was really thankful that we were able to stay with my parents from Thursday all the way until Tuesday. They were all so helpful and just loved doing anything they could for Karys. My parents even gave me, Ryan, Julie, and her boyfriend Six Flags tickets that they had and they kept Karys while we all went to Six Flags. It was my longest time away from her ever and I only called them once! :)

On Monday, we celebrated Christmas with some of my dad's family. Unfortunately, it was getting close to bedtime so we did not have a very happy baby. However, you'll notice in this picture that the shoes seem to be helping!

That seems to be enough for one post now, but stay tuned because after I post this one I'll be posting another one with a couple of other non-Christmas-related pictures.

Eight

2008-12-23T10:13:00.001-06:00

I've been tagged by Caci to make lists of 8 things. I'm copying her lists (at least the titles of them!)

My 8 Favorite Restaurants
1. Red Lobster
2. Burger King
3. Chick-Fil-A
4. Braum's
5. Chili's
6. Cheddar's
7. Papacita's
8. Mazzio's Pizza

8 Things that Happened Today
1. Woke up with Karys at 7:30
2. Ate Rice Krispies for breakfast
3. Folded laundry
4. Played on facebook
5. Finished a Christmas movie I had recorded (I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus...not that good)
6. I started another Christmas movie (Christmas in Wonderland...good so far)
7. Told Ryan goodbye as he left for work
8. Thought about all the things I need to be doing!

8 Things I Look Forward To
1. First Christmas with a baby
2. Finishing all my gift-making before Christmas
3. Spending time with the family over Christmas
4. Six Flags this Sunday!
5. Ryan being off work for a week and a half
6. Getting my Christmas presents wrapped and under the tree!
7. Checking the mail for more Christmas cards. :)
8. Getting my workout on later

8 Things I Am Scared Of
1. Clowns
2. Throwing up
3. Drowning
4. Something bad happening to my child
5. Something bad happening to my husband
6. Getting cancer
7. Falling down the stairs
8. Being attacked

8 Things I Wish For
1. A long, happy life
2. Good friends
3. A happy marriage always
4. Well-rounded children
5. My children to know the Lord
6. A comfortable life
7. More money!
8. Jesus to come back (while I'm still alive, but maybe when I'm old!)

8 Things I Watch on TV
1. The Office
2. Friends
3. That '70s Show
4. Worst Week
5. Dancing with the Stars
6. The Biggest Loser
7. My Name is Earl
8. Ugly Betty

Now I'll tag: Jaime, Kristen, Meredith, Merrisa, Christy, and Mary. :)

Madison's Piano Recital...And More

2008-12-18T21:16:00.000-06:00

This post is basically to let anyone who is interested see my niece, Madison, performing at her piano recital. The video is at the end of this post, but before you get to that here are some pics from the last week or so:

My mom bought this shirt for Karys and wanted to make sure I took her picture wearing it. It says "Who needs Santa? I've got grandparents!" And the picture below it is a bib my sister bought and wants a picture of her wearing. It says "Santa's Best Helper." So here you go, Mom and Julie!

This picture is one that was taken yesterday at Mary's house. Karys was sitting on the couch and slowly fell over and when she landed on her side, she looked like she was modeling. She wouldn't keep her "pose" very well, but she had her legs crossed and we tried to get her to lean on her hand. :)

And now, for the star of the show (or, the post :) it's Madison!! *applause*

Need Suggestions

2008-12-17T22:01:00.000-06:00

I thought that once you titled a blog, it was that way forever, but I've figured out how to change the title. But I don't know what to change it to. I originally titled it "We're Having A Baby??" last year when I started this because it was such a surprise to us. However, now that we have a 4 1/2 month old...not so surprising anymore! :) I'd like to come up with something clever...any suggestions?

For your viewing pleasure...

2008-12-12T00:05:00.001-06:00

I just spent the last too-many hours uploading pictures to facebook. :) These are the pictures that we had taken by our awesome friend, Chip Gillespie, while we were in Houston for Thanksgiving. If you ever need pictures taken in the Houston area, he's your guy! Hope you enjoy!

Click here to view the pics.

First Feeding

2008-12-11T21:17:00.000-06:00

We started Karys on rice cereal yesterday. No real reason why yesterday was so important but I got the idea in my head and that made me want to do it. Plus I talked to the doctor's office the other day to ask a question and decided to ask about cereal--mainly just how much and how often. So I got my answers and yesterday was the day. This was my very first experience feeding a baby who has never had solids before. Quite the experience! :) With every bite she made this face of confusion/disgust. It was pretty funny! The doctor's office told me that I could mix the cereal together with formula, water, or juice and to make it runny because otherwise she wouldn't know what to do with it. So I mixed it with formula and a little bit of juice to add some sweet flavor to it. My question now is for all of you moms who have been here before: does it take time for her to like this or am I doing something wrong? She had cereal twice yesterday and twice today but it still seems like she's not too into it. Sometimes she more or less just spits it back out. Both times today she had some of it (and spit some of it back out) and then I had to stop because she started crying. With these feedings I give her some of her bottle, then put her in her chair for cereal, and then give her the rest of the bottle. With this evening's cereal feeding I even tried giving her a few sips of the bottle after a few bites of cereal. Any suggestions would be awesome!

Here are some pictures of this experience (taken at the first feeding yesterday):

Before any cereal

After the first bite

After a few bites

And this picture is just one I took the other day for cuteness purposes--she played herself to sleep!! :)

Deckin' Those Halls

2008-12-02T21:17:00.000-06:00

Technically nothing's been "decked" yet, but the process is being started. And by process I mean, I reorganized our decorations tonight and re-boxed things so that like items are together. Oh, and I pulled out everything I didn't want or need so it can go into a garage sale. While this was going on, I put Karys in her high chair seat on the floor with me (I used the high chair seat because we don't have the Bumbo play tray yet and with the high chair, she has a tray for toys). After she got tired of the toys, I gave her a piece of tissue paper to play with. At first she didn't do much with it, but once I crinkled it up a little bit, she was more interested in seeing what it was all about. Here's a short video for your enjoyment:

And here's what happened after the video ended: Straight to the mouth!! :)

Our Thanksgiving Weekend

2008-12-02T14:55:00.000-06:00

This year (as we have for the last 2 years) we traveled to Houston for Thanksgiving to be with Ryan's Mammaw, Aunt Donna, Uncle Jerry, and cousin Ashley. However, this year was different in a few ways. Of course, number one being that we had Karys with us!! :) And secondly, we were not joined by Ryan's sisters and their families. It just wasn't one of those things everyone was able to do this year. But we had a great time. This was Karys's first long road trip (4 hours) and first overnight trip (we were there 3 nights). She did WONDERFULLY. It was her first time sleeping in her pack n' play and she did great at that. We had a great time. Friday morning, one of Ryan's friends, Chip, took family pictures for us since he is now a professional photographer. I can't wait to see them! They're our first professional pictures in 3 years, for me and Ryan, and our first ones ever with Karys. Hope your Thanksgiving was as blessed as ours...now we're starting the preparations for Karys's first Christmas!!

Here are some of our pictures to share from the weekend:

Karys and Ashley (apparently she's telling Ashley something very serious!)

Karys and Mammaw

Karys playing

Karys and Uncle Jerry and Aunt Donna

Awww...

2008-11-18T21:17:00.000-06:00

Just a few cute pictures to share!

Sleepy girl!

Here are Karys and Ethan sharing some tummy time yesterday during Bible study

And just a picture of Karys enjoying tummy time. Look how high she can raise up!!

Who Would've Guessed?...

2008-11-18T21:05:00.001-06:00

That unloading silverware from the dishwasher was funny?! :) This afternoon I had Karys on the counter in her Bumbo seat (don't judge me! :) while I unloaded the dishwasher. I started pulling the silverware out and putting it away and apparently she found this hilarious!! She's started doing "real" laughing now and I just love it! It's impossible not to laugh back at something like that. Last week we got this great video of her spending like a minute and a half laughing at Ryan playing Peek-A-Boo with her. Of course it's on the video camera, which most likely means it's too big to upload here. But I used my digital camera to take today's video. Hope you like it! (Oh, and don't you love that the second I start talking to her, she stops laughing?! :)

TAG, You're It!

2008-11-17T15:15:00.000-06:00

I've been tagged by Meredith. :) Apparently when you are tagged, you are supposed to retrieve the fourth picture from the fourth album on your computer. My picture is going to be fairly recent because we got a new computer and haven't transferred all of our old pictures to it! But, here it is:

This is Karys during the clean-up time after she was born. :)

Okay, now I tag: Amy, Caci, Evangeline, Erin, Shelah, Merrisa, Kristy, and Lindsay. Can't wait to see your pics!! :) Have fun!

Just for Laughs

2008-11-10T20:35:00.001-06:00

Actual conversation that happened in line at Albertson's tonight:

Man in line behind me (to cashier, whom he apparently knew): (looking at Karys) You'd better watch out because this little boy is going to get you!

Cashier (before looking at Karys): Oh, yeah, okay! (sarcastic)

Cashier looks down at Karys: That's not a boy, it's a girl!

Man: No, it's not! (Looks at me quizzically)

Me: Yeah, it's a girl.

Cashier: She's got on a pink outfit and a pink blanket!

Man (to me): I don't know any better...I had two babies and both of them were boys.

The above picture is to show you exactly how Karys looked during the aforementioned incident. Granted, this man was probably in his 60's, but come on!! :)

Karys Tells the Truth :)

2008-11-05T15:45:00.000-06:00

In case you can't see her shirt, it says "Kiss Me, I Am Too Cute." Also, notice how she's grabbing at her feet. That's a new thing she started a couple of days ago. Hopefully that puts a smile on your face for those of you that, like me, are saddened by these election results. I knew this was how it was going to go down, but now that it really has, I just wonder what is in store for this country. I decided this morning that the only way this election would've been fair is if both candidates were black, because then everyone would be forced to only look at the issues and not at skin color. I think the idea of a black president is awesome, but I don't think that should've been enough reason to vote for him. I feel like there is a dark cloud hanging over us now but I have been reminding myself CONSTANTLY today that God is in control. However with that being said, God also allows us to receive consequences for our poor choices. Is this election the result of a nation that has not put God first for a long time? I guess we will find out.

On a positive note, check out this cute picture I took yesterday! :)

Baby's First Halloween

2008-10-31T22:39:00.000-05:00

Not that it was really all that much fun to her!! But I had fun (as all parents do) exploiting my child for my own personal enjoyment! Haha! We started off the day in one outfit, but basically only wore it long enough to take the pictures. Texas decided to be rather warm today and if I would've left her in long sleeves all day, the poor girl would've died of a heatstroke!! But I just had to get pictures in this shirt. I bought it from a friend this summer at her garage sale. It says "lil' miss-chevious". Yesterday I had an interesting time trying to find the pants and bow. I knew if I didn't have her wear her headband (especially in the orange shirt) she would be mistaken for a boy. Lately when trying to find black pants I have been out of luck...it seems people don't think babies should wear black??? But I did find some yesterday at Target. I wanted a Halloween bow for her headband, but I waited too late for it. I did find this cute black one at Walmart and am glad that I got it. It'll serve more than just the purpose of Halloween.

What a pretty girl!! :)

So what did we do on her first Halloween? We first went "trick-or-treating" at our friends', Luke and Alisha's, house. Alisha sent out a message a few days ago that they were going to have trick-or-treaters and that they had treats for babies under 1. (She got an adorable stuffed monkey. :) Then we went to the church for the annual carnival, Farm Fair. This was my first time to ever go because in the past it's usually on a school night and I've never wanted to go, be out late, and then go to work the next day. So this year I actually have a child to take and I have no job so it all works out! :) Here is a picture taken of her at Farm Fair in our second Halloween outfit. This shirt was sent to her by my parents and reads "this is my costume". She did well this evening, considering she missed her last nap because I was taking her out gallavanting around town. :) I hope you and your "trick-or-treaters" had a safe and fun Halloween!

(Her eyes look all weird in this picture because it was dark outside so my only source of light was the flash, which obviously was a bright contrast!)

Yay...A New Post!!

2008-10-30T15:40:00.000-05:00

My apologies for the long break between postings. My sister got onto me the other day and told me to get some new pictures up soon. My reason, however, for being absent from the blogging world is a good one. Last week, Ryan's sister, Misty was here for the entire week from Connecticut so we were at his other sister, Amber's, house every day to hang out with her, her two kids, and Amber's 4 kids. It was so much fun! Karys's cousins are really starting to enjoy her now that she's older and more interactive. The last time Misty's kids (Will, age 2 1/2, and Jillian, age 1) saw Karys she was only a couple of weeks old and just not a whole lot of fun yet. Now she smiles, and even laughs! I found out from Misty and Amber that the noises I started hearing from her several days ago were, in fact, laughs. She gets this huge grin on her face, and makes almost a fake cough sound...so cute!

Oh, and today marks her three-month birthday. Wow...time is now flying! We took her to the doctor last Thursday because of a rash that wouldn't go away (turns out it's eczema) and she weighed 12 lbs. 2 oz. (that was with clothes and a diaper, though).

Here are some pics from our fun week with family:

Karys and Jillian vegging on the couch

Karys, Connor, and Ryker

Her adorable headbands that we have finally fit her so I dressed her all sassy! This onesie is a gift from a church friend, Rai Lynn, and on the back it has her name in this cute font with rhinestones around it. One day I'll get a picture of the back. :)

Look at this big girl!

And this is just a fun video for your enjoyment. She cracked us up because she was so enthralled with this toy!

Pictures from the Weekend

2008-10-16T21:41:00.000-05:00

This past Saturday Karys and I made her first fairly long car trip. We drove to Forney to spend the day with my parents and sister (about an hour and forty minute drive). She did really good in the car. My sister managed to snag some great shots of her and was disappointed that I hadn't posted them yet. So here ya go:

Sweet baby smile!!

This one cracked us up. I was looking at a take-out menu and Karys stared at it intently the entire time I was looking at it. I moved it all around to make sure that's what she was looking at and her eyes just kept following it!

FINALLY!!

2008-10-14T20:56:00.000-05:00

I have been trying to catch Karys on video "talking" but have had no luck until tonight. The reason being that I'm trying to capture it with my digital camera so I know I can post it on here and if I'm sitting and talking to her, the second I put the digital camera in her face she stops because the camera has a little red light on it that blinks when it's recording and she spends the whole time staring at the light! So I got a chance to record her tonight in her swing which was apparently less distracting to her (I guess because the camera wasn't right there in her face.). Every time she sits in her swing lately, she talks to the toys that are on it...especially the giraffe. :) I hope you love this as much as I do---she's guaranteed to make you smile!

Random Miscellaneous Information

2008-10-08T20:51:00.000-05:00

As the above title states, this post is going to be full of random info. Karys is officially two months old (actually that happened last Tuesday, but I forgot to mention it on previous posts). Today was her appointment with the doctor (where she also had to get her first round of shots :( She weighed in at 11 lbs. 2 oz (47th percentile). That means that since we last went to the doctor 5 weeks ago she's added almost 2 pounds to herself (only 4 oz. away from a full two pounds). She didn't grow quite as much this time. (22 1/2 inches...last time she was 22 inches.) She's now in the 43rd percentile for height. Her head circumference was 15.25". I don't remember what it was last time--the important thing is that she's in the 39th percentile which all together means that she's growing proportionally. She had to have 3 shots today and one oral vaccine. She did really well for her shots. When she was given the first one she had a delayed reaction. It seemed to take her a second to realize that what just happened hurt. Poor baby. But when it was all over with she recovered very quickly (finishing her bottle helped too!).

I took this picture this morning, especially for my mom. She bought this outfit for Karys on Saturday when we went shopping at Kohl's.

On Sunday we all ended up wearing blue, so after we got home we took a family picture (since our last one was taken the day we left the hospital!), so here it is for your viewing pleasure:Oh, this is Karys's latest self-soother (so much for the pacifier!):And finally, she discovered her hand on Monday. She's only done what she did once but it was cute nonetheless. She was laying on the floor doing all the moving that she does with her hands and feet and her right hand passed in front of her face and she took notice of it. She stared intently as she moved her wrist very slowly back and forth. We caught it on video, but it's on the video camera (that seems to make files that are too big). I'll try that another day.

Nana and Granddaddy

2008-10-08T20:40:00.000-05:00

On Saturday my parents came over for a visit. They have a goal of seeing Karys at least once a month, which I think is great. These are pictures from their visit.

Fun Play Date

2008-10-02T16:53:00.001-05:00

I am doing a Bible study on Thursdays at church and after it's over each week, a couple of friends and I eat lunch together. We had been going out to eat, but that gets expensive quickly so we're going to start rotating houses. Today we were at Mary's house. Mary's little boy, Ethan, was born the day after Karys so we're enjoying the first-time mommy thing together. We laid them on the floor side-by-side to prove that Karys is longer than Ethan (probably by a good 2 inches) and they were so adorable I had to snap pictures. :)

We attempted to get them to hold hands :)

We eventually had to move Karys down a little bit because Ethan's hands were just a little too active and kept hitting her in the face!

We Love You, Aunt Misty!

2008-10-01T20:47:00.000-05:00

Ryan's sister, Misty, mailed Karys this onesie last week, along with a matching burp rag and bib. Isn't it just adorable? :)This other picture is one I took on Monday at a Bible study a few friends and I do together. I put Karys on my friend, Jennie's, bed to take a nap and when I went in to check on her, this is what I saw:

Girls Can Wear Blue Too!!

2008-09-28T19:08:00.000-05:00

I would LOVE to know why when strangers see me out and about with my baby, they automatically assume she is a boy. She can be wearing the pinkest of all outfits and they stare right at her and call her a "he." It seriously happens pretty much everywhere we go. Usually if they ask a question about her I'll make sure to clearly say the word "she," but if they just make a comment about how cute "he" is, I just smile, say thank you, and go about my business. I mean, it's not like it's really going to affect them one way or the other to know that she's a girl instead of a boy. The reason I bring this up is because it just happened twice on our trip to Walmart. The above title is because the outfit she is wearing happens to be blue today. Normally, I might say that I understand since she's wearing blue, but this was one of the girliest outfits possible. It's one of those sunsuits (I think that's what they're called) that looks like a dress, but only in the front.

The outfit in question

So, the first woman to mistakenly identify her gender sees me in the formula aisle. She asks how old the baby is and then says something about him being a big baby...how much does he weigh? To which I reply, "At her one month check up, she weighed 9 lbs. 6 oz." which gets the reply of, "Oh, it's a girl?" Bear in mind that this woman is looking right at Karys; the outfit is trimmed in pink and she is wearing white socks WITH RUFFLES!! Her feet are very easy to see, in case I give this woman the benefit of the doubt and say maybe it was hard to see the whole outfit when she was strapped in her car seat. It's not hard to see her socks! The second woman to do the same thing is one of the employees handing out the free samples. As I'm walking past, she steps away from her post to come peek into the car seat and very confidently says, "Awww, it's a little boy." Aye yi yi!!

For those of you who haven't seen our car seat, here is a picture of it:
I picked this one because I thought it was pretty gender neutral. It didn't really scream "boy" or "girl" to me. The colors might be a little more masculine, but I thought they were balanced out by the polka dots...a little more girlie. Plus, I didn't want to get a car seat that was girlie because our plan is not to just have one baby. And should a subsequent baby be a boy, he would not be riding around in a pink car seat.

I guess that is the end to my rant. :) My question is this: does an infant girl have to be drowning in pink in order to be identified as a girl??? :)

See, even mommies can wear blue! :)

On a fun note, she has started "talking" back to us sometimes when we talk to her (meaning she makes her sweet baby noises on purpose). We caught some of this on video the other day and I tried to upload it. However apparently our video camera creates files that are too big for Blogger. So here's just a cute video I captured one day last week. Hopefully I'll get a "talking" video up here soon. Hope you enjoy!

Just Some New Pics

2008-09-18T14:57:00.000-05:00

I keep wanting to post a new blog, but I really don't have any information to give. Well, Saturday night, she slept from 10:30 p.m. until 6:00 a.m.!! :) However, it's still the exception and not the rule because last night she woke up crying at 2:15 which happens randomly usually once a week. Oh well. :) She was officially 7 weeks yesterday. Here are some cute new pics:

Ryan took this picture after I finished her bath the other night before I got to brush her hair because he thought it was funny. :)

Because It's Been A Few Days

2008-09-09T21:57:00.001-05:00

I took a couple of pics today, basically because I found this outfit in her drawer (completely forgot about its existence) and thought it was so cute that I wanted to remember forever how cute she looked in it! :)

Karys had her first nursery experience today. I'm working with a group of 3's and up for our church's MOPS group and today was the first meeting. Ryan had to be at work before I was going to be back, so Karys came with me. From what I hear, she was great! :) Apparently she spent most of the morning in a swing, perfectly content (which is great, because at home it's usually 20 min. maximum!). We got a little off our normal schedule, but I think we're back on now and things should be great for the rest of the night. I was just so happy to know she did so well. This Sunday she is definitely going to the church nursery! :) I'm ready to be able to pay attention in church again, and take my notes during the sermon.

Oh yeah, she'll officially be 6 weeks tomorrow. At first time felt like it was dragging slightly, but now that we've pretty much got things figured out I can't believe we're already to the 6 week mark! I just love this sweet little baby so much!! :)

Here You Go...

2008-09-04T17:32:00.000-05:00

Karys and I were upstairs playing in her room and she was being so cute that I started taking some pictures. So here she is, at officially 5 weeks + 1 day old. :)

I swear I was starting to see some real smiles today. I think she looks kinda "smiley" in this picture. :)

Wassup, people? ;) (I think that's what she's saying with this expression. :)

This next picture is especially for my friend, Alison. Alison made this blanket for Karys and brought it to the hospital the day she was born. It's hard to see in the picture, but at the top of the blanket she stitched Karys's birthdate and each of the black circles is made out of different material, to provide Karys with different textures to explore. Too awesome, huh? :)

And it was extra cute to put her next to her name. Check out that 22-inch-long body!

I also used my digital camera today to make a short video of her. This is like my first time videoing EVER, so hope you enjoy :)

What A Big Girl! :)

2008-09-04T15:28:00.000-05:00

(I haven't taken any new pictures yet, so here's the up-close picture of the one I posted last week.)

As of Saturday, I am now the mother of a one-month-old baby. And as of yesterday, she is now 5 weeks old. She went for her one-month well check-up at the doctor's office today. I have been saying for the last couple of weeks that I thought when we went back to the doctor we were going to be told that she weighed nine pounds. I was right, plus some! She was 9 lbs. 6 oz. which puts her in the 45th percentile for weight (at her 2 week check up, she was in the 19th percentile at 7 lbs. 6 oz.). If anyone is reading this and doesn't understand the whole "percentile" thing, it means that for weight, she weighs more than 45% of babies her age. For length, she was 22 inches long (up from 20 3/4 last time), which puts her in the 75th percentile (up from the 66th percentile). Her head circumference today was 14 1/2 inches, which doesn't really mean a whole lot to me except that the doctor said that it was normal for her size. Everything still seems to be going well. We were told that in this month she will start to smile (actually on purpose, instead of these half-grins when she's falling asleep!) and possibly even laugh. I can't wait for that! She'll also start to track us with her eyes when we are up walking around the room. Lots to look forward to! :)

All in A Day's Work

2008-08-28T20:44:00.000-05:00

Karys and I were upstairs in her room this morning where I was taking the sheet off her bed because she'd spit up a little in the night. I put her on this pillow/rug while I worked at removing the bedding. In about 5 minutes time, this is what she was doing:Apparently laying on a fluffy pillow rug is tiring work! :)

Karys's Message for the Day

2008-08-26T15:16:00.000-05:00

And this picture is great because it shows what she does with her tongue all day!! :)
(Oh, and the back of the outfit has a little heart that says inside of it "and daddy loves me too.")

The Gift of A Happy Baby

2008-08-25T21:18:00.000-05:00

I haven't taken any new pictures since my last post, so I'll just put up one of my favorites. This one was up on the screen at church during her dedication. :)

Today I have experienced a completely different baby...in a good way. My wonderful friend, Kristen, saved my sanity by loaning me her copy of the book, On Becoming Babywise. I have heard of this book for the last several years from many different people who said that following the principles outlined in the book led to their young babies sleeping through the night. However, I had not had a chance to purchase and read the book. Kristen brought it over to me last Thursday and I started reading immediately. I started really implementing the principles on Saturday. The biggest change for me was putting her in her crib when she showed signs of being tired and needing a nap and then leaving her there, crying or not. One of her naps really didn't qualify as a nap because it was lots of crying, with me returning at 15 minute intervals to pat her back or rock her again. But I stuck to the schedule and did not quit the naptime just because she was crying. Yesterday there was less crying during naps, as I'm sure she was starting to catch on to what was going on. Today, naps have been wonderful!! She only cried during one of them and I recognized it as a need for a new diaper so I went in immediately to fix the problem and she was fine after that. I have been able to accomplish so much more today without having to hold a crying or sleeping baby. And Karys has been happier as well. During her awake times she is happy and content. One of her awake times we spent in her room, unpackaging more toys!! :) I didn't realize one of the perks of mommyhood was getting to play with all the toys! ;) So basically I write all of this to say: THANK YOU, KRISTEN!! :)

If You Can't Tell...

2008-08-21T23:22:00.000-05:00

I played around on Scrapblog now that I actually have a baby to take pictures of and created a new header! :) (Yeah, I tend to get tired of the same ol', same ol' and just like to change things up a bit!...Maybe I need help with contentment? ;)

My Little Ladybug

2008-08-21T22:33:00.001-05:00

Just wanted to share a few cute pictures from today. I've been wanting her to wear this outfit for a long time and finally decided today was the day. :)

Don't the arms make you think she's saying, "Yay, Mommy!"? :)

This picture totally captures the cuteness of the outfit. (And I don't know why but any time I lay her on the floor her head turns to this side.)

In order to take an up-close picture of her I have to turn off the flash. Otherwise, her eyes close!! :) But don't you love that sweet little face?? :)

3 Weeks Already??!!

2008-08-20T22:14:00.000-05:00

My sweet baby is already three weeks old!! Some days that feels like it's been an eternity but even on those days I still feel like, wow, she's already three weeks!! :) I'm starting to get the hang of some things. Our nighttime routine is working wonderfully. As in, I can tell that it's starting to set in for her because around 9:30 she starts getting really fussy so that's my cue that it's time to start getting ready for bed. I've just now put her in bed and she makes a few crying noises, but that only lasts a few minutes and then she falls asleep. Yay!! And most nights we wake her up twice to feed her (although sometimes she wakes us up) and she'll usually sleep until 9:30 or 10:00 in the morning. Hopefully that will continue after we're allowed to cut out all overnight feedings. I'm so glad she appears to love sleeping as much as Ryan and I do!!

Today I attempted to take some pictures of her and the expressions that she makes because she is so precious! She's always making adorable faces and she explores her tongue a lot. It is absolutely adorable! However, my pictures do not reflect her cuteness as much as I wanted them to. I'll still post a couple of them, but they turned out blurry and in some of them she looks more like a boy! :) Oh well...I'll keep trying. Maybe I should quit taking pictures on my camera's "auto" setting and start using the setting for moving objects! Hope you enjoy anyway!

Okay, this pictures doesn't look blurry if you look at it this size. When it's enlarged, it's blurry. But doesn't she look like she has no hair?? :) It almost looks like a different baby!! But there's the tongue thing I'm talking about!This one would be a lot cuter if she hadn't moved her arm! See the sad scrape on her knee? The wedge we had her sleeping in attacked her last night! Apparently, she moved around so much she knocked the wedge off its velcro. Then her sock got stuck to the velcro and somehow in all that mess, the velcro scratched her knee...poor baby! :( But she's a trooper!One of the better ones from tonight...still haven't fully captured her cuteness for the day though! :)

So Pretty!

2008-08-15T14:35:00.000-05:00

I put this outfit on Karys today and she just looked so cute, I had to share. :)

Things are improving. The last two nights I started a bedtime routine with her. After her 10:00 bottle, we go upstairs and I sit in the rocker in her room. I pull out some little book and read a few pages to her, then I say a prayer for her: that Jesus would keep her safe and give her sweet dreams, etc. After that, I just sit there and rock her until she falls asleep and then put her into her bed. Now, in case you're concerned about me rocking her to sleep (you know, that I'm starting something that I'll have to continue forever), my intention is not to keep this up forever. However, from what I have read, a baby is unable to soothe themselves to sleep until about 2-3 months of age so hopefully at that point I'll be able to put her in her bed just slightly drowsy and let her get herself to sleep. She's still sleeping wonderfully. I put her down last night at around 10:30, when she finally fell asleep. Ryan got up at 2:30 this morning to feed her (we're cutting out one of her nighttime feedings) and put her back in bed. Then I got up at 7:00 to feed her again and she fell back asleep until around 9:30 or so. Yay!!

I've also figured out that she naps better during the day if I take her into her room. Whenever I put her somewhere in the living room to nap, she just isn't able to fall asleep soundly. Yesterday, I took her into her room when she fell asleep and she slept for an hour; I woke her up for her 4:00 bottle and she fell back asleep until her 7:00 bottle!! Then I did everything I could to keep her awake because I wanted to make sure she'd still sleep at night and she did! :) We even took our first walk around the neighborhood, using the stroller for the first time. She enjoyed it...at least until she wet her diaper. This girl cannot STAND for her diaper to be wet...she screams bloody murder!! My mom says that'll make it easy to potty train her. :)

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. We went for her 2 week check up yesterday. Not only is she back up to birth weight, she's added another 5 ounces...yay!! She was 20 3/4 inches long, which put her in the 66% for height (length? whatever.) and 7 lbs. 6 oz. which is only the 19% for weight! And she added another inch and a half to the circumference of her head. The doctor said she looked and sounded good and she was very good at answering our questions. Apparently everything we were concerned about is normal (such as...sometimes her breathing is very quick and shallow- apparently in her body's immaturity she forgets to breathe and then has to take several fast breaths to catch back up. Also, she has a bump on her head that is apparently fluid built up from the birth process that will go away. And when she sounds like she's wheezing it's stuff that's in her nose.) Thank goodness for pediatricians!!