The Sun Really Did Come Out Today!!!

It was such a beautiful sunny and kind of warm day today! Ahh, it felt so good! This morning we went to the temple and thank goodness because I really needed that especially after yesterday. Levi's brother Logan was going through for the first time and it was really special to go through with a lot of Levi's family. My Mom watched Claire while we were in there and Claire was so good for her! She didn't cry once, I was so worried she would.

So it turns out that Claire really, truly, at not even 4 months, is teething. I'm not ready for this! I thought we had a couple more months. We can see a little white spec on her bottom gums. So we washed her teething toys and got out the tylenol. We have a grumpy little baby on our hands. Any advice on what worked for your babies would be greatly appreciated!

For the last couple nights Claire has been sleeping in her crib. Up until this point she had been sleeping in her Pack & Play but she is too heavy for the upper level and I know I wouldn't be able to lower her into the bottom of that thing without waking her up. We weren't planning on moving her into her crib for another month or so but actually it's gone surprisingly well. And it is so nice to have our bedroom back. I love reading before going to bed but with Claire in the room I was too scared that the light would wake her up.

A very exciting milestone occurred today, Claire rolled from her tummy to her back! She's been looking like she might for about a week or 2 now. She was getting close and so I yelled for Levi to come look (he was making dinner for us) and he watched for a while but went to go check on dinner. And what do you know, the minute he walks away, she did it. That was really fun to watch her try so hard to accomplish something and finally succeed! But it's also sad because it's just more evidence that she's growing up. :(

These pictures were from a week ago but I really loved them and forgot to post them sooner.

The Sun'll Come Out Tomorrow

Well we survived Levi being gone for almost 3 whole days! I took Claire and Roxcy and we went and stayed at my parents house from Tues-Thurs and we had a blast. My parents just loved all over Claire the whole time. We went into one of my Mom's places of employment so she could show Claire off, then I took Claire into my mother-in-law's work. She was so good! She was just smiling and talking up a storm, everyone loved her. My wonderful MIL took us out to lunch at Phil's Subs (quick side note: if you're ever in Forest Grove, go there it's delicious!), we had Turkey Avocado sandwiches and they were to die for. Claire sacked out in my arms while we were there. It's fun being in FG, I always see a billion people I know (but it's at the same time it's kind of nice going to the store down here in Salem where I most likely won't see someone I know so I don't feel like I have to get all dressed up lol). Before going into Freddy's, I was going to stop in Hollywood Video (my very first job) to say "Hi" but the door was locked and the lights were out. It turns out that HWV filed bankruptcy and FM (wow I'm really tired and having too much fun with acronyms, hopefully you're all keeping up) pulled their lease, sad day. I wonder what happened to a certain guy that had been working there for almost 10 years now, maybe he went to Blockbuster. We celebrated my brother Colin's b-day (the big 2-8, that's so crazy!) a couple days early, I always love spending time with them. The kids were so loud though that Claire didn't want to go to sleep but she was so tired and cranky. We then spent a couple hours with Jay and the kids on Thurs and that was also really fun. Those kids just crack me up. Zenna (who will be 2 in May) took off her skirt and we put it on Claire, it was a perfect fit. Yes, our niece wears 6-9 month skirts, she is so skinny. But she eats like a teenage boy and runs around like a crazy woman. The doctor actually told my brother and sis-in-law to add butter to her food to fatten her up. That definitely won't be a problem with my baby. :)

It was so good to finally see Levi Thurs night. I miss him too much when he's gone and this was his first time being away since Claire's arrival so it was extra hard. His meetings & trainings went well. He's always so exhausted from all that driving though!

Today has been a rough day. Claire has been horribly fussy today which really isn't like her so we think she must be teething. She was screaming for at least an hour before I could get her to sleep, eek! My Mom said that both my brothers and myself got a tooth at 4 months and we're just a week or 2 shy of that. I feel so bad for her I wish there was more that I could do. She's not interested in teething toys, she either just wants to eat or chomp on my fingers, OUCH! And we finally got the hospital bill, DOUBLE OUCH!!

I think this is the first time I'm not going to post a picture, I just really need to get to bed. Hoping for a better day tomorrow!

Covered Bridges & Wolf Puppies for Sale!?!?

Levi had a really great surprise for us for Valentine’s Day, I’m so lucky to have him. I don’t know how he puts up with my postpartum insanity. He took the day off today and we drove around to 8 different covered bridges down in the Sweet Home-Lebanon-Mill City area. And it was super fun. These bridges were so neat; they were built in the 1930’s. I didn’t know this but Oregon has more covered bridges than any other state, there are about 50 bridges total. One of the bridges was way far out in the middle of nowhere and we drove over it and then went to turn around and we looked up and there were over a hundred wolves behind a fence! Who has wolves, is that even legal!? And the sign on the fence said wolf puppies for sale. Seriously, why would anybody want a wolf and whose homeowners insurance would be ok with that. Needless to say we made that stop a very, very quick one! It was a wonderful day though. Which we really needed since Levi will be on a business trip for the next couple of days. Claire slept for the majority of the day but we took her out with us when she was awake. Roxcy also went with us and went crazy when she could hear all the wolves, ugh. We stopped and had lunch at a little Chinese restaurant in Sweet Home, it was super good!

Funny Levi moment of the week: Claire was getting fussy the other night and Levi picked her up and said, “What’s wrong Baby Claire are you PMS-ing?” I’m pretty sure we have like 10 years before we have to deal with another female PMS-ing in this house, thank goodness!

Claire is just growing up too fast. She’s holding her head up really well and she smiles and laughs all the time. She’s got to be the happiest baby I’ve ever seen, well except at church, she doesn’t like church yet for some reason so we’re working on that. She still sleeps like a champ, about 9 usually. She loves grabbing stuff, even when she’s half asleep her little hands just keep going grabbing whatever she possibly can. She’s getting better at tummy time. I’m just trying to do it a couple times a day, she only lasts 5 or 10 minutes but hopefully she’ll learn to like it. She’s also learned how fun it is to put anything and everything in her mouth. She gnaws on her clothes, hands, our hands, toys, blankets. And I know it’s super silly but I am so much more grossed out by spit/slobber than I am by pee, poo or spit-up. Well I better go finish the Bachelor, it’s one of my guilty (AKA stupid) little pleasures and hopefully Ali comes back, she’s one of my faves.

-Elizabeth

To correct the record, I said P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-PMS'ing.

-Levi

"911, Please State Your Emergency."

How I’ve made it to 23 without calling 911, I‘m not quite sure, I guess because Levi always calls. We were on our way home last night (in the pitch black) from Levi’s grandparents’ house out in Dayton and we rounded a bend and came up on an accident. Levi swerves around the majority of the debris in the road and quickly pulls over the car. The smallish sedan was badly crunched up with the front bumper in the ditch and the horn of the car was blaring. As Levi’s jumping out, he yells, “Lock the doors and call 911!” I start panicking, I don’t know what it is in me but I have a hard time staying calm in tense situations, I’m so glad to have a husband that deals well in those situations. As I’m dialing, I realize I have absolutely no idea where in the boonies I am. Thank goodness for GPS and the where am I function! So I proceed to tell the operator that there is only one car involved and only one older gentleman. He was out walking around and talking to Levi so I had assumed he was ok. There was glass, papers and just a ton of stuff all over the roadway. We had our dog Roxcy with us and she was totally freaked out and kept barking at the crazy-haired, bathrobe-wearing lady (Note to self-always wear cute PJ’s, you never know what might happen in the middle of the night) that was walking down the street from her house. Thankfully Baby Claire slept through the whole ordeal of horns, sirens, Roxcy barking and a billion bright, flashing lights. After hanging up with the 911 operator Levi comes and tells me that the man needs an ambulance. So I call back and the very same lady answered (they must not be very busy out there). While Levi was out helping the guy clean up, this car came wizzing towards us and didn't even tap their brakes! Wow I almost had a heart attack, we were pretty close to the double yellow lines and I thought he was going to hit us. Once the paramedics pulled up we left, so we were only stopped there maybe ten minutes at the very most. The guy told Levi that he was just driving along and then the next thing he remembers was crashing. Levi thinks he must have fallen asleep. Thank goodness he was ok and that no one else was involved. The first thing Levi said to me after getting in the car was, “I sure felt manly holding a purple flashlight, thanks hun.” It was dark I’m sure no one noticed.

Well other than that it’s been a pretty boring week. I’ve been sick since Saturday and I just haven’t had the energy to do much of anything. But I finally boxed up Claire’s 0-3 month clothes. I’ve been stuffing her into them because I just wasn’t ready to admit that she’s growing up. But after weighing her on the Wii Fit Plus, she’s 14.5 lbs, I knew it was time for the clothes to go since that’s 2 lbs over what the 0-3 month tags say. I wish I had pulled them out sooner though she has some super adorable 3-6 month clothes and only 2 lbs before she outgrows them! Eek! Some of them are summer clothes so based on how fast she's growing I'm guessing she won't be able to wear them, unless of course we crank up the heater. She’s less than a pound away from my friend’s daughter who’s 5 months old! She'll be 3 months old tomorrow, LOL!