Parental Victories

It has been a very busy week and a half since I last wrote. I’ve still been going into work so our day goes something like this Levi wakes up somewhere between 6:30 and 7:30. He gets ready and then he kisses Baby Claire and me goodbye, half the time I don’t even remember him leaving. I try to sleep but after my 6 straight hours I have a really hard time sleeping. So usually Claire and me get up at about 8 or so. I scarf down breakfast while I’m feeding Claire, which always seems like a good idea at the time since we’re both starving, but I end up spilling half my breakfast on her. Then for some reason the second I put her down she starts fussing so I don’t usually get to take my shower till around noon; Although I do feel pretty accomplished that I even get a shower every day. I try to get some chores done around the house and how much I get done all depends on little Miss Claire. I make dinner at some point; I’ve learned the best appliance ever created is a Crockpot! I’ve really begun to enjoy cooking and making up new things. Levi gets home a little early (about 4:40) and I pass the baby to him as I run out the door with my hair undone and dinner in hand. I work from 5-7 and then race home because Claire is hungry by that time. Thankfully Levi puts away dinner and then I do the dinner dishes. We usually watch a TV show together and if we’re lucky we put the baby to bed about 9 (sometimes she keeps us up till 11 or 12).

Levi’s family came over the other night because Levi’s brother, Logan got his mission call and wanted us to be there when he opened it. He is headed off to Jacksonville, Florida on March 10th. We are super excited for him and know that he will make a wonderful missionary. This is the mission right next door to where Levi served (Tallahassee, Florida). We found it pretty funny that out of an entire world their missions are in the same state.

So the doctor prescribed some liquid vitamins when we went in for Claire’s 2 month check up. They smell (and I can only imagine taste) absolutely horrid! It is a sticky dark brown substance and oh my goodness does Claire hate it. She gags most of it down but in the process it stains her cheeks, my hands and her clothes, yuck!

The other morning I noticed some icky, scaly stuff on Claire’s scalp. It was a case of Cradle Cap (although a more fitting name would be Cradle Crap). So I rubbed some oil on her scalp (see first picture below), then used a fine toothed comb and kind of scraped at it and like magic it was gone. Ahh, the wonderful little victories you get to celebrate as a parent; getting rid of cradle cap, putting the baby down and not having her wake up right away, getting her to take all of her vitamin without spitting it out, getting into bed after army-crawling by her bassinet and not having her wake up, getting through the store without a meltdown…

-Elizabeth

I Need Some Prozac!!!

Wow, what an eventful day today! It was Claire's 2 month appointment this morning. I was such a ball of nerves leading up to her appointment because of the vaccines she was going to be getting. Yes we decided to get her vaccines. I know there are a lot of controversy with vaccines right now but like my friend, Lacey and I were talking about a couple months ago, I'd rather have an autistic child than a dead one from one of those diseases. And now researchers are saying there isn't a link, so who the heck really knows?

She was weighed and measured; 13 lbs 5 oz and 24.25 inches long. That puts her in the 98th percentile for height and 95th percentile for weight. Geez, I'm beginning to wonder if my breastmilk is pure protein; our little baby is beefing up fast! Luckily most of her 0-3 month clothes still fit; they're too cute, I'm not ready to box them up yet. Her head was 39.5 cm which is the 71st percentile. The doctor checked her out and all looked good. Next came the vaccines, cue dramatic music. The nurse gave her sugar water (does anyone know why it's an antistetic, that still amazes me) and then started with the oral vaccine for Rotavirus. Claire was coughing and gagging, it must not have tasted too good but she got it down. Then came the part I've been dreading for weeks. I had to hold her arms while the nurse gave her three quick pokes. Claire screamed, but thank goodness it was for less than a minute. I gave her some Tylenol and she made a pretty funny face with that one too. I put her in the carrier and she had fallen asleep by the time we got to Walmart which is like a 5 min drive. So obviously it wasn't as tramatic for her as it was for me. We also went to Toys-R-Us and she didn't wake up until we got back home. All that and it wasn't even noon yet! She has been a little fussy this afternoon and evening so I've been giving her Tylenol. Hopefully we're not in for a long night.

It is so fun watching her develop. She is becoming more and more alert and observant ever day. She is looking towards the sound of our voices and following our faces. She has gotten so good at ripping her binky out of her mouth but then she gets flustered that it's out. Silly baby girl!

Well I think that's all for now. I really, really need to work on the lesson I'm giving in church in less than 2 days now!

This picture is one we took at Christmas, it's my fave and I forgot to post it last time I blogged.

Don't sit on Baby Jesus!

Our Christmas festivities began a week ago yesterday with Levi’s Mom’s side of the family’s party. We had a lot of fun. The food was delicious, the gift exchange was very fun and then we played 10 cent bingo. Levi will probably add onto the bottom of this post all about the bingo game he created in excel. I never win bingo and I actually won, not just once but twice! I still haven’t decided what to do with my $2.20. We then spent Christmas eve with Levi’s Dad’s side of the family. The food there was also delicious. We played a game of Apples to Apples; that has got to be my favorite game, so fun! Christmas morning we spent at home with just the 3 of us.

We each took a turn opening a present with Claire (I feel bad that we only got Claire 2 presents for Christmas but at the same time it’s kind of silly to spend a bunch of money on toys she won’t be able to use for a while). She wasn’t very into it lol, but it was fun for us. Claire and I got Levi a pair of slippers, a Wii game and pistachio nuts and they got me a robe, a hot pink duffel bag and the newest Nicholas sparks book. It was a much lighter Christmas this year but we didn’t mind because Claire is the best Christmas present we could have ever asked for. Then we traveled up to my parent’s house and spent the afternoon with my immediate family. More good food, ahh, I’m supposed to be losing weight not gaining it!

Our nephews and niece are so adorable and they constantly make us laugh. Zenna is 18 months and she opened several presents of clothes, she would then try to put them on our dog. We kept telling her that they are her clothes. And the boys were being little Wii hogs. But it was pretty entertaining watching them. Both Claire and Zenna were dead asleep after opening presents. I love spending time with my family; we always have so much fun. I just wish we lived closer and could see them more often.

Christmas evening we stopped by the Borts’. I should have just wired my mouth shut, seriously, there was more good food and I have no self control! Levi was in heaven with their meat pie (I think they called them pasties) and leftover breakfast pizza. Then they made this delicious drink called a Hot Godiva (no alcohol in ours) but they were marshmallow crème, 2% milk and Hershey syrup. I couldn’t drink it fast enough!

The day after Christmas was my Mom’s side of the family’s Christmas party. This year it was moved to my Grandma’s church building because we can’t fit anywhere else! After another delicious meal, Levi took family pictures and then we had our little nativity scene Christmas program. Since Claire is the newest baby she was the baby Jesus. I told her that that was the only time she was allowed to cross dress. Levi didn’t want to be Joseph (this is Levi talking, this has to be the most ridiculous and embarrassing tradition ever, period.), and since Mary can’t be single, my brother Colin was Joseph. Our nephew Rayden sat on my other brother, Eric’s shoulders and was the star, and Kolten (our other nephew) was a shepherd. The rest of the shepherds and angels are all of my cousins’ children, my Mom and Aunt Cheryl narrated and the wise men were my cousin’s husbands; geez there sure are a lot of us these days! Zenna was sitting up there with us; she sat on Baby Jesus and then stole Kolten’s gun and kept pressing the button. I don’t think that’s quite how the story really went but it was pretty darn funny. Our gift exchange was really fun. We ended up leaving with an awesome ice scraper and some chocolate covered pretzels. Levi had gotten some sort of cold but he was such a trooper and still went.

Claire was so good at all of our Christmas parties! I am so grateful for all of our family and friends that have already shown Claire so much love. I think she is just so happy to be in this world and is just soaking it all up. It’s crazy how much harder it is to get out the door to all of these things with her. I’m still not quite sure how we did it all but it was all so wonderful and I wouldn't have it any other way. We hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and we wish you a very Happy New Year!