Shop till you drop!

Claire had her very first mall experience last Saturday. Lacey, Claire and I went to the Woodburn Outlets while the boys were out shooting. We had so much fun! Well Lacey and I had fun; Claire was asleep for all but the last 15 minutes or so. There were so many adorably cute baby clothes, it was so hard not to just go crazy and buy everything in all the baby stores! I was able to slip a pair of sunglasses on her while she was sleeping; too cute! I ended buying 3 tops because all mine are too small/short these days and it's not because of the belly. Darn nursing anyway!




On Monday Claire & I went up and visited Lisa & Nathan and went with them to a Gymboree class. It was so fun! I had no idea that Gymboree did anything other than clothes. They have all these different little cute games to play with baby and it was so nice to talk with other Moms. Claire was staring at an adorable baby named Lucy the whole time; I kept having to turn her head to look at me. But after about 35 minutes out of the 45 minute class Claire was fast asleep in my arms, the class totally pooped her out. She slept the whole way home. So I looked into a membership and was shocked to find out that it’s $61 per month! Ouch! Not to mention the closest one is Bridgeport village which is a good 40 minute drive. So after the free 2 week pass we’ll be done, which stinks but I really can’t justify spending that much, that’s more than an adults’ gym membership!

Today I took Claire to story time at the library. It actually ended up being really cute. The lady there read 3 books and in between had cute little sing-a-long songs. Claire’s a little young and probably doesn’t really care, but that’s ok I’ll take her anyway because if nothing else it’s nice for me to get out of the house.
We are fast approaching her 3 month birthday. She is able to grab things. She can hold her head up while on tummy time but she starts fussing after a couple minutes. She smiles all the time, especially at her Mommy & Daddy. She is laughing and making happy little squealing noises. She loves batting at her toys on the jungle play mat. She really likes being upright and able to look around and see what’s going on. She has for the last week or so been going down between 8 & 9 PM and sleeping till 5 or 6, then after feeding her, sleeping for another 2 or 3 hours. She loves splashing around in the bathtub and playing on the computer with her Daddy. And we love her so, so, so much!

-Elizabeth

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.