Our little love bug

Here are a couple pics we've taken recently of Gracie- this is one of my favorite outfits- love the little flare-leg jeans!! I figure she won't get to wear them much more, since the weather is getting warmer.

I would like to be able to tell you that she is smiling at ME. But no. She's smiling at the CEILING FAN! Mr. Ceiling Fan is her new best friend. She just grins and coos and talks to him. We need to get her a fan for her room. She loves it. The one in our living room is too high up for her to notice, but the one is our bedroom is just fascinating to her.

Not much going on except for me dreading work on Monday. I sorta feel like my time as a devoted mom is coming to an end. Starting Monday, I will only get to see her about 6 waking hours of the day! And she'll probably nap during some of that. It is so not fair. I really thought that I would be ready to get back to work and be tired of spending so much time alone at home, but I've truly enjoyed it. There have been difficult days, but so much of it has been fun. I've been able to keep up with more of the housework, though I'm nowhere close to perfect. And now I'm gonna not feel like dealing with it when I get home. It doesn't help that I'm not thrilled with my job at the moment. I'm trying to find something different for next school year, I'm just not sure what yet. I can't believe it has already been 11 weeks since Gracie was born! How can they grow up so fast?!

More pics

Sittin' in my Bumbo

Sleepy time


I like my Bumbo!


Aren't I fashionable?



Oooh, hel-lo Mr. Ceiling Fan! How are YOU today?

Peep Show

Check out the Washington Post's 2nd Annual Peeps Show- too cute! I already have my idea for next year's contest. I should go buy a bunch of peeps now while they're on sale...

Peep Show <--Clicky

Of all nights...

Gracie and I are having some girl time tonight and tomorrow- Daddy is out of town =( So we were just hanging out, I was getting Gracie dressed for bed and bam- out go the lights. WTH? So here I am stuck upstairs in the PITCH black with the baby. I had to find my way BACK down our crazy stairs and feel my way into the kitchen to get the flashlight. Luckily I had one battery to replace one of the dead ones in it, and was able to get a couple candles lit. The power was out for over an hour. I guess someone hit a pole or something. Poor Grace didn't know what to think. I was afraid I was gonna have to go to bed with the power still off, which is always fun when it comes back on in the middle of the night and half the lights in the house go on as well as the TV, etc. Luckily that didn't happen. I had put Gracie's bottles I had made and the container of formula in a cooler with some ice, 'cause I knew it would be ok in there for at least 12 hours. Lord help me if the power would have been off that long. At least it is back on now. And again, I thank Randy for my iPhone. I was able to look up the number of the power company and report the outage (yeah, I could have just called 411, but it saved me the $1.50 charge!) and they said it would be back on by 10:45 and it was. Way to go power people. It is amazing how dependent we are on those folks. You just don't think about all the stuff that uses power. I was thinking since I couldn't watch TV I'd just get on the computer and surf the net (which is what I do most of the time anyway). I knew the laptop was charged, so it would be ok. Yeah, except that the internet router takes power. Oh well.
I need to go to bed. I've been trying so hard to get Gracie into a routine, at least for bed/wake time and now I need to work on MY bedtime, or work next week is gonna be miserable. I have some more smiley pics that I will try to post tomorrow...

Smiley!

It is SO hard to get a good picture of Gracie smiling- as soon as the camera comes out, by the time I get it turned on and the flash ready, she's figured it out and stops smiling. The only ones I've been able to get are with my phone, but they are still pretty cute! When she gets going, she opens her mouth all wide and coos and gurgles and just carries on the happiest little conversation with you... so incredibly cute!

Bumbo and corn syrup

We had a hard day today. Gracie had a poopy problem. As in, she hadn't gone since Friday. So she was cranky all day, and finally managed a poop that any grown man would have been proud of- but it was pretty painful for her! Poor thing. She cried harder for that than she did for her shots! I ended up calling the pediatrician's nurse line to get some advice because I KNOW there is more poo backed up in there. They said to put corn syrup in her bottle once or twice a day or give her diluted prune juice. We're going to try the corn syrup. I sure hope it helps. Bless her heart!
We also got her a Bumbo seat today. She's been doing really well with holding her head up consistently so we went ahead and got it to let her sit in for a few minutes. Those things are pretty cool! She's so cute in it!
Not much else going on. I have less than 2 weeks of maternity leave left!!! =(

One Bad Little Girl!

Here is a video of Gracie and her Daddy's favorite game: Gracie Drives a Chopper! (please excuse the low video quality- it was taken with a cellphone!)

Evil Shots

Gracie had her 2 month checkup today. She's doing fine: 10 lbs. 12 oz, 22 inches long. Her torticollis has improved a lot (thanks Grant!!) and there were no other problems. Except that they poked her twice in her sweet little leggies!!! OW ow ow! She did really well, though. I cried a teeny bit just hearing her holler. It was a delayed reaction- she seemed to have to work up how loud she was going to scream for about 5 seconds. The nurse was really good- got both pokes in (one in each leg!) in a matter of seconds, and as soon as I picked Gracie up she calmed down and Wubby went back in her mouth and she was good. I've been giving her Tylenol all day and I guess it is helping... she's been a little cranky, but she was also well overdue for a poo, so that didn't help matters (happy to say the poo has come and gone...). She also got an oral vaccine, which she seemed to really like (I wonder why they give that one first...lol!).
So, the trauma is over, we all survived. Hopefully she won't have any reactions. Glad it all went well! =)

2 months!

Holy Cow! I can't believe that Gracie will be 2 months old tomorrow!! She had changed SO much, but it feels like time has flown by since her birth! She has her first shots tomorrow- I am freaking out about it! I would take them for her if I could... I have Tylenol to give her when we get there, and I'll have a bottle ready to feed her during or right after the pokes. So unfair that we have to hurt them to protect them. At least I know she won't remember it.

I hate to put this in writing, but the girl slept 7 hours last night! I put her down easily at 11:00, and I didn't hear her until 6:00a! Even then, she wasn't really upset, just making noises and moving around, so I decided to get her before the squalling commenced. She even laid back down for a little while before Randy got her up. I can only hope this continues. She slept a lot today, so tonight we may not be so lucky.

I took some pics of her in her new gommies- they are so cute on her! For your viewing pleasure:

Wubbanub

Attention moms and moms-to-be! I have another thing you can't live without: a Wubbanub. http://www.wubbanub.com/ I wanted to avoid giving Gracie a pacifier, but had read a lot about babies needing to suck, and she wouldn't take a regular paci, so I got her a Soothie, which she loves. In looking online for more colors of the Soothie, I came across the Wubbanubs. They are the Soothies with little plush animals attached, which act as a weight to keep the pacifier close to the baby if it falls out. And they are the CUTEST thing ever! A lot of hospitals give them to preemies to help them learn how to suck, and to give them something to hold onto as a lovey. I got Gracie the kitty, and she LOVES it- as do we. The paci is sewed to the Wubbie's face, and it looks like the kitty is toting it in its mouth. Gracie likes to grab onto him. He's not perfect at keeping the paci in her mouth, but it is better than just the paci alone, and when it does fall out it usually stays on or near her, instead of hitting the floor.

She's still sleeping upstairs. Sunday night went pretty good, but last night was horrible! She was wide awake until after 2:00am, and we gave in and let her have the wubbie to fall asleep, but she kept spitting it out and knocking it away, and we'd have to haul back up the stairs to fix it. I didn't think we'd ever get her to sleep! Plus, I'm not feeling great with a sore throat, and woke up with a headache... Randy had to do the 6:00am feeding and stayed up with her- I stayed in the bed- I was all chilly and felt miserable. I do feel better tonight, and Gracie went down without a fight at about 11:00. Whew. Here's hoping she stays asleep...

Some pics of Gracie and Wubbie:

Gracie and Grandmama

New Pics!

Grandmama went home today. =( We were sad to see her go. We had to keep one hand on Gracie to make sure she didn't grab her and make a run for her gate at the airport! We so enjoyed her visit, and I know how happy it made her to spend time with Gracie. Hopefully she'll be able to come back soon, and bring Boompa with her.

We took a lot of pics while she was here, so here are some good ones...

Big Girl Bed!!

Gracie spent her first night in her crib upstairs last night! We FINALLY got our monitor, which we really like, so far. It is the Summer day/night portable video monitor. The picture is pretty clear, though the color isn't good at all. Mom is sleeping upstairs in the guest room, so we figured it was a good time to try her in her crib. Mom kept the monitor and agreed to do night duty for us. Gracie had been awake almost ALL day yesterday, so she was worn out. We finally put her down around midnight, and were able to watch her go to sleep! At one point, I went in to turn her on her side a bit more, and she started fussing, but it wasn't anything the binky couldn't fix, and off she went to sleep. She slept until 6:30am!!!! So, it seems the crib/monitor will work well, and I guess she will be officially moving out of our bedroom now. Kinda sad, though...
I have also found another use for the little camera- I am going to use it to spy on the cats and try to figure out which one has been peeing in the nursery!! I can aim in at the floor and keep an eye on them. Don't know what good it is going to do, but at least we'll know which evil one it is (though we have a good idea). I can also hook the handheld unit up to the TV, and record them if I need to! (We can to that to watch Gracie, too, which is pretty cool). Now we need to work on finishing the nursery. I really want a glider for up there, for middle-of-the-night feedings, and later, for reading and cuddling. Thus, I don't want just a wooden glider, but a nice, large, upholstered swivel glider chair that we can both fit into. And it has to be the right color, and have an ottoman. I would LOVE to have one from Pottery Barn, but they are SO expensive. I'm going to have to do some searching.
We have so enjoyed my Mom being here! She is absolutely enamored with Gracie, and has been such a huge help. It is nice to be able to relax some. =)

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A day in the real world

I had to go to work today. I had a day to make up, and they were going on a field trip and couldn't take chaperones, so I figured it was a good day to work. And it was fine. The field trip was boring (the kids loved it, though) and we didn't have much to do the rest of the day. It was nice to see everyone. I missed Gracie, of course, and went straight to go pick her up from Grandma's. She was evidently awake for most of the day, and she's wanted to sleep all evening. We're in for a great night, I'm sure. We should have just let her go to bed early, and gone to bed with her. Maybe she's so worn out that she'll sleep soundly all night...
Grandmama comes in less than 2 days! She can't wait! We're very excited to see her. I hope everything goes well on the flights...