Pinky finger

I looked at Annaliese's little pinky finger today.  It was so small even though she's grown so much in the past 2 months and I just thought, wow, how great is our God.  It is amazing that He would design such a miraculous yet simple creation of a little finger that our fantastic human technology cannot recreate on its own.  And yet, there is the whole rest of her little self: her whole physical body that is growing and responding to the new things she experiences each day, her little personality that is coming more alive as she expresses what she likes and can't stand, and her eternal soul that God knew before the foundation of the earth.  I pray that God would draw her close to Him and that as she grows up she would treasure Him beyond anything that this world has to offer.  

Thinking about all this overwhelms me sometimes; what a task that Andy and I have been given to be her parents... to teach her about how things work, show her what love is, and train her up in the Lord.  Good thing God gives us grace, since I already know I'm not perfect.  And sometimes I have to remember what a blessing she is and how I really do love being her mom.  Like this evening when she was just waaa-waaa-waaaaa!ing and nothing I tried seemed to help her (you know, those evening fussy fits!).  So I had to lay her down in her crib while I ate dinner before going to biblestudy.  It was only about 40 minutes total, but when your ears start to ring at that certain pitch, it seems like forever.  Once she calmed down and we got to church, I just remind myself of what a gift she is and what an honor it is to have been charged with such a wonderful, serious, joyous job of raising our daughter.

I have a long, unending road ahead of learning to be this new role as mommy, wife, friend, daughter, sister and I pray that I just cherish it all and take it all as blessing.  I'm so glad that I have such... such... awesome, amazing, incredible, wonderful, deeply spiritual - none of these words can quite describe the friends and family that I have to learn from and love me.  One of these indescribable women, my friend Nikki (Nik as I call her), wrote this little "Memoirs of a Rookie Stay-at-Home-Mom" which has blessed me.  (Nikki now has 3 boys under the age of 3 1/2 and she handles it with such grace!  Whew - she's my hero!)

Well, I better get to bed, since she's already asleep!  I'll probably get to give my little munchkin a late night snack in about 5 hours!

Look Mom! No pink!

SO big!  I even had to adjust the straps of Annaliese's car seat to fit over her shoulders now!

She loves her Auntie Shells (& Auntie Jen Jen too, but she wasn't feeling well last night at dinner at Grandma & Granda's house).

I think this was Annaliese's first time not wearing any pink!  All you mothers of girls know how she has a closet full of pink!! I love it though!

Getting some Tummy Time!  Tummy time has been pretty limited recently because she has had a runny nose and it would just pour out when I would put her on her tummy.  It looks like she's doing better now!

First Date

Sorry friends, I tried getting her to smile and laugh on video for you, but I think she gets shy when the camera comes out ;)  She is starting to coo now; she smiles, laughs and loves to try to get her whole fist in her mouth.  Sometimes she accidently gags herself when she gets her fingers in to far.

She's getting so big - already 12 lb 4 oz when she went in for her 2 month well baby check up last Wednesday.  When she got her shots, she had the classic heart-breaking-cry-so-hard-it-is-completely-silent and I have to blow on her face to remind her to inhale again and try not to cry myself.  After she cried a bit and then nursed, she left the doctor's office smiling at the nurse who gave her the shot.  Good thing babies don't remember that kind of stuff!  Then her leg got sore in the afternoon and she let me know for a while, but recovered after another nap.

We went out together for the first time last weekend and where did we go?  To the Immanuel High School Winter Formal and then Starbucks!  Wow, we are getting old.  My parents watched Annaliese and absolutely loved it.  It was a perfect date as corny as it sounds, actually.  We got to hang out with our friends (Andy's colleagues & spouses), it was nearby my parents' house in case we had to go get her, and it was free!  We were out for 3 1/2 hours and I only called twice.  Pretty good, I think!  I was just nervous that she might not take the bottle, but apparently she did fine!  Either that or my mom was just saying that so that she could babysit again soon! Actually she really didn't cry at all and I'm sure Annaliese had a great time with Tutu (Grandma) & Opa (Grandpa).

Bottle Boot Camp

Apparently it is really difficult for some babies to accept a bottle if it is not introduced in the first couple of weeks.  I found this to be true for Annaliese last week when I tried giving her pumped breast milk in a bottle and she would have none of it.  Although I'm not going back to work, it would be nice for me to be able to have a break sometimes.

So, according to the Baby Whisper book (of which I am a huge fan), if the baby rejects it at first, you sometimes will just have to only offer the bottle until she accepts it (even if it takes all day, called a hunger strike).  That's what I'm calling Bottle Boot Camp - and it was most of the day yesterday for us.  It was the hardest day for me since giving birth.  She was crying and taking the bottle only when she was REALLY hungry (from either my mom or Andy or me), but then it was like she'd forget that she could get the same milk from the bottle the next time.  

Whew... finally as of this morning she's taken it 3 times in a row without objection.  I think I got physically sick over the exhaustion and stress of hearing her cry and wanting to feed her, but her not getting full.  It was great that at least when I felt the sickest in the middle of the night last night, Andy could take over with the bottle and take care of her while I got some rest - intermittently - since I still had to get up to pump frequently and I also kept trying to be well enough to feed her. 

As an bonus in addition to the future enjoyment of some activities that don't include breast feeding, since I was pumping anyway and it was my parents' 30th wedding anniversary celebration dinner at Aqua Shi (Sushi- my fav!) I decided to go ahead an indulge in some of my favorite things, pump out the "yucky" milk, and throw it away since Annaliese is so sensitive.  Anyone who has breast-fed their child for any significant amount of time can empathize with how sad it was for me to toss about 10 oz of freshly pumped milk down the drain though.  The food was wonderful though; I had spicy tuna, wasabi, alcohol and a chocolate/peanut butter dessert! The only 'forbidden' item that was lacking on the menu was garlic and onions (and beans I guess, but I don't miss them as much).  Oh well, now back to the more bland choices such as chicken, rice, potatoes, fruit.

No smiles for YOU!

Baby bath time again!  Her favorite part of the evening!

Annaliese smiles and gurgles when she's happy with a full tummy.  She was all smiles for us and we thought we'd try to get a picture for you all...

As you can see, she kept grinning every time I'd put the camera down so I only got this little smirk in the pictures.

Still pretty happy, but no smiles for you, our blog friends.

I think her eyes are getting darker, I think they'll eventually be brown.

New Year - New Do

First of all... here's my little sweetie - she's getting so big!  11 lb 4 oz!

I decided to donate my hair to Locks of Love...

All 13 inches!

Here's the new me!

I love kisses!

Annaliese slept in the Moby - how wonderful to have her sleep while I'm holding her and having both hands free! - - for about 15 minutes... hopefully she'll like the carriers more in the future!

In the hood... Daddy & daughter look alike in their little hoodies!!


"I love kisses!" - that's what Annaliese's shirt said on New Year's Eve at our friends' party.  I thought it was hilarious when she opened her mouth when Andy gave her a New Year's kiss. And it was actually midnight, although we left right after that, since we knew we'd be up any way!

Also - if you're wondering why we have our daughter in a little white straight jacket, it is actually a "travel swaddle-me" that can go in the car seat which is awesome.  She loves it and it was an awesome gift from our friends Joe & Liz.