Saturday, June 30, 2007

Sitting Up!

OK, so it may not be a big deal to many people but Adelaide can sit up on her own for like 10 whole seconds. 13 to be exact. She's so good at sitting up with support I thought I'd give it a try without my help. I promise I usually don't let her fall over like that but I was so excited and busy with the camera, I didn't catch her in time. If you watch the video, you should really mute the audio. I was recording this for Rocky who's out of town and then I got excited and my voice is a bit embarrassing.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Exersaucing

I was a little bit nervous to put Adelaide in the exersaucer for the first time. It is so big for her. Her feet don't quite touch and her arms don't quite come out of the top. So I put a towel under her feet to help the girl out. She really had a fun time just checking everything out.


One of Adelaide's favorite things is Scooter. She can watch that cat for hours. He's not quite as thrilled about her but he tolerates her pretty well. Just today she pulled a chunk of his fur out as she was trying to pet him and he just pulled away but then came right back for more.

The Beach

This past weekend the whole fam headed out to Crystal Beach which is right down the road from Galveston. Ryan and Sarah Craig very graciously opened up their family's beach house to us and our bible study-- Brian and Laurel Williams, Jonathan and Sarah Clow, Andy and Kathryn Rouse. It was a great time. We stayed up late talking. We walked along the beach. We played catch phrase. We relaxed, read, and laid in the hammocks.

It was our first time to the Texas coast. It was pretty much like we expected, very similar to the Louisiana coast-- people driving on the beach, fishing from the shore, brown water, etc. There was a ton of seaweed this past weekend which was rough for me because I can't stand things touching me in the water. I freak out. Rocky had to coax me in.

Adelaide had a great time. She really likes new places and to be around people. She's gotten to where she loves other kids too so she was really excited Zaylin was there. There were lots of first for Adelaide this weekend-- first time in the Gulf, first time in a hammock, first time laying on the beach, etc. She did well with all the new things and didn't complain much at all. Below are some pictures from this weekend.


Adelaide "laying out":


Me and Adelaide playing in the water:


Adelaide and Zaylin playing on our friend Brian Williams:


Brian thought he'd check out Adelaide's sunglasses:


Below are a couple of cool pics from the weekend. The first is from the game of washers the guys played on Saturday afternoon. The second is of the bridge that led from the house out to the beach:



And of course pics aren't enough, here's a few videos too:

Here's our loud mouth baby showing off just her vocals
:

Adelaide had a great time at the beach house with Zaylin and Sarah. Adelaide loves Zaylin so much. Here's Sarah playing with Adelaide:


As I was dressing Adelaide in her PJs the other night, she showed me how she could "buzz" with her lips. New sounds are so fun:

Guys and Dolls



People always ask me if I named Adelaide after Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls. No. I also get asked if I named her after Adelaide Adams in Calamity Jane. No. In fact, I'd never even seen either of those movies so I decided I needed to rent them. Calamity Jane I could take or leave. I didn't even finish it. Plus the real Adelaide in the movie is a huge jerk. On the other hand, I loved Guys and Dolls. The movie was made in 1955 and stars Marlon Brando (he's the only name I recognized). The story line was much better and much less annoying plus Adelaide is a bit naive in the movie but sweet.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Some new videos

Adelaide has gotten loud! She is a happy cooing kiddo. She's learned to anticipate me giving her raspberries:


Her hand eye coordination has improved so much:


Adelaide has found her feet!:

3 months old!

As we brought dinner last night to a couple that just had a baby, I was reminded of how much things have changed in the past 12 weeks. Adelaide's gone from being about as responsive as a floppy baby doll to one that can play with toys, hold her head steadily, sit and stand up (with help of course), smile and coo. Just this week she began playing with her feet, rolling from her tummy to back, and even trying to hold her bottle. I'm just amazed at what a difference a few months make at this age.

Everyone told me that once the big 3 month mark hit, things would get better. I'd see leaves on trees again. I'd be able to concentrate once more, and I wouldn't want to pull my hair out everyday. But as I reflected last week when my friend Katie asked me, "Has parenting been different than you expected?" I realized that it certainly has been.

I truly expected more bouts of crying (on my part) and feelings of helplessness, but I've been truly blessed with an amazing kid. Of course there have been many times when I asked myself and others what to do, but all in all the first three months have been great (though the first 2 and a half weeks were filled with complete exhaustion). I'm really enjoying motherhood, something I didn't really expect. I've never been a "baby" person so I was surprised by how enraptured I am by my little girl.

Right now there are a couple things that we're struggling with a little bit. The biggest thing being the "The Battle of the Bottle." I'm still having to supplement with formula which stinks but I've come to accept it. However, Adelaide's starting to reject it. Each and every bottle is a battle (some more minor than others). She's been drinking at least a couple of bottles every day since was 5 days old. She had no problem taking them from the beginning. Then she stopped taking them from anyone but me, and now she's not even wanting to drink bottles at all. Last night she flat out refused to eat for 30 minutes so I put her to bed. When I say "refused to eat," I mean screaming and squirming like a 2 year old having a tantrum. She slept for an hour and woke up starving and finally ate (more like guzzled really). Tomorrow night Rocky and I are going on a date and the thing I'm worried about most is the babysitter being able to feed my child.

Adelaide has also been put on a medicine for acid reflux. There were signs that she struggled with it-- back arching while eating, lots of spit up, crying during and after meals, lots of coughing and gagging, etc. She'd even stopped eating as much, and because she wasn't eating as much she wasn't sleeping as long. I really think the medicine is helping. She's gone back to eating a good amount and is sleeping through the night once again. Through all the acid reflux mess, ADelaide still hasn't complained very much.

I am a very spoiled mother. Rocky and I think our next kid will most likely be spawn of satan to balance out how easy Adelaide's been. Just last night I slept 8 hours. Adelaide slept 10. That's totally normal for her. She began sleeping through the night; I'm talking at least 6 hours most nights when she was 3 weeks old. Being someone who values sleep so much, I've got to admit I think that's the main reason I've loved parenting!

Here's some pictures I took over the past week:

It's amazing how much bloomers on the head look like a chef's hat:

Adelaide stood up on the couch like that for a long time without our help. The kid amazes us with how good she is at standing:

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

A Fun Day

Today Adelaide and I met up with Zaylin and Sarah for a walk around the Clow's neighborhood. It was a good time to catch up and exchange parenting stories. Zaylin and Adelaide are about the same size even though Adelaide's 3 weeks older. The only way you'd be able to tell that Adelaide's older is that she acts older.

Here's Adelaide and Zaylin:


After hanging out at the Clow's, we headed to the Wagens. We had lunch together and had a good time catching up and then took Adelaide for her first real dip in the pool. We'd tried it before but it was too cold for her to actually go in. Just last week Rocky's grandma hooked us up with a whole swim outfit for Adelaide. She was seriously decked out from head to foot-- a matching bikini with swim diaper built in, a sun hat to shield her eyes, matching terry cloth robe, and of course pink elastic sunglasses. It was a great time. Adelaide seemed to enjoy it alot. I look forward to bringing her more often. I have to admit it was a little hard to juggle her and all the pool gear at the same time. I'm not sure if I'll do it alone any time soon. Maybe I'd feel more comfortable at the kiddie pool in our neighborhood.


Ari and Adelaide:

Brooke and Adelaide:

Adelaide and me:

Saturday, June 09, 2007

Sweet Berry Farm





Today is the last day my family's in town. It's been hard to find stuff to do to entertain them so when I mentioned Sweet Berry Farm a couple of days ago and got a positive response, I decided we'd definitely have to go. So today after Adelaide woke up and ate, we all got ready and made it there by 9. The drive was absolutely beautiful. Adelaide was still napping when we arrived so I stayed in the car with her til she woke up. Then I fed her and headed out to the blackberry patch. I carried her in the Baby Bjorn and made sure she was protected from the sun and went to picking berries. It was the best time we've had all week. She was super happy until time for her nap. Then I put her in her stroller and she napped while we all had a picnic lunch and ate the farm's yummy homemade ice cream. She napped the rest of the outing, til we got back to Cedar Park. It couldn't have turned out better.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

This week

Not alot going on this week except Rocky heading out of town for North Carolina and Minneapolis. Oh, and my family coming in to town. Wow, I've seen them more in the past 2 months than I have probably in the past 2 years. Amazing what change comes with a baby in the picture.

Adelaide and I have been doing the normal stuff. Of course we've been hanging out with friends too.

Here's Adelaide with Ella Carter. Ella was either jealous that Adelaide was using her blanket or wanting to snuggle. I like to think it was the latter:

Adelaide and the Jupes. Erin was gracious enough to watch Adelaide while I went to the chiropractor. I have to admit I held myself back from calling to check on her on my way back to her house, but everything went super smooth:

Rocky moved into his new office this week. Here's Adelaide at the new office with Chris Degarmo:

Adelaide loves books already. She will stare at the pictures and it takes her a long time before she gets bored with them. Here's my mom reading her "Oh the Places You'll Go."

Monday, June 04, 2007

Pics from Louisiana

Adelaide's first ride on a tractor:


Adelaide with my Aunt Edy:


Adelaide with Nanny (my mom):


Adelaide in the pool at Rocky's parents':


At the Hayman's house:


Adelaide with her Grammy and Pappy (Rocky's parents):


Adelaide's started enjoying tummy time more and more as she is getting stronger:


Adelaide at her uncle Mike's for a crawfish boil:

Babies, Babies Everywhere

It seems like almost everyone I know just had a baby, is about to have a baby, or is thinking about having a baby. Here's some pics of Adelaide with some of her "friends."

Her with Kate Benefield:

With Sadie Carrell:


With Ben Ronk: