My first day

Today would have been my first day back at work. I woke up listening to Anya making noises and went to get her out of bed. She gave me a huge smile and my heart melted (like it does every morning when I see her grinning up at me from her crib). We went downstairs and I put a Baby Einstein video on for her. It is the Mozart one with music and images of toys and objects spinning and moving, etc. She started to laugh and yell at the TV. It was so adorable and she had never done this before. I would have missed this moment if I was at work. Anya ate, took a nap, and then I read her some Mother Goose Rhymes. My mom came over and Anya was having a weird cranky day. I think she was saying, "Mommy are you sure you don't want to be at work?" I was thinking, "This is way harder than what I would be doing at work... but this feels right." We went out to the store and came back to feed Anya and then I went for a walk with her. Next it was play time with silly music. I put away her laundry as I sang and danced and played with her. Bath time was next and she had some great laughs. I got teary with happiness as she splashed and laughed. I thought about how I hope she has as much fun at bath time with her own babies some day. I wonder if every mom feels this deep for their own children.. I guess they must. I put on her PJs, fed her, and rocked her to lullabies. I enjoy this part of the day so much. I think about how much I love her and how special she is to me. They say not to make eye contact at bedtime, (to make it bedtime and not special mommy time that babies want to stay awake for.. I'm guessing) but I just can't help it.. I can't stop staring at her. We snuggle in close and rock and sing. No big miracles happened today - she didn't learn to walk or talk.. but small miracles happened like they do every day. She did her smiles, laughs, cries, surprise looks, dirty diapers, and burps.. and I didn't miss a beat. Not every second was perfect. There were moments of frustration, wishing for more adult conversation (although I did have my mom today), and ickyness (blow out diaper anyone? Is ickyness a word?). So the big question is, how was my first official day as a stay at home mom? I think you can guess the answer. I am in love with my new job. I get to see her grow and change each day. I get to look in her eyes and be the one to calm her fears. I know that I am blessed to have this opportunity and I will try and not take it for granted for one second. I will thank God, my husband, and my lucky stars for giving me this time to be with our baby. I will thank them forever.

Grammy visits

This is Anya on her way to a Saturday morning grocery shopping excursion with mommy and daddy. It was a rainy day and we needed food :o)
Today Anya's Grammy, Great Grammy and 'Aunt' Maura came for a visit. She got lots of attention. Here are some photos of Anya and her Grammy.

Anya likes to snuggle her blankies and chew on them too.

These toes are just cute!

daddys girl

day of walks

Yesterday's weather was so nice outside that Anya and I went for two walks. The temp was in the 70s all day and I wanted to enjoy it as much as possible. For our second walk we took the Jeep stroller but I didn't use the carseat this time. I think she loved having the extra room. She looked out the mesh siding at everything passing by until she fell asleep.

My sister is a great art teacher and artist as well. She is going to have her masters degree completed in the spring. We are all so proud of her. She gave Dwight a piece of her artwork for his birthday. She created it in a printmaking class. I believe this one was a wood carving print but I will have to check with her.

14 weeks

* I tried out our new stroller and I love it. Anya must love it too because on our walk this morning she fell asleep. :o) It was a crisp morning and it felt like the start of fall. It was beautiful. She must love to be able to see so much more of the world facing this way.

* Next week I am having 3 other moms over with their babies. All 3 babies are around Anya's age! (I think between 3 and 4 months old) They all live nearby, one other baby girl and two baby boys making it 2 girls and 2 boys - how cute. I met them at my moms group and 2 of the moms are stay at home moms as well and the third is only working a couple days a week. I will try and remember to take a picture of all 4 cutie patooties together.

* If we had decided that I would return to work this would be my last couple days off. I have been thinking about it all week. I would be returning to work on Monday so I plan on posting that day about how I am feeling. :o) So far I am feeling so grateful to Dwight for this option. I have been wanting to cry all week thinking of how I would feel if I couldn't stay home with her. I have been holding her extra close and snuggling extra long.

* Anya likes to snuggle her blankie, chew on it, and when she is tired she will cover her face with it or bury her face in it. It is so funny to see her in the swing asleep with a blankie covering her face. She does it herself though so it must comfort her.

* She now holds rattles up to her mouth and will grab at toys and pull them to her mouth. I put some links on one of her carseat toys so that she can reach it and chew on it.

New lightweight stroller

Friends of my family (The Morrisons) sent us a gift of money for Anya (thank you!!). I used most of it to buy this new stroller! It will be such a great help in small stores, malls, places with a lot of stairs, etc. It has storage underneath, reclines, is lightweight, and has a shoulder strap. I can't wait to try it out with Anya! :o) We LOVE our Jeep stroller for most areas but there are times where we need another option and I'm so excited that we have that now :o)

snuggles on the couch :o)

I just love her so much :o)

summer fun

Over the weekend we went to a cookout at our friend's Dana and Jill's house. They have a little girl named Ella who is 8 months old. Anya and Ella loved to look at each other and it was so cute to see them smile back and forth! Dwight took Anya in their pool and she liked it.
Today Anya had her first real play date! We went to visit her new friend Kayla and her mommy Stephanie. They are new friends from the mom group we go to and Stephanie is going to be a stay at home mom as well. We had a fun time having lunch, letting the girls 'play' on the play mat and going for a walk. Both girls are 3 months old so it is great. Kayla is a cutie patootie!

*Bedtime update*

I am wary to write about Anya's bedtime because it has been going so well. I don't want to jinx myself! Our new routine has been great. I don't know if it's the fact that we do bath at night, we put her down earlier, that she is over a growth spurt of some sort, or she is just getting older and learning the routine. If she is napping (her naps are still pretty random) I wake her around 5pm and we play. I wait until she seems hungry and I give her a bottle but not where she is completely finished. Next we do bath time and I let her splash around. I trickle water on her and sing to her to wear her out (and we have such a fun time- I love it!). I give her the rest of the bottle or enough to make her not interested. Next, I rock and sing to her and put her down in her crib. Lately she has been awake at this time. I tuck her blankie under her arm, turn on her mobile and say goodnight. She has been making her 'talking' noises but not crying. On some nights she will get to a point where it is close to crying and I go in and press her mobile, say goodnight, and give her a pacifier. On most nights this alone has worked and she falls asleep all by herself. Some nights I end up going in twice to do this but after that she falls asleep. I have avoided picking her up out of the crib and it is actually working. If she was crying a lot I would pick her up but it is more of a frustrated whine. She has been in bed by 6:30pm on most nights. I have done some simple researching (nothing extensive so who really knows) and it says an earlier bedtime is better for the baby and babies actually sleep later when they are put down early. I feel like this is good for her -and Dwight and myself as well. I have time to get dinner ready (hopefully) and we have some time to hang out together. His schedule will be changing with the new job to make him home a lot earlier each night. :o) She still wakes once or twice a night to eat but that will change as she develops. Teaching your child how to get good sleep and go to bed is an important thing as a parent. I just hope that we are moving in the right direction. I know there will be a few bumps in the road but lately it has been a lot better. Oh and Tuesday I went to dinner with my girlfriends leaving Dwight alone to do this whole routine. He played, bathed, fed, rocked, and put her down.. and she was down.. hooray Dwight!

3 Months Old

Our baby is growing up so quickly!! Anya is 3 months old today.. can you believe it? Things feel easier now and twice as fun! She is laughing a little bit and she is much stronger. She looks around the room all of the time and is always smiling. We definitely are blessed with a happy girl. Her bedtime seems like it's easier (knock on wood). During bath time she has started to kick her feet and splash around. She splashes and then gives a big laugh. I love it! Everyone said that the first 3 months are the hardest and now I see why they say that. We are finally getting laughs and coos that make it so much more fun and rewarding. We love her so much and she makes every day new and interesting as she changes each day. She has started to lose a little bit of her hair. There is a really thin patch on her left side of her head and when I had her in the Bjorn the other day I found a few little hairs on me. :o) I put her in her doorway jumper and she seemed to like it although she still needs to get a little stronger. She is such a little love :o)

sleepy head

Reading books

Anya and I spent the morning reading books. This book is from Anya's great Nana (my Nana). She sewed it together. Anya likes looking at the colors and the black and white zebras.

This picture is a bit blurry but I had to show how Herman watches us play a lot of the time. He is such a good cat :-) The poor thing is going to be getting chased around by this little baby soon enough.

Wish list Wednesday

1. A nice house with unique charm and at least three bedrooms, lots of closet space, and a bigger kitchen.

2. A summer home on a lake.

3. A boat for Dwight to fish from and me and Anya to swim from.

4. A housekeeper to clean up after us.

5. A very nice camera. My camera is nice but I would love one with one of those nice zoom lenses, ect.

If you would like to play click on the wish list Wednesday graphic! It's kind of fun :o)

It's hot hot hot!

The past few days has been hot hot hot!! Anya really seems to like the pool. She was talking away to me in it. She has really started to make different coo sounds and she loves to hear her voice. :o) This float is great but she is still a little too small for it. I think it will be perfect next summer.

Madelyn's First Birthday!

Over the weekend we went to Madelyn's first birthday party. It was at a beach house. :o) It was a great time and Madelyn looked adorable walking around and putting her feet in the baby pool. She had her own special birthday cake and dug right in! We are very lucky to have her and her family as friends. I can't believe that Madelyn is already one year old. A year flys by so fast!

First dip in the pool

Today was Anya's first dip in the pool. My sister had come up to visit yesterday, slept over and spent the day with us today. I went all the way in the pool myself and then my sister handed her to me. I walked around with her in my arms and started with just her toes in. I would dip her ankles in a little.. walk around more.. dip her legs in a little... she was very interested in looking at the water. Part of the pool is shaded in the later afternoon so it helped us stay out of the sun. My sister took Anya and did the same as me. Anya seemed to be okay so she dipped her up to her bum, and then waist. She even let my sister hold her out in the water. It was such a fun day!!!

Dwight was home in time for Anya's bath time tonight and we heard her laugh.. yay! She is picking up on this laughter thing!!