Elizabeth's Play Mat

Jack's Modeling Session

Apparently Jack feels like Elizabeth has been getting all the attention, so he decided to do an impromptu modeling session for the camera. On her pack n' play.

First Week of Daycare

This past week was Elizabeth's first full week of daycare. And she did great! She didn't actually go on Monday because she was still feeling a little under the weather with her cold (actually she was feeling fine, but since it was my first day back at work I didn't want to also be all worried about her being sick) so Eric stayed home with her. They had a fun day! The rest of the week was great. I didn't take any pictures her first day of school but here she was on Friday. I thought she looked so cute with her bow and her shoes that I just had to take some pictures before school!


Here are some of the things we've learned about our sweet girl recently:

1. She's a morning person like her momma - just look at the first picture taken Friday at 6:45 am!
2. Now that she's getting up and ready for "school" early she is perfectly happy to go to bed between 7:00 and 8:00 like the books suggest she should. (Until now, her bedtime was more like 10:00 - 11:00.)
3. As a result of 1. and 2. she now gets up between 5:30 and 6:30 even on the weekends! If anyone has any suggestions on how to teach a 3 month old that its ok to sleep in on the weekend, please let me know!
4. She can sleep 7 1/2 hours between feedings. She only did this one night - but now we know she can. Maybe this week she'll do it again.
5. She likes bathtime. Her daddy was right - she is much happier with it warmer. Her momma was too worried about getting the water too hot that I was keeping the water too cool. This was recently confirmed by the cute turtle bathtub thermometer.
6. Even though the daycare recommends 2 changes of clothes for "accidents" Elizabeth needs more like 3-4 - usually because of her spitting up, although we did have one diaper explosion at daycare this week too.
7. She doesn't mind clips in her hair! And she looks so cute with them!
8. She doesn't love shoes (yet), but if you put them on when she's happy she'll usually forget about them and wear them all day. But if she's mad when you're putting them on her, you can forget about it.
9. She loves hitting toys - above her playmat, attached to her bouncer or in your hands. She's not really grabbing at them very often but she sure likes to hit them and watch them move.
10. Moo, Baa, La La La by Sandra Boynton is her favorite book. She likes the Cat in the Hat but its a little long for her attention span.
11. She loves riding in the car. She still falls almost instantly asleep when the car starts to go.
12. Her mobile with her "friends" is still her favorite thing.
13. Now that we have more of a schedule with wake up and bedtime, she seems happier. She's generally eating a whole bottle every 3 hours during the day instead of "snacking" on 1 or 2 ounces more often. She also is much less fussy in the evenings.

It really is amazing how much we've learned about her is such a short time!


Another picture from Friday. I just couldn't stop with the camera!
This afternoon we all went for a walk to the park in our neighborhood. It was a little chilly so I put on her jacket. And it was sunny so I put the sunglasses on. I figured she'd hate the sunglasses, but she actually didn't seem to mind them and wore them until I took them off. She didn't love the jacket though. But how cute is she!
Her daddy thought I was pretty silly for taking her out of the stroller onto the playground, but I think she enjoyed seeing something new. We're going to wait a little while before taking her down the slide.

Elizabeth with her Friends

Here's a cute video of Elizabeth talking with her friends. (She had a cuter outfit on but spit-up - this was bottom of the diaper bag back-up because we were at Mimi and Pa-paw's).

Alec and Isaac Update

My brother sent us a great update about the boys. And pictures that show off how super cute Elizabeth's new cousins are!

Sounds like everyone is right on track. Alec and Isaac will probably have to stay in NICU for a few weeks since they were born at 34 weeks, but the doctor has said that they are very healthy for 34-weekers. Here's Alec who weighed in at 4 lb, 1 oz and 17 1/2 inches long.And here's his little brother Isaac who was born 5 minutes later weighing 3 lbs, 14 oz and 16 inches long. I think its so cute that Isaac is holding onto his blanket just like his cousin Elizabeth! And just look at the hair on these boys! Congratulations again Brian and Mique and we can't wait to meet them!

Welcome Alec and Isaac!

Congratulations to my brother Brian and sister-in-law Mique on the birth of their sweet baby boys today - Alexander (Alec) Nathan and Isaac Matthew! Elizabeth is so excited to have two new cousins!

I Want My Lawyer

Thanks for the cute shirt Grandma and Grandpa!

She was not really in the modeling mood - our little chipmunk!

A Weekend of Firsts

Miss Elizabeth had a whole weekend of firsts. First, she spent the night with her Mimi and Pa-paw for the first time so her Mommy and Daddy could go out for a fancy dinner in Dallas. Looks like she was totally chill - thanks Mimi and Pa-paw for taking such good care of her! And thanks Buddy (orange cat in the background) and Chessie (not pictured) for sharing your home with her!

Then she got all dressed up for her first party - a Valentine's party at John and Rory Cate's! I forgot my camera but John and Rory Cate's momma, April took some good pictures of all the kiddos! Thanks for such a fun party! Here is Elizabeth (with a bow in her hair!) ready to go.

Full length (and blurry) photo (the thing at the top is the matching bib, not bunny ears).

Then Katie and Paul invited us over to their house for an impromptu dinner party - Elizabeth's first. As you can see Elizabeth was super excited about it. (The travel swing is one of our favorite baby items - it goes wherever we go).

The boys watching the grill.

Katie - the excellent hostess - thanks Katie and Paul for having us over to your beautiful new house!
And finally, Elizabeth got her first cold on Sunday. I'm sure it was our "trial" visits at daycare last week. She's feeling much better now - she's such a little trooper!

We have smiles!

She's smiling and giggling all the time now - I finally got some pictures. (Excuse the blurriness - I recently fixed my camera to correct this problem so hopefully we won't be dealing with that in the future.)

Snuggling with Daddy.

Bouncer at Mimi's is more fun than the one at our house.

Playdate with Juliette - she was an angel! Elizabeth was a little less so...

Watchin' her friends (the mobile Aunt Mique and Uncle Brian gave her).

I go back to work next week so we started day care today - a few hours today, Thursday, and Friday to ease us into it. She did great today - was asleep when I dropped her off - woke up and ate a whole 4-oz bottle (which she almost never does for me), played in the bouncer and went back to sleep. Miss Lori said she only fussed for a minute when she wanted her bottle - what a good girl!!!!! We love love love our daycare. When we showed up the director came out of her office and oohed and ahhed about how excited they were to have Elizabeth there. And her teachers are so great. I think we're going to be really happy there!

Good-Bye Jodie

For those of you that have had the pleasure of meeting Jodie you know she can, at best, be described as a difficult cat. For those of you that have not met her, you're probably better off. I adopted Jodie from the Humane Society back in 2003 when I graduated from college. When it was just the two of us, she was a pretty good cat. When Eric came along, she wasn't quite as happy and then when we adopted Desi she suffered a serious personality change. One vet wrote in her file "Will lash out." And she would. But she was my cat and I vowed to keep her. Even after she swallowed a pony-tail holder and had to have emergency surgery costing in excess of $1000. Even when she scratched my mom's eye-ball. Even when we found out we were having Elizabeth. But today she crossed the line. Our lovely neighbor called inquiring about the status of Jodie's rabies vaccination. Apparently our neighbor had had her back door open this afternoon and Jodie decided to come in. When she found our neighbor's cat, she attacked. Our neighbor intervened and Jodie redirected her attack toward our neighbor. I saw the multiple bloody injuries. The lady was so nice about it, even saying she wasn't sure it was Jodie because it happened so fast. But just wanted to be sure she didn't need to be worried about Rabies. We quickly decided that Jodie needed a new home. We can't keep her inside because she would be miserable, as would we (and although I still don't think she would attack Elizabeth, I'm less certain today than I was yesterday.) So Eric's Dad and Step-mom agreed she could join a couple other kitties as an outside cat at their place out in the country. So we loaded up Elizabeth and Jodie and took Jodie to her new home. I didn't get a picture of her settling in, but the picture above is a nice way to remember her. We are so grateful that they were willing to take her - I'm not sure what we would have done otherwise. And I really do think she'll be much happier being an outside cat with lots of space to roam and birds to chase and other critters to hunt. And Desi and Jack don't realize it yet, but their lives just got a whole lot better. Good-bye Jodie and good luck!

Here is a picture of Elizabeth with Grand-ma during the "drop-off."



A close up of Elizabeth's shirt that Daddy picked out - it says "Dingo Snack."