Fun visit from the Babcocks!

CK, Sara, and Nolan came out to visit us this weekend!  We had a great time! 

We played at the house.

We made homemade pizzas.

We HAD to have Nodi egg sandwiches...

We went to Gilligans for lunch and fun!

We went to Gilbert Run Park.

We BBQ'ed burgers and sweet corn (from the Babcocks).  And I FINALLY got to drink a glass (or two) of my favorite wine!  I hadn't had it in almost a year!  And...of course:  There was tons of Wii play time! 

There were only two downsides to the weekend...1) It had to end and 2) Anne was not feeling her usual chipper self. Between her tummy ache and her not wanting to nap-it made for a challenging weekend.  :)  This is a picture from Sunday morning when she finally decided to nap.  Also...she has been napping most of today-go figure.

Nolan drew a picture for Anne....

 COMPLETELY unrelated...here is my birthday balloon that is STILL full of air.  My mom gave it to me on June 12....can you believe 2 months later it's still up?

Click HERE to see more pictures and videos of their visit!  :)

some cute little updates

Every morning when I wake up Anne looks like she got bigger!  She is doing so much more these days!  She is awake and playful longer and has been napping for longer periods of time, as well.  Her schedule had been:  nap 30 minutes, awake 1 hour, nap 30 minutes, awake 1 hour, etc....now it's more like:  nap 45-60 minutes, awake for a couple hours.  She is enjoying her individual playtime so I can still get things done when she is awake!  Nightime sleep has been getting much better!  We transitioned her back into the pack and play next to our bed, sleeping on her sleep wedge.  The first few nights was rough...up every 2-3 hours, but now....we are at 5-6 hour stretches!  I've also been putting her there for nap time and taking the monitor with me so I can watch her.  I've been getting more comfortable with walking away from her when she is sleeping. 

My parents came over to visit on Tuesday.  They came over to give me a break.....

It looks like they took a break themselves!!!  I went up to take a shower and when I came back downstairs...I found the three of them passed out like this!  I took these pictures and they didn't even wake up! 

So...we discovered that Anne doesn't like one of my favorite foods!  ...MI YUK GOOK.  It's soooo good.  But...after a day of intense SCREAMING, and some nasty diapers, I had to give up breast feeding for almost 2 days.  All I could do was pump and dump...and then thaw frozen milk from the fridge.  She is much better now...but she was rather unhappy a couple days ago!  YIKES!  What kind of 1/4 Korean baby doesn't like this AWESOME soup?  :(  oh well...

So...I got some new toys for her!  She has been so active and needs a lot of diversity during play time...so we got bunches of cool things!
3 way activity mat:  can use it on her back, tummy, and as a crawl tunnel!
Activity bar that attaches to her car seat, and any seat she is in!

And a bunch of light up toys and books! 

We have discovered that she loves loves LOVES this random slideshow we have on our laptop as a screen saver.  It's all her pictures from the PORTRAIT INNOVATIONS appointment.  She will just stare at it for a long time!  It's one of our "go to" strategies when she is really upset.  The other thing she has come to love (and we love it too) is this GloWork that Teri got for her.    As soon as we turn it on, she calms down and falls asleep!  It's, as my mom puts it, "Magic". 

I think she is days away from sitting up on her own.  When we put her in our laps in a sitting position, she can hold herself there.  When we recline her, in that same position, she can sit up.  In the Ship's bouncer, she can sit up from that recline position!  When I prop her up on pillows on the bed, she can hold herself in the sitting position!  We've also found that sitting calms her down.  She is sooo curious...and sometimes when she gets upset, all she wants is to sit and watch what's going on!  And of course, she has been using her Bumbo!  She also can hold her head and chest up very well.  She loves "flying" on daddy!  

She found her feet!  During one of her sitting sessions, she spotted them and grabbed them.  Now, whenever she sits up, she bends completely over and just stares at them!  Sometimes she grabs them.  It's sooo cute!  She is also days away from rolling from her back to tummy...in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if she does it today!  She is soooo close!    She is so determined!  She has also started "pre crawling".  When she is on her tummy, she can pull herself forward (a little) with her arms.  She has discovered that her knees and legs are also helpful in this endeavor, so she's been trying to get them involved!  I think she is going to be crawling soon!!!!  Click HERE to see videos! 

Anne gave daddy a special gift!  :)  ...it's only fair after he gave her a new nickname....Al Bundy (from Married with Children).  She keeps sticking her hand in her diaper during changes!  :)

So...this morning, she was staring, smiling, and laughing at my WV mug!  I didn't get a smiling picture...but look at that focus! 

And this next picture is graphic...sorry ahead of time! 

So, you know you're in trouble when you are changing your kid's diaper and they smile at you like this....

First overnight trip!

Yesterday, the roofers came to install our new roof-so Oreo went to stay at BLUE SPRING KENNEL with Auntie Pat and Anne and I went to my parents house in Woodbridge to get away from all the noise.  Anne and I ended up staying the night and we had a great time!  With Gramma and Hagi, we played, ate, cuddled, read stories, took a bath and had all sorts of fun times!  Click HERE to see pictures and videos of our fun day/night! 

Getting active

Anne is starting to get really active!  She is kicking and punching everything that is even close to her!  She loves the Shipman's bouncer (they loaned us)...especially the monkey toy that is hanging from the bar!  That monkey makes her laugh and smile SOOO much!  :)

She also loves to grab her bib and burp cloth now! 

I got her these wrist rattles...and they are too cute!  I put them on her wrists and sometimes her ankles and she is starting to realize they make noises!

She has been really interested in sitting up. She can't really hold her body there for long...but she likes to sit up and watch things going on! She even likes to chill in Kris' theater recliners!

I think she is also beginning to realize her feet are attached to her.  She has reached for them a few times already!  :)  And, she definitely stares at them quite a bit.  I put her kick piano in the car on the seat her carseat is on. She loves staring at it when I'm driving, and kicking it! She has also started reaching down and trying to grab her diaper when we are changing her...that's going to get messy one of these times!  This past weekend, while John and Teri were visiting, Anne finally realized that she likes her hand/fingers better than her pacifier.  We would put her pacifier in, she would spit it out and put her hand in instead!  Sometimes she would try to fake me out and pretend that she was looking over her shoulder...and then she would jam her hand in her mouth!!!  HA!  So...I've been much more vigilant about replacing her hand with the pacifier. 
 
Anne has been exploring her little voice, too!  She's been making all sorts of cute noises!  She does more and more "talking", laughing, and other cute noises! 

Portrait Innovations Pictures are up...

I uploaded the pictures from the Portrait Innovations appointment.  Click HERE to see more!

Lots of good 2 months news!

On her 2 month birthday, Kris bought a new car for us!  Here is a picture of it, but you can see more HERE. 

On Tuesday, she had some pictures done at PORTRAIT INNOVATIONS.  Here's one of the pictures... I'll post some more in a couple days.  But...they were amazing!  She did great, too!  She didn't cry or fuss the entire 2 hour appointment!  She did fall asleep the last 15 minutes though!  Afterwards, we went to North Point to visit some friends!  It was great to see everyone and Anne got lots of attention!  Later that day, my parents came up to visit, which was especially great since Kris was out of town and they were able to give me a little break so I could get some things done around the house! 

Yesterday, Anne had her 2 month check up!  She weighs 12 lbs, 1 oz.  She is 22 inches long.  Her head is 15 inches.  The doctor was very pleased with how she is doing!  She also got 2 big vaccinations and some rotovirus drops.  She took the shots like a champ...even though it broke my heart to see and hear her scream like that!  But...she didn't seem to be in too much pain the rest of the day.  Our pediatrician suggested that both Kris and I get the Tdap vaccination (Tetanus, Diptheria, Pertussis) so we are scheduled to do that on Wednesday. 

2 months old

What a way for Anne to "celebrate" her 2 month birthday!  ...

• We had to go to the pediatrician this morning because she has a diaper rash that won't go away.  It looks pretty bad and she was in pain.  She spent most of yesterday either screaming or sleeping on my chest.  Turns out she has a Strep infection.  :(  I feel horrible.  I know diaper rashes are a common occurence...but I still feel horrible.  After the rash clears up, I am going to do things very differently with her bum.  Thankfully, she has stopped screaming in pain.  We've temporarily discountined using wipes and Desitin.  We are using a squirt bottle of water, wet wash cloth, Vaseline, and a special ointment from the doctor...and at least 2 hours of NBT (naked bottom time).  Our doctor also gave her some antibiotics... I never knew there was so much to babies bums!  In any case, now I know...   At her appointment this morning, she weighed in at 12 pounds 5 ounces.  She did have a shirt and pants on, though...
• So....yesterday was a rough day for me.  Anne was doing pretty good until about 11AM.  And then from 11 AM-the end of the day, she was miserable.  She cried/screamed whenever she was awake.  She would only sleep on my chest or in my arms.  She would wake up screaming if I put her down.  By the time Kris got home from work I was close to a meltdown.  Then the night brought more excitement.  During her late night and middle of the night diaper changes, she soaked through a changing pad, a couple receiving blankets, TWO sleepers, and spit up all over another one.  And then...in the middle of the night I woke up to Oreo throwing up on the bed right next to me.  So...we had to change the ENTIRE bedding, including the mattress pad.  And then of course...we had to be up and out of the houes by 8:45 AM for her pediatrician appointment.  I'm definitely going to need a power nap today.  
• On a positive note, she's been enjoying looking at books and toys.  She sometimes will hit her activity mat toys.  She has been able to grab her pacifier...but I don't think she really knows what she is doing with it.  :)  She's also been smiling a whole heck of a lot!  She'll smile in response to our smiles, if she likes something we do...and when we walk into the room.  She can sit in her bumbo...but she doesn't like to do so for very long.  She's still building up those neck muscles!  She does love to roll over!  She can roll from tummy to back and recently she has been trying to roll back to tummy.  She's been making lots of cute little noises...we sometimes have nice little "conversations."  She also has started to respond to me sticking my tongue out at her-she'll stick hers out at me in response!  HA!  She also loves her pacifier!  She sometimes gets so excited that she grunts and pumps her hands and legs!  And she LOVES LOVES LOVES sucking on her hands! 
• Physically, she's getting pretty sturdy.  Her legs are really strong.  Her eyelashes has gotten SO long, thick and black!  They are gorgeous!!!  Her eyes are starting to darken.  Her belly button, which has been an outie since her umbilical cord fell off has gone in considerably!  Her hair has gotten long and thick enough that I need to comb it after her bath! 
• We have been slowly establishing a good routine.  I've been keeping a spreadsheet (color coded by category OF COURSE) that tracks her sleep, eating, and awake periods.  I feel like we are getting into a good rhythm.  She tends to follow the same nap schedule every day and "enjoys" our activity times. 
• Kris is looking at cars, as I type this.  He's been working himself into the ground trying to get the perfect car...I hope he finds it so he can get some R&R soon!  I think it's down to the Nissan Murano and Ford Edge...