5 Months Old!

 Dear Scarlett,

You turned 5 months old on Wednesday!  We can hardly believe you're just one month shy of being half a year old!  Look how much you've grown:

You are still in 0-3 month clothes and size 1 diapers. Even though you are a tiny peanut, you have more than doubled your size since you were born!

Speaking of your size, we spent 2 days in the hospital with you at the beginning of this month.  Your pediatrician was so worried that you only weighed 10 pounds at your 4-month well check!  She wanted the doctors to monitor you at the hospital and do some blood work, just to make sure everything was fine.  After 2 very long days, we found out that you are totally healthy and normal!  Which we knew all along.  Better safe than sorry, I guess.  And you seemed to really enjoy the 2 straight days of constant attention from both Mommy and Daddy!

Last month you were going through a fussy stage, but this month you went through a happy, smiley stage! As soon as one of us (Mommy or Daddy) walks into the room, you smile immediately when you see us.  And if you wake up you usually don't cry.  Instead, you just break out in the biggest grin as soon as you see one of us, or any of your other favorite people.  And when Mommy is feeding you, sometimes you'll just stop, look up, give me a giant smile, and then go right back to eating. Your smile is my favorite thing in the world!  The only thing that might be better is your laugh!

When you get laughing, you almost can't contain yourself.  You just start chuckling and gasping and you close your eyes and open  your mouth so wide!  It's adorable.

Speaking of gasps, you make the funniest sounds!  When you get hyper, you do these long, high pitched gasps. The best thing we can compare them to are velociraptor sounds from Jurassic Park.  Then you will just coo and squeal in the highest pitch possible.  

Lately you have been a lot more into toys.  You love your activity mat and bouncy seat, because you love to grab at the little hanging toys.  You also love little stuffed animals (mostly because you love to put them in your mouth!).  You like rattles and anything that makes fun noises.  You also seem really interested in people's clothing and jewelry these days.  You love long, dangly necklaces, pretty scarves, anything with a collar, and especially Mommy and Aunt Di's long hair! 

You've recently started to really splash around and play during bath time too.  You have a tiny boat that squirts water, and you love it when mommy sprays you with it.  You love to try to catch the water as it squirts out.  

Your interest in books continues to grow.  You have one lift-a-flap book that seems to be your current favorite.  You love to look at the pictures.  You haven't quite figured out the difference between 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional things, and you'll try to elusively pull the objects right off of the page.  It keeps you busy for awhile, at least!

You are still constantly learning new things.  You seem to be noticing much more about your environment.  Notably, the cats.  Ellie seems to be your favorite, but that might just be because Gabby doesn't come within 10 feet of you most of the time.  Ellie seems to be similarly curious about you, so you often have very long staring contests.  You seem really interested in her whiskers and tail, but Mommy and Daddy won't let you get close enough to grab them, much to your dismay. 

You are also rolling from your stomach to your back more often.  Still not totally consistently, though.  And you are so, so close to rolling from your back to your stomach!  You get almost the whole way over, and then your darn arm just gets in the way!  Mommy and Daddy think you're strong enough to do it, but just can't quite figure out the logistics yet.  Ha!

You're also getting closer and closer to being able to sit on your own.  You can sit up of you just have a little support on your lower back and torso.  I think in another month or two, you'll be doing it!  

You're finally able to find your thumb to suck on it instead of shoving your whole hand in your mouth when you are getting sleepy.  It's kind of nice, because a thumb can't get lost like a pacifier!

This was a big month!  You spent a lot of time with your grandparents and aunts, you celebrated your first Thanksgiving, and even "helped" shop for your first Christmas tree!  Christmas is going to be so much fun this year!  We are so excited for what the next month has in store!

Here is what you looked like this month: 

We love you so much!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

Christmas Tree Shopping, 2013

2 posts in one week?  You can tell I had time off for Thanksgiving!

Black Friday has become sort of a holiday of its own in our house.  Not because we go shopping in the traditional sense, but because it is Christmas Tree Day!  I started the morning by making some cinnamon rolls and hot cocoa.  Breakfast of champions!

 I dressed Scarlett up in her new Christmas outfit and my favorite hat ever (it was the first thing I bought when I found out I was pregnant a year ago).  She was super excited!

 And can we all just take a minute and check out this adorable Santa on her bum?  I can't handle it.

We headed out to the Christmas tree farm and picked out our tree!  We had gotten a few inches of snow (okay, 8) last week, and that made the whole thing feel extra festive!  Here are Scarlett and I looking for the perfect tree.  I promise I am not missing teeth, and Scarlett does not have a black eye.  The shadows in this picture are weird.

And here she is with Luke...possibly my favorite picture of them together ever.

We got home and Luke put the tree up and started putting the lights on

And this girl sat completely mesmerized in her Bumbo Seat the entire time.  She's like, "I don't know what the heck you are doing Daddy, but it looks awesome."  

All of this was happening while Home Alone was on in the background.  We bought the blu-ray set of Home Alone and Home Alone 2.  Uh, for Scarlett.  Ahem. 

We hung the ornaments, and I couldn't help but reminisce about the special significance of each one.  It's what I do...

This special ornament was from my grandma the year we got married.  Extra special this year as I am missing her so much.

Here's the finished product!

Then I had to do an entire photoshoot with this cutie:

"This Christmas thing is going to be fun!"

 "Wait a minute, I get presents?!"

"I didn't know there were going to be presents!"

 "I better be good this month!  No more screaming like a crazy person when I get mad!  Or getting distracted or falling asleep while Mommy's trying to feed me!"

"Okay, turn me around so I can look at these lights some more." 

"You think you can just sit me here when you want me to be occupied, don't you?"

 "Hahaha!  Not a chance!  The novelty will wear off by tomorrow.  But right now, I think this is pretty cool!"

Today I went out to do some Christmas shopping, and couldn't pass up the chance to buy a little tree for Scarlett's room.  I told Luke, I know she's too young to really appreciate it, but I waited enough Christmases without a baby...we are going to do it up right now that she's here!  And she really does seem to like it.  If nothing else, we can see it glowing in the background while we all hang out in the living room each night.  It makes it feel extra cozy!

 A few other Christmas touches in her room:

 I can't imagine a more perfect start to the Christmas season.  I have about 90% of my Christmas shopping done, and all the gifts that are here are wrapped.  I am determined to enjoy this Christmas season, and not be out shopping and stressed at the last minute!  Now the rest of the month can be spent baking, watching Christmas movies, hanging out with my family, and oh, finishing up the semester.  I am not looking forward to that last part!  But at least I am 3 weeks from being done with another semester.  and then I'll have 2-3 weeks off!  I've never been so ready for a break!

Thanksgiving 2013

I am so thankful that the end of the semester is near!  It has been a crazy whirlwind, and I've nearly lost my mind multiple times.  I wish I were exaggerating...

I sadly cannot find time to blog or read blogs.  I have a whole catch-up post in my mind, waiting to be written, but who knows when I'll have time to write it.  Here are the highlights in bullet points, in case I never write it:

• My 29th birthday was this past month. It was excellent and involved a shopping day trip with Luke and Scarlett.  Oh, and I got a ticket to go see Wicked at the end of the month for my birthday, so I'm pretty much over-the-moon excited!
• Scarlett had a hospital stay a few weeks ago to have a few tests done, and monitoring to see why she wasn't gaining weight very fast.  The verdict?  Nothing is wrong with her and she's just small.  Duh.  Luke and I were beyond frustrated with all of that, because we knew in our guts nothing was wrong with her.  This has been the story of her life so far, even before she was born!
• Luke and I watched the entire Breaking Bad series in 2.5 months.  It is the best, most intense TV series I've ever watched, and I'm sad it's over!

Okay, so that about catches us up.  So for the rest of this post, I'll share some of our pictures and memories from Scarlett's first Thanksgiving!

Luke and Scarlett and I watched the Macy's Parade in our pajamas, while we got ready in shifts.  I love watching the parade every year if for no other reason than the fact that it's tradition.

I think Scarlett is really starting to recognize familiar faces and voices, and Daddy is definitely one of her favorites.  Already her hero...my heart just about explodes daily:

At noon we headed over to my Grandpa's house.  This was such a unique day for me, because while it was my first Thanksgiving with Scarlett, it was also my first holiday without my Grandma.  Very bittersweet.  My grandpa, mom, and aunt tried to set the table like she would have wanted, and I think they did a great job.  I'm so glad almost the entire family was able to be together to celebrate, and I'm sure my grandpa really appreciated it too.

You can tell they're both thinking, "where's the food?  I'm ready to eat!"  Ha!

I feel like in future years when I come back to read this post, it will be very apparent that plaid was very "in" this year!

I love this picture of Scarlett and my cousin Rachel

...And this one of my mom and sister with Scarlett

...And especially this one of my Grandpa with her.  She sure does love her great grandpa!  Ever since she was just a few weeks old, she has always seemed completely captivated by him.  I think you can see that in this picture.

You can tell by the next few pictures that things started to get a little goofy after lunch.  There's my dad, making this kids laugh as always

Family Picture...our first Thanksgiving as a family of 3 (unless you count last year when Scarlett was the size of a pea!)

After Thanksgiving at my Grandpa's, we headed over to Luke's Aunt and Uncle's house to celebrate with his family.  I didn't get too many pictures here because I was busy playing Scattegories the whole time.  I can never pass up a good word game.  However, I discovered on Thursday that I'm possibly the worst Scattegories player every.  I kid you not, I was worried that I had somehow developed Aphasia.  (the future speech therapist in me is scared of too many things going wrong!)  I could not think of any words!  Oh well, we'll just chalk it up to mommy brain.

Anyway, we had a good time!  But clearly Scarlett was starved for attention...

There she is with Luke's cousin Jane

We got a family photo before the end of the day

You can tell Scarlett was getting pretty exhausted by this point!

But not too tired for some smooches from Aunt Di and Aunt Moey!  Her aunts sure do love her!

To end the day, we stopped at my Grandma's place for awhile.  I didn't get any pictures there, but it was nice to catch up with everyone!  We came home, crashed on the couch, and had a Netflix night with a sleeping Scarlett in my arms.  

Thanksgiving was so much fun!  Holidays are going to be so different with Scarlett.  I know she's too young to really know what's going on, but seeing everything through her eyes just makes it seem so much more special.  I just fee like my heart is so full!  

4 Months Old!

Dear Scarlett,

You are 4 months old today!  You just keep growing and growing.  Everyone has been commenting lately on how big you've gotten.

Here's a picture of the day we brought you home, next to a picture of you at 4 months old.  What a difference in a third of a year.

You are in mostly 0-3 month clothes, and size 1 diapers.  You have your 4 month well check on Thursday, but we would guess you weight about 11 pounds.

You have become a bit more independent this month.  You are supporting your head completely on your own now.  When we're holding you, you like to be facing out.  You're very curious, and you like to see what's going on!

Toward the beginning of your fourth month, you seemed to be going through a fussy phase.  Mommy and Daddy were running out of ideas on how to keep you happy and entertained, when you just snapped out of it a week or so ago.  You're back to being the happiest baby we could imagine, so thank you!!

You love to listen to mommy read books.  You are also really into your activity mat lately.  You love to kick or grab the hanging animals.  You are very interested in things that are bright colors or make silly noises.

You are learning new things each day.  You roll from your belly to your back sometimes, and you're very close to rolling from your back to your belly.  You can roll to your side but not quite the whole way over. I'm sure you will any day now!  You're also grabbing at things now.  Anything and everything, from your blanket, to daddy's beard, to mommy's face!  I think you are just amazed that you've learned how to use your hands.  Pretty much anything you can get your hands on goes straight to your mouth, too.  You also constantly blow raspberries and it's about the most adorable thing in the world.

Your little personality is showing through more and more.  You are so silly!  You are constantly making us laugh.  Lately, you've been laughing a lot too.  And I'm not talking about a few giggles here and there.  You've been full out belly laughing to the point where you almost can't contain yourself.  Just yesterday, I was listening to the Wicked soundtrack.  I was singing the song "Popular" and getting right in your face, and you thought it was the funniest thing ever!  Then later last night, you lost it when I was simply nodding my head "yes."  You thought it was hysterical!  Daddy tried to get it on video, but of course you stopped as soon as you saw the phone come out.  Typical.

You did a lot of fun things this month too.  You went on lots of shopping trips, another trip to White House Fruit Farms, you visited some of your friends, went to some baby showers, watched football with Daddy, went to your first trunk-or-treat night on Halloween dressed as Princess Leia, visited Great Grandma W and Great Grandpa S a few times, met your cousin Connor who was born 3 weeks after you, celebrated Mommy's birthday with a big day out on the town...you even spent your first weekend away from home when we went to help Aunt Julie and Uncle Andy move into their now house.  What a busy month!  You better get used to it, girl, because the holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas) are coming!  And we are sure to be on the go a lot! 

Here's what you looked like this month: 

Still getting cuter and cuter!

We love you so much!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy