spring

This past weekend we celebrated being outside, and we celebrated Easter. On Saturday we took Arabelle to the park for the first time, and she loved sliding and swinging...I see a lot of park days ahead of us this summer. On Sunday we celebrated Easter at church and then stayed for a brunch afterwards. Arabelle met the easter bunny and there was no screaming...it was fun to see her reaction. Tomorrow morning we are flying to Atlanta for Andy & Crystal's wedding. It should be fun! Arabelle has changed so much it will be fun to see her play with people now. And, she's crawling...nonstop crawling. We have a few videos of it, I might get around to posting them soon.

quack quack

so the other day we were playing with arabelle's stuffed animals and she had quite the giggle with her dad. Just one of a few videos we have of her doing some interesting things lately, but, not crawling yet....maybe soon!

in other news, we are having quite a few storms up here this week...rain sleet and snow. Arabelle and I will be glad when spring is here so we can go on walks and enjoy some sunshine. That's about it for us!

Snow day lull

So today we are officially taking a snow day. We are expecting a blizzard here so John stayed home, I canceled my Wednesday church activities, and we are basically taking a day to get stuff done. The past month has been crazy. We were in Atlanta for 2 weeks for Christmas and New Years, then when we got home, I suffered a severe back injury. Never have thrown out my back before, and it wasn't one of those I moved a certain way and something popped injuries. We went to the doctor and she decided that my pregnancy messed up my lower back and my hips and my body is still adjusting. So, after being in the bed for a week, with John pulling mommy and daddy duty, he got the flu! So then it was a week on the sofa for him. All the while, laundry and dishes piled up everywhere and we just recently got back on track with our schedules. So other than cold weather, school and work, not much else is happening. And with that, here are some fun pictures of miss Arabelle....who is growing quite quickly these days.

Carseat!

It's that time to upgrade Arabelle to a new car seat. Read here about the one I really want to have!

yep, I'm a slacker

So it's been 2 months since I last blogged anything. Call me lazy, call me negligent, call me idle. Or, call me a mom whose 5 month old doesnt take naps anymore! Yep, that's right. Arabelle has become a catnapper. Unless she is really tired, then she sleeps for like 3 or 4 hours. There is nothing consistant about her naps and when she is actually sleeping, I find myself doing other, less bloggy things, like dishes or laundry or dishes or laundry. Wait, do I do anything else? Yes, occassionally. But, I'm not complaining because I am actually at home during the day! Since I last blogged, there have been a few changes around our house. The biggest one being that we decided I would not go back to teaching. I had intended to return on November 2nd. Sometime in October we started trying to figure out how it was going to work with me working and Arabelle in daycare. We actually found a really great place for her at an in home daycare, with a very nice woman. But, as we were trying to figure it out, we (I especially) couldnt come to terms with putting her daycare. It was not an easy decision for us to make. But, ultimately, John and I both feel like this is the best thing for our family right now. So, the next big change around our house is that I am working at home as a Christian Education Director for a small church. It just so happens that I found this position right after I decided not to go back to school. The church is small; been operating for only a year now, and I am in charge of numerous things relating to Christian Education. So in other news since I last blogged...we went to Atlanta in October to have Arabelle baptized at NUMC...it was a very special day for all three of us. We were also there for my cousin's wedding; it was beautiful...we had a great time until Arabelle melted down at the reception. John is trudging through school...almost done! His research is going really well...last week he got some new data that's never been seen before in the protein he is working with...I would give you details, but I dont know where to start. Arabelle is changing daily now. It's crazy to think about how much she has grown in these first few months. Christmas should be exciting; lots of traveling and family visits. Will try to update more often! Recent pictures to follow! Maybe a video if nap time lasts a little longer....

2 month stats

Last week we had Arabelle's 2 month check up. She's just over 12 lbs and is 23 3/4 inches long. She also got her immunizations which was only a little traumatic. After a little crying she was ok. She did run a fever that afternoon but was ok by that night. This past weekend we actually went on our first extended excursion...to the mall! John had to take his mac to the apple store...he spilled coke on the keyboard...so we all went on Saturday morning. Arabelle did ok...in the past she's been very sensitive to her environment so anything outside of the norm usually sent her into panic meltdown mode. But this time she did ok. We were able to go to the Apple store, baby gap where we got her some fall clothes that were on sale, nike town to look for new shoes for me (pregnancy made my feet grow a whole size...not happy about it), and gymboree. After the mall we even took a sleeping in the bjorn arabelle to Moe's for lunch and to REI. We were really excited about being able to get out and about with her for such a long time. It's really the first normal running around kind of day we've had since she was born. We think she's starting to realize that going places and doing different things is fun and that she can sleep anywhere. Once we got home she actually wouldnt go to sleep...I think it's because she got overstimulated....but that night, she slept from 9 until 4 in her own room! In her crib! She was either really tired or she's starting to catch on to this night time sleeping. So after two months of frequent nighttime wakings, sleeping in a swing, afternoon fussiness, crib resistance, and general abandonment of everything we thought was normal...things are starting to return to normal...but it's a new normal.

Here are some pictures...pay attention to the last two...do you notice the similarities...specifically the ones on the sides of their heads?

labor day & sleep

For the three day weekend we didn't do too much to celebrate. We did take Arabelle to her first cookout party; at John's advisor's house. We quickly discovered that going to parties or any kind of adult function is going to be drastically different now that we have a kid. I spent most of the evening carrying her around in the baby bjorn so that she wouldnt fuss in the middle of conversation, and as a result spent most of my time talking with a 5 year old. His name is Milo and he befriended me pretty soon after realizing that I wasn't going to just sit around and talk like the other adults there. So the three of us had fun discovering bugs and plants in the yard until he had to go to bed and until Arabelle got sick of pretending to like the bjorn when it was so hot outside. We left soon after the crying became uncontrollable and the car ride home was exhausting for all of us.

This past weekend we had some good friends bring us dinner on Saturday night. Tasso and John met last year through a ride sharing program at UConn...he is a professor there and Karen is doing post-doc work at Yale. They got married this summer in San Francisco and then honeymooned in Hawaii....so we got to hear all about their adventures while we dined on the dinner they made...which was great...Tasso is greek and they both are great conversationalists so it was nice to have people over who do more than eat and spit up on you.

Speaking of spitting up...Arabelle as of late cannot (or will not) sleep on her back because she wakes herself up from spitting up so much. As a result she is still sleeping in the swing in our room. I was hoping by this point, she is two months old this week, she would at least start the night out in her room. I wasnt really expecting her sleep through the night yet...but she does pretty well....goes to bed between 8 and 9 and sleeps until 3 or so to eat, then back down until 7 usually. But, the biggest obstacle is getting her to sleep in her crib flat on her back. The other issue is that she still has quite the startle reflex so even for naps she has to be swaddled tightly or she wakes herself up soon after leaving my arms. If she dozes off at any point during the day I have to either sit and hold her while she sleeps or swaddle her to ensure that she sleeps a nap's worth...which inevitably wakes her and then getting her back to sleep for a nap is never easy. Things have to be just right in order for her to go to sleep and if we miss the window or if she wakes up fully for whatever reason....swaddling issues, spitting up, loud noises like dogs named Parker barking.......it takes forever to get her settled and sleeping again. I keep telling myself that she is only two months old and that if we need to sleep train her there will be plenty of time for that. I am still hoping any sleep training we do is going to be un-traumatic, but Im starting to have doubts.

Now for some pictures. These two are for your comparison. She is in the same outfit...first on the day she came home from the hospital at 4 days old and then at 8 weeks....crazy that she grew and changed so much!!! This outfit by the way just about doesnt fit...she is too tall for 0-3 month old things so we are starting to wear mostly 3-6 month outfits...she has officially outgrown the newborn stuff...which is sad to thing about...she will never wear some of those cute onsies again!

tiny dancer

So when we were preparing for Arabelle's arrival, one of the purchases we made was a video camera.  I know, it's so cliche, but, in my opinion a necessary purchase because as a kid who grew up without a video camera I would like to actually witness the evidence of me running around the house singing "Beat It" by Michael Jackson.  Yes, apparently he was one of my favorite artists as a kid, but I don't remember having such fondness for the one-gloved entertainer.  

This video was from the other day and because I love having a Mac I decided to actually see what I could do with iMovie.  

As you can see...she's pretty cute.  Despite this cuteness, little miss (a nickname we have come up with; long story so I will save for another post) had another first this week and hasn't been feeling well.

That's right.  She's got an eye infection.  As first I thought she just had general eye gunkiness but then the gunky got gunkier.  So our trusty pediatrician called in this ointment.  Have you ever tried to put ointment in the eye of a 6 week old?  I don't recommend it.  Screaming ensues every time and it takes four hands.  The eye is looking better though so we will keep truckin.  I imagine the blurriness is what she dealt with as the gunk took over.