Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!  This is the first year that we have started with a child (on the outside that is!) and it sure is great to be so blessed.  Although I will admit that I am sad that it's no longer the year Grace was born (I'm know, I'm weird!).  Everytime I sit down to write in this blog it hits me at how fast time is really going.  Next week Grace is already going to be 8 months old. 

We had a great Christmas and New Year.  Jeff and Eliana's (my niece) birthday is on Christmas Eve so that makes it even more fun, and this was Eliana's first birthday; which is also hard to believe.  I was able to be in the room when she was born and I can't believe that it was already a year ago.  My sister, her husband, and Eliana came back up to MI on the 16th and we had a first birthday party for Ellie at our house on the 18th.  She was so cute - I made a smash cake for her and when we gave it to her she wanted nothing to do with it.  My sister put frosting on her fingers to try and encourage her to dig in, and she got the most disgusted look on her face and tried to wipe the frosting off!  Of course, if we hadn't wanted her to get into the cake she probably would have smashed it all over :)  The party turned out great, and even though I was SO nervous about my sister asking me to make and decorate the cake, I think it turned out even better than I exepected - what do you think?

On the 22nd I threw a surprise dinner for Jeff at The Blue Tractor in Ann Arbor.  There were 18 adults, 2 kids, and 3 babies there, so it turned out great.  I even think he was surprised!!  If anyone hasn't been to The Blue Tractor, I highly recommend it - the food is great and it's not your average bbq place.  Unfortunately I didn't think to bring my camera, so I don't have any pictures :( 

We celebrated Christmas with my dad on the 23rd at our house and Grace got the cutest little airplane toy from him (my dad is an aircraft mechanic for Delta).  We then had Christmas Eve with my mom and sister at our house (it was crazy how many gifts Grace received!) and then we had a Christmas Day celebration with my grandparents and then we headed to Jeff's brother's house in Blissfield.  They have three kids so it was great for the cousins to have a chance to hang out.  On the 26th we had a party for Jeff's mom's side of the family and then another party in the evening for Jeff's dad's side of the family.  We have one final Christmas party here on Sunday and then we will finally be done.  Whew!!  Thankfully, Grace weathered all the celebrating relatively well.  I felt really guilty about how screwed up her schedule got but she handled it well for the most part.  There were definitely some cranky days!!

On the 27th I got together with two of my best friends from high school - one of them had a little boy last September and the other had a little girl in February.  One lives in CA and the other over by Detroit so we don't get to see each other very often.  It was so great to see all our babies play together, and so weird to think back on all our times together in high school and now we are all moms!! 

The big news in our house is that Grace has started crawling!  The first time we saw her do it was on the 18th - and I got her to do it by holding my cell phone out :)  It's not an official crawl - at first she would kind of roll up on her side and then propel herself forward by pushing her feet on the carpet and then rock to the other side and do the same thing, but now it is more like an army crawl and I have a feeling we will see the "normal" crawl within the next week or so.  Thankfully she doesn't crawl too far yet so we have some time to get used to having a mobile baby!  We did start doing some baby-proofing in the kitchen and still need to do more in the rest of the house.  It's hard to know where to stop in the baby-proofing - on one hand you want to make sure she's safe but on the other you don't want to lock up the entire house. 

I also think that Grace has truly started teething.  The last few nights have been pretty miserable - we went from having a baby who slept for 10 hours straight to having one that woke up every 45 minutes to hour and a half.  UGH!  Hopefully we can get through this soon and go back to the old schedule!!

A Busy Seven Month Old

My, how time flies!!  It's hard to believe it's almost Christmas, and it's hard to believe that Grace is already seven months old. 

We have been extremely busy the last few weeks.  The first Saturday of December our church always holds a bake sale, and the day before the sale everyone gets together to make German pretzels.  This year Grace was able to come - she didn't help roll any, but she provided the entertainment!  She even had a front row seat - in a few years she'll be a professional pretzel roller.  She spent her time finding out what would happen if she dropped her toys in the container of flour :) 

She's gotten so good at sitting by herself that we stopped using the baby sling in the bathtub and now she gets to sit in it like a big girl.  She looks so stinking cute sitting in there with her chubby little legs balancing her!  I'm not sure if there's anything cuter than a baby in a bathtub or a baby sleeping!

We put the Christmas tree up two weeks ago, and I thought Grace would be more impressed with it, but she doesn't seem to care too much.  She was able to put her "Baby's First Christmas" ornament on the tree (with daddy's help!) that we bought for her in Frankenmuth.  Even though I was surprised at how little interest she showed in the tree, I have a feeling this is the last year that this will be the case!

Her favorite thing to do these days is spit all over the place.  It's cute, until she starts doing it while we're trying to feed her :)  She says "mamama" and "lalalala" but still no "dadada", much to Jeff's disappointment.  She also rolls all over the place, and she's started to kind of play peekaboo.  I don't think she necessarily knows what she's doing, but she'll hold her burpcloth above her head and then pull it down.  We think she's starting to wave some too.  When she sees me or Jeff she'll hold out one of her arms and kind of point/wave it around.  I have to say every day just gets better and better with her.  I read somewhere that colicky babies turn out to be good problem solvers when they are adults, so I figure Grace will be a genius :) 

Yesterday was a big day for me - it was my official last day as an employee of Visteon Corp.  I've decided to be a stay-at-home mom.  It was a scary decision to make, but it really wasn't necessarily a hard one.  It's scary to walk away from a decent job that pays well, especially in this economy, but I can't say that I have missed the job at all while I have been on my leave.  The only thing I've really missed is the people.  But in the end, I know being Grace's mom is the most important thing I can do, and after everything I went through to have her I can't imagine leaving her with someone else all day long.  I don't want to miss a moment of her life!  There have been days when taking care of her seems impossible and never-ending, but I know that every job in life feels like that sometimes, and I don't know if there's any other job that is more rewarding than watching your baby grow.   

I've been taking a Wilton decorating class at JoAnn's the last two weeks.  I had done some cake decorating in 4H when I was a kid, but that was more years ago than I care to think about!  I'd been wanting to take these classes for years, but with work schedules, etc. I never had the time.  I figured this could be "mommy's evening out" and I could finally take them!  I just finished the basics class and will be taking the fondant class in January.  What do you think of my final project (ignore the non-smooth icing!!)?

Hopefully I'll have a chance to post at least one more time before the end of 2010.  Lord knows I'll have enough to talk about - this Saturday we're having my niece's first birthday party at our house, Jeff's birthday is on Christmas Eve, we have two places to go on Christmas Day and the 26th, and we're having a New Year's Eve party at our house.  I'm not going to know what to do with myself once the holidays are done!!

Grace's First Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!  Grace had her fair share of celebrating - we had the Holleran Thanksgiving on Thursday, Thanksgiving at my mom's on Friday, and we hosted the Weidmayer Thanksgiving on Saturday.  It's been a busy weekend!  I thought it was interesting that the turkey we cooked for the Weidmayer Thanksgiving was bigger than Grace :) 

She had her six month check-up on the 15th, and she's still a tiny thing!  She weighed in at 15 lbs, 4 ozs and was 25 1/2" long.  Both were in the 37th percentile. 

Grace has changed a lot in the last few weeks.  She is starting to try to figure out the whole crawling thing - she likes to use the carpet to pull herself forward.  She mainly gets to what she wants by rolling - once she decides she wants something, she goes for it!  She is also super-fast at grabbing things.  It amazes me how quickly she sees something and then grabs for it.  We call her "Quick-Draw McGraw" :)  I think I won't have to diet once she starts crawling - I'll probably lose ten pounds just chasing her around!!

My sister, her husband, and her daughter were able to come up from North Carolina for the holiday.  Her daughter, Eliana, will be one on 12/24, so she and Grace are only about 5 months apart.  We haven't seen them since July when both girls were baptized, so it was great to see them, and to see the two girls play with eachother.  They still don't interact too much, but Grace was interested in Eliana's hair!!  Grace was also not intimidated that Eliana was bigger than her - if Eliana was playing with a toy and Grace wanted it, she just took it.  I think we'll have to work on the sharing thing once she's a little older! 

We tried to have the girls pics taken together in their Christmas dresses, but it was like they had planned on making it a disaster.  When one was happy the other was crying, and then they would switch roles.  We got a lot of pics of them crying!!  To be fair, they are both fighting colds so neither of them was at their best.

Grace has also started laughing more.  I had been disappointed at how little she laughed, since there's not much better than hearing a baby belly laugh!  I discovered that she's ticklish in her armpits, and she also cracks up when you throw food (like grapes or popcorn) and catch it with your mouth.  The other day Jeff and I were playing tennis on the Wii and she thought daddy was pretty funny looking when he played tennis! 

She's started making more word sounds - she says baba, lala, and sometimes mama.  She still doesn't have any teeth yet, so sometimes when she makes these sounds she looks like a little old man!! 

She is eating more solids too - she still prefers the vegetables over the fruit.  We also learned that bananas are a great cure for constipation in babies :)  And the biggest news of all - Grace has now slept swaddle-free both at night and during naptime for a week now - HALLELUJAH!!!

On Sunday we took my sister and her husband to the Red Wings game.  Her husband is in the Marines, and we've been to games before where they will show the names of all the servicemen and women that are at the game on the big screen.  We let them know that he would be there, thinking that they would put his name on the screen.  I'm not sure if that night there was a special tribute or if they've changed what they do to honor the vets that are there, but they lined all of them up and announced their names and showed their faces on the screen - it was awesome.  And the crowd is great about it, too - they all stand up and clap and scream.  I think my sister's husband thought it was pretty cool. 

Well, that's about it for now.  Hopefully I'll be able to post more soon - I just went through our plans for Christmas, and right now our next free weekend is in 2011!!

Happy Six Month Birthday Sweetie!

It seems like I was just posting that it was Grace's four month birthday...now she's already six months old!!  I can't even imagine that six months from now will be her first birthday - AGH!  She sure looks different that her one month picture - this was the first time she was actually taller than the stuffed animal.  She's also a lot happier in the six month picture than the one month :)  She sure was a cranky baby those first few months.  There were times when I didn't think either of us would make it to six months.  Thankfully things have gotten (relatively) easier.  She still is a hothead but finally seems to be calming down and realizing that her needs don't need to be met instantly.  I do still feel sorry for any future boys she decides to date - weak men need not apply!!

Speaking of boys, we've had our fair share of baby boys being born these last two weeks.  Grace's godparents welcomed a little boy on 11/3, and Jeff's cousin just had her second boy on the 5th.  Some friends of ours just had twins on Tuesday, so it seems to be baby season around here.  I wonder what was going on nine months ago? :) 

Grace still continues to change almost daily.  She does a lot better at sitting by herself when she's propped up against something - she tips over pretty fast when she sits up alone.  We've also broken her of needing to be swaddled, at least at night.  We still have to swaddle her during the day if we want her to take more than a half hour nap.  It was a pretty painful process at first - the first night she woke up 25 times, at least.  The next night she went to sleep right away, but I think that was because she was so exhausted from the night before.  Since then she usually cries for 10 minutes or so before falling asleep, but I can live with that!  The interesting thing is that she likes to sleep on her stomach a lot or her left side.  She spent most of her time in the womb on her left side, so I guess that makes sense.  It's still hard not to freak out when I see her sleeping that way!

She's started eating more solids - so far she's had sweet potatoes, peas, and carrots.  She's not a big fan of the peas!!  We bought a high chair for her and she enjoys sitting in it, but I think she enjoys eating the straps more than the food.  Pretty much everything goes in her mouth these days.  She thinks we're pretty mean parents because we don't let her eat paper!!

On Thursday we traveled to Bay City for a cross country coaches clinic - we were supposed to stay both Thursday and Friday night, but Thursday night did not go well so we came home on Friday afternoon.  Thanks to some rude people at the hotel, Grace woke up at 11:30 wailing and we had a hard time getting her back to sleep that night.  I think I ended up sleeping about 3 hours and don't remember much of the clinic!!  We did stop at Frankenmuth on our way home and got Grace her first stocking and her first ornament. 

Well, that's about all the news from here.  I just realized that after next weekend we have something booked for every weekend thru the end of the year.  I guess we'll have to enjoy our last free weekend!!

Happy Halloween!!

Well, my plan of posting a blog every week sure isn't happening!  Oh well, at least I have a good excuse :) 

Grace celebrated her first Halloween, and boy, was she a cutie!!  I don't think she got much out of it, but it was still fun to see her dressed up.  We went thru Manchester on the 31st with some friends, and it was so neat watching the other kids and realizing that in the next year or two that will be Grace running around saying, "Trick or treat!!"  It's amazing how the holidays take on new meaning when you can see them through

your kids' eyes.  It makes me very excited for the future!

The cross country season is winding down.  Last Saturday we had our regional meet, and Christy (Jeff's sister) qualified for state as an individual, so we'll be going to MIS this Saturday.  Hopefully she will be able to break the current sophomore record at Manchester - she's only 13 seconds away with her most recent PR.  I can't believe the season is already over - it feels like it was just a few weeks ago that we were running in our first meet. 

Well, I don't really have much else to say for this post.  Grace rolls regularly from her front to her back and is starting to tolerate tummy-time a little more.  She is also getting pretty good at sitting by herself for a few seconds at a time.  As long as she doesn't try to move she can sit pretty well.  She still LOVES to stand all the time.  We got out her Johnny Jump-Up tonight, but our trim is too fancy so the only place she can use it is on the doorframe of her closet.  She seemed to like it, but was more interesting in biting the fabric than jumping in it.  I think until these teeth come in we are going to have a hard time getting her to do much else besides bite everything she can get her mouth on! 

Oh, please pray for me and Jeff - we are going to try to not swaddle her tonight at bedtime.  It should be interesting....!!

Five Months of Joy

Well, maybe not five whole months of joy, since the first two months were pretty rough, but close enough!!  Grace celebrated her five month birthday on Wednesday; it's still hard to believe.  At first I didn't think she had really changed that much in the last month besides learning to roll from her back to her front but as I think about it she really has changed a lot.  Not any huge milestones, but important ones.  She is so aware and interested in the world around her, and NOTHING is safe from those little hands!!  She especially loves hair - even when I pull it up she manages to find any loose strands and PULL!  Plus, she wants to put everything in her mouth.  The other day she started sucking on my chin - I guess she puts new meaning to the phrase "sucking face" :)  She also likes to grab your nose.  Neither Jeff nor I wear glasses, but she's fascinated when we meet other people who wear them.  I think we might see our first tooth soon - she's really drooling and biting on everything too. 

I am worried about when the "terrible twos" start - she already tries to have temper tantrums.  Sometimes I think that if she could throw herself on the floor and pound her fists she would.  When she's sweet, she's very sweet, but when she's mad - look out!!  Right now when she gets mad she screams really hard and deep and her face turns bright red.  I don't know what a five month old has to be so angry about - I tell her she needs to enjoy life now 'cause it doesn't get any easier than this!

We've also been working at introducing her to rice cereal.  The first time she had it she really didn't care too much, but when I gave it to her again a few days later she ate it like a professional, but since then she's been pretty wishy-washy about it.  I don't know if I should start trying to give it to her twice a day or just sticking with once a day, and I'm not sure how long I should wait to give her anything else.  At least breastfeeding is simple!!

The last two weeks have been pretty busy - lots of cross country meets and places to go.  Last Friday I took Grace to work (Jeff and I both work at the ACH plant in Saline) because my department always has a tailgate lunch the Friday before the Michigan/Michigan State game and Grace was a hit.  It was nice to see everyone I work with, although my boss did ask me if I've decided if I'm going back in January.  I told him I'm still not sure.  I keep agonizing over the decision.  In September we kept track of everything we spent, and I put it into the computer yesterday and we are right on the bubble.  I think we were about $75 in the black with just Jeff's salary and what I make working at church and coaching cross country.  It just seems a little close for comfort, but I can't imagine leaving Grace at a daycare every day.  Ugh!!

So, that about sums up the last two weeks.  We have our conference meet on Wednesday for cross country, and then we actually have next weekend off.  It's hard to believe there's only two more meets left of the regular season!!

A Time to Remember

I can't believe it is October already.  Less than 3 months until Christmas - AGH!  Of course, Christmas will be a new adventure this year with Grace.  Even though she won't really understand a lot of it I am so excited to see Christmas through her eyes.
This week has been pretty good, although a little bittersweet.  Friday marked the three year anniversary since we lost our first baby.  On one hand it feels like it was just yesterday that it happened and on the other hand it feels like a different lifetime ago.  I still remember the doctor telling us it was ectopic and that I had to have surgery right away - it all happened so fast it was hard to process everything (for more details, visit my first posting).  This year has been the first year where the pain has dulled somewhat now that we finally have our little miracle with us. 
On Thursday Grace decided to start rolling from her back to her front.  We had gone on a walk that night and I mentioned to Jeff that it didn't seem like Grace had really had any major milestones this month, and she must have heard me, because as soon as we got back from the walk she did it!  I guess she wanted to prove Mom wrong :)  The funny thing is that she is bound and determined to roll over, but as soon as she does she gets really mad because she hates being on her stomach.  I guess she still needs to learn cause and effect!!

Yesterday the three of us participated in the Big House Big Heart Run.  Jeff ran the 5K and Grace and I walked.  It was a little chilly but overall a nice day.  Grace fell asleep after the first 1/2 mile and slept until the very end.  It is a really cool race - you get to run down the tunnel of the U of M stadium and finish on the 50 yard line of the field.  Hopefully next year we'll be able to do it again.  A friend of mine had triplets three years ago that were born at 27 weeks and they spent almost 6 months in the NICU at Mott's so I have a special reason to support the race, since it benefits Mott's. 
On Saturday we had a cross country meet at Hudson Mills - the kids all did really well even though it was a pretty miserable day - about 50 degrees and rainy/windy.  We have another meet on Tuesday and then again on Saturday.  On Friday all the kids are coming to our house for a spaghetti dinner - at least this forces me to clean the house :)

So, another busy week, but it's hard to believe there's only about a month left of cross country.  I still have to decide if I'm going to back to work in January - any advice?