July 29, 2010

4 Month Appointment

So I braved it alone this time. It's not that I think I'm incapable of accompanying my daughter to her doctor's appointment by myself, it's just that my level of spazness greatly clouds my judgment when I'm alone with Lela and the massive amount of baby gear required.

Like, I walk in the door with the car seat in the crook of my arm and my diaper on the same arm (spaz!) and I see the reception counter. There is a low counter next to the high counter behind which the first receptionist sits. As I walk through the door and toward the counter I'm thinking "Ok, do I put the car seat on the floor or on the low counter? Floor? Counter? Floor? Gotta be the floor. It's safer, right?" It was actually an easy decision for me because I'd been to the doctor's office before. You can't imagine the severity of the spaz moment that would have occurred if I'd never been there before. I would have made the same decision, but it would have taken me longer and I may have even stood there a minute and attempted to put the baby on the counter before I decided it was unsafe, all the while avoiding eye contact with the receptionist because that means she can't see me, right?

Every small decision I make is like that. Even choosing a seat in the waiting room can be difficult. Again, I'd been there before so I chose a seat I'd previously occupied so there would be no surprises. No chance was I going to sit in the alcove with the chilren's toys in the center. This is where all the outgoing moms sit so their children can play while they talk to the other moms. Social interaction is way too risky in this kind of situation.

Sometimes I think I might have some sort of chemical imbalance and other times I chalk it up to my painfully analytical mind. I'd be curious to know if any other analytical minds suffer the way I do.

Actually, the experience wasn't too bad and I think I'm getting better with age. Dr. Shirley definitely puts me at ease between the incessant compliments about Lela and the unending affirmation of my parenting skills. She apparently puts Lela at ease as well.
I feel bad that she fell asleep right before the vaccinations (again) because she had to be so rudely awakened :( She screamed of course, but she calmed down pretty quickly.

Dr. Shirley was impressed when I told her Lela could roll over. She said "Wow, that's ahead of schedule!" Then that night Lela rolled over from her back to her stomach and then onto her back again! Dr. Shirley said that was a 6 month milestone! I always knew she would be a prodigy :) (Please don't tell me if you know of a child who has achieved these milestones just as quickly. I would like to live in ignorant bliss as long as possible.) I'm just sure she'll be famous one day, of course she'll be modest about it though.

Well, apparently I'm famous now. Tuesday night I went to Aunt Danielle's lingerie shower (ok, she's not quite an aunt yet, but as of Saturday it will be official!) and the maid of honor told me she reads my blog! (Shout out to Melissa :)) Now I know you're thinking, "That's just one more person, that doesn't make you famous." But did I mention that she is a college student? Things spread like wildfire when you're in college. I am bound to be a household name in a month. (No pressure, Melissa.) Although that phenomenon may be limited to my college generation. I was in college at the same time as the people who created Facebook and YouTube. Everybody knew about those sites in a matter of days. But I know I was always looking for some kind of distraction from studying. So come on kids, come read about a housewife with a baby whose life is extraordinarily normal in every way . . .

Ok, so I may not be reaching out to the best target audience, but I can still dream.

Anyway, the shower was a lot of fun although we had a couple of TMI or WTMI moments, but I guess that's what lingerie showers are for. I got to see some old friends and my old apartment and the fact that Lela and Lela's Grandma were there definitely made it more interesting :)

Well, I'll leave you with a piece of photographic evidence that I needed to start saving as soon as I found out I was having a girl.

Scary.

July 27, 2010

Four months old

Lela, you are four months old!
  • You are 13 pounds 9 ounces and 24 inches long!
  • You still fit in some 0-3 month clothes and 3 month clothes always fit you. You can even fit in some 3-6 month clothes.
  • You have learned to roll over (yay!) from your back to your tummy, but haven't quite mastered the reverse. We can hardly keep you from doing it ;)
  • When you used to stand up before, you now jump constantly in our grip and you love trying the same action in your Johnny Jump-Up and your Exersaucer.
  • Every time you're on your tummy, you move your legs like you're ready to crawl. There is no arm movement yet, but I'm sure you'll get it down soon.
  • You still wake up around 3 a.m. but not every night, and I can usually get you back to sleep without a feeding.
  • You are still exclusively eating breast milk every 3 hours (sometimes you go 4 hours). (We might try some cereal next week!)
  • You do great traveling but you always fuss when we put you in your car seat.
  • The doctor is always impressed with you and she says she can tell you are a smart baby (that is apparently why we struggle to get you to sleep at night).
  • We said goodbye to your cradle (you were getting a little big for it) because you are now sleeping exclusively in your crib.

  • You do great in the nursery and staying with babysitters and everyone says "she's such a good baby!"
  • Just about anything will make you smile and your laugh is getting bigger everyday.
  • You are hardly ever still for any length of time and your personality is coming out more and more . . .
  • Your laugh is infectious and I have a feeling you are going to be a bit of a comedian.
  • You have developed a love for music that I hope will blossom with age.





You give me new joy everyday and you are constantly surprising me.
















Watching you grow and learn makes me marvel at God's precious creation.

















You have such a sweet spirit that I know God will use in a great way someday.














I pray that your life would glorify God and make His name known, and I think you are already doing that.

July 13, 2010

Lela at the Lake: 4th of July 2010


My parents are always so excited when Lela comes to the lake house and they say she is going to be a lake baby. I'm not sure what that means but it apparently results in us spelling out her name with sparklers and using the phrase "Lela at the lake."

We were a little concerned when we got to the lake that it would rain all weekend so on Friday night when the rain let up just a little, we got the boat out just in case it was our only chance to get out even though it was still sprinkling and it was a little chilly. (No, we didn't take the baby on the boat ride).

Luckily, it was sunny on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, so we got to spend a good bit of time outside.

There was still a chance for rain on Saturday so the girls decided to get pedicures and do some shopping so we weren't just sitting around the house all day.

Mine are the yellow toenails. Yes, I realize I'm not as patriotic as everyone else, but I did get white stars on my big toes and my 4th of July shirt was yellow so it still tied in.

My choice of white stars was quite controversial among the Asian girls at the nail place. They must have told me five times, "White stars not show up on yellow, you get black stars." Even after my pedicure was finished, the girl that did my toes said "White not show up on yellow, next time you get darker color," almost in a lecturing tone. They were so adamant about my inappropriate color choice, I was beginning to think white and yellow symbolized something obscene in their culture.

Lela had fun at the lake. She always likes to go places. I love that she has a matching Old Navy onesie. It's kinda cool to think she will always get a 4th of July Old Navy shirt from here on out.

We went very festive this year on the celebratory attire. The visors were our first annual 4th of July craft project courtesy of Mimi. I felt I should explain that in case you were assuming that we are a family of avid poker players.

We all painted our name on our visors and some form of appropriate decoration. It was a lot of fun and reminded me of when I was a kid :)

Sunday night we did our own fireworks display and were inspired to write out various things with the sparklers (including Lela's name).
We are very patriotic!

I guess I haven't mentioned that Lela is now sleeping in her crib and she just learned to roll over in the last few days.

No, she doesn't sleep in her nice dresses. This was just the only picture I have of her sleeping in her crib. We have done a lot of traveling (short trips) this past week with Grandma here and Lela has done so good. She just adapts very easily and take everything in stride. We are so lucky for that!

Well, be praying for Nathan. He's leaving for a mission trip to Alaska tomorrow at 4:30 in morning. They will be witnessing to the salmon fishers in Kenai, Alaska. It's hard work and long days.

In the meantime, Lela and I will be spending some time with Grammie, so I'll do my best to update you on that.

July 1, 2010

Catch up time!

So, I had a post almost completely written out a week ago, but it has been left hanging all this time because we left that night for my parents lake house to celebrate 4th of July. Honestly, I could've finished before we left but I didn't want it to sound rushed and uninspired, but at this point, well it might sound rushed and uninspired. So here is my post from last week and an update on my 4th of July weekend will be forthcoming.


Last Tuesday, I had a farewell lunch for one of my work friends, Emily, who is moving to Alabama this weekend. She wanted to see Lela and me one more time before she had to leave.


But a couple of hours before the lunch, Emily informed me that our friend Rachel had “big boyed” her way into our lunch date because she hadn’t met Lela yet. But I was so glad she did!

Lela is definitely pooping in this picture with Rachel :)


They are both such sweet friends and I hope we can all keep in touch.

Last week and the week before, we were hanging out with Grandma!

After seeing an abundance of cute fabric at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago, I decided I wanted to learn to sew and make Lela cute dresses out of cute fabric. At first I attempted to hand sew a pillowcase dress, but I decided that was a disaster waiting to happen and I needed so real skills. So Grandma brought her sewing machine and showed me a few things.

Here is my finished pillowcase dress after rescuing it from my disastrous hand sewing skills.

Grandma also brought a pattern for me to work on so I will know how to sew with patterns also.

We did a good bit of it together and then she left the machine with me this week to see if I could figure out the next steps. So when I went into the living room to look for my pieces I found the front of the dress right where I left it but the back of the dress . . .

















. . . well that was more of a challenge to find.

I think the dogs have felt neglected lately and sometimes they act out (especially Bella) to get our attention. Luckily there were no pins in that piece.

There was no damage.
But once I found all my pieces, I realized I was not a sewing prodigy because I could not do a darn thing without guidance from the sewing master and the one tiny thing I did on my own, I'm pretty sure I messed it up. That may be why I stopped writing this post and focused more on the upcoming vacation. Also, getting ready for vacation totally stresses me out! Why is that?

I plan to post about the 4th of July weekend as soon as I get some pictures from my madre.