Backyard Visitor and Wild Hair

So, if you keep up with my sister's blog, you know that their household was sick and is now better. She mentioned that someone special to us is sick on her birthday. Well, I think it is now our turn. I have been waking up the past few mornings not feeling 100%, but not really bad. Rachel sounds like she is getting a little cough. Ugh. Unfortunately, I have been forced to skip out on the gym this week in hopes of not getting a full blown illness. Otherwise, we are doing well (except currently Rachel is screaming her little head off instead of taking a nap, but I just turned up the music a little louder on the computer to drown her out for a few minutes. What a great mom I am! I also think Rachel is done being swaddled. She got her legs out of it yesterday. She hasn't done that in a long time, so I thought maybe she was ready to be free. We tried it for a few naps and bedtime last night. She was great, so I think we will be giving the swaddlers back to their rightful owner (Aunt Lauren, most of Rachel's things are from her). I thought it would be a little tough to get her out of those, but no problem. She is still sleeping her 11-12 hours like an angel. Sometimes she sounds like she is trying to giggle, but isn't quite there. I think we will be hearing her laugh soon. Another good note, espeically for those of you who ever have to put her down for a nap, she is going down so much faster for naps and bedtime. When we used to hold her, she would cry for a good 2-3 minutes and then just stop. Now, she might cry for about 15-30 seconds, if that sometimes. It is awesome! She changes so quickly, but it is all part of growing up.

Here is our backyard visitor. Very random. We have never had a turkey out there before, but I am glad the fence was there because Matt said they can be really nasty. After Matt quietly went out to get some pictures, he let Mika out to chase it off. I think she enjoyed it.


Here is the wild hair. I gave her a bath yesterday and didn't comb her hair afterward. I actually did more damage by running my hand through it from front to back. Matt thinks it is awesome when her hair is crazy so I guess I did it for him. It will stay this way until she gets another bath.
Look Aunt Lauren, no bib! We took this picture just for you because of your last comment.

Isn't she getting so big?
I would like to point out the fat rolls on her arm. She is definitely getting chubbier, but still not a porker.

Great News!

So, on my last post I mentioned slowly weaning Rachel from her 10 pm feeding. Last night we had success. She went to sleep around 7:45 and I went in to get her around 7:10 this morning. She was awake, but cooing and just plain happy. When I looked over the side of the crib, she smiled at me a few times. It was a wonderful night for us. We went to the beach with some friends and their girls yesterday. That was fun and we were back by 2:00 when the weather started to look bad. I tried to keep Rachel out of the sun, so she really didn't go in the water or anything. I dipped her feet in, but that was the extent of her beach fun. She stayed in the shade provided by this tent thing we have, except one side is open. It is wonderful for staying out of the sun. I mowed the lawn this morning. I mowed only five days ago, but the grass really needs it. However, I do enjoy this chore and get out there around 8 am and sweat like crazy even then. Matt and I are doing well and just enjoy the simple life. We now don't even have TV because we never bought the digital converter box because I thought we had a way on our TV to change it over. Apparently, the only way to do that it through our remote, which the dog ate about 2 years ago. We are left to watch movies, which I am perfectly fine with until the new season of Chuck and Heroes begins. Rachel is becoming much more aware of toys and now likes her activity gym. Sometimes she will play there for about 20 minutes very happily. If only tummy time could be better. All she does it spit up when put on her tummy. I suppose someday she will learn. Here are some pictures of the little spitter just being happy!

Rachel loves when Daddy plays with her too!

Father's Day Weekend

Well, we have had a very eventful and fun weekend. My brother got married on my birthday, so we took a small trip to Siesta Key beach and then had some great food at a nearby restaurant. Rachel was pretty good, only making noise when she got hungry. She was great for the wedding. Since it was so windy on the beach, her hair had a serious windblown look to it. I hope to get a few cute pictures up once I get them from some relatives. She has been working on rolling from her back to her tummy. She can get on her side and almost over, but then her arm underneath gets stuck and she doesn't know how to get it out. So, we will keep working on it and once she has got it down good, I will try to get a video of it. Another thing we are working on is dropping her 10 pm feeding. I am giving her one ounce less each night and tonight we are down to 2 ounces. Tomorrow will be 1 and then Wednesday night, we will hopefully be sleeping from about 8 pm to 7 am. That would be awesome for an 11 week old, but then again, she is a pretty awesome little girl! I am also weaning her from the swaddle. I currently only swaddle her legs. I know she is probably a little warm with that and her pajamas, so I would like to get her down to one layer for the hot summer weather. Also, it is one less thing for me to pack and wash when she spits up on it. She is growing up so quickly and I absolutely love spending time and playing with her. I have a few pictures from Father's Day. Can I just say look how chubby her cheeks are getting!

Her father's day outfit. How appropriate. Since she can't tell Dad she loves him quite yet, I thought I would communicate the message this way.

Looks like she is trying to flying in these pictures.

What A Goof!

We have been so busy lately with family in town. Rachel and I have been out and about the last two days with Grandma. I feel like we were never home until the evening. She still is doing well with napping on the go, so that is nice. My brother is getting married in two days, so tomorrow is the rehearsal dinner and the next day is the wedding. Busy Busy! I went swimming this week and that was wonderful! It is sooo hot here, so I am going to try to swim about once a week. I can swim at the Y. This time I went to a neighborhood pool of a friend with her little boy. I was only out there for about 45 minutes and still managed to get a little burned. Rachel is doing great and that is about all I have to say about her. She is smiling so much now and I can sometimes capture the really big, goofy smiles. Here are a few pictures:

I left her with her bib down after feeding her and came back to this. I found it funny!
She is pouting already.
And then a second later, all smiles.



My Mom got her this dress with ice cream and popsicles on it. Too cute!

My Mom and I are into growing plumeria and seem to have a difficult time getting them to survive over the winter. I have a bunch growing in my yard and don't know what color the blooms are. Here is my first flower of the season. It looks red, but it is actually a magenta pink with a small orange center. It smelled good, but couldn't think of anything in specific that it smells like. I have a lot of buds and am just waiting for them to open!

Just So Cute!

Rachel is sleeping soundly after an exhausting trip to Wal-Mart where she woke up very early from her nap. I decided to see what pictures I had on my camera and I must say, these are really really cute. I am biased though, however I am sure you will agree on the cuteness of my daughter. She is in complete amazement of the mobile on her swing.

These are her Daffy Duck band-aids from her doctor visit on Monday.

2 Month Checkup

Rachel went to see the doctor today for her 2 month checkup and she said that Rachel looks wonderful. Her current weight is 11 pounds 12 ounces and is in the 75th percentile. Her height is 23 inches and is also in the 75th percentile. Her head circumference is 15.25 inches and is in the 25th percentile. She got three vaccines. A shot in each leg and one that was given orally. There wasn't too much crying and she went right to sleep when we got home. Sorry, no pictures this time. Side note: Matt is in Kentucky on a missions trip for the week. He is helping to build a church, so pray for safety for them. My Grandma is coming in on Thursday, so Rachel gets to meet another great-grandma! I am excited and looking forward to her stay!

More Pictures

Well, I just wanted to quickly put up some new pictures of my sweetie! She is getting so big and her hair just keeps getting crazier on top. I don't know what I am going to do with it, because I hate fixing my own hair. It was a slightly sad day yesterday. I realized she is too long for her newborn clothes, so I packed a big box full of borrowed clothes. They went back to Lauren's house today. I only have about 5 pieces of clothing that were actually mine. Apparently people don't like to buy you clothes when they don't know the sex of the baby. She is wearing 0-3 months and 3 month clothes and I can't wait to put her in some cute dresses and outfits she has! She is a happy baby and really likes the Rainforest bouncy seat with the blue lights in the middle. She will sit in that for 30 minutes and smile and coo. She also likes her swing very much. She does not particularly care for the activity gym, but we will keep working on that. She goes for her two month checkup on Monday, so I will put up a new post then with her stats.