"They grow up so fast..."

Everyone says so and everyone is right. Ada has such a big personality these days. She laughs at us when we make funny faces and she screams at the top of her lungs when she gets bored...which is often. She's not even mad a lot of the time, she just likes to scream for attention. She loves to go places and see things and people. She loves to be in the Baby Bjorn facing out when I go to Whole Foods so that everyone can smile at her and stop to talk to her and tell her how beautiful she is. She hates being stuck in the back seat of the car all by herself. She's a social one, for sure. We have a bedtime routine that we stick to religiously and she responds the same way every night. She loves her bath, especially now that her Meme got her some flashing ducks to go in the water with her. She doesn't like to be dried off and she always screams when I put lotion on her (she's just like her Daddy there--he hates lotion) and she hates when I put clothes on her. She prefers to be naked. Too bad it's so cold!

She's so much fun right now. I love being with her. I'm so glad that I have the opportunity to spend so much time with her. Thank you, Sam, for making sacrifices with me so that I can have the job that I do and so that I can be home most of the time. We may never have much money, but I'm so happy.

Peek A Boo

Ada's learning how to play Peek A Boo, and other ways to respond to us:



Kim also took tons of pics yesterday of Ada in a Christmas dress. We didn't get Christmas cards out this year, so this will have to do. Remember to check Youtube and Picasa for more.

So Tired

We're moving pretty slow lately. No pics, no videos, no stories...no sleep. After an amazing three months of 7-8 hour nights of sleep, Ada has completely changed at night. For the last week, we're all only getting an hour or two at a time all night. It's of course the hardest on Kim, but neither one of us function well on low sleep. It's tough on our bodies, tough on our minds, tough on our relationship.

We of course still love her like crazy, and are thankful for how well she has done so far. But we sure are longing for "the old days."

Back From The South

Kim, Ada, and I took our first big trip as a family last week. We made a trip through Louisiana and Mississippi to visit my mother and family in Bastrop, LA, Kim's grandmother and family in Columbus, MS, and then back through to see my dad and family in Benton, LA.

We are exhausted and have a lot to catch up with (work, cleaning, sleep, etc...), so this won't be a long post. Just wanted to let everyone know there are some pics up on our Picasa album from the first half of the trip. I haven't gotten to download any of the second half, or any of the videos we took. But soon, they will all be up. Since we're taking so many pics and videos now, I'm going to stop organizing them as I upload them or making captions. It's terribly complicated and time consuming. So from now on, just go to the Picasa or to the Youtube site to see everything that we don't post directly to here.

Finally

This is Kim and I'm finally able to blog about my baby. Sam has done a great job of writing and handling photos so that family and friends can stay updated, but I actually have some time now when I can write.

Ada will be two months old tomorrow. I can't believe it.

Whoever came up with the post-partum period lasting 6 weeks was right on in my case. It took about that long for me to feel like myself again. After the c-section, it took about 6 weeks for me to be able to use my stomach muscles to sit up, for me to drive, for me to feel more emotionally like myself, and for us to get the nursing thing down. As for Ada, it was around then that she started sleeping about 6 hours at night. Yeah, we got a good one! And I'm writing now because she's still asleep at 10am and we put her down around midnight. I woke her up to feed her about an hour ago, but then she feel right back asleep. I guess she's about to go through another growth spurt.

She is so much fun these days. She's seemed to develop so much in the past two weeks. She's awake a lot more during the days and she doesn't cry as much. She's able to focus on things and she's very interested in her mobile, in her bouncy chair with lights and music, and in her play mat that has stuffed animals hanging from it. But the best thing these days is her smile. She smiles now AT us and when she does, it makes us so happy that we laugh.

I've heard people say that you love your kids unlike anyone else in the world...and they are right. I can't even begin to say how much I love this little girl. We feel so blessed that she is healthy and happy and beautiful. She has these wonderfully chubby cheeks that beg to be kissed over and over again. Everyone comments on her eyes--how they are so big and alert. I love how she folds her legs up and throws her head back when she stretches her arms. I love what her little sock feet look like when I lift up her nightgown to change her diaper. I love her round little belly and chubby thighs. She's perfect, as far as I'm concerned.

I guess it sounds like I'm bragging, but I've never been so proud of anything in my life. I love to show her off. She gets her first round of immunizations tomorrow and then we will be able take her to church with us and we can travel with her. We're looking forward to visiting family at the beginning of November.

Ok, she's still asleep--in bed with Sam who is also asleep on his day off. I'm going to go wake up my lazy family cause I want to be with them. Sam is going to get some new photos and videos up soon, so look out for those.

Adventures in Bathing

We've started bathing Ada every night before bed now. Kim realized that it helps her sleep much longer and harder, and we're big fans of that. So most nights now, Ada will sleep 6-7 hours after a good warm bath. But the process isn't without its problems.

A few nights back, Kim took off Ada's dirty diaper pretty close to the sink we bathe her in and cleaned her off. But as she held Ada close to her to walk the 3 or 4 feet to the sink, Ada crapped all over Kim and the bathroom floor. We quickly got her to the sink, but then realized that we'd need to drain it and get new water because of the green excrement now floating around in it. Kim cleaned herself off and wiped up the floor, as I drained the sink and held Ada in a towel in case she decided to let loose with #1 or even #2 again. We collected ourselves and got the new bath ready, but as soon as we put Ada down into it she let loose a torrent of urine that shot up and fell back down into the water (it looked like a fountain).

The third time was a charm, but I shudder to think about what our water bill might be like these next few months.

Out & About

Kim and Ada are getting out a little more in the past week. Kim's finally feeling close to normal from her c-section and was cleared to start driving last week. Ada hates being put in her car seat, she cries and screams and kicks. But once she is in and we are moving she normally calms down or even falls asleep.

Ada's made trips now to her grandparents, the Dr's office, Rudy's BBQ, Kerby Lane and even the grocery store. We can't wait to get her to Mosaic on a Sunday night, but she hasn't been cleared yet to be around other small kids or groups that big.