newest pics

The past two weeks Grace has been sleeping even better than usual. We have been putting her down at 9:30 and she has been waking up at 8:30 or 9! (I was paranoid she was sleeping too much so I called the dr. today and was one of THOSE moms. She just laughed and said, "I don't think anyone has ever called me because their baby is sleeping too well." First time for everything.)

Grace thought it would be fun to pee all over my hand and then poop on the table. I had to give her a bath at noon! Good times.


She has started grabbing our face and trying to pull us in close and give us open mouth, wet, drooly kisses.


Just drooling and laughing. Her two favorite past times these days.

Not sure why Dan thought he could hide behind our 15 pound child. Too cute.

the five things I love best about Grace

1. When I pick her up in the morning out of her crib, she lifts her hands up above her head, puts her lip out, and sticks her bottom out to stretch. Then she toots at least twice. Who am I kidding? The child breaks wind, much like a grown man. So funny.
2. She already has sass. She will watch me while I sing and dance in front of her and make silly faces and then turn her head to the side and yawn. Like she's seen more interesting things than me in her short time on earth! Or she will smile and throw back her head to laugh at us. And she raises one eyebrow when she doesn't know what's going on. Who knew a four month old could have such a big personality.
3. I love listening to her "talk." She will contort her mouth and grunt and raise her eyebrows to try to get her point across. Don't you wonder what babies think?
4. When I lay her up on my shoulder at night, she rubs her hand on my arm as if to say thanks, mom. melts me!
5. I love the old man patch of hair she has in the back. She doesn't have much hair up top, but she has needed a haircut for the back since the day she was born. When she sleeps it gets all matted up and she gets a cowlick. I love it.

Trying to say something important, I am sure



hanging at work with mom

four months (well, last week)

I am a bad blogging mother and did not post pictures/updates of my child on her four month birthday. We were driving to market (see post below) and I did not have time! She is so precious and such a joy. A few updates:
She still won't roll over. Forget it, not happening. I roll her over myself, but I don't think that counts. She still hates tummy time which is probably why she won't roll over. I put her on her tummy thinking she will get mad enough and figure it out, but it doesn't happen. Oh well. They grow up too fast anyway.
She "talks" pretty constantly. Too cute. She also LOVES to stand. She hates sitting down anymore. I know all moms think their baby is advanced, but she has been standing like this since three months! Seems advanced to me. If your baby has been doing it since birth, don't share. Just let me think my baby is awesome! Here is a quick video.

Her four month appointment isn't until april 1st, so I don't have height and weight measurements yet. She is getting big though. Dan and I took turns weighing with and without her and she weighs somewhere between 15 1/2 and 16 pounds depending on who is holding her. We will see when we get on the official scale at the dr.'s office! She sure seems big!
Dan calls her slobber monster. She drools constantly and must have her finger/hand/or hands in her mouth at all times. Yes, I still hate drool. It isn't getting any cuter, but who knows? Maybe I will grow to love having my shoulder constantly soaked in a pool of baby wetness.
We had a "play date" with kristen and little evyn. It was so cute to see the two of them side by side since they are three weeks apart. Evyn was rolling over and I thought Grace might get competitive and start trying out of sheer jealousy but she seemed content to just lay there on her back and drool!

to market, to market...

I was in Dallas last week for market, and man, I am happy to be home. Twice a year Beth and I fly to Dallas for four days and wear holes in the bottom of our high heels walking thru market center. Initially, we thought Grace would just trek along with us, but after finding out that they don't allow strollers in the building and thinking thru how difficult it would be to keep a four month old entertained during endless, mind-numbing appointments we decided against taking her. And then Dan had a brilliant plan for me to drive with Grace instead of trying to fly with her and all of her stuff. So my mom flew in Wednesday morning and drove to Dallas with us and watched her while I was at market. (Let me just say that using a hand pump in the handicap stall twice a day is another blog post in and of itself.) I was fairly disappointed in most of what I saw. I think with the economy, lines are really dropping in quantity, so there is much less for me to choose from. I did manage to find a few things for the store that are ADORABLE and I can't wait to get them! Can you tell I'm really into expanding the baby girl department of the store???? Maternity, nursing bras, and baby seems to be keeping up with the rest of store quite nicely so I will keep investing in it as long as I can. Oh, and all the nursing mothers out there reading? (all three of you!) I just ordered a hands free pumping bra so now we can pump and blog with ease!!
Here is a preview of some things I ordered:

cute baby not included



this is all of the cutesy stuff Grace wore in her three month pics and I knew I had to find it for the store!



I will spare you all pics of the lingerie and bras I ordered.

a new smile

Grace smiles all of the time, but lately she has been flashing this new scruched up cheek and eyes and slobber faced smile that is just ridiculous and wonderful. I love it!

Pacifier Boot Camp: days 2 and 3

Well Monday night was a little better. She woke up at 11:15, then at 11:30, and at midnight I decided to let her cry it out. She did. It was rough, but only for about 20 minutes this time. Then she slept until 6:30 and after I gave her the pacifier, I had to wake her up at 9:15. Nice.
Last night was amazing and back to the normal routine. She slept from 10:45 until 6:30 and then back to sleep until 8:30. Hopefully bootcamp is over and we can go back to our regularly scheduled programming. Now that I know it works, I am not as scared to face the night!! Fingers crossed!!
Here are some pics from the last few weeks:

Operation Pacifier Bootcamp

The plan seemed simple enough: let her cry it out. Jen told me about it Sunday morning in the nursing room (which btw, is such a blessing. a flat screen to watch the service, rockers, changing table, sometimes great company, just lovely.) She told me when Garrett was about three months old they put him in the living room and let him learn to self-soothe by crying it out. She told me it would be hard, she told me I wouldn't sleep, and I may even cry myself. She was right on all accounts.
Dan and I talked about it and knew something had to be done. Grace has been an awesome sleeper since around 9-10 weeks. She wakes up once usually between 4:30 and 6:30 am wanting her pacifier and then sleeps until 8 or 9. This is what we are accustomed to. Not her latest ploy to exhaust us both to the point of tears. The last eight nights Grace has been waking up every 15-30 minutes wanting her pacifier. She stirs, we run in there, put in the plug, and the cycle repeats. At first we thought it was her stomach, maybe growing pains, maybe just her being a baby, but it all seemed to revolve around her pacifier. We decided we would try "pacifier bootcamp" and even though we knew it would be difficult, we both agreed we could be strong.
We put her down late, about 11:30, and at 12:15 I heard her stir. I put her pacifier in her mouth, thinking we should at least give her a fighting chance. At 12:28, she started stirring again, so I turned off the monitor and listened for her. She got frustrated, grunted, and then the crying started. It wasn't awful at first, I could tell she was just frustrated and I could handle that. Then the real crying started. It turned from frustrated to this awful, "how could you leave me in here by myself?" kind of cry. I started crying and Dan held my hand. After about 15 minutes I decided to go in and rub her back so she wouldn't feel totally abandoned and break into hysterics. Too late. I couldn't take it anymore and got her out of her crib, thinking I would just rock her back to sleep. No luck. We put her back in her crib and decided to let her finish crying it out. Around 1:10, she finally fell asleep and didn't wake up again until 6:30. We gave her the pacifier and she woke up again at 8:30. Much better. I am stressed about tonight and really don't want to go through it again, but I feel like we have to do this!
Any advice? I feel like a horrible mom!