Greta's first Halloween

Babies in costume are awesome!  She is too young for trick-or-treating but we still got in the spirit.  I pulled out another outfit from my arsenal of vintage items: a super baby dress complete with cape.  The play group we attend had a costume party and it was babies galore!  About 12 or so babies were there in costume and we did what any one would have done in that situation... we crammed them all on the couch and took their picture.  That was an experience in itself.  The babies, for the most part, did not like it.  This was probably due to the fact that most of them can not sit up on their own so they were all balancing off of each other.  Greta in particular was arching her back and squishing someone's little boy.  (I felt bad).  Anyway, we were able to get a good group shot before we had a mega meltdown.   Enjoy the pics! *as always, click on the pic for a bigger image*

-Suzie

 This expression is classic Greta

 Please notice Greta in the middle...not happy

 Everyone

We took pumpkin patch pics and this one was just so sweet I had to share.

Rice cereal : mmmmm.....

What a little adventure rice cereal has been.  We started feeding Greta cereal in the evenings about a month ago and we are finally getting the hang of it.  The first few feedings were mostly liquid, of course, and we spent about 7 days getting aquainted with the spoon.  Some days are ok, others are a battle.  We gradually thickened up the porridge rice cereal and she started to do better and better.  For the most part she hadn't quite grasped that when the spoon comes close to her mouth she is supposed to open it so we can insert the spoon.  Because of this small detail I usually stood behind Justin and danced around hoping to trick her into smiling so Justin could get a bite in.  However, a few nights ago she started opening her mouth when the spoon came close!  This is a huge breakthrough and it allows me to start dinner, unload the dishwasher, or just hang out while Dad is feeding her!

For all you new moms out there wondering, rice cereal is another "choice" we have to make so here is what we chose and why:

We started with Gerber rice cereal and she did great with that but when I finally looked at the label I was a little overwhelmed with the amount of ingredients listed for simple rice cereal.  Now, to be fair, I don't think I will be feeding Greta organic only everything for life but while her body is still new I'd like to keep what is going in it as simple as possible.  We now use Earth's best rice cereal.

Oh yes, and a big thank you to Kyle, Michelle, and Nori for this awesome highchair!

Suzie

Gerber ingredients

Earth's Best ingredients

Holy cow... October is almost gone???

   Well well well... I have been a bad blogger!  In my defense, I have a baby.  :)  It's no excuse, I know- I will try to be better.  September was a little rough on the family because Greta was not sleeping.  We hit a high over Labor Day weekend, she slept 13 hours one night, and it was AWESOME.  However, she quickly forgot how to do that and started waking up a lot at night and refused to nap.  I am happy to announce that October hit and she turned a corner and sleeping is back!!
   Now here we are, October 25th...Greta's 5 month birthday and life is good.  She changes everyday and is full of laughs.  She has hit a few milestones this last month and I will tell you all about them in the next few blogs.  For now just enjoy some pics :)
Suzie

three months old today

So we made it!  We all survived the first three months.  Gone are the days of counting Greta's age in weeks, we have moved on to months!  We could not have done it without the support of our friends and family.  A big thank you to all of our parents, we really needed you all and you came through for us.  Your visits were amazing and your emotional support over the phone was just what we needed.  To all of our friends, it is amazing how good it feels to visit with you or get a comment on our facebook walls :)  I would also like to give a very special thank you to my sister-in-law Rachel.  I don't know what I would have done without her.  She always answered the phone- even when she didn't have the time.  She gave me honest advice and support, and made me realize that the hard times would be gone before I knew it and it was ok to feel a little crazy.  It's hard for me to believe that Greta has only been with us for three short months.  It really feels like it was a lifetime ago that we were in a hospital room with our 6 hour old daughter feeling fear and overwhelming love.  Let the fun begin!
-Suzie

 Our first family photo... not our most glamorous moment.  (we had been working on her for a long time)  But one of the most special moments of our lives.

Greta 6 hours old, looking a little bit like a gangsta.

Greta has done a lot

So a few things have happened in the last week and a half or so...

 Greta's tear ducts formed so it is even more sad when she cries :(

 We went out with a friend and she was great.  She just hung out, looked around, and sucked on her fist :)

   

Little miss made a BIG mess... we had to cut her out of her onesie (it was already damaged beyond repair) and get her in the bath ASAP!  Also, for any moms wondering, the bracelet I'm wearing is a nursing bracelet by MilkBands, it's great for keeping up with what time you fed last.

 Saturday we decided to do a little shopping.  On the way there we got a flat tire! Thankfully,  Greta laughed and played while Justin changed the tire.  She usually has a very strict rule: if the she's in the car, it has to be moving!

 Big girl faces front in the baby bjorn...

 She also can't be bothered with looking at the camera...she has discovered TV!  Like mother like daughter.

 She looks tiny in this now but she does a great job holding herself up!

She recognizes the owls that hang from this activity mat.  When we put her down she looks at them and gives them a huge smile and giggle.  She knows she can swing her arms and legs to make them move and make noise.  She does not know yet that she can grab them and shake them, or put them in her mouth if she wants to.

All of a sudden she is growing up... we are coming up on three months and I can not believe it.  She is such a joy.

We are those people that bring our baby

So, we are getting to the point where we can be more social and see some of our friends.  Of course we can only entertain the idea of taking Greta somewhere if its in the afternoon, we have a very strict bed time routine :)  Over the last couple of weekends our friends have invited us to a couple of birthday parties, one was in the evening so we couldn't go but the other started in the afternoon so we decided to give it a try.  We planned our entrance and exit just right with feedings and naps and figured we had about an hour and a half to socialize.  As we were pulling up it really started hitting us that we were bringing a baby to a birthday bbq.  We didn't want to be "those people" so we decided to bring in as little of her gear as possible.  We decided not to bring in the carrier or the diaper bag, (we would go back to the car if we needed either) as to not draw any more attention to Greta.  Who are we?  I was a little nervous, Justin was a little nervous, Greta was cool as a cucumber.  As we walked up to the house Mary and Adam (the birthday boy and his beautiful girlfriend) were walking out of the house and they greeted us with huge smiles and open arms.  They were so welcoming and we immediately relaxed and were able to enjoy ourselves.   Mary even held Greta :)  Anyway, it feels good to get out and see our friends and are happy Greta is such a good baby.  This outing taught me that we need not be nervous about taking Greta places, she is a part of us now and everyone that knows us will take the three of us.  Everything is an adjustment, it is just surprising that everything means everything!

-Suzie

(don't forget to click on the pic to see the image larger)

We forgot to take pics while we were inside, we were leaving the party when I remembered.  That would be the reason Greta's headband is half off and she's throwing a fit)

These two pics have nothing to do with the blog post, I just liked them :)

We can go out to eat?!

This weekend Justin and I did the unthinkable... We went out to eat,  just the two of us, with Greta... and it went great!  Now just to clarify, we have been out to eat with her before but we had one of our parents with us, never by ourselves!  We decided to go to a local spot we love called Eno's in the Bishop Arts District.  Greta wore a precious outfit that was another throwback from 1984, hand knitted sandals by Rhonda, and a handmade headband by Hibernate by Behr (my new craft company).  She fell asleep on the 5 minute drive over there and stayed asleep until we were in the middle of our entree.  Justin and I immediately started eating faster for fear that she would start crying at any second.  Lucky for us, she just stared at Justin and smiled the whole rest of the time.  Whew!  What a relief!  It felt so great to do something "normal" and have our little sweet pea go with the flow.  Looking forward to the next time.
Suzie

(If you click on the pic it allows you to see it bigger in a better resolution)

(don't worry moms, we had just strapped her in.  We did raise the chest clip before we left the house!)

baby "play date"

A friend of mine and I wanted to do a play date, the catch...our babies!  She has a four month old baby named Alice and Greta is now 2.5 months old.  I was really looking forward to seeing her because it would be nice to have someone over that wouldn't care if my kid was crying, pooped out of her diaper, or needed a nap.  The day started at about 8:45am with texts trying to figure out what the girls schedules looked like for the morning.  Because of naps/feedings/waketimes we decided noon is would do.  Heather (my friend/Alice's mom) and Alice arrived and we were off to a rough start, Alice was not having any part of the visit.  So, reluctantly, Heather decided to take Alice back home for a nap and we would re-try later in the afternoon.  That worked out perfect because it wasn't 5 minutes after they left that Greta starting fussing for a nap too.  Both of the girls took 2+ hour naps and at about 5pm we decided to give it another go.  They came over and both babies were in good spirits.  We put them next to each other and watched their reactions.  It was all smiles at first but we quickly picked them up as they realized they were looking at another baby and it freaked them out!  They stayed for over an hour and Heather and I had a lot of time to chat.  By the end we were both walking around the living room, babies in our arms bouncing them to keep them quiet.  Who knows how long we had been doing that and talking over them.  That action is second nature now.  Like I said at the beginning of the post, it was good to have someone over that didn't care that my kid was crying because hers was crying too and I didn't mind that either!  It was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to watching the girls grow and become more familiar with each other.

-Suzie

Greta goes swimming!

What a fun time we had this weekend swimming with Greta!  Our friends Andee and Sammy had us over to swim in their new salt water pool.  We had a blast with them and their two kiddos Samuel and Alex (both much older than Greta but at a fun age to play and splash around).  We had a lot to think about taking  the little behr swimming for the first time... sunscreen, hat, floatie, swimsuit, swim diaper.  For all other moms wondering what we chose:  neutrogena sunscreen for babies, uva/uvb protectant hat, throwback lacoste swimsuit from 1984 (it was mine), floatie from Target with canopy, and a cloth swim diaper from myswimbaby.com.  Getting her in the pool was a little scary because she is so tiny but we did it and she loved it, for about 20 minutes.  We had just enough time to both play with her a little bit before she started fussing for a nap.  Dad took her out of the pool and sat in the shade and there she napped for the rest of our stay there.  We totally lucked out that she didn't "use the restroom" in her cloth diaper, but she sure did pee on me as we were getting her out of the pool.  I am looking forward to many more swim days with Justin and Greta!  Thank you Edwards family :)

-Suzie