Three Months!

By: Shelsy

That's right, three whole months have gone by already. So super crazy. It's amazing because I look at her now and I'm really starting to see a little person, not just a baby. She's settling into a routine during the day. She doesn't do things at the same time every day, but she usually seems to follow the same pattern, which helps. She still sleeps wonderfully, but she's started falling asleep earlier in the evening than before. It's great because then Ryan and I can enjoy a few hours together each night. But on the flip side, she now wakes up for her first feeding at around 3:30am instead of 5:30. I'm not a huge fan of that, but I imagine she'll start stretching that out before too long.

This has also been a big month for her developmentally. First of all, she's grown a lot. She's now 15 pounds, 14 ounces and 24 1/2 inches long. She can lift her head up from her stomach. I just laid her down one day and she held her head about an inch off the floor for 30 seconds or so. But she's only done it once since then. I've suspected that she's been able to lift her head for awhile now, but just doesn't want to.

She's also learned a lot about her hands this month. She bats at things sometimes, and I gave her a rattle to hold and she grasped it and held on tight for about 10 minutes while she shook it around!

She also discovered her hands. She was sitting in the swing (which she adores, by the way. She loves to stare at the hinge where the motor is. I don't know why it's so fascinating, but she pretty much stares at and talks to it the entire time she's sitting there) and Ryan looked over and she was staring at her fist with this look of deep concentration on her face. It was so cute! I managed to get a picture:

It's only a matter of time before she starts putting it all together and realizes that her hands are attached and she can use them to grab things. 

We also celebrated Ryan's first Father's Day this month! 

Another new thing she does is smile when we go to get her after she wakes up. She gets the biggest grin on her face--I love it! And sometimes when I'm singing to her to sleep, she'll stop mid-cry and smile at me. That's my favorite! 

We took her to the pool this past Sunday. This was the first time we actually put her in the water. I don't really know if she liked it, but she didn't seem to mind, either. We took a bunch of pictures and they were all so good, I couldn't pick a favorite, so here they are:

And here are some more of my favorite pictures from this month:






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Some Cute Pictures

By: Shelsy

Look at that little cutie pie! She hasn't quite "discovered" her hands yet, but she recently started holding them together like this. She looks like such a little lady. :-)

There isn't really anything new to report, except that she's getting bigger by the day it seems. We haven't weighed her since she turned two months old, but I'm pretty sure she's officially outgrown her bassinet by now, which has a limit of 15 pounds. Now I guess we'll have to figure out a way to get the playpen in our room so she can sleep there. 

Also, we were at Gymboree today and I saw these sunglasses, which we did not buy, but were so cute. I love this picture--it makes me laugh every single time I see it! :-)

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Amber's Play Gym

We got Amber a little floor play gym a few days ago and she really seems to like it. It's aquarium themed and even converts into a fun tunnel for when she's older. Here's a video of her enjoying her new toys. :-)



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Family Visit and Two Month Birthday!

By: Shelsy

Well, I'm combining two posts because I haven't gotten around to updating in awhile, plus our Internet has been down for the last three days, so that didn't help much. But my parents, Mindy, and Carter all came down for a visit a couple of weeks ago, which was awesome. This was the first time my family has been able to see Amber, so I was really excited for them to come. We had a great time! We did some shopping, hung out around the apartment, and went to SeaWorld. It was fun seeing Carter again too--he wasn't even crawling yet the last time I saw him, and he started walking by himself the first day he got here! (We think he might have been a little jealous that his mommy and grandparents were paying attention to another baby!) Here are some pictures from their visit:



And, our little baby turned two months old on Tuesday! I seriously can't believe it. She's already gotten so big. She weighed in at 14 pounds 2 ounces and she's now 23 3/4 inches long. She's almost too big for her bassinet. This month she morphed out of being a newborn. She's smiling a lot more, and making all kinds of cooing and cute baby noises. She's very alert and loves looking around and watching us. We also started a bedtime routine with her every night, which we've all really enjoyed. She's sleeping beautifully at night, and is generally just a joy to be around. She's seriously awesome and we can't get enough of her! :-) Here are some of my favorite pictures from this past month:




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One Month!

By: Shelsy

Yesterday little Amber turned one month old! I can't believe it's been that long already. I would have thought that after a month I would have a better handle on things, but...not so much. :-) I have definitely gained confidence in certain areas, but she is continuing to surprise us.

In her first month she started sleeping through the night (5-6 hours straight). She has pretty much been able to hold her head up since birth, and now she has a lot more control over it, though she's still a little wobbly. She's cried real tears, which we weren't expecting so soon--we didn't like it! She also had her first real smile a few days ago, but she hasn't really done it again since. And she's starting to be awake and alert more often, which has been fun. So we're looking forward to see what she has in store for us this month!

She's overall a very cooperative baby. We've been able to take her to all kinds of different places, and she does great. She went to see her first movie the other night, and she hardly made a peep, even though she was awake the whole time! She was the happiest when she was sitting so she could watch the screen. :-) We also wanted to take her to the pool for the first time yesterday, but apparently they don't make those waterproof diapers small enough. So we still went and I got in while she sat on the side of the pool with daddy. It turned out the water was probably a little too cold for her still, anyway, but we did stick her feet in, which was fun. Here's a video from the pool and some of my favorite pictures from this first month:








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Amber following the camera

By: Ryan

Hey folks, just wanted to share a quick video with you. Look for a longer post about Amber's 1-month birthday later today. For now, enjoy the video. :-)



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Easter Baby

By: Shelsy

This was Amber's first Easter! Two weeks ago I was thinking we might "miss" Easter this year because I didn't know when she would be arriving. I was expecting her to be at least a little bit late--maybe even not coming until after Easter. But by the time Good Friday rolled around our little one was definitely up for her first trip to church. She did great, too! At the Good Friday service she was awake the whole time and just looked around at everything. I think the loud music might have been a little much for her, but she didn't cry or fuss. She was just starting to get hungry toward the end, so we just went right home afterwards and she was fine.

Then on Easter Sunday we headed to church again (on time, even!) and got to introduce her to some of our friends. She slept through most of the service. She has been so cooperative with all of the places we've taken her so far. She's definitely a very happy baby! Here are some pictures of her from the weekend.

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