Baby Pope

4 Months!

2010-07-18T16:05:00.000-04:00

Here we are at 4 months! Life has been more & more fun every day with little, Miss Annabelle. She's getting such a personality with every passing day and we love seeing it shine through! She still loves the mornings and always greets us with a smile when she gets up for the day. It's a great way to start the day!

Annabelle also loves to watch Mickey Mouse Club House in the mornings while we're getting ready for work. She gets so excited when the music comes on and starts kicking her feet, smiling, and flailing her arms wildly.

Annabelle loves her Daddy, who never fails to make her laugh out loud on a daily basis. She's quite the dare devil too, as she loves it when he plays "rough" with her. Speaking of playing, she's learning more and more every day that she can splash while in the bath, which always makes for a fun time.

Annabelle has become very good about riding in the car and almost always falls asleep. However, the longest we've gone is my parent's house which is about an hour and a half away, so we haven't seen how she does on really long road trips yet.

We think Annabelle is beginning to teeth, as she's become more adament about putting her hands (and just about everything else she can) in her mouth. I've can start to see some pearly whites shining through her top gums as well, so we don't think it will be too much longer.

Annabelle still loves to be outside, but with our very warm & humid summers, it's hard to keep her out there for long, unless we're in the pool. She loves the pool and enjoys being pulled through the cool water. When it's too hot outside, Annabelle enjoys playing with her toys. She's become very skilled in grabbing her toys and now likes to grab for just about anything that's in our hands as well, such as remote controls, cell phones, etc. (so if you get a strange phone call from us, please disregard!).

Our baby girl is growing sweeter by the day and we can't wait to see what the next month will bring!

Just Another Day by the Pool

2010-07-17T23:35:00.003-04:00

Phew!

2010-07-14T09:21:00.000-04:00

A big sigh of relief this morning! Annabelle did much better last night, which makes me think the night before was just a fluke ::fingers crossed:: She and I had a nice little chat yesterday about letting Mommy & Daddy sleep, which must have done the trick (If only it were that easy!) Whatever the reason, I'm glad this wasn't an on-going trend.

This is where we are

2010-07-13T11:44:00.001-04:00

For the past 3 or 4 days, Annabelle hasn't been very interested in breastfeeding, it's hit or miss. Sometimes she just likes to lay there and smile at me or look around every time she hears the least, little noise. She's suddenly so much more aware of her world, "Oh look, we have a cat, there's another one!" (I'm sure this is what she'd be saying if she could talk). So, needless to say she doesn't always get a good feeding each time I nurse her and thus my supply has gone down because of this and now why when she DOES want to eat there's not enought food to satisfy her and the cycle goes on and on. So this is why I've had to be a little more careful about avoiding distractions while she eats. However, despite my best efforts, she's in need of a little extra food at night. So we've gone from sleeping through the night (9pm - 5am roughly) back to the newborn schedule (9pm - 1am - 3:30am - 6:30am). At least, this was our schedule last night, who know's what it will be tonight. I believe we've hit the 4 Month Wakeful Period (Google it, interesting stuff). Nice right? It's a lot of fun juggling this schedule, running a non-profit, house cleaning, cooking meals, and quality time with the fam, but whatever, exaustion never killed anyone, just made them a little cranky. I am cranky. Today anyway, tomorrow still waits to be seen and I make no promises. Predictability is for the birds, it's the unpredictability that gives spice to life and without spice, well, life is boring. However, I could stand for a little boring when it comes to my sleep at night.

Free Entertainment

2010-07-12T10:23:00.000-04:00

This past weekend was spent just hanging around the house, but it's hard to entertain a 3-month-old all day long. The options are somewhat limited. However, I'm always impressed by my husband's creativity. Sunday evening, I noticed a strange quiet in our house. When I walked through our back room, I happened to look out the window and this is what I saw in our back yard!

What's that?! My sweet husband pulling a wagon with a pool float and baby in tow!

All I could see from the house was the top of Annabelle's little head bobbing up and down as her Daddy took her for a tour of the yard.

Apparently she loved it, good idea Randy!

Diapers in the Sun

2010-07-10T16:33:00.006-04:00

This was the view from our pool Saturday afternoon. I stripped Annabelle's diapers to remove the detergent that had built-up over the past few months. So far I love having cloth diapers! We use Fuzzi Bunz which adjust as Annabelle grows, so she'll be able to wear them until she's potty trained. They're obviously a little more work than disposables, but worth it for the benefits, in my opinion. So far we've saved over $400 on diapers in the few months that Annabelle's been with us, the diapers have already paid for themselves! In addition, it can take up to 500 years for 1 disposable diaper to decompose. Considering we go through about 8 diapers each day, that's a lot! Another benefit is no diaper rash. I haven't had to use any diaper cream on Annabelle since she was born! The cloth diapers are supposed to be a little gentler on baby's skin. We do have to wash a load of diapers every 2 to 3 days, but it's as simple as dumping a bag of dirty diapers in the washing machine and throwing them in the dryer when done. We spend about 10 minutes while watching TV stuffing the inserts back into the diapers. So, a little extra effort, but well worth it for us! We can even use the diapers if we ever decide to have another little one, but this is not an invitation to start asking us about that!

One Year Ago Today

2010-07-09T09:28:00.003-04:00

Randy and I were trying to wrap our heads around the fact that soon there would be 3 people living in our house! I was thinking about it this morning, and the only way I can describe the way I felt when we found out we were going to have a baby is to relate it to the way you feel when you find out someone you know has died. Not to be morbid by any means, but whenever I find out someone I know has passed away, it takes a while for the idea to kick-in. The fact that where there was once someone, now, suddenly, there is no more. Forget about the sadness that comes with a death, that's not what I'm talking about at all. Just the slap-in-the-face feeling you get when something life-altering has suddenly happend. That's how I felt when I found out about Annabelle. All of a sudden, there was life where there had been none before. It takes a while for the idea to sink in.

That's where we were one year ago today....and now we can't imagine life without her!

Our Weekend

2010-07-06T16:27:00.011-04:00

This past weekend we traveled to my parents' house for a visit and so that we could attend my cousin Aubrey's wedding. We drove up Friday night and Annabelle decided to wake up (even though it was past her bedtime) to visit with Grandma and Grandpa.

After a few hours of play it was time for bed so we could be up bright and early for Aubrey's wedding.

The wedding took place at the Sweetwater Branch Inn located in Gainesville. The grounds were beautiful and I couldn't resist taking some pictures.

My Uncle Cary & Aunt Sue, Aubrey's proud parents, looked stunning!

Randy and I posing for a picture before the wedding (I think this was one of the few times all day we held Annabelle...Grandma is quite fond of her).

This cake was DELICIOUS!

Congratulations Aubrey & Craig!

A little more spoiling for good measure!

Awesome shoes!

Annabelle LOVES Aubrey!

We had a lot of fun with this Photo booth at the wedding

It was a long day!

Sunday, we went for a walk to see the donkeys by my parents house. My dad decided to try out the Moby wrap.

"Hold on, Grandpa...I need to take this call."

After we got home Sunday night, we took Annabelle into the back yard to watch a few fireworks. She seemed to enjoy them and wasn't afraid of the loud noises. I think we have a little dare devil on our hands!

Happy 4th of July!

Wedding Weekend!

2010-07-02T10:16:00.002-04:00

My cousin, Aubrey and her sweetie, Craig are getting married tomorrow!

Aren't they a cute couple?! I can't wait to go to their wedding and share in all the fun as these two walk down the aisle together. Aubrey & Craig are such a fun-loving couple I wish them many, many, many years of wedded bliss!

It's going to be great to celebrate with these two and see some of our family this weekend! I'll post some pictures early next week!

I Hate Mondays

2010-06-28T07:40:00.000-04:00

Just so hard to say goodbye to the weekend!

12 Weeks to Better Photography

2010-06-27T16:00:00.008-04:00

So now that I have my new camera, I'm trying to learn as much as I can about it. I've decided to take some lessons from the 12 Weeks to Better Photography program I found online. It's a lot of fun and provides a crash course for novices such as myself.

I've already begun on the first two weeks' lessons (I'm a little overzealous) and wanted to share my progress thus far.

The first week is all about aperture. Basically, the aperture controls how much of a photograph is in focus. the f/stop on the camera controls the focus and the smaller the f/stop, the less of the picture is in focus. I purchased a special lens that has very low aperture for this reason, because I like the blurry background effect a low aperture gives photographs. Anyway, the first lesson has you take 3 pictures, each with a different aperture to compare the changes.

This picture was taken with f/stop 22, notice how most of the picture is in focus and you can clearlly see the fence and grass in the background.

The next picture was taken with f/stop 8, notice how the backgrond is a little more blurry, but you can still make out the fence and some of the grass.

The last picture was taken with f/stop 1.8, the entire background is blurred out so that the focus is solely on the flower pot/flower.

I'll try to post some pictures from the second lesson, ISO & Shutter Speed, as soon as I can.

Our Saturday

2010-06-26T18:21:00.031-04:00

I've been doing some research on Digital SLR cameras lately and I finally decided to purchase a Nikon that I've had my eye on for a while. So in my free moments last night and this morning I've been snapping pictures of anything and everything so that I could try out different effects and lenses. My cousin Aubrey is getting married next Saturday and I'd love to be able to take some nice pictures at her wedding.

Last weekend Randy and I purchased a Jumperoo for Annabelle and she just loves it! She likes to look at all the toys that surround her and reach out to grab them. While playing with MY new toy, I took a picture of her new toy.

Annabelle plays in it every day now. Her legs are still too short to reach the ground so we had to put a few old encyclopedias under her feet (they finally came to some good use!). Thanks to these books, she's begun to realize she can make herself bounce up and down, what fun!

I thought I would do a day-in-pictures since I'm still trying to learn all the features to my new camera. This morning the baby and I headed out to the tennis courts to visit Daddy (Notice Annabelle's Tennis outfit!).

I had fun getting some action shots of the guys, and of course, I had to get a few of Randy's tennis serve.

After tennis we had to cool off in the pool, it was a hot day people!

Once we were nice and cooled off we all settled down for a relaxing nap!

All in all it was a relaxing Saturday. Annabelle went to bed early and we enjoyed Randy's famous tacos for dinner, yum!

HAPPY SATURDAY!

A good pair of blue jeans

2010-06-24T12:49:00.002-04:00

makes me feel the same way my dear.

Happy Daddy's Day!

2010-06-21T09:54:00.004-04:00

Annabelle and her Daddy had a day full of fun yesterday. Little girl wore her guitar onesie in honor of Daddy. The day included some playtime with pops as well as a little swimming in the pool with Daddy & Grandpa, then off to lunch at Smokey Bones where Annabelle politely slept the entire time so Daddy could enjoy his meal. Overall, it was a fun day!

3 Months

2010-06-17T10:50:00.008-04:00

Let the fun begin!

Many of our friends have told us that their children became MUCH easier after the magical 3-month mark, so I've been secretly awaiting this day for what seems like much longer than 3 months! However, I must say that things have gradually become easier over time (ya'll didn't think I believed that once she hit 3 months she'd wake up in the morning and be a perfect angel the rest of her life, did ya?!)

Well, by far, the best thing that's happened this last month is sleeping through the night. About 5 or 6 nights a week Annabelle's sleeping about 8-9 hour stretches. On her "bad" nights she may wake up around 2 or 3 am wanting a little snack, but then usually goes right back to sleep. She's also been chomping down on her hands, A LOT! My mom thinks she may be cutting some teeth (please not yet!), but hopefully the pearly whites won't make their debut for another month or so. We've started to get some giggles from our little girl as well, and while it's sooo cute when it happens, it's still somewhat of a rare occurance, which makes it even more exciting when it does happen. That little voice comes through when she laughs and it's just the most precious sound! Then we have the rolling. I was so excited when Annabelle first rolled from her back to her tummy, but the poor dear hasn't figured out what to do when she gets to her belly and starts to get quite upset, so I'm thinking my excitment was a little pre-mature. She loves to listen to Randy play his guitar, especially when he sits in front of her and sings to her. One night, she was a little fussy so Randy started playing for her and she feel asleep after a while of listening to him (this might be offensive for some musicians, but Randy certainly didn't mind). Annabelle also loves to watch Mickey Mouse on TV every morning when we're getting ready for work. She sits in front of the TV in her bouncer and squeals in excitment during the show while throwing up her arms and legs, it's the cutest thing!

We're enjoying watching Annabelle have all of these new experiences, like looking at the trees above her everytime we take her for a walk in her stroller or the expression on her face when we put her feet in the pool. It's been a lot of fun and we can't wait for the following months when she'll have even more fun experiences (like trying baby food for the first time!).

Sometimes I can't believe it's already been 3 months and other times I feel like it would never get here. We're having so much fun with our little girl!

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling...

2010-06-14T16:17:00.002-04:00

Annabelle started rolling from her back to her stomach a few weeks ago. At first is was random and has recently become more consistent. Today, I couldn't put her on her playmat without her rolling over! Which is great, except when she gets on her stomach she doesn't quite know what to do and gets upset, so the playmat which used to keep her entertained for a while, now requires mommy & daddy's assistance.....hmmm, have to think of new entertainment!

Smiles

2010-06-09T22:40:00.003-04:00

Annabelle is such a happy baby! This is just a glimpse of her personality...

Weekends in the Sun

2010-06-05T14:23:00.007-04:00

Last weekend we saw our fair share of BBQs. Saturday we went to our friends Tom & Tammy's house for their son's 5th birthday party. The kids had a great time swimming in the pool and we all enjoyed some delicious food off the grill. Annabelle enjoyed watching all the kids having fun, I'm sure she was dreaming of the day when she would be big enough to do all that stuff!

Saturday morning I took Annabelle and we ventured off to our city's Farmers Market. Let me just say that I was not impressed. I think we're going to try another local Farmers Market tomorrow that's a little bigger. There were only 4 tents and maybe 2 people out "shopping." However, I did get some DELICIOUS local honey (great on your Sunday morning biscuits!) and some fresh peppers, corn on the cobb, and tomatoes. Here's a picture of our bounty:

Sunday, we went to our friend Matt & Laura's house for another BBQ complete with a kiddy pool and slip-n-slide, which really brought me back to the days my brother and I would play in our back yard for hours on our slip-n-slide (which really was a huge sheet of plastic with a tall sprinkler in the middle, but to us it was AWESOME!). Which reminds me, did ya'll ever dump dishwashing soap on your slip-n-slide? If you didn't, you missed out on some crazy slip-n-sliding! :-) Anyway, after some back yard antics at our friends' BBQ we headed inside and put Miss Annabelle to bed in our friends guest room and after a few minutes of fussiness, our little girl was out like and light and remained that way until we left that night, which was great because Randy and I got a little adult time with our friends and enjoyed singing some tunes while the guys played their guitars.

Monday, we headed over to my parent's house for a Memorial Day BBQ. My mom and dad purchased a couple pool floats for Annabelle, so naturally we had to try them out. They're still a little big for her, but I'm sure she'll grow into them soon. Grandpa had fun taking Annabelle for a ride around the pool in her new float and she loved splashing her feet in the water.

Talking with Daddy

2010-05-29T10:26:00.000-04:00

Annabelle loves to watch us talk to her and she's constantly studying our faces to see how she can make sounds. Here's some video of Annabelle and her Daddy having a little conversation:

Happy Friday!

2010-05-28T17:30:00.003-04:00

Updates

2010-05-26T13:41:00.004-04:00

Annabelle had her 2-month appointment this past Monday and all went well. Our little girl currently weighs 10 pounds 14 ounces and is in the 50 percentile for height and weight. She also got her first round of shots, which I really wasn't looking forward to, but she took it like a champ and didn't even cry when they gave her the first one! She was a little cranky/sleepy that night, but has already bounced back to her bubbly self.

I also wanted to report on little one's sleeping habits because I'm so excited about it, but I wanted to make sure it wasn't a fluke first. Yet, after a few weeks of sleeping through the night, I feel pretty confident in making the announcement! Annabelle has been sleeping about 7 hours straight each night in her crib and even gave us a good 9 1/2 hour stretch last night! It's been so nice getting that extra little break, but Randy really misses having the peanut in our room, so we still bring her in for a few hours in the early morning to spend some pillow-talk time with mom & dad.

Here's our little girl before her bath the other night.

2 Months

2010-05-18T09:45:00.005-04:00

Annabelle is 2 months old today and my how time flies! Morning is always the best time with Annabelle as she's always in a good mood. Luckily, I have a work event tonight, so I'm staying home with the little angel this morning before going in. Here's a picture of our little girl first thing in the morning after waking up, she loves it when we talk to her on the changing table, just look at that smile!

The little bug has also mastered the art of holding her rattle, but I don't think she realizes she's holding it quite yet. I took a little video this morning of her new trick (please ignore my baby talk!)

Annie's First High Tea

2010-05-15T16:23:00.004-04:00

Saturday, my mom and I attended High Tea in celebration of my cousin Aubrey's bridal shower. It was a beautiful day and Aubrey looked fantastic! We can't wait for her wedding this July, it's going to be beautiful! We brought Annabelle along so she could meet her cousin Aubrey, they hit it off!

Baby Moods

2010-05-14T10:49:00.004-04:00

Annabelle is certainly showing more of her personality lately. She's a pretty happy girl in the morning and it can sometimes go downhill as the day progresses (Randy says she's like her mommy in that respect....I don't know what he's talking about). Anyway, here's our serious little girl from this morning, she spit-up not long after this picture, which may explain the expression, but who really knows for sure:

Fur Baby

2010-05-12T15:13:00.004-04:00

Our fur babies, Piper & Missy, have done well adjusting to the small, screaming human who has recently invaded their space. To date, they have yet to sit on her, attack her, or try to eat her....so I consider it a success. Piper sometimes can't take her crying and simply gets up with a sigh and walks out of the room. Missy is still a little unsure about Annabelle, but is quickly warming up to her. She even licked her head the other day. Here's what I found a few days ago while Annabelle was taking a nap.....looks like Missy has given up her position of baby of the house and has taken on the responsibility of watching out for the new baby: