For the Aunties...

Here are some recent videos of Claribel doing her "exercises". She is getting so big and interactive. Recently she has also been extending her arm in her "power to the people" position and really studying her hand. We need to get a video of that as well.

pb&j

For the past 31 years, I have never eaten a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I guess I must have had a bite when I was little, but I don't remember. All I remember is that I did not like them and never wanted to eat them; they kind of grossed me out, honestly. I would have opted for peanut butter and honey or just peanut butter if I had to. Last week, I was putting some yummy bonne mama's blackberry preserves on my bagel for breakfast and accidentally dripped a glob on the bread that I was going to make a sandwich out of for lunch. I had a dilemma... throw away said piece of bread or try peanut butter and jelly for the first time in YEARS. I decided that I might actually like it with the yummy fresh ground honey roasted peanut butter from the HEB and the tasty preserves. Well, I did like it! In fact, I have had quite a few of them since this realization last week. I guess all this time I was a peanut butter and jelly snob... It just had to be the right peanut butter and jelly! yummy! I just had one for lunch at work and it was oh so tasty! Hey- has anyone ever had a pluot (plum apricot hybrid)? I bought some at the lovely Farm Patch in town and it is really good! I really need to start going there once a week- I think it would be a great way to start my Saturday mornings.

Auntie Karen comes to visit...

I am so glad that one of my besties Karen was able to come meet Claribel! She flies for Air-Tran so it is really nice that she has the ability to fly out here pretty regulary and fairly effortlessly (well at least she says it is easy... sure is easy for me!) We had such a nice visit and she was able to spend some good time with Claribel. Thanks so much for coming and we look forward to seeing you again soon!

Leave it to Karen to have some fun with that crazy hair!

Two Months...

Claribel, I can't believe that you are two months and 1 day old! This sweet baby time with you has just flown by and really has been a blast for your daddy and me. You are such a good baby, pretty much only cry when you are hungry or tired and overstimulated. You are sleeping through the night and have been for several weeks now, which is so GREAT! I love getting you in the morning, so happy to start the day. You have also been smiling for a few weeks now and are really smiling alot now. It is so fun! Your hair is still pretty wild and not too much of it has fallen out so that is good. You are really enjoying your baby einstein play mat and can lay on it for a pretty good little stretch if needed. You have been in your crib for several weeks and it is crazy how much you move around in that thing. You have shown us that you can roll from your stomach to your back in the crib and on the Einstein Mat. Your little legs are so strong and from your tummy you can scoot all over your crib. We have found you at all sides and in all corners of the crib after your naps. Your eyes are a little lighter blue than when you were born and GE (Grandma Elaine) is hoping that her blue eyes will have been passed to you (but we still have awhile until we will know that). You are such a happy baby and a good eater and sleeper. We just love you so much and CAN NOT imagine our life wtihout you in it!

I took some pictures to compare to the one month ones last Thursday night...

Today we had her 9 week (2 month) well baby visit with Dr. R. She is doing so well and right on track! I hated when they had to give her shots... it suprised her and she cried- poor baby!

Two month Stats:

Length: 22 in (25th-50th %)

Weight: 10 lb 4 oz (25th %)

Head: 25th %

A week ago Friday...

Ray has off on Fridays during these tough economic times, which has been nice since he can watch Claribel on Fridays if I need to go into the office. It was really hard leaving the house last Friday when this was going on in our room...

I am gad he is be able to take advantage of a few of those nice morning naps with Claribel that I was able to have during my 6 1/2 weeks off of work. Fun, snuggle times :)

sick days...

Poor little Claribel and I had some sick days last week. Tuesday when I fed her in the morning I noticed that she was a little congested, I had been since Saturday and I felt so bad for her! Other than that she seemed fine, so I went to work and Maria kept her. She didn't eat or sleep well for Maria and we had a hard night that night with her mostly in our bed so we could help keep her head a little elevated. I decided to stay home/ work from home on Wednesday and Thursday. I pretty much kept her in the Moby wrap all day and she slept a TON! I could tell she was so tired! Wednesday night she even slept the night with me in the Moby Wrap, which wasn't the most restful, but I know it was better rest for her than if she would have been in her crib not being able to breathe very well. Now it is Monday (well actually I am finishing this post on Friday) and she is doing much better. She has slept the past basically 2 weeks from at least 10 pm to 6 am. Praise the Lord! I want to go back through my little log of sleep/ feeding and count the number of times I actually had to get up between the hours of 12 am and 6 am... I don't think there were that many. Not that I don't expect to have to do that some more times in her lifetime :)

sweet baby...

I just love how Claribel looks when she is sleeping, esp. when she has her legs curled up under her and her little bootie in the air... those little piggies visible and oh so kissable.

This might be the last time she can wear this lovely pink smocked gown that Monie found since it is Newborn size... the neck is a bit snug. She peed on the back while I was changing her diaper so we had a little impromptu photo shoot on the changing table. I love smocking- so sweet!

so big and so small...

Claribel has grown out of her "bassinet", this great pram that mom found for us in Colorado at a Once Upon a Child. She is a real scooter with those strong legs she has and needed more room to do her thing. We are going to have to take some before and after pics to show how far she goes... She has also rolled from her stomach to her back (i guess by getting one leg really going and propelling herself over). The angelcare monitor is great for our peace of mind... except for the few false alarms we have had- thankfully they have not woken C up... we will just have to find the sweet spot on the sensitivity. The problem is when she scoots herself all the way over to the edge of the crib and I guess since she is so small the mat is not catching her movement.

I think she might miss her bears... she seemed to stare at the side of the bassinet at the little bears on the fabric. Hopefully she will enjoy the flowers as much :)

This picture is driving me NUTS! Will not upload correctly (blogger keeps rotating it)... and i am out of patience and time... gotta go feed Cbel before Home Church tonight... and i hear her grunting so I know she is waking up... or between sleep cycles at least :)

Friday Morning...

Could there be anything more beautiful for me to wake up to in the morning than my wife and daughter?

first day back at work...

Today was my first day back at work part time... I had gone in a few times for an hour here and there, but this was my first day back on my 30 hour a week schedule. It was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be... i thought i would be on the verge of tears all day long... I am so thankful to have practically a perfect situation for me to feel comfortable and not have as hard of a time leaving my little baby bird. I initially wanted to work 20 hours a week, but to have health insurance (which was very important for us), I have to work 30 hours. The plan is to get to work around 8:35 or so and work until about 3 and then come home to wake up Claribel to eat. Maria (our WONDERFUL nanny) comes at 8:30 and wakes up Claribel to eat around 9, she takes another nap and then wakes her up to eat around noon (unless of course she wakes up on her own) and she leaves at 2 with C asleep in her crib. At first I was not waking her up, but I don't think she was getting enough feedings in... We will see what the Pediatrician has to say at her next appointment on the 11th.

What makes it so much easier for me is that Ray works from home and is here should anything happen, it also allows me to get that extra hour in after the nanny leaves. I may or may not go into the office on Fridays (if there is enough for me to do from home during naps during the week and on Friday) and Ray will keep her if needed on Fridays, since he is still not working Fridays.

I am so thankful to have such an amazing workplace with a flexible, amazing boss that is letting me decide what works best for my family. SO THANKFUL! I am so thankful that the Lord brought us back here to live, this flexibility would NOT be the case at my workplace in Dallas and I would have a really hard time working full time and not get to spend time with her during the day. I think for me the hardest part about full time in my job is how drained I am after the day/ week and I am afraid that I would feel like I didn't have much left to give to children.

So, this is a perfect solution for us. I came to the realization (when someone asked at work when I would resume full time work) that I might not ever. I would love to always be there after school when they get off and to have time to make dinner... it would also help me balance "me time" being able to get to the gym, etc. later on. Well, that is where I am... working, at home, thankful, and blessed!

The best part of my day was coming home to these two loves of my life!

some pics from this week...

A few pictures...

you talking to me bird?

This is the outfit that we got to bring her home from the hospital in... It actually fit her pretty good- is a size 0-3 months (but a pretty small one) and I am afraid this was one of our last wears of this outfit (now that we are in the cloth diapers (they put a little more junk in the trunk). It is one of our favorites and I hope that we have another girl or some girl cousins to wear it also! sweet baby grin- it is so fun to start getting those smiles!

funny face...

my 31st...

I had a wonderful 31st birthday yesterday. d and Monie brought over steaks from Readfield's and d and Ray gave them the Weber touch. We had PW's crash hot potatoes (seriously, if you still think that baked potatoes are the best choice with steak- you MUST try these), and corn on the cob. Topped it off with Brownie sundae's... yummy!

Of course mom loved holding Claribel while she napped and we watched a movie- Mall Cop, pretty entertaining...

And Monie fed Claribel her bottle. I wish I would have gotten a better picture of her in her outfit... she looked so cute in this little dress that was one of the first things that Monie bought her... and I love those trumpette mary jane socks. Unfortunately, Ray saw them at Blue Kangaroo on display on a little plastic baby foot and has had a hard time getting that creepy image out of his head (i think it is getting better though, seeing them on cutie Claribel's feet).

pictures for my aunties...

So, I am going to try and be better about posting at least pictures really regularly for little Claribel's Aunties that don't live close but love her dearly!

cutie belly button after bath time,

with Frannie close by to try and lick off lotion after we put it on

another sleeping baby in one of my favorite gowns (great find by Monie)

daddy time... working on getting tired to go to sleep

lunch time break with Daddy

here comes frannie...

cold nose!

cheese!

meeting Meme and Aunt Barbara for the first time- Lunch at Jose's today

One Month...

One Month old... it has gone by so fast, yet has felt like we have had you in our lives for much longer! The pics below were taken on your one month birthday... you have grown so so much and we just think you are the cutest baby- don't even get GrandE started...

The one below is what we call "angry elf" (from the movie Elf with Will Ferrell). It makes me so sad when you are sad and this was definitely the last picture of the bunch. I know pretty soon we are going to have to let you cry some to learn to go to sleep by yourself, but I am not ready quite yet.

Your head control is pretty strong thankfully since we have not done a lot of tummy time. You do sleep on your stomach (I know, I know...) so you get to practice your head control then as well. We got the Angelcare monitor which senses movement (good for tummy sleepers) and are hopefully going to get that all set up this weekend and start at least napping in your crib. The buggy is great, but you are getting pretty big in there and I think I will sleep much better when I can't hear all the noises so much... maybe...

We had some sadness at the beginning of the week. Your tiny big toenails were not growing in good and one had gotten a little infected. Your poor toe was bright red. So, we went to visit the doc on Monday and it turned out you had a slight fever and minor ear infection in your right ear- poor baby! So, we have been giving you antibiotics (Daddy is really good at it) and you seem to like it as much as I did when I was little- yummy ammoxicillian (sp?). The doctor said just to rub the toe nail out with a warm washrag which I did on Sunday when we noticed it and it was already looking better when the doctor saw it. It is not even really pink at all anymore. You also seem to be feeling better with the antibiotics (we had noticed that you were a bit fussy which was so abnormal for our sweet, happy baby).

This is a picture of some awake time on the baby einstein mat (Thanks Aunt Rachael). She does pretty good laying here looking at the whale. I know once she gets older it will be more and more fun for her!

Finally, our sweet sleeping baby, nothing cuter than a sleeping baby.

We will hopefully be posting some pictures soon from the photographer that came and took newborn pics (www.tinybirdphotography.com). They turned out really good and she was such a joy to work with. Sadness that she is moving to Houston, but hopefully she will still be up for CS shoots as our family grows.

Claribel, you have already brought immeasurable joy and love to our hearts and we can't imagine life without you sweet baby! We can't wait to see what the future holds for our now family of three (well, 4 with frandog) and know that the Lord has much in store!

We love you our little Bel-

August 7th...5 years!

Last Friday we celebrated our 5th anniversary! I can't believe that we have been married 5 years- the time really has flown by, yet I also feel like I have known Ray for SO LONG... much longer than 6 years. I am so thankful for the blessing that he is in my life and can't imagine life without him. It has been so fun to see him grow into a wonderful daddy as well. He loves Claribel so much and she has him wrapped around her little fingers.

Above is a picture from when we were first dating- We went to Daniel and Amy's wedding in Beaumont with Lori and this guy Vlad (remember that character Lori?).

and a few pictures from the wedding- definitely one of the happiest days of my life- the happiest until July 10, 2009 and that day ranks up there pretty high as well!

Here we are in Jamaica on our honeymoon- What a wonderful vacation- I really can't believe that it was five years ago!



And finally, we went to La Riviera for our anniversary dinner. Monie kept Claribel which was nice, since when she is with us we are a little distracted (not that I don't mind being distracted of course :) ) It was just nice to be able to focus on the two of us for the night.

It was a lovely dinner with my honey.

Happy 5th Ray- I look forward to MANY more years to come!

CG's Baby Shower...

I am a little late in posting this, but I had the pleasure to help hostess a baby shower a week ago Sunday for a friend from High School, Christina, with some other friends from High School that I have not seen in FOREVER! It was so nice to catch up with so many people that I have not seen in 10+ years... Laurel, Jessica L, Anne W, Whitney, Kendra, Dara... Of course it was all I could remember to make sure I had anything I might need for Claribel that I completely forgot my camera... Hopefully I can track down some pictures since Christina's sister Mary had her camera... I did take pictures of the diaper cake I made for a center piece. It was a fun project and looked really cute with the cake and flowers on the table. I have a feeling there might be more of these in my future :) I included a few other homemade items on the cake that I was planning on making for CG before we decided to do a diapercake: 4 burpcloths with fabric topstitched down the center, a little taggie blanket, and a flannel blanket with yellow on one side and a handsome navy stripe on the other. Most of the items on the cake were ones that CG registered for- the shoes, rubber duck that has a "hot" indicator on the bottom, the toys, pacifiers, and the baby soap and baby lotion that is at the center of the cake. Here are pictures going around the cake to the right...