Pearly Whites

We went to the dentist a few weeks ago. It was Lucy's first time getting her teeth cleaned so I had to document the experience. It was quite fun! She has always loved that they have a Thomas the Train table to play with...it is hard to get her to leave it! Lucy and I had to get our x-rays done since I was pregnant last time I went, and the time before they were in a new office and it wasn't working regularly. Sadie was sad that she didn't get to do it. But she got over it after a moment of grouchiness! (The joys of adjusting to a new baby! Everything is blown out of proportion!)I usually keep my little camera in my purse for moments like this. Lucy LOVES to play with it! She loves taking pictures of everyone and everything. She took a TON of pictures of the environment at the Dentist. She took pictures of pictures, the TV, the girl giving them stickers EVERYTHING! Here is one that the sticker girl took of Lucy. I think it is such a funny little half smile. She is always so cheesy that I like how sweet and soft this smile is. Lucy took one of Mommy during my turn. Sadie went first to show Lucy how it was done. She was such a good example and is so patient and obedient.All CLEAN! Look at those "glowing" teeth! :)Now it's Lucy's turn and boy is she silly!

Whenever it is some one's first time at the Dentist, they show them all the different tools and explain what they do. It is so cute and the girls really enjoy it. They think it is so fun to go to the Dentist. Lucy thought it was so funny that this one blows air out. The hygienist was blowing it on them and it was so fun!Woa! What came out of this one!?! WATER! So shocked!This one is a favorite! The one that sucks the water out of your mouth!Lucy thought that was absolutely crazy and hilarious! She LOVED it!She loved it so much that she was putting the Hygienist to the test! While she was squirting Lucy's teeth clean and had the sucking one in her mouth, Lucy would randomly and quickly close her mouth! It was so funny! Lucy thought she was so tricky and so silly. I have to say, the Hygienist was on the ball and had skills because Lucy never got a squirt in the face! It came close a couple of times but she was good. They were having fun! :)Not enjoying it too much here.And of course, we had to talk to the Dentist about this:It was SO cute when she was a baby; and I must admit I still love it. Because that means it is cuddle time! When she did it as a baby I felt like I had to hurry and take pictures of it like I would never see it again. But of course we have seen it many times since then. She used to just suck on her fingers when she was laying down in her bed and twisting the ties on the bumper pad with her other hand. Now that she does not take naps anymore, we see the finger sucking more often. When she gets a little tired, she finds comfort in sucking those cute little fingers. I always loved when babies would suck their middle two fingers because then it looked like the "I Love You" sign in sign language!

But, now that she is getting bigger, we need to start thinking about stopping this habit so that it doesn't mess up her teeth. So, the Dentist said that it is a good time to stop. :( I just feel bad because she doesn't have her bumper pad ties to twist anymore since she is in a big girl bed and now we need to take away this! Poor Lucy. I need to make some kind of a blanket that has different tassel things on it for her to twist and play with to soothe herself. I did notice the other night that she has started playing with the fabric of the pillow case on the open end. Too cute.

We all got a clean bill of health and enjoyed our visit to the Dentist. Lucy did a GREAT job with her first visit. They were so excited to get something from the treasure box AND get a new toothbrush and toothpaste! Our Dentist has the BEST treasures! Lucy got a toy car and Sadie got a bracelet since she LOVES jewelry!

Side note: I think it is so funny because Lucy is kind of a little tom boy sometimes. Although she loves dresses! She loves animals figures, she picks a car as her toy from the dentist. Whenever we get pull ups she always chooses Cars over princesses, and she picked a Mater toothbrush over princesses too! She is so funny and I just love her spunky little personality! She always makes me laugh!

One Month

This sweet little monkey is already one month old! (Well, technically now she is 5 weeks since I am doing this post a little late). We have had so much fun this first month with Daphne! It seems like it has flown by, yet it seems like she's been with us forever! It seems like so long ago that we had Grandmas here visiting, boy do we miss them.
She has already grown so much! She was not back up to her birth weight at her 2 week check up (which they like them to be...not too much of a concern since she was so big), she was 9 lbs. 9 oz at the check up and 9 lbs 12 oz at birth. So we had to go back the next week just to weigh her. A little annoying since she probably would have been up to birth weight if I had fed her because she was due to eat at the time of her appointment but she had fallen asleep in the car. So the next week, I fed her in the car in the parking lot of the Doctor's office. She weighed in at a whopping 10 lbs 10 oz! Over a pound in one week -minus the milk :o)!
We got her on meds for acid reflux. I wish we could have a baby that didn't have this. It isn't fun and so sad to see them squirm around not being comfy. It is finally seeming to help.
Also, at that weigh-in, the Doctor was a little concerned about her skin, how it is marbled even though she is not cold to the touch. She checked her circulation and it was fine. She does want her to go see a pedi-dermatoligist just to be safe. She had one of the other Doctors come in as well and they were both a little puzzled by it. I think I remember Lucy's skin being that way too. Chris remembers my Mom asking if she was cold and us just saying her skin was that way. Then I noticed Lucy's skin can still look that way. She is pale, so maybe that has to do with it. Anyway, just interesting.
Daphne is starting to have some 4 to 5 hour stretches of sleep at night which is nice! Usually, it is that first stretch of the night so I have to go to bed early if I want to take advantage of it! :)
She has had multiple real baths now since her umbilical chord fell off just before 3 weeks.
Sadie fed her a bottle for the first time and was thrilled! But she said that Daphne stinks - I don't think it was her...it was the formula! Both Sadie and Lucy would NOT take a bottle at all! So I am trying to get Daphne used to them because I would like the opportunity of a little bit of freedom occasionally. I will give her a bottle once a day, for the most part, and she has done pretty well with them.
Dapne has more awake times throughout the day and we love it! It is fun to interact with her a little as she just stares at you! So cute!

I love how wobbly she is, and the speratic kicking and arm movements!
I love how you can tell that she is wanting to communicate but just doesn't know how.
I love to stare at her as she sleeps! The little squirming and squeeking noises she makes when she sleeps are adorable.
A weird thing, I know, but I love to pick the fuzz that gets stuck in the cracks of her hands, in between her fingers and toes. Love it!
I LOVE to smell her! Man, newborns smell SO good!
I LOVE to "steal" kisses. Little baby pouty lips that don't know how to pucker up for a kiss yet but I get to still give them kisses...I LOVE it!
I love holding her hand, and when she holds onto my shirt as she falls asleep!
I love how she will turn her feet inward and hold onto my arm with her feet while I am feeding her!
I love her little fuzzy shoulders and ears! I remember with Sadie I was nervous about that, thinking she was a hairy person, not knowing that's how newborns are. :)
I LOVE her little burping face! How her head bobbles a little as I am patting her back and her eyes are either wide open looking around with her pouty lips a little chapped from all the sucking that she hasn't had to do before. Or she is completely out from having a full tummy and then has the cutest sleeping face while being held up to burp! So sweet!
I love how she is so little in her crib! Such a tiny crib, yet she is even smaller! She is just this little bundle of beauty!
I love her all swaddled in her blankies. Chris calls her his little football whenever she is swaddled.
I love holding her in the sling and patting her cute little bottom.

We have had SO much fun and have REALLY enjoyed Daphne. People have said that number 3 was so difficult, but we haven't felt that way yet. I just really feel relaxed with her. Sadie was the first and so we didn't know what we were doing so that was difficult. Lucy was so close behind Sadie, that they just blur together. With Daphne we were really ready for her and we just get to enjoy her and appreciate her so much. Sadie and Lucy are such big helpers too, so that makes it easier. They like to play together and entertain eachother as well. It has been a really nice time together as a family of 5! Crazy, FIVE!!

Mothers

This Mother's Day I am so thankful for the Mom's in my life. We have been so lucky to have both of our Mom's come visit us recently for the birth of our sweet little Daphne. So this Mother's day we are extra thankful for the wonderful Mother's in our life. Not only for the people they have believed we would/could become and for teaching how to do so, but for continuing to love and support us. We love you and are forever in your debt!

Grandma "Stewie"

Grandma Christy

And here are the sweet blessings that I am proud to call MY family! They are the reason I get to be called Mommy! They are what I am most proud of! The reasons why I get up in the morning. They make my days happy and full of life and love! Without them, I don't know who I would be! I am glad, because of them, I am known as Mommy! I am so lucky!

When Sadie learned that Daphne likes to suck on fingers, she was thrilled! She thought it was so adorable and so funny! She is such a SWEET big sister! She adores Daphne as I am sure Daphne adores her! Sadie loves to make up sweet little songs and sing them to Daphne. It is so cute and she loves it!
Cuddle time!Our sweet little family. This was taken last week, Daphne's first time at church. She loves it and sleeps the entire time! She was mad in this picture though, because she needed to eat! Today at church, she didn't eat the entire time we were there! She went a good 5 hour stretch without eating; that was her personal best! :)

Strawberry Time!

A couple months ago we finally ran out of our home made strawberry jam from last year. I have been avoiding buying jam from the store but I broke down and was VERY disappointed. It is SO not the same! We have been excited to make some this year! With Grandma Christy here, I knew we could actually venture out and do it! So Friday we headed to over to the strawberry fields and were excited to pick some strawberries. With the recent rain we have been having, we knew it would be muddy. Last year Lucy fell and was so upset about it, so I thought ahead and brought some extra clothes just in case. Wouldn't you guess that Lucy did just fine, but Sadie had a little stumble. We had to cross ever so carefully through the strawberries to get passed some very large muddy puddles. So we crossed it once when we got there, and instantly had to go potty. So we crossed back to get to the bathrooms. Then on our way back over, Sadie's shoes were a little slippery from washing her hands in the hose and unfortunately she slipped right in the mud! So we had to cross back and get cleaned up a little with the hose. She handled the whole situation very well. Especially since we couldn't get her all the way clean! By the time we got back and were ready to pick strawberries, finally, Grandma had thankfully already filled up one and a half of our two boxes! So we picked strawberries for a little bit.I couldn't do much of the picking either because Daphne would get so mad when I bent down, since she was in the sling. So most of the time Daphne was doing thisBut eventually she did some of this! :)Lucy was too excited to feed the carrots we brought to the horses and donkeys. There was even a cute little baby donkey. So thankfully Grandma was enjoying herself picking strawberries, because once again, she was left todo the picking!
We ventured over to the animals! It's was interesting because Lucy was actually a little timid with them at first. She is getting older and more knowledgeable I guess. But she quickly warmed up and had a blast.We headed over back to Grandma and took a little picture in the ladybug cut out. Then headed over to get some home made ice cream! You have to get some when you are there! It is heavenly! Then we were on our way home. I was spoiled and while I took a nap with Daphne, Grandma and Lucy made all the jam! We had to have toast with dinner and it was divine! Sadie was so excited to have waffles with jam on them. We used to have that a lot on our way to the gym for breakfast. So we have missed it since we ran out of our delicious jam.
Grandma did such a great job picking strawberries that we have tons left over even after four batches of jam. With all the rain, these strawberries were so big and beautiful! We have been loving to have strawberries with every meal and for snacks as well.

Bath Time

After having C-section, running on little sleep and taking care of 3 kids (even with lots of help from Grandmas) I just don't have the energy to take lots of pictures yet. I did however document Daphne's first "bath." Since her umbilical cord has not fallen off yet, we just had to do a wash rag bath. This was last week, I had the intentions of taking her newborn pictures the following day, but that didn't happen. I am proud to say that I finally did take them this morning and I am SO excited! They are adorable! She is so cute I could just eat her up! I have to say, that she did the best out of all our babies. Sadie and Lucy were both so difficult. Well, actually, come to think of it, Sadie did pretty good, but Lucy...not so much! Anyway, Daphne cuddled down a few different times and even soothed herself to sleep in one of the shots. She had been awake and looking around so I thought I would try getting some with her eyes open but she fussed a little and then closed her eyes and slept! What a sweetheart!

Anyway, enough about those (sorry I can't share because I don't want to ruin the excitement of the birth announcement!). So Chris took some pictures while I gave Daphne her bath. Of course she didn't like the wash rag part because she was so cold! I love the "I'm falling" hand! That reflex is so cute and so sad to me! Just tonight I was holding her towards my chest and was turning her around to face front so she could look around and she just started screaming! She was so upset and I was so gentle about it! It was so sad! She has really got a good pathetic cry down! I love it. She knows how to work her Mommy!Washing her hair and loving it! She is so sweet! I love how they love to have their hair under the warm water! So cute!!

All cuddled and asleep! Thank you Aunt Tricia for these swaddling blankies! They are the best! Daphne and Mommy LOVE them!

No more hospital!

That is how we feel about being at the hospital! Yeah, we are home!!! It is great to be together as a family of five! Although Sadie is already planning out our 6th member of the family! She said she LOVES having a baby sister and that now we just need one more and then we will have 6 people in our family. :) She is so funny!

It has been great to be home and develop our own routine and schedule. I do love having a nurse come help me at the push of a button, and the bed that sits me up so I don't have to hurt my tummy, but I don't miss all the "attention" from all the Doctors and nurses; and this time, student nurses!! Both girls absolutely adore Daphne! They love to come in first thing to just "look at her, because they miss seeing her!" But of course they end up waking her and Mommy up! :) Here are some pictures of Daphne while we were at the hospital.

Kisses!

She is such a good snuggler! I have a hard time putting her down! I have been waiting so long to see her, hold her, steal kisses and hold her sweet little hand! Now I get to and I am LOVING it! She loves to make cute little noises when she cuddles! It is so sweet! Look at those cute little fuzzy shoulders. I love that about newborns! Boy do I just want to squeeze her!

Ready to go!!

What is that furry thing sniffing my toes!?!

Lucy loves to help take care of her! She is great at throwing her diapers away! She is very quick to tell me when Daphne is fussing to "put her 'dinky' on!" I love it! She is so cute! She loves "her" baby and is very sweet to her! She will tell everyone to be quiet when Daphne is sleeping. So sweet and thoughtful!

The best big sisters ever! Grandma got balloons on the way home from the hospital. We all loved them! We feel so blessed to have such a sweet little girl join our family! We are excited for all the fun times we will share! We love you sweet Daphne and can't get enough of you!! You are such a blessing to all of us!