Merry Christmas!

Sorry I didn't post this on Christmas Day, but we were a little busy.
Let's see, the party at the neighbor's house went well. Everyone had to come over and meet us, but we are sure it was because of Miss C. She was the center of attention and loved watching everyone. She was quiet for the first fifteen minutes then started to play with a cup in my lap. She was just fine so long as no one actually tried to talk to her directly. She even got a very sweet teddy bear from the host and hostess as she was deemed the guest of honor.
I think we will be seeing these folks, the neighbors that is, more frequently than we did in SoCal. It's nice to have nice neighbors that aren't able to look into your backyard from their upstairs!
Miss C had a great time but I expect that she will have even more fun once we get to her Great Grandmother's house this weekend. We think her favorite gift so far was her remote control. It was from our old cable set. DH scrubbed it and boy, I don't think she has let it go more than a couple of minutes at a time. She was exhausted last night and slept well as usual.
As a gift to us, Miss C is now scooting backwards! Talk about a great gift. As I understand it, this is a precursor to crawling. We told her she is a little young to be doing this but she simply stuck out her tongue and gave us a raspberry! She is also saying "da" a lot more now so DH got his own Christmas gift from Miss C. I know she will be saying "ma" in time so I guess I will wait.
I am putting in a couple of cute pictures (go figure!) and then we're off! I have to work today so there are still a few things to take care of. I will try to post again soon.
Until then, hope everyone is having a great time!

Quick update

Sorry its been a while since I last posted. We've been staying busy, putting up drapes, working weird hours, playing Santa. We're apparently the subject of much debate and the neighbors are vying for our attendance at their gatherings. We are the new young couple with the baby, you know. We're only able to go to one of the parties (its tomorrow night) but we'll let ya'll know how everything works out! We're also stopping by a friend's house tomorrow morning to visit the new parents and little one that we mentioned a couple of weeks ago. We would have gone sooner but we have all been sharing a cold so we decided to wait until we were all better.

I know everyone else is busy too so I thought I would toss out a photo of our little "elf" and wish everyone Happy Holidays. I will post more when there is more to post!

Weekend fun

Hey there! Well, we made it through the mid watches so now we start eves on Monday. While I will no longer be at work throughout the night, I will have to miss Miss C's evening routine. On the plus side, DH gets a chance to settle a routine of his own with Miss C, get used to bathing her and all that. They are doing great regardless.

To make up for what i thought was a yucky two weeks of mid watches (those are 11pm to 8 am, roughly, by the way), Miss C and I made Christmas cookies today. Check out this picture. We were trying to frost some sugar cookies!

We did have a good time even though it looks like DH managed to catch Miss C between smiles.

We're getting ready for our winter trip to see DH's grandma. Everyone is so excited, I am not sure what Miss C will make of it but its bound to be memorable. I just wish she was able to see the rest of the family more often. Ah, well, maybe later, right?

That's pretty much it for now. Hope ya'll are having a great December and don't forget to toss me a comment every once in a while, ok?

Miss C is 6 months old today!

*** Edited to add: Miss C did great at the doctor's. She officially weighs 18 lb 15.5 oz and is 27 1/8 inches long. Yea! *****

Wow! 6 months have already passed since Miss C joined our family. Here's a quick recap of where she stands:
1. Miss C rolls everywhere! She has definitely figured out this one. When we play, she often chases us around the rooms. Too much fun!
2. Miss C tries to "talk". We hear lots of compounds (ba, da, ga) but nothing that really means anything, at least nothing that we have figured out yet. She prefers to talk to the ceiling fan or the cat more than anything though!
3. Miss C has 6 teeth working their way back and forth. Poor baby. She gets the teeth to come through the gums then the gums swell and teeth disappear again only to make her have to go through the entire process all over again!
4. Miss C loves her solids! She seems to be very happy with sweet potatoes and squash (both smell much like spaghetti o's, don't they?) as well as just about every other one she has tried. We're going for peaches next then avocado! Yummy!
5. Miss C has great balance when seated (although she still hasn't figured out how to get to this position on her own).
6. Miss C really likes to stand up. She holds on to the foot stool or one of the chairs and stands there for a few minutes. She needs to know that one of us is sitting behind her but once she is sure of that, no problem. Its so cute to see her grin!
Well, that's pretty much it. We have her check up scheduled for tomorrow so I won't have her height and weight (or length and weight, rather) until then. Hope you enjoyed this as much as I did!

First watch, well kind of

Well, I went in for my first watch tonight, this afternoon really. It was so hard. I spent the entire morning and an hour or so of the afternoon with Miss C. She was babbling, rolling, playing, all sorts of good stuff. She seems to be going through another growth spurt so she napped a little more frequently than I expected, but eh, no worries.

I went to get her from her last nap and thought, hey, she hasn't seen me yet (I only peeked in the room briefly and saw her playing with her pacifier) why don't I go use the bathroom?

Well, apparently she did see me and she started to cry. I mean cry, really, with tears. My baby never (I mean never, really, ask) cries. My heart broke. I just had to go to the bathroom! I wasn't leaving! Ugh.

Talk about starting out on a crappy note.

So, we hung out really close and ate again before I took her to Mrs J's house. She spent 3 hours there before DH picked her up.

Apparently the rest of the day was a piece of cake for her. She ate lots and played and was out before 7.

As far as my watch went, we did a drill (kind of practice, like a simulation) and that ended early. Then I did normal watch stuff, nothing terribly exciting. I did a little more work then got told to go home, no need to stay, I was "ahead of the curve." Yea me!

I guess I should know not to worry about Miss C right now since she is with DH (for the most part, Mrs J otherwise, really) when I am at work.

Its just that tonight was the first night I wasn't here for her bath or to put her to bed. Wednesday morning I won't be here, I will still be at work and DH has to take Miss C to Mrs J's house (I will pick her up after lunch, once I get a few hours of sleep) so he will be taking care of her morning routine and that makes me sad too. Not that I don't think he'll do a great job, just that I am not here to see her beautiful smile as she welcomes every new day.

I know, maybe I am expecting too much. Miss C probably won't remember that there were a few days every month when Mama wasn't there when she woke up or wasn't there to put her to bed. I just wanted it to be later, ya know?

Early Holiday Joy

Today was an exceptionally exciting day.

First, a couple of good friends of ours here in the Pacific Northwest had their baby (adorable Leila Marie!) this morning. She is just beautiful! They are all doing great.
In addition, I was finally able to upload a new video of Miss C with her new trick. The best part is at the end of the video, so please give it a minute, ok?



After all of that wonderful news, I got home to see Miss C received an early Christmas present. In our mail box was a neat package from Amazonqueen's DOM. What a wonderful blanket Miss C received! I attached a couple of photos we took today of her enjoying this wonderful gift.


















OK, I admit, I had to call Alphagal to confirm the sender as I am not always current on her tia's real names!
Anyway, Alpha tells me that the blanket was Amazonqueen's idea so I have to publically thank both women for such a wonderful, enduring treasure. I know Miss C will enjoy it forever! I would give you loads of hugs if we were in person, but blog hugs will simply have to do until then!
I guess that's pretty much it for today. Thanks for stopping by! Drop a line if you get a chance, ok?

Lookout! Here we come!

Well, Thanksgiving was lots of fun and Miss C and I have another couple of days before we both go back to our normal schedules. Her care provider, Mrs J, is home with her kids until Wednesday, so Miss C and I have been enjoying loads of time together. It turns out this is the week to be home. Since our leave started, Miss C has not only shown us that she can roll from her belly to her back, but also from her back to her belly! I swear I think the cat is traumatized. The first time we realized Miss C could roll both ways was when we jokingly told her to "go get the kitty" and, well, she did. It wasn't fast but the cat was sure the baby couldn't come close without our help. Boy was she wrong! My goodness the look on the cat's face when after a few minutes she glances over her shoulder at us to discover Miss C a mere foot away!

Aside from that major milestone, Miss C is getting more vocal. She tends to talk to the ceiling fans and the cat, but hey, she could be talking to us and just looking at the other stuff. Who knows! She's also got much better manual dexterity. Whenever she drops a toy, we can lean her over to pick it up herself. That too started out as us joking about it, leaning her down and voila, she picked it up. Crazy! Miss C is also great at balancing in a seated position. She can't put herself in that position but once she's there, she can play with toys and still stay in that position for a long while (20 minutes once!).

Well, hope you're having a great weekend and enjoying the football games as much as we are! Go Chargers!