Addie's Twelve Weeks Old

Here are just a few snapshots of Addie taken today while Wyatt was napping. She is twelve weeks old and officially growing into her three month old clothes. So, now to add to the cute leopard onesie from Aunt Janet...her first skirt. What do you think of the whole outfit? She had a pink bow on for church, but somehow we left that out of the photos. I think that Addie has a striking resemblance to her daddy in the first two pictures. Anyone else agree?

Premature Excitement

Well, I think it may be time to let you in on a secret. I've been holding back for days now out of premature excitement potentially turning to unmet expectations. As we all know how one feels when expectations aren't met leaving that overwhelming feeling of frustration and failure, you will quickly understand my hesitation in sharing!

So, here it is. I think we may have reached a breakthrough week with Addie. She slept for seven consecutive hours at night without feeding this week. She has now been sleeping a total of twelve hours at night from 7:30 to 7:30 (with a few feedings) for two weeks, and significant daytime sleep changes have happened! Yeah.

I pray my talking about this doesn't change anything. It is not as if I am a superstitious person at all, but boy it seems like just when I talk about anything regarding Addie...she proves me wrong!

So, to prove my confidence I will elaborate. This week Addie has settled into a four nap a day schedule. She eats about every three hours and takes naps from around one hour to two and half hours each (not without fussing in the middle of course...but any length beyond twenty minutes is progress!) It even seems the vaccuum may be running less in our house, specifically in Addie's room! I'm sure the neighbors next door rejoice in that celebration.

With all these changes come an even happier baby. And as always, a happier baby produces a much happier family!

Now, on a final note, when any of you hear me get disappointed any time soon...tell me to take a step back and relax. One thing I've learned about parenting is that for every two steps forward come about three steps back, and this is all part of the process. It is okay to have the three steps back and my world shouldn't fall apart!

and so we start again...

It seems the semester is starting up again. My lack of enthusiasm comes from the fact that today David is just now turning in his last assignment from the Fall Semester. With Addie's birth he got an extention which was awesome! However, it meant that pretty much tomorrow is our one day of "true break" between semesters. Even though that is a bit frustrating, I am looking forward to the start of class again for a number of reasons.

One, David is always so pleased with the things he is learning here at Covenant and I look forward to yet another renewed sense of excitement that comes with the start of each semester. Not that the end of a semester isn't exciting, but the stress that comes with it is not so exciting.

Two, predictability. With the start of each new semester comes a new schedule that for the most part offers some stability and predictability for our family.

Three, the log cabin! Finally, this semester Wyatt will attend the log cabin for Mom's Morning Out and I won't be working at it! I look forward to his chance to play with his friends without me and my chance to stay at home for some down time!

We will keep you posted on this semester's progress and look forward to all the joys this new year will bring! Keep us in your prayers.

New Pictures

Iknow it seems odd to have pictures of pictures on the blog, but I just wanted to show mom the new pics around the house.

Happy Birthday Papa Rudy!

We decided that with the snow and our not so reliable vehicle that it was best to stay home this morning. So we enjoyed a great breakfast, and Addie enjoyed her first consecutive seven hours of sleep last night and a two hour nap this morning. It was fantastic. While Addie napped, Wyatt ventured out into the snow with Sierra. He is now resting and anxiously awaiting his chance to talk on the "puter" with Memaw and Papa and the rest of the family. And, as you can see, Addie decided midday to boycott our family and is headed for Grandma's! We hope that Papa Rudy has a fabulous birthday celebration and wish we could be there with you all. For now, we'll stay "snowed in" in St. Louis! (this of course is purely just my cliche saying since three inches of snow doesn't really count for being snowed in)

We Love You Guys!

A three hour nap?

It seems our darling may have turned a new corner. She is slowly learning the art of self soothing and with a little help takes about one good nap a day. Here she is snoozing. And yes, I see the appearance of some red hair too! Little Addie ponders, "Just why isn't my mommy napping right now too?"

Awe, the good old days!

Wyatt sees Addie in the Baby Papazon Chair almost every day and we talk about how he used to use it when he was a baby. Yesterday morning, he was up before Addie and he decided it was his turn to get a little cozy and remember the good old days of babyhood!

Happy Ten Week Birthday Addie!

In the hustle and bustle of holiday travel, we neglected to celebrate Addie's second month birthday. Sorry girl! So, here is a little celebration of her ten weeks of life today.
Some recent milestones:
smiles...and lots of them
coos and giggles at the family
weighs ten pounds
loves lights
took her first two hour nap yesterday morning
went to bed at eight o'clock last night
found her hand to suck on
screams only a few hours during the day and night:)
loves hugs from Wyatt

As challenging as these first ten weeks have been with the queen of fuss, she has turned a corner with her recent enjoyment of the family and her smiles have given mom and dad a new found hope that we too shall sleep and be that happy soon! Happy ten weeks!

Potty Boy

Wyatt has done a tremendous job learning to use the big boy potty. He has his very own little potty that he is quite fond of and seems to enjoy going pee pee and making snakes or as the rest of like to refer to poop. He has held his pee pee on several occasions when we go out and about, so my confidence seems to be growing in his ability to go when needed and on command. I try to get him to potty before we leave the house so we can avoid public restrooms, but today my efforts failed. It seems Wyatt likes his little potty, so I have little faith in his ability to use a big toilet much less a public toilet. Well, today he proved me wrong. We were in this little Oriental market that had a dungeon for a bathroom which even scared me! He said he had to pee, so I made a run for the bathrooms with Addie in hand. To my surprise, I plopped him up there and he just went...no questions asked! Hey, Wyatt! After a long nap this afternoon, Wyatt enjoys his taco and candy for a potty reward!

Hang Loose

A friend of David's from college has been in town over the last week. His name is Joe Brandi. He and David are taking a class this weekend, but before leaving last night Joe had a chance to teach Wyatt "hang loose." So now Wyatt likes to walk around the house saying hang loose! We are still working on the sign.

Could this be a smile from "the most miserable baby"...

Can you tell what we've been up to?

It wasn't a fluke...

Please don't think my frequent blogging was just another temporary occurance. It wasn't a fluke and I promise I am back. We have been with family in town and out. We had my parents in for Christmas and we went to Ohio for New Year's. We've had two weeks of fun and now we are finally home and hopefully off to a bit more consistency with our life. In fact the few days we've been home already, I seem to be noticing Addie might (let's not get too hopeful!) be settling into a routine and sleeping better during the day and night! Wyatt has turned a new leaf of taking off his diaper and showing me his "poops and pee". I asked if he wanted big boy underwear and he said, "Yes, I want Mater, McQueen, Thomas and Percy underwear!" My mission last night was to find them. Thankfully Target came through with all of Wyatt's request and so today we begin what I kind of call potty training. I would love to say that I want the job done in a week, but I am trying to be realistic about the time I can invest. Today two accidents happened already because I was nursing Addie. What are you going to do. I put Wyatt on the potty twice before I had to feed her and no luck! Or, as Wyatt puts it, "it's not working!" As soon as I left him unattended and off the potty while feeding Addie, it starts working! As of 1pm, we've had two accidents and two poops and one pee in the potty! Not too bad!I may be able to leave the house by February.