Our sweetie pie

Quick Update

This has proved to be an eventful week. Eva has started grabbing everything in her reach and trying to put it in her mouth, which means she tries to get her sock or her blanket in her mouth most of the time. Her desire to suck on something has increased dramatically too. We think that she is in the beginning stages of teething, but a lot of times she just wants to suck on something. We may cave and try to make her take the pacifier; hopefully she won't gag on it like she did the last time we try to give it to her. She has discovered her tongue! She uses her tongue when she is thinking very intently.

She is starting to mimic us. She watches me tap my foot to the beat, staring intently as she stays very still and then tries to move just one leg up and down repeatedly. She waved "hi" in response to Justin waving to her a couple of nights ago. She started to try to crawl as of today. She didn't move an inch forward but her back legs are definitely working to get her moving. She loves bath time too.

She is about 12 and a half pounds now and Mommy is feeling every bit of it!

Some things are still the same - She kicks off every blanket we put over her, talks herself to sleep, her eyes are still two different colors and her smile just as sweet as ever. I love these things very much and I treasure them up in my heart everyday.

Once I remember where I put the camera, I will add some pictures.

Almost Better

We are all on the mend finally. I am about 90% better with some leftover congestion. I have a little cough still, which concerns me because the last two times I got a bad cold it turned into bronchitis, so I'm really hoping it doesn't move to my chest. So far so good. Aimee says she's about 80% better, and we think little Eva is about 80% too. She still has some congestion and her throat sounds a bit scratchy.

Please pray for us to get completely better as quick as possible... it seems like a lot of people where I work are sick and just going to work today after a few days out of the office, I felt like I was going to catch something again this morning. We don't want to have this thing constantly passing around between the 3 of us, you know?

More pictures soon!

Little Eva Has a Cold!

And as a matter of fact, so do Mommy and Daddy. Eva must have caught something somehwere recently, and she gave it to us! It hit us fast too, we were fine last night and woke up sick today. I called off work and still got stuck working 5 hours from home (ugh.) It breaks our heart to see our little one with a stuffy nose and coughing! Thankfully no fever though. Also thankfully the weekend is near so we can get some rest (if we let ourselves.)

Tomorrow is also the first time we will be without Eva for a few hours as we have a funeral to attend. We were hoping to never have to have her babysat... which was probably unrealistic but oh well. These are less than ideal circumstances.

So please pray for us if you think of us, for Eva to get better (and us too) and for her to handle being without us for a few hours. Thanks!

Rough Day

Well, little Eva started teething the other day. She also was showing signs of a cold (runny nose and some coughing) however I looked up some information and apparently it is not uncommon to have those symptoms from teething alone. So, she might not have a cold, which is good, but she has so much snot it makes it hard for her to sleep. Today she did a little better so we think and hope it is passing. We're just trying to give her a lot of rest. Sorry, no pictures right now as she doesn't look her beautiful self :)

Just Having Fun

Little Eva was being so precious we just had to share. Below you'll find a video of her using her recently discovered vocal chords, as well as special photos of her dressed up as a kitty cat and a butterfly!

Meeoww!!!

Eva's First Easter

Grandma Beth

Grandma Bethany, Aimee's mom, came to visit us this past week with her husband Larry. It was so wonderful to see my mom and for Eva to meet her. As always it was hard to share, but who better to share with! I have only been without Eva once, before this week and that was for an hour and a half to go to a girlfriend's shower, but Eva was with Justin. This week I left Eva with my mom for a half an hour. I was surprisingly OK, until my mom told me she cried a little while I was gone. That made me so sad! I am a little attached :). Well, we had a wonderful time. We all miss my mom very much! Here are some cute pics for you.

What a Difference a Few Weeks Can Make

I'll be honest. The first 6 weeks were rough. There was a lot of crying and not a lot of sleep. I was late for work a lot. Aimee was gracious enough to always take the night shift, and even take the baby to the 2nd bedroom to feed her. Unfortunately I am a very light sleeper, so usually when the baby wakes up (or even breathes funny) I would wake up as well.

But now we are at 10 weeks, and it is a world of difference. Mostly I think little Eva's stomach is more mature so there's a lot less tummy troubles. The tummy trouble made her cry a lot, especially late at night in the early weeks. Thankfully now she only fusses for a few minutes before going to bed - just fighting sleep like any baby does. She also fusses a lot less getting into her car seat.

Here's a recent picture of our little girl for your enjoyment:


Please pray for us as we need to make some decisions about vaccinations soon.

Pictures of Easter and Grandma Beth's visit coming soon!

One Foot in Front of the Other

Here is a clip of Eva walking! Well, sort of :) But you have to start somewhere!

Just Bragging

Eva is the most beautiful baby - hands down. She has beautiful skin color, perfectly pink lips, a contagious smile, is so strong and smart. She goes to the bathroom on the big potty - sometimes, sings along with Mama when I sing her favorite song (With a Smile and a Song) and last night she laughed for the first time!

Grandpa Glenn

My, Aimee, Dad came to visit a couple of weeks ago and saw Eva for the first time. We had a great time with him and look forward to seeing him again. Here are some pictures of Grandpa Glenn.

We are so behind!

We sincerely apologize for the lack of postings...the funny thing about media today is that it is so easy to create your own or obtain it that it takes exponentially longer to sift through it. Ask anyone with a TIVO - they've probably recorded a year worth of shows and will never be able to watch them all. We don't have a TIVO, however between our digital camera and video camera, we have hundreds, if not thousands of pictures and video clips to sort through, rotate, crop, convert, etc.

In short, we are taking them much faster than we can do anything with them. But this morning, at risk for being late for church, I decided all of our readers needed a treat. Here is little Eva at a landmark stage in her development:

Blessings

Eva is 4 weeks and 1 day old. Every day goes by so fast. I mostly live from one feeding to the next. For the first 2 & 1/2 weeks when she actually slept in between feedings I had 4 ways to spend my time and I usually only chose one - do I sleep, eat, shower or do housewife stuff? I think it’s obvious. Sleeping was what kept me going. Thankfully I was able to sleep, eat and shower everyday last week! Amazing how far we have come :).

God has been so merciful to me, to us. I can't say that I have been the easiest person to live with over the past month, but Justin has sure acted like it. Even though he is back to work he makes my lunch everyday, brings me water whenever he is home and well the list goes on forever. Our friends and family have been so good to us too. Last night Justin and I couldn't decide what we wanted to do for dinner. In the middle of our discussion our friends Dan and Jamie called - wanting to bring us dinner. Or was it an excuse to hold the baby? I don't know and I don't care :)! I can't keep up with how many thank you cards I want to send out. At least twice a week I hear a knock on the door and another package has arrived, sometimes two at a time. Lots of people have been readily giving their advice. Thankfully people I also admire and respect are throwing their two cents in and I am trying to absorb it all. When a situation arises I try to sort through the files in my brain to get to that one file that will help me this time. One of my girlfriends, Lyette, that I respect so much called me and left me advice on my voicemail last week. I can't count how many times I have listened to that message! My friend Emily has called and checked in on me and it makes me feel so much better. And Pam! Pam has distressed me with her advice!

I just want to thank everyone so much for their love, support, encouragement, listening ear and for their gifts. We are more thankful than we can tell you.

Here are some pictures I took of Eva Mae this morning. I was able to capture her contagious smile.

Aimee's 23rd Birthday

Well we celebrated our first event with Eva Mae yesterday. It was my, Aimee, 23rd birthday. Time goes too fast! It was a wonderful day. For the first time Eva was playfully responsive to me. I would tickle her lip and she would give me a big, toothless grin! She repeated this several times. I was in heaven! We have been trying to teach her what a kiss is. Yesterday she puckered her lips in a kiss, I kissed her and she grinned and made the face again and again. I didn't get another smile out of it but one was enough.

After a long day of work Justin came home and cooked me a fabulous meal - fettuccini noodles with avocado, fresh vine tomatoes, olives, 3 kinds of mushrooms, spinach and baked salmon. It was delicious. He played an original score on his guitar for me and then we watched Alice in Wonderland (a 75 min movie, took us 2 hours to finish due to our little bundle of joy :)). For dessert we had Godiva cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory with extra, extra whipped cream. It was wonderful to have a birthday with my family. Thank you Justin!