Elizabeth on the Piano

Picasso and Norm Abrams

Elizabeth turned 5 months on Saturday. Her teachers have already helped her draw with crayons at daycare so we figure we'd better try at home. She was more interested in trying to eat them than draw with them (as seen by the evidence left on her chin). But her picture was very creative. Maybe we have an aspiring artist on our hands.

Or maybe a master craftsman? She also helped Andrew put together her high chair today. She really enjoyed reading the directions and telling him which piece came next. Here's her posing in it for the first time. I think she's going to like eating with us at dinnertime. But that's not for another month. My plan for now is to get her used to sitting in it with us before we introduce solid foods. Not too many new things at once!

What Happens At Grandmas . . .

Someone's got a new hat!

We packed the car up again this weekend, this time for Elizabeth's first trip to San Antonio to visit her G&G Grohmann and Uncle Casey. We also celebrated our friend Brenda's 50th birthday. Thanks Grandma Grohmann for the cute onesie!
Elizabeth did really well again napping and sleeping in her pack 'n play. She's such a pro:) She's also gotten good at blowing raspberries. At breakfast on Saturday she was cracking everyone up. We look forward to coming back this summer and playing in the pool Grandma promises to get her. Course I can't wait until she gets a little older so we can get passes to Sea World!

Elizabeth's 1st Easter

It was a blessed day. We got to celebrate Elizabeth's 1st Easter by decorating eggs on Saturday night and hunting for them on Easter morning, opening our Easter baskets, going to church with Grandma and Grandpa Keillor and Aunt Amy and then having lunch with our extended family at my cousin Kathy's house. Whew that sounds like a lot!
Elizabeth had fun helping us find all the Easter eggs. The Easter bunny hid them really well this year. At Grandma and Grandpa Keillors, we like to decorate the old-fashioned method with hardboiled eggs and food coloring mixed in with vinegar. She got really excited opening her Easter baskets that the Easter bunny left in both Harlingen and San Antonio (G&G Grohmann dropped off an early delivery at our house). When she gets excited she starts breathing really hard and shaking her arms and hands. She LOVED tearing at the cellophane!
At church she was doing well and slept in her carseat until everyone started clapping after the baptisms. The noise woke her up. It wasn't far into the service either. Then she got restless and we went through all our bag of tricks before Andrew had to get up (as he was the one sitting on the aisle) and take her into the hallway. My dad got up too to help him out. I figured they would be back, but they stayed out the remainder of the service. As we (me, my mom and Amy) got up to leave, I saw them in the hallway with Elizabeth all the way down to her skivvies. Turns out that beautiful Easter dress that Aunt Amy got her was making her too hot and uncomfortable. As soon as Andrew took the dress off, she brightened up. It was a funny site! Yes my baby has been naked in church on Easter Sunday!!!
Lunch with the Keillor/Bannert/Miller/Zepeda clan was fun as always. Elizabeth enjoyed meeting her relatives and getting held by everybody!

My Birthday Part 2

My mom surprised me with a second birthday cake and presents on Saturday night. I got a beautiful wooden cross to add to my collection and some cool sandals. Amy gave me some yummy smelling Laura Mercier body lotion in french vanilla and brought me and Elizabeth back some neat souvenirs from her recent trip to Antigua.

Over the River and Through the Woods

Elizabeth getting her first driving lesson with the car in Park

Harlingen or Bust!

Aunt Amy loves reading to her niece

Elizabeth loves her Grandpa and his watch

All bathed and ready for bed!

We had our first road trip with Elizabeth this past Easter weekend to see G&G Keillor and Aunt Amy in Harlingen. The trip on the way down there went surprisingly well. I was stressed a bit which made me scour every website for tips on what to pack. Traveling with an infant does require some planning! It's amazing how much stuff Elizabeth requires!

We hit the road on Good Friday morning at 6:30 immediately after waking Elizabeth up, nursing and changing her, and putting her into her car seat. That required us to load up almost everything in the car the night before. Dexter rode shotgun while one of us rode in the back with Elizabeth to keep her entertained. We rotated shifts with Andrew driving the first and me the second. The way I timed the feedings,we only had to stop once in Refugio for gas, bathroom breaks and to nurse and change Elizabeth. I had bought some window shades to block out as much sun as possible so Elizabeth slept most of the morning.

And Elizabeth slept wonderfully in her pack n play the whole weekend even though we shared a room with her. We had started putting her in it the previous weekend so she could get used to sleeping in there and it worked. We also tried sticking to our schedule and nightly routine as best as possible and bringing whatever we needed to recreate her nursery.

On the way back to Houston we got a late start so feedings were off and things weren't as smooth. We still only had to stop twice, in Odem and El Campo. But Elizabeth was up way past her bedtime and couldn't settle herself in the car. Once we got home, I did the Cliff's notes version of our nightly routine and sent Elizabeth straight to bed. She got a second wind though and it seemed with all that energy, she'd never be able to go to sleep. But eventually she settled herself to sleep and slept through until morning!

Grandma G Visits Houston

Work brought my MIL/Grandma Grohmann to Houston this past week. She got to stay with us two weekends in a row while working the whole week in between at the Texas Library Association Convention in the George R. Convention Center and staying at a hotel downtown. Here are some cute pictures of her and Elizabeth together.

Turning Schwenty-Nine

I turned 29 today! Wow only one more year until I'm 30 and officially "old." Isn't it weird that this age seemed so old when we were little? According to my MIL Diane's calculations, I turned my forever age. Whenever your birthday matches your age, you'll always be that age. So I'll always be 29 since I was born on March 29th. Diane was born on the 21st, so she'll always be 21. It's a fun thing to do so we don't have to think we're getting any older.

Everyone at work kept asking me what big plans I had for the day. I kept telling them "I have a baby." I had to toss out the idea of wild partying a long time ago. But the weekend was still special. Diane was in town so she babysat Elizabeth on Saturday night while Andrew and I enjoyed a nice dinner out. I didn't realize this or plan it but we've gone to one Japanese restaurant or another every year now for a while to celebrate my birthday. I guess I just like Japanese food and sushi that much. This year was no exception. Andrew took me to a neighborhood fusion Japanese restaurant so I could get my sushi fix.

We had wanted to go see a movie afterwards but things just didn't work out. We had planned to eat dinner, then come home and bathe and feed Elizabeth and put her down, then go catch the movie. Well we had to sorta rush through dinner so we could get home in time. But by the time we got home, our nightly routine got started later than usual and Elizabeth got fussy and it was hard settling her down to go to bed. So we missed the movie. We instead did the next best thing by renting some movies from Blockbuster and watching them in the comfort of pjs on the couch. There are some big pluses to watching a movie at home I must say! But hopefully one of these days we'll actually get to a movie theater again. I love movie theater popcorn and the microwave kind just can't come close enough.

Tonight we celebrated my birthday with cake, ice cream and presents. Diane baked me carrot cake - yum! And I received some wonderful presents from my wonderful hubby. Course the biggest present of all was Elizabeth. I love my little one!

4 months!

Elizabeth turned 4 months on Wednesday. We captured her being cute that night during and after her bath. She's so photogenic!

I took her in to see Dr. Rowland today for her check-up and weight is 12 lbs 13 oz (40th percentile), height is 24.5" long (60th percentile) and FOC -head measurement is 16.5" circumference (75th percentile). Banana baby! I've been worried that Elizabeth hasn't been gaining enough weight but Dr. Rowland reassured me everything is ok. Elizabeth has been in the 50th percentile for weight all along and Dr. Rowland showed me that her placement on the growth chart and the difference between 40 and 50th percentile is not that significant. And now that Elizabeth is more active and will continue to be more active, her weight will probably fluctuate. There will only be cause to worry if she continually goes down in her growth rate. So let's hope for the best. But I also have to keep in mind that Elizabeth was sick for a while and on antibiotics which made her poop like crazy so I'm sure some weight was lost through that! Elizabeth was moving like crazy on the table and rolling and scooching around (show off!) which impressed Dr. Rowland. She said she usually doesn't see babies move like that until 5 or 6 months. So again the weight issue isn't cause for alarm since she's reaching her milestones ahead of time.

We're going to wait until she's 6 months to introduce solid food and Dr. Rowland agreed with that. Even though we don't have a family history of food allergies, I want to be as conservative as possible on this and not risk anything. Plus I want to wait until Elizabeth is ready. She seems to be watching us now when we eat which is a good sign. And she's drooling like crazy and mouthing objects all the time which could mean she'll cut her first tooth soon. Yet she still seems to be doing ok on just her feedings (update 4/15/09 - well now I've had to nurse her several times this week in the middle of the night, but maybe she's just going through a growth spurt). And she has good head control but can't quite sit up for that long without support. She is getting plenty of tummy time though at daycare which should improve her back strength and also round out some of those flat spots on her head.

She also had her third round of vaccines (we're splitting up her shots a bit and going every month instead of every other month). She had her Rotavirus, DTAP, HIB, and Pneumococcal vaccines this time. At her 5-month shot-only visit, she'll get her Polio and Hep B shots. This is always the part that both of us hate. Everything is fine and dandy until the nurse comes in with that big needle and sticks Elizabeth in both thighs. At least it's at the end of the visit! She took her rotavirus ok in the mouth and didn't get that upset. Andrew and I learned a trick when we had to give Elizabeth her antibiotics - gently blow in her face which stimulates her swallowing reflex. It works! But with the other shots there was a split second delay from the time Elizabeth got poked until she started crying. But she didn't stay upset that long. At least we're getting better. Before she'd be hysterical the whole time.

I'm looking forward to starting solids in 2 months. Anyone have a recommendation for a good book to read? Dr. Rowland mentioned Super Foods. There's one called Super Foods for Babies and Super Baby Food so I'm not sure which one she meant. I'll have to ask at our next visit!

Roly Poly

Now that Elizabeth can roll over from her back to tummy, she's been rolling over non-stop! I caught her sleeping this morning on her tummy and snapped a few shots before she woke up. With the "back to sleep" campaign and preventing SIDS, I was a little scared at first and tried rolling her onto her back when I put her down for her bedtime tonight. But she kept rolling over onto her tummy. I've read that once babies have good enough head control and can roll over in both directions, the risk of SIDS greatly reduces. Plus there's not much I can do if my headstrong daughter prefers to sleep on her tummy! What am I going to do -watch over her crib all night and keep moving her onto her back?
Update 4/15/09: Elizabeth has been sleeping on her tummy for over 3 weeks now and seems to sleep really well that way. I guess she's a stomach sleeper just like her daddy! I still put her down for naps and bedtime on her back but eventually she finds her way onto her tummy. I've been checking on her several times a night (can't help it) and sometimes she'll be sleeping right up beside her crib bumpers. With the fear of suffocation, I'm always worried so I move her to the center of her crib. At least her face is turned away and not buried in the bumpers but I'd rather her be in the safest position possible. I've read mixed reviews on those mesh bumpers so we'll keep the current ones in place for now because they fit and I don't want her legs and arms getting stuck outside the rails. But we'll definitely remove them once Elizabeth starts pulling herself up. And that won't be far off now! Elizabeth is a wiggle worm and has been moving and scooching all around her crib. I find her diagonal, sideways and at the opposite end of her crib and facing the other direction!

New Toy

We let Elizabeth start playing with a new toy yesterday ... a set of keys. She loves them. She loves holding them, putting them in her mouth, and of course throwing them. Yeah so far her distance record is about 3 feet; Not bad for an almost 4 month old. The other big news to report is Elizabeth is now rolling over from her back to her stomach. We put her down on her back the other day and the next thing we know she is on her stomach. Becky had to ask me the first time, "Did you put her on her stomach?" I am sure we will get to report her crawling soon.

Happy Anniversary (Since Dating)

Today Becky and I have "officially" been dating for 7 years. Has it really been that long? Where does the time go? I don't really know ... but what I do know is that through all the ups and downs our love still continues to grow.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

Did you forget to wear green today? Becky had to remind me this morning after I dressed Elizabeth in the wrong outfit. Oops. Hope everyone has a great day!

Naked Time

When Elizabeth is older, she'd be embarrassed that I took a video of her naked as a baby, but I don't care. She acts so cute after her bath that I had to capture some of it to share with everyone. She gets really talkative and wiggles like crazy. Course here, she's a little confused by the camera as if to say, "what's that thing in front of mommy?" But I'm glad she wasn't too camera shy. Thank you Andrew for formatting the video so it wouldn't be too big to fit!

A Year Ago

It was a year ago today that I found out I was pregnant. I give thanks to the Lord for watching out over us throughout the pregnancy and blessing us so much with the birth of our sweet little girl. In her three months here, Elizabeth has brought such joy and happiness to our lives. Just seeing that gummy smile makes my day! Everyday she's gets bigger right before my eyes and I always say to her, "Please stay small forever." I know that the time will pass too quickly and soon enough my little one will be all grown up, so I'm trying to relish every moment I can with her.

ANDREW adds: Elizabeth is such a blessing in every way possible. It is hard for me as her father to put into words what she means to me ... to us. She is such a blessing! She is such a joy!