Friday, May 3, 2013

Cora - one month old

You are one month old today, sweet Cora girl!



You were born on a Wednesday morning early after an all night labor.

We got to bring you home the very next day.  

Big Brother came up to the hospital to help us take you home and our neighbor, Mr. Bob, was outside and took our first family photo for us.  

I loved bringing you home to our house!  You were dressed in the sweet little white outfit that I came home from the hospital in 36 years ago.  I laid you down on our white bedspread and you looked just like a picture!  You opened your eyes and looked back and forth as if you wanted to check out this new home of yours.  I loved it.  


Silly Mama and Daddy thought that you would sleep in the pack and play in our room at night.  We thought the same thing about your brother and neither of you did.  


So we began experimenting with where/how you would sleep and those first couple weeks were not so steady with night time sleep.  You would sleep great during the day when someone was holding you!


You are a really good baby though.  Even in the hospital you showed signs of self soothing.  You sleep a lot during the day and now at one month you are sleeping well in your crib each night in between feedings.  When we put you down around 9 or 10, you will usually sleep till nearly two and then again till four or five something.  You also tend to sleep again after that early morning feeding until 9 or 10 which is great for letting Mama get extra sleep when she can or for letting Mama and David have good time together in the morning before you're up and awake.  


Brother loves you soo much and mimics the things we say to you.  He loves to touch your feet and comment on all of the tiny little parts of you.  He also says, "I will take care of you, a lot" and he sings to you in the car.  He likes to help with you and hold you.  He even gave you your first bottle!  He is a very good big brother.  












I am having so, so much fun dressing you and putting bows in your hair and snuggling you in all of the wonderful blankets we've been given.  


Daddy loves to kiss your tummy and your face and his whiskers tickle you and you make a face.  You also smile the most at Daddy of any of us.  

In your first month, we've already been on two family hikes - one to Helen Hunt Falls with Grandma and one to Painted Mines last Saturday.  You enjoy riding in the Ergo with Daddy.




Here you are with the beautiful quilt that your Aunt Gail made for you.  


All of your family really likes you and your cousin Caleb especially likes to hold you.  He is super proud of you.  Aaron really, really likes your super soft head of hair and Aunt Mandy and Uncle Jeremy really like to hold you too.

You are gaining weight!  At your two week appt. you were already up to 9 lbs. something ounces (can't remember at the moment) but you had gained quite a bit.  Now at one month you weigh 10.5 lbs! Yea!


You eat well although sometimes you're rather snacky or don't latch super well.  You like to fall asleep eating too.  



You have the cutest pink ruffle swaddle that we put you in at night.  In every sonogram from 20 weeks on, you would always have your hands up by your face so we got a swaddle where you can keep your hands up instead of down by your sides.  I think you like it.  



Some firsts:

First bath
First time to church
First trip to Nana & Ducca's house
First snow - there have been 3-5 since you've been born
First rain - that's almost a bigger deal here in Colorado than the snow!









This was Mama's outfit when she was a little girl.  



Your very first trip to a restaurant was when you were one week old.  You went with Daddy and I to Hacienda Colorado (our first time to the new Colorado Springs location!) while David was at preschool.  You slept the whole time in your carrier.  


I love to hold you in just your diaper and see and feel your sweet, soft skin.  

You have multiple chins and we LOVE them. 




Daddy had three wonderful weeks off and we spent much more time holding you and cuddling than cleaning house or anything like that.  

We also watched episodes of Downton Abbey or a movie while holding you and eating popcorn on the couch during naptime for Brother a lot of days. 



Nana broke her foot on the day you were born but she still got some good snuggles in with you this month!


Your first pair of blue jeans were a gift from your Aunt Sarah.  




Grandma came to visit and meet you when you were twelve days old.  She fed us and took care of us and took Big Brother on a train trip to New Mexico and you and Mama and Daddy hung out for the weekend and took advantage of your awesome restaurant skills and went out to eat a lot.  







At preschool this week David's class is studying the letter C and right off he told everyone, C is for Cora!



Hand me downs are fun!  


You love to nap wrapped in this blanket that your Aunt Terry made for you.  


I love your little feet and your LONG toes so much.  


You are keeping your eyes open more and more.  We love to see your pretty eyes.  


I love your room and you seem to particularly like lying on your changing table and looking at everything above you.  You would probably enjoy something above your crib to look at but Mama is a scaredy cat about things falling on you in the night so you don't have anything.  When you are in your crib during the day for a little bit for me to go and do something I give you a stuffed animal to look at and sometimes you knock it down!  You can also make the bird in the bouncy seat spin around and Brother is very impressed by that feat.  





Lots of people from church have been so sweet to bring us meals to eat.  Mrs. Ashley brought Smashburger one day for lunch and her boys and David got to play outside while you had your very first playdate with her little girl!




We love you so very much, Baby Girl and we're so glad you're ours!  




Wednesday, May 1, 2013

choo choo


I am thankful that my boy is into something that I enjoy too.  

Building train tracks together is one of our favorite activities.  

I love that there are so many ways to build them and no two are ever really the same.  

This configuration on the stairs was all him.

Happy Wednesday.  

Kelly

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

family photo


This family of four thing is pretty fun.

Oh, someone is hungry and calling me from her crib!

On another note, does anyone local have a copy of Jen Hatmaker's book 7 that I could borrow?  

Thanks!

Hope you're having a good day!

Kelly


Friday, April 26, 2013

precious one


Wednesday, April 24, 2013

love this


Saturday, April 20, 2013

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

sweet siblings


I am looking forward to these two being good friends.  

Today David wanted me to put Cora in a big box that he was sitting in so they could have a party together.  

Made me smile.

Kelly

Sunday, April 14, 2013

sweet Cora



We are alive and well.  

My other posts last week were scheduled way in advance.  :)

Not much blogging happening these days.

Lots of baby holding and gazing and enjoying and spending time as a family

and laundry and disciplining and cleaning up messes too . . . life does go on even in the blissful haze of having a newborn in the house.  

Here is a picture of our sweet girl.

Off to bed . . . 

Kelly

Thursday, April 11, 2013

spring luncheon

I thought I had blogged these photos but I looked back and didn't find them so perhaps I didn't.  


This was from last spring and it was what David and I did to thank the MOPS workers who took care of him all year.  They are soo amazing.  All of the childcare workers at our MOPS group are volunteers who just want to love on our kids.  I feel so blessed to know them and really enjoy them a lot.  

I encourage you to consider gifts of time when looking for appreciation gifts this time of year.




Those are cornbread muffins on the cupcake stand to serve with our two salad choices at lunch.

The pink gingham tablecloth is one that was in Sweetie's stash from hosting church baby showers for years and years.  The polka dot glasses were picked up and hand carried home from NYC by my mom and I back in my single days and purchased from Fishs Eddy.  



We had a pasta salad and a spinach salad that you could put blue cheese (or was it feta), pecans and grapefruit on.

The green gingham piece in the center is an old cabinet door that I picked up free across the street when we first moved into our house, the roses from our garden in little spice jars and uncapped s&p shakers.













for dessert, chocolate chip cookies on a milk glass "cake stand" that I put together with a plate that was a gift from my mother-in-law who knows my penchant for the stuff and a planter


Kelly

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

reminder



Just a reminder that tomorrow is ten on ten if you'd like to participate.

Photo taken by Adrian in New Mexico, May 2007.  

Kelly


Friday, April 5, 2013

she's here!



We're about to head to bed.  

You know how it is with a newborn, you've got to seize every moment!!

But I didn't want to waste another moment in introducing you to my precious daughter, 

Cora Elise!

She was born early Wednesday morning at 3:46 a.m. 

21 inches

8 lbs, 10 oz.

We are smitten!!

Kelly


welcome baby



I'm scheduling this post.  

Today is March 28th and I'm scheduling it to post on April 5th.

SURELY we will have welcomed this baby by then.

I just didn't want it to be misleading if I posted it now.

My sweet friend Jacquie made this banner for us when I was expecting David.  They used it in the decorations at our church shower.  Two really neat things about it are that the letters are cut out of sheet music of children's songs and that the background paper is the same paper pack that we used for a bunch of our wedding stuff! 

Isn't that neat?  

I hung it up in our living room to welcome this newest baby home and to be something fun to look at as I sit in the chair opposite and nurse for hours a day.  

Kelly

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

my boy


pjs and tennis shoes with no socks - gotta love it!

Kelly

not *my* little dear yet


but I did see these little deer as I went to pick up David from our friends' house after my doctor's appt. today!

I had to navigate through a herd of about 12 of them to turn into the driveway.  

Gotta love Colorado.

Oh and funny how one of the roads over there is called "Mule Deer".

So, they put me through the ringer at my dr. appt. today.  

They did a sonogram to see how the baby is moving, "breathing", etc. and she's doing well.  They hooked me up to the fetal monitor for 20 minutes to assess her heart rate, movements, etc. and again everything looks great so that was all wonderful to hear.

Just waiting now . . .

Kelly