Kicking It

The weather this weekend inspired us to not do a whole heck of a lot except cook. Well, Jay cooked and I cleaned up after him. Grace and I ventured outside for a bit to go to a pet store to say hi to a friend. We knew that dogs would be there from a pug rescue, but turns out doggies from the golden retriever rescue were also there. It was dog heaven for Kate! Grace got sniffed by doggies big and small and didn't seem to mind too much. Someone at the store asked me, "Is she going to be a dog lover?" I relplied, "She has no choice." Seriously though, I think she's decided she likes dogs. Sometimes when she watches Ella she'll break into a big smile. We'll try to capture that soon.

Most of the images we've posted of Grace show her either being swaddled or held. The reality is that she's is quite the alert and active little bugger. See for yourself.

This kickiness isn't a new thing for Grace, in fact it started in my belly. Once we saw how long her legs were, all of those pokes and prods made total sense. This video of her in her swing is just one example of our kicky, tap dancing girl. I keep waiting for her to do jazz hands -- ah cha cha : )

Routine Changes

We've had a calmer Gracie lately. After Grandma Gorman watched her last Wednesday we changed our routine a bit. Grandma had a really calm day with baby, only one cry and I was wondering why I never experienced that side of Grace. The main thing that was different when someone else watched her that she was bottle fed. Hmmmm. Maybe she was getting more to eat at each sitting and thus was full for longer periods of time. Sure enough, when I extended the duration of nursing sessions she was a much more content Gracie!

We've also made another change, this one to her sleeping situation. We have finally removed the sleep positioner so she's sleeping on her crib mattress now like a big girl. At first we thought we'd have more awakenings during the night, but not so. She does "talk" more when she wakes up, but most of the time she goes back to sleep. We hear these conversations through the baby monitor. We also hear other sounds, which indicate to us that she may need a diaper change : )

Gracie has her favorites already -- at least her favorite things to look at. I believe we've already mentioned giraffe as her changing table companion. He chills out on the couch with her and he also went to the hospital with her (notice the IV in her little arm). (See photos.)

She also likes looking at a little girl she sees in the mirror. It's easy to see why Gracie spends time starting and smiling at her -- she is pretty darn cute : )

Well and Rested

Gracie's now two months old! Before we know it she'll be crawling, then walking, then driving. True, that last one is ways off yet, but that doesn't mean we haven't started worrying about it already : )

I took Grace to the pediatrician for her well-child check up on Friday -- the one where she gets her first round of immunization shots. The nurse walked in and asked, "Mom, are you ready for this?" Since I'd already had to watch Grace go through many medical tests (including the spinal tap) when she had the fever/eye infection, I knew I could make it through this set of shots without crying. Gracie, on the other hand, let out a mighty yowl when the first needle went in. Still, she calmed down quickly once I picked her up.

The nurse also did measure-ments at her appoint-ment. She's in the average percentiles for head circum-ference and weight but she's in the 90s for height. She might be a lean tall girl, which would definietely help her get that swimming or volleyball college scholarship we're hoping for : ) She's gotten so long lately that she no longer fits into the sleeper she's wearing in this photo. She's still a little peanut though.

The nurse said we'd either have a really sleepy baby or a really fussy baby for the next 24 hours. I was really pulling for sleepy and that's what we got, whew. Ella had a vet appointment this weekend and got her shots too, so both she and Grace were out of sorts. (Turns out Ella may only have three kneecaps as well. Strange.) Now that everyone's well rested, we'll have to take advantage of the nice weather we're expecting this week. I'm going to attempt simultaneously pushing a stroller and holding a leash. I know it can be done, but I'm guessing it will take some practice. Stay tuned ...

Back to Work

Back to work for me ...
Well sort of. I am going in to work once a week for the next month and Jay's taking over parental duties on those days. Yesterday was my first day back and I indeed missed Gracie. Sure, it was nice talking to adults all day and it was also nice to not have to think about the topics of diapering, feeding or napping. That said, I was constantly wondering what was going on at home. Good thing Jay called with updates and he even sent this photo of Gracie in her Minnesota Wild outfit. Go team!

I'm so glad that I'm able to slooooowly transition to going back to work because I'm not ready to leave Gracie five days a week just yet. Plus, I haven't developed a morning routine -- coordinating feeding, changing and all that fun stuff -- that will allow me to get to work on time. Speaking of mornings, as I was getting ready to leave the house I put my hands in to the pockets of my dress coat and found pacifiers in both sides. I imagine this is just the first of many times that I'll discovering random items in odd places.

Many Faces of Grace

Our anniversary was this weekend and Grace gave us the gift of 7 hours of continous sleep on Friday night. We greatly appreciated the gesture. Since that night though it's been back to fragmented sleep, which is to be expected of an 8 week old, especially since we're messing with her slumber situation. Not only have we started putting her to bed earlier, we also took her out of a sleep positioner that she's been in since her first week home. Thus she's been a restless sleeper (is that an oxymoron?). So restless in fact that when I put her down for a nap she gave herself her first scratch on her pretty face. Poor little girl.

This photo shows a smiling Gracie -- something I didn't see much of this morning as she was super overtired and cranky. This afternoon the little grin came out though as she watched me make chili. (Maybe it was more a look of shock that I was cooking -- something she's never seen me do before.)

Getting Good

Grace is discovering her hands. She's grabbing a lot more which is fun to see and sometimes fun to feel. She's also starting to figure out that hands can be better than pacifiers since they're always accessible. Grace will also try to soothe herself by sucking on whatever is close to her mouth. Zippers, fingers, blankets (see photo), Jay's shirt -- she does not discriminate : ) This means that there are slobber spots everywhere, but better that than a fussy baby.

Speaking of fussiness, there's been a lot less of it. At least a lot less of unpredicatable fussiness. This is because I've pretty much figured out that a fussy cry likely means she wants to do one of the following:

* sleep (During the day I still need to encourage her to nap by swaddling, rocking and pacifing.)

* eat

* interact (She'll do this with one of many items: faces, mobiles, items hanging from the light above our kitchen table, playmat, her "ipod," lighting fixtures, ella, etc. She has recently noticed TV screens and we're making sure she doesn't "watch" for more than a second. She really wanted to watch American Idol last night though : )

Between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. there's quite a regular fussfest. Or maybe she's just trying to harmonize with the American Idol contestants ...