Two Months

 

Tons of smiles (which make for tons of double chins)

Almost rolling over (therefore spending half the day stuck on her side and mad about it)

Coos and gurgles and yells

Still lots of kicking

Still a good eater

Still a good sleeper

Still can't believe she's ours (ahhh)

p.s. Thanks Hannah for giving us what is now our official photoshoot blanket.

Blessing Day

October 14, 2012

 

 

This beautiful dress, bonnet and booties were made by Regan's aunt. Unfortunately Gwen ahem, defiled it before we got any pictures of her in it. So these are "makeup day" shots.  

As For Me

I never pick the right one of Gwen's naps to take a shower during. I can't tell you how many times I hear her yelling the second I put the shampoo in my hair. Talk about a trap.

I think so far I'm pretty much the mom I expected to be. Except I thought I'd bathe her more often.

I know this is a tale as old as time but I really hate how early it gets dark in the fall/winter. I don't like going out after dark alone so now I have lots of dark indoor hours in the evening. :(

I cannot figure out how to make a Boppy useful in my life. It's taking up way too much space to not be useful to me.

Some critter, probably our resident squirrel Buddy, left some droppings on our windowsill. Some (or maybe the same) critter got those droppings all over their paws and then all over our window. Halloween prank? Gross, guys.

The other day I sent an empty, unsealed envelope in the mail to my mom. I have no idea why.

Another other day, I fell asleep some time between Regan calling to say he was leaving work and Regan getting home. (This isn't that strange but hang on because what happened next is.) The deadbolt on our door was locked so Regan couldn't unlock it from the outside and started knocking. I didn't hear him. So he called me a few times. I didn't hear my phone. So he started panicking. Luckily(?) our downstairs neighbors were home so he crawled through their window and up the fire escape to our window. He could see me (and Gwen) asleep on the couch so he started knocking/pounding. I didn't hear him. Until finally I did, I guess, because I woke up. But waking up to a man on the fire escape in the pitch black pounding on the window isn't a pleasant way to wake up. (And being the husband pounding on the window and seeing no response from your wife isn't that pleasant either.) I don't know what I did next except stand in front of the window not opening it for about 30 seconds because my brain couldn't accept that it was my husband in front of me. It was bizarre and really scary. I had no idea what time it was or how he got there and was pretty shaken/out of it the rest of the night.

What I'm trying to say is that I think I'm just now getting what they call "pregnancy brain". Late bloomer.

It's starting to seem that there is literally nothing that can motivate me to exercise regularly. A wedding didn't do it, and neither did having a baby.

What kind of pie should I bake for the cook-off this weekend?

If this isn't the life, I don't know what is

Beautiful Town, USA

Regan's parents came to visit! Neither of them had been here and we had a whole week to kill. We spent the first 2 days alone while Regan slaved away at work. Monday we spent here in Brooklyn just taking naps and wandering around the neighborhood, and staring at the baby. Basically my life every day. Tuesday we ventured to the city and rode the Staten Island Ferry, went to the temple, and got a rickshaw tour through Central Park. My favorite part was when Reese knew what the Plaza Hotel was from Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Actually, that was sort of his frame of reference for everything. My second favorite part was Gwen screaming for the last 10 minutes of the tour and then some more while I tried to feed her in a Tasti-D-Lite yogurt shop.

Oh motherhood!

 

The only picture I took that day. Kay and the statue.   

Two days was enough city for us so Wednesday we headed "up north". I think we were basically unaware of where we were headed the entire time until we got there and then sometimes I still didn't know where we were. Luckily Gwen ended up being an expert road-tripper so we could all just enjoy the moseying around and we never got stuck 300 miles away from home with a baby who suddenly hates her carseat. (Can you tell I was worried about this?) Reese served his mission in upstate New York so we got to see some of where he'd been. And some church history sites. And some very very pretty scenery.

 

Josiah Stowell home. A friend of Joseph Smith's. Don't worry,
I hadn't heard of him before this trip either.

I think this is where Joseph and Emma were married in Afton, NY.
Which I kept calling Afton, WY. Oops.

 

This is an unflattering picture of us with some Neon Trees.

This is the best climbing tree to ever exist.

This is our cute baby in her first hotel.

 

This is what people's backyards look like up there.  

This is Gwen being a good road-tripper. 

Oh, then we made it to Cooperstown. Cooperstown! The hidden gem and highlight of our trip. This place was so charming and beautiful. It's on this big lake and there are millions of trees and not an ugly house in the whole town. I was very impressed. And the Baseball Hall of Fame! Which means Main Street was filled with punny shop names like "Bottom of the Ninth" and "Safe at Home". I love that stuff.

I never knew about the awesome warm-up cardigans they used to wear
(like the one on the left).

 

Ebbets Field in New York.

 

The original "sand lot" where the first baseball ever was played. Now it's a cute stadium.

 

Gwen

 

and Gwen

It was sorta tough to  capture what we were seeing because most of it was from inside a car. But upstate definitely delivered. Except the Catskills, we drove through them on the way home and
were very underwhelmed. But the Hudson River- very nice! And driving all...the...way...through...
manhattan- also sorta fun. Coming back to the city after being away always makes me wonder again why we are all piled on top of each other when just a few miles away there is a whole ton of fresh air and wide open space. Oh well, all the more fun to get away.

5 weeks ago

kick kick from kate johnson on Vimeo.

These little legs riding an imaginary bike in the air are topping the list of "Things I Already Miss". 

Not to mention that full-body sneeze. Someone stop the clock.

Cousins 1-4

Gwen and I rode the bus down to Maryland the other weekend to meet some cousins. (And an aunt and uncle and grandma.) She screamed for the first 20 minutes but then slept peacefully for 4 hours so I'd almost forgotten about the screaming by the time we got there. Bless my fellow passengers' hearts for giving me unhelpful advice while she screamed. And thank goodness Regan was with us on the way home to shield us from any dirty looks. Except, of course she was perfect on the way back.

Cheeks + some tunnel taking us outta town

 

Storytime with Grandma and the girls 

 

Hilly hay ride

 

Regan had the same reaction as David

 

Colette and her tiny pumpkin

 

Pretty Meg

I wish I would have recorded the boys with her. Caleb kept stopping what he was doing to "go see how cute baby Gwen looks right now." And Davey couldn't believe how tiny everything on her is. Talk about sweet. 

4 cousins down, 32 to go. What a lucky baby.

As For Me

Carrie says I need to do a post that's not about Gwen once in a while (then, her next sentence was a request for more pictures of Gwen.). The problem is that I don't have any thoughts that aren't about Gwen. Or about brownies. And who wants a post in their google reader every single day that says 'I still love my baby and I still want some brownies.'? Or do you? Anyway, here are some adult things:

Today we took a walk to Target. It's not a great Target but it's still a Target and it's the perfect distance for a good walk. And we got an up-close look at the new Barclays Center on the way. We were hoping Blue Ivy would be at the the Starbucks there but no luck. So anyway, as I was pushing my cart along, with a sleeping baby strapped to my chest, browsing the clothing to my left, this lady coming the other direction stops her cart nose to nose with mine and glares at me and says 'you're supposed to be on the right side' and I said 'uh, I'm looking at these clothes' (on my left side remember) and she said 'I don't care what chu lookin at, you on the wrong side.' (i knew she was serious because she stopped caring about grammar.) And I just kept looking at clothes and she took a big huge sigh/grunt and dramatically moved into the other 6 feet of empty aisle to get around me. I'm all for efficient flow of cart traffic but why do people do stuff like that?

This reminded me of my delivery nurse that just had to give me some advice right after I delivered Gwen. She told me (in her thick Russian accent) that now I know that I can't handle pain and I need to get to the hospital sooner so that I'm not freaking out and yelling and I can get medicine sooner because it makes her job very hard if the patient is going crazy like that. It was a pretty rude thing to say to someone period but especially someone who just had a baby and really especially someone who had unknowingly gone from a 7 to a 10 in the first 45 minutes of being in her delivery room without any pain medication. (and without making any sounds but a few sad wimpers, I swear) Funny that she thought I had any control over what was happening that day. I keep thinking about it and asking Regan if I forgot the part where I was freaking out and yelling and he assures me that never happened. I did get snappy with one woman who came in to ask me the same thing about 7 other nurses had already asked me but come on, I'd do that even if I were in no pain at all.

Hmm, who else has said rude things to me? Jk. I'm done with that. How about a cute thing! When we were walking home today a little girl said to her mom "mom! look at that tiny little foot! (pointing at gwen's tiny little foot) and it really hit me, "whoa. I'm just some lady walking down the street with her baby." It was fairly deep at the time.

And finally, I accidentally dressed Gwen like a big kid today. Remind me to never do that again.

(Seriously, this is it for me these days. This and the brownies.)