Christmas Day

Christmas Presents Part 2

This was my mom's picture. Vivian's special cashmere cardigan. I don't even have cashmere!

Uncle Bubby's picture. She's ready to visit him in the cold Madison weather.

Auntie Keegan's picture

Auntie Caiti's picture

Christmas Presents

For about two months Vivian has been working on special pictures for everyone for Christmas. Each person got their own special picture. Some based on an outfit from the person, some just because.

This one is Nana's

My dad's. This was the first one we took. She has grown up so much. Compare this to my mom's which is the most recent one we took

I didn't mean to upload this one. It wasn't a present. Still cute though

Back to work

Monday was my first full day back to work and Vivian's first full day at daycare. I think she really likes it. Whenever I pick her up the other little kids are sitting next to and sharing their toys with her which is nice. There's an eleven year old who stays there after school who loves to hold Vivian and play with her. She's happy to see me but she loves to have me hold her while she looks around at the other kids. I'm very happy with the provider we chose. Here are the first day of school pictures. Note the matching shirt and socks.

My Christmas gift to you - baby in a box

Headbands

I've been looking for cute headbands for Vivian but they are all either too big or too expensive. Happily my brother's fiance is a crafty lady and made two adorable headbands for her! This is the first one. It has a little pearl in the middle of the flower. So cute!

4 months old

I can't believe Vivian is four months old! She's pretty amazing. She loves to stand up. I try to get her to work on sitting but she just holds her legs straight until I pull her up to stand. She is starting to like tummy time more and wants to crawl so much. I feel bad when she just can't move anywhere. She is becoming more talkative but she still prefers to observe. She's starting to clutch things but it's really not too important to her at this point. She doesn't love any particular toys yet but she is becoming more aware of them. I feel like she is going to start progressing when I return to work because she will see all the "big" kids doing things that she wants to do. Next up, toys! I really like all of the Melissa and Doug wooden toys so I think quite a few of the toys we buy for her (when she gets bigger) will be wooden instead of the modern plastic toys.

Kind of sitting up... with help of course

4 month checkup

Yesterday we went to Vivian's four month doctor appointment. She's doing really well!

She weighs 16 pounds 7 ounces which is the 97% 24.75 inches which is the 75% and her head is in the 30%. I guess she's a pinhead. Poor baby. Happily baby heads are all huge so maybe hers just looks normal. Her head percentile when down but it's back to where it was at her 1 month appointment so it's not worrisome. I don't think she's actually that long. The way they measure her length is by having me try to hold her head in place while the nurse pulls on her legs to straighten her out. Her head always pulls a little away from where I'm supposed to hold her so I'm assuming she's closer to just 24 inches.

She also got some more vaccinations. She did really well. She cried more when I accidentally snapped her finger in the car seat trying to get home than she did after the shot. Poor baby. She was asleep before we even left the doctor's office.

The doctor said if we want to start some rice cereal we could but I'd rather get her day care bottle situation all situated before starting other foods. Supposedly rice cereal in a bottle helps a baby sleep through the night but the pediatrician said that's an old wives tale. She had been sleeping through the night until last week. Last night she finally did it again! Hopefully she's going to start being a good sleeper again. Tonight we are going to try moving to the crib. Wish me luck!

Random PIctures

I just uploaded my camera and thought these were cute. Baking Victor's birthday cake!

Jumperoo take two

After a few tries in it... she finally likes it!

Vivian vs the Jumperoo

First contact...

Last video

Here's the last video for the day. I finally caught her rolling over! Sorry for the slightly Blair Witch-esque floor and ceiling shots in between rolls. I thought I had turned off the camera!

Third video

Here's one of Vivian a little older. I would guess around a month or so.

Videos take two

Here's a video of Vivian playing in her swing. She's less than a month old... I would guess maybe 3 weeks?

Videos

I was playing with my video camera trying to catch Vivian rolling over when I found some old videos I don't even remember making!! I'm not sure if I can put all of them on one post but, one is of the delivery room then two are from when Vivian was brand new. I'm not even sure how old she was. It's amazing to watch them!! She was so tiny. This first video is of the delivery room.

Frenchie

In October my parents went to France and brought Vivian two cute outfits and one cute sweater. Victor is excited about French baby clothes because they don't look baby-ish, they just look like cute normal clothes. Today we went to lunch with my mom and my aunt so we debuted the first outfit. We initially had one little pink fake Uggs also, but it was a pain to take them off and put them back on every time she needed a diaper change!

Pensive baby, planning her next sneak attack to punch dad in the throat.

Haha, punching daddy is so funny!

I just realized I have this picture on here twice but I can't figure out how to delete just one photo, so you can enjoy is again. It's doubly cute.

Halloween

She rolls faster than a speeding bullet...

Cuter than a dozen puppies...

Able to make mommy take twenty pictures to get one smile...

It's Superbaby!!

Nanook of the North

I bought three pairs of long underwear for Vivian in my winter weather preparation freak out. She wore her first pair yesterday. She looks so cute in them! Unfortunately, they are impossibly hard to get her legs in and out for a diaper change and they don't have feet on them so she has to wear socks which makes it even more difficult. But they are still cute. And they keep her really really warm, even without attached feet.

Grocery Gossip

Today Little V was wearing another cute outfit. Happily the weather is cooling down so she can wear her long-sleeved clothing with out boiling! She seems to be fairly warm blooded, just like her daddy. If I put her in her car seat with a blanket when I take her out her back is almost sweating.

She refused to lay still for her pictures. Of course whenever we do tummy time and I want her to roll over she just shoves her face into the blanket and grunts until I move her. But when I want her to lay still for pictures she won't stop rolling over.

So I trapped her on her back so she couldn't move away from me.

Today we made a quick grocery store run in the afternoon. Usually whenever we run errands it's in the morning while she is still sleepy. She was fussing as I was walking to the cash registers. She wasn't full out crying but making her little shouts to let me know she was annoyed with me. I've noticed she shouts like that whenever she's sleepy and I'm not holding her. I think she wants me to pick her up before she falls asleep somewhere else.

Anyway, so some random lady walks up to Vivian, pulls her blanket off of her and then grabbed her hands and started shushing her. I nicely moved the cart away a little and the lady moved with it. So I just said thanks and walked away entirely. It was very very weird.

I also learned that Wednesday afternoons are old person extravaganza at the grocery store. Lots of slow-moving, aisle blocking carts moving around the store.

It's Not Easy Being Green

For everyone who doesn't believe me when I say I buy her clothes in colors other than pink...

Today she chose an amphibian themed outfit.

Leggings

We held another photo shoot today. Mostly because I like her outfit. Victor picked it out this weekend and I thought it was really cute! It's kind of hard to get her to sit up long enough to get a full-body shot so I added a cute headband. I love Baby Gap leggings right now! I found some in the store for an extra 40% off the sale price so now I keep checking back hoping to find more in bigger sizes. Once she fits into her Converse she will be styling.

Baby It's Cold Outside

We had a cold front come through recently and now it's chilly!! This week we have highs in the lower 50's all week! Happily, this means we can stop having to pay massive energy bills to keep the house cool. But, this will also be a big change because we have to turn on the heat for Little V. The recommended temperature for the room where a baby sleeps is 65-69. That way the baby doesn't overheat which can lead to health problems. But, I still feel like she's going to be cold in 65 degrees so we broke out the blanket sleeper last night! She seemed to love it. She woke up a little earlier than usual (4:30 instead of 6) but she seemed fairly warm when I held her. Hopefully she likes cold temperatures like her dad!

Moving on up

Vivian had to go up another diaper size this week! She was in newborn size for about six weeks then shot through the size ones in less than four. Now we have moved onto twos because I got tired of cleaning up blowouts. TMI. She has also already grown out of her 0-3 month clothes!! She is getting so big. The good news (aside from her growth meaning she is healthy and all) is that now she has a whole new wardrobe to play with! Most of the clothes she was given are 3-6 month size. Here is one of many cute new looks...

Yes, I'm excited. Now leave me alone.

Boo boos

Yesterday Vivian had her two month checkup and vaccinations. She is gaining weight like a champ! Last week we went to a lactation consultant and she weighed 11 pound 1/2 an ounce. Yesterday she weighed eleven pounds twelve ounces! That means she gained almost a pound in a week. She's a little over 22 inches long. So, let me put this in perspective for you: when she was born she was in the 20% for weight and 50% for length. At 1 month she was in 50% for weight and length. At two months was was in 75% for both!! Her head has gone up from 25% to 50% so happily she won't be too much of a pinhead.

The two month appointment also means the start of her vaccination shots. I decided to go with the recommended vaccination schedule because I think vaccinations are very important and I'm pretty sure that if I didn't my older sister would have kidnapped my baby and raised her as her own. I was dreading shot day because so many people talk about the negative side effects. Happily she did fairly well. She didn't let me lay her down at all and she had one screaming spell for no apparent reason but other than that she just slept and cuddled. Last night she actually slept until 5:30. That means I got almost 6.5 hours of sleep in a row!! I feel amazing today! I haven't had that much sleep in so long. Actually, I haven't had that much sleep since Friday, July 29. I hate to gain pleasure from her getting shots but, I can't complain too much.

This is probably what she looked like right after getting her shots. The nurse was so nice and sweet and I was able to scoop Little V up right away and she calmed down very quickly.

This is what she looked like when we got home.

Boo boos on her chub chub legs

I was having some of my own health problems yesterday and was feeling really bad. Our three year anniversary was on Tuesday and Victor send me these beautiful flowers which were delivered yesterday. I love them! I let Vivian pick one which can be hers. All the rest are mine.

2 months

Little V is already two months old! I realized last month that I confused 4 weeks with her month birthday. Chalk it up to sleep deprivation. Oh well, I was only two days off so I doubt the way she looks changed that much in two days. But this time I got the date right. She is nine weeks today but was two months old on Saturday. We have her two month check up and vaccinations on Wednesday which I am dreading. Nobody likes shots! On Thursday I went to a lactation consultant and she was weighed. She's gained another two and a half pounds!! Now she is up to 11 pounds half an ounce. She's catching up to the other full-term babies her age.

Here's her two months photo shoot. She's so serious during picture time! The rest of the day she smiles (not all the time but every now and then) but I swear as soon as the camera comes out she refuses to coo and smile the way I always imagined babies would do. That will come though. So many things are different from how I imagined pre-baby. But I'm going to keep her. Victor heard her laugh for the first time yesterday! Hopefully there's lots more of that to come.