I like that green stuff, Mom!

First off, our sweet, "little" princess is 5 months old! The day of her 5 month birthday she was introduced to a new food... unlike any other she had ever had... PEAS! Being the brilliant minded mother I am, I started her on all the sweet stuff, such as: apples, sweet potatoes, pears, and squash. Then I realized, oh.. maybe she won't like real veggies because they aren't so sweet. (DUH!) So, I tried to wean her down gradually to the more un-sweet veggies. The day she turned 5 months old just happened to be the day I was ready to give her peas. Because I just can never seem to have the camera there ready to catch her "firsts", I was bound and determined to get a good shot of her with her first hated food. Or so I thought!! I propped the video camera up, got her situated in the highchair, and gave her just a tiny nibble of the peas. Then it happened... NO SHUDDERING, NO GAGGING, and NO KIND OF REACTION AT ALL!! Surely, she didn't have a good taste of it, I just hadn't put enough on the spoon. So, with the 2nd bite, I really let her have it... and still no reaction! I tell you, we are raising a human garbage disposal!!

The Lawrenson's

I can't tell you how blessed I have been since I discovered the Nate Lawrenson's blog. Long story short.. or even shorter than short, Nate's wife has CF and gave birth to Gwyneth Rose at 25 weeks. I would encourage you to keep this family in your prayers. Glory be to God that both Mom and baby are doing miraculously well (considering the circumstances). Tricia still has not been able to see, much less touch her baby girl due to her own complications. So you can imagine how heart-wrenching that has to be for her as a mother. However, she still is very upbeat.

If you have time, I also encourage you to visit Nate's blog at cfhusband.blogspot.com. I promise you will blessed just seeing their evident faith in the Almighty Healer.

I love my highchair!!

Being the wonderful daddy he is, Matt put together Jade's highchair the night of the last post. And Jade got to use it the very next day. Its funny how fast she learns and catches onto things. Now she gets so excited when we put her in it! (Have you seen my kid? She gets excited at the very thought of food. Of course she would be excited to see something remotely associated to the stuff.)

She is also doing REALLY well sitting up on her own. She got to sit up in the shopping cart for the first time this weekend. And she LOVED LOVED LOVED the cart cover KK and Pops got her. Well, for the fist two stores at least! By the time we got to Kroger, she was ready just to be home and nap.

Here are some pictures of her first time in the highchair!

"You're trying to feed me what?!?"

"I love you Sampson!"

Oh and one last little tidbit! Jade LOVES her brudder-dog! I'll sit with her in the living room to play with her toys everynight. Sampson usually will lay right beside us.. and Jade has then lost all interest in her toys by that point. All she wants to do is pat at Sampson.. and more disgustingly, she LOVES it when he gives her hands a spit bath!! (I always have the wipes right there to wash her hands down after they are done. And they usually only play right before bath time, so she does get scrubbed down good with soap afterwards too.) One of these days I will have to post a video of them together. He could be on the other side of the room and she still watches and giggles at everything he does. Its just precious!

Told you so!

I told all of you that she was growing up so fast and getting smarter everyday. Well, if I didn't.. I sure was thinking it! It definitely seems like our little sweetheart is learning something new every day. She has been sitting really well assisted for a probably the last two weeks. And she could sit unassisted for a little bit, but would teeter over to the side... or she would touch her nose to her toes, and then scream because it got too uncomfortable. But last night, she sat on her own for about 15 minutes, playing with her toys! I couldn't believe it!!! It was like one day she just decided "I'd like to sit up by myself now, thank you." She still touches her nose to her toes a little bit, but knows to sit up when it gets uncomfortable. She barely teeters from side-to-side now. When she does, she actually catches herself from toppling over most of the time.

Here's a picture from a few days ago, when she still needed just a little bit of help!

(Thanks to Nana for always having her camera out and ready to capture the precious things I miss while I'm at work!)

Oh, and Daddy, its time to for you to put that high-chair together!! =)

I love you right up to the moon and back.

Since Jade was about a month old I have tried my hardest to get her into a bedtime/nighttime routine. She is now 4 and 1/2 months old.. and we are finally settling into a neat little routine. She has dinner, gets a warm bath, we read, she nurses, I rock her and sing to her you are my sunshine.

I've tried my best to find a good, lovey, schmoopy book to read to her everynight. Well, she got one for Christmas from Nana called "Guess How Much I Love You." The first few times I read it to her, I was bawling by the end of it. (It could have possibly been a combination of the book and missing her. Last week was the first week back to the office full time for me.) It is the sweetest story of a little rabbit trying to tell his father rabbit how much he loves him. Throughout the book the father and son have a contest of how much they love each other. And at the very end, the little rabbit says "I love you right up to the moon." The father puts the son to bed, kisses him goodnight, and whispers to him, "I love you right up to the moon and back." (I'm tearing up just thinking about it!)

TOO Much?

How much is too much and how do you measure it? If there were such a thing as loving your child too much, I think it would be me. My heart seems to skip a beat each time I see Jade's precious little smile. And if you look really closely, each time she giggles, you will see tears of joy in my eyes. If I could function without any sleep whatsoever, you could probably find me just leaning over her bed watching as she sleeps. Every time she rolls over or sits up on her own, I feel like shouting it to the whole entire world!

And is it possible to completely smother someone with hugs and kisses? Because if it were possible, Jade would be smothered a million times by now.


Maybe its because of these things that I could care less that she still wakes in the middle of the night needing to nurse sometimes. Maybe its because of these things that I just get tickled pink when she does wake up she just wants to smile and play for a few minutes.


Good thing hearts can't literally melt! If it were possible, mine would have been gone a long time ago!





And thank you to my wonderful, loving husband. Even though we were blessed with a daughter sooner than we expected or planned, you have been the most amazing father. Thank you for the love you pour over both Jade and I daily. Thank you for going up and down the stairs 800 times a day just to help with the "little things"... like getting my cell phone since I inevitably leave it downstairs every night, or getting a burp rag or bib since I can never seem to make it where I'm going with it in my hands. But most of all, thank you for your desire to be a Godly father and husband. Thank you for always being the leader in our household and for helping to guide my footsteps; keeping me accountable. I love you Matt!

She can't be THAT old!!!

I know this is such a cliche saying, but it honestly seems like just yesterday I was looking at our sweet baby girl for the first time. Now, she is 4 1/2 months old! I think just about every day Matt and I are saying to each other "she's getting so big" or "she's getting so smart!"

Jade had her 4 month check-up last week. Just to confirm what everyone already knows, she is a tall and fat baby! She is completely off the charts for height, weight and head circumference. She weighs a whopping 18lbs 6oz and is 27 inches long! At least she's proportionate =).

The little stinkpot hit another big milestone about 2 weeks ago. She started eating solids. Ms. Piggy now asks for her food at the same time every night, and is doing really well with it. It is really funny to watch her face sometimes at some of the foods she doesn't like! (Which by the way, is only prunes so far. She'll eat them but makes a funny face at the first few bites!)

And just a brief re-cap on all the other adorable things she has accomplished thus far: rolling over, sitting up unassisted for brief periods of time, laughing, LOVES to look and touch patterns on any kind of material, reaching out for toys and plays with them, sleeps through the night (most of the time), holds her own bottle at Nana's house, talks non-stop for long periods of time, and props herself up when she is laying on her stomach.

Maybe that is enough bragging for one day?

First Blog!

I have officially entered into the world of mommy-hood. (As if actually giving birth to the most beautiful little girl on earth didn't qualify me?) I am joining the growing population of proud mothers who report on every little precious thing their children do online. I figure instead of sending out mass emails with billions of pictures attached that you all can check in whenever you please!